WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, March 6th, I fished with Dr. Linda Hankins and her friend, Tommy Hennessee. Linda operates the Belton Animal Clinic focusing mainly on pets and small animals, and Tommy, a U.S. Army retiree from the Quartermaster Corps, is a self-described “helper-outer” at the clinic.
Linda received a gift certificate for this trip from the Harrison family back during Christmas of 2017 and decided it was high time to cash it in.
ABOVE: Tommy Hennessee landed his personal best largemouth on this morning’s 24F start on Stillhouse Hollow. This fished pulled my certified scale down to 4 7/8 pounds. This fish was landed on a white, 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slab with Hazy Eye Stinger Hook attached from out of 27 feet of water.
ABOVE: White bass were the staple of our catch this morning, firing up right at sunrise, calming with the lessening of the wind, then firing right back up again once a sustained wind and some cloud cover moved in. We caught fish from between 22 and 42 feet, and all were within ~6 feet of the the bottom.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.
HOW WE FISHED: After losing two days on the water to cold and wind, today we saw a warmup take place, but not before enduring a few final hours of sub-freezing temperatures in advance of a wind shift from ENE to SSE. As I made pre-trip preparations at the boat ramp this morning before sunrise, the mercury fell to 24F. The past few days pushed the surface temperature down about 3.5 degrees to between 50.1 and 51.7F, depending on location.
As the title for this post implies, we enjoyed good fishing on the ends (start and finish) of the trip, but had a tough go of it from about 9am to 10:20am during which time our conditions were the brightest and calmest they would be all day. This temporary calm occurred as the winds shifted from ENE to SSE, and was not exactly forecast to take place, so, we had to take some lemons and make lemonade for a while.
Finally, some high, thin cloud cover built in and the winds did ramp up fairly quickly to SSE12 over a 30 minute span. As this played out, fish got noticeably more active, pulling up off the bottom to feed. We took our fish count from 22 landed fish at 10:20 to 51 landed fish by 11:30. This catch included mainly 2-year class white bass, accompanied by a handful of drum and 2 largemouth bass, one of which was a personal best for Tommy.
I really wanted to be on the water today when that wind shifted, and, in hindsight, I’m glad we were as that was the most productive spike of activity of the 4.5 hours we fished.
TALLY: 51 fish caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 24F
Elevation: 0.42 feet high, with a 0.07 foot drop over the last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 50.1 to 51.7F
Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were variable at up to 5mph through 9am, then went slack until 10:20a, then ramped up quickly to SSE12 through our 11:30 departure.
Sky Conditions: Clear skies through 9a, then high, thin white cloud cover at 40% and building thereafter.
GT = 80
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 984 – low light bite with bird assist
**Area vic 330 thru vic 052 – fair bite with bird assist
**Area v 069 wind-enhanced bite – no birds
Bob Maindelle
Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service
Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle
Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle