WHO I FISHED WITH: This opening day of Spring Break 2019 I fished with Mr. Steve Webb of Harker Heights. Steve is a multi-species angler who tends to focus on Lake Belton catfish. His wife and daughter, Bailey, were to join us but fell ill the night before, so, instead of a family outing, I tried to turn this into a “techy” trip for Steve’s sake, focusing on the application of the Garmin LiveScope technology.
Steve, originally a farm kid from Greasy Corner, Arkansas (yep, look it up if you don’t believe me!), took one look at the Garmin and said, “Man, that’s like redneck Atari!”.
We enjoyed comparing notes all morning. As a result, I’m planning to take a peek at his “Sun Up Sun Down” YouTube channel, primarily focused on fishing Lake Belton. The fish we landed were just icing on the cake this morning.
PHOTO CAPTION: Steve Webb with a 14″ Stillhouse Hollow white bass taken out of 44 feet of water under birds using a 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slab.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 11 March
HOW WE FISHED: We spent a good portion of this morning’s trip chasing birds which were working atop fish which were really not in an overly-aggressive feeding mode. Each place we searched with sonar did indeed hold fish, but they tended to be in small clusters. When we stopped to fish for them vertically via snap-jigging, we caught what was there, but nearby fish did not “pile on” and come in to the commotion created by our jigging, thumping, and catching.
So it was until around 11:40a when, just as the majority of the birds had ceased to work, we encountered a nice concentration of fish on a breakline adjacent to the Lampasas River channel in about 42 feet of water. We quickly took our fish count from 29 fish up to 71 fish and then left them biting by 12:30pm. We used a slow smoking tactic for these fish, thus getting Steve his first fish ever caught via this method.
The 3/8 oz., white Hazy Eye Slab with Hazy Eye Stinger attached did the trick for all but 3 of our fish, and those were taken on Cicada bladebaits.
OBSERVATIONS: Once again, birds were helpful in finding fish, but the fish under them tended to be well-spread and not very aggressive. The primary fish these gulls were feeding on were stunned sunfish, and there was much more flying and looking by these birds than there was diving and eating.
TALLY: 71 fish caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:45am
End Time: 12:30pm
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F
Elevation: 0.14 feet high, with a 0.07 foot drop over the last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 56.9F
Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NE8-10 all morning
Sky Conditions: Leaden grey skies with periods of light mist and light fog.
GT = 25
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic SH0044C to 1508 – light action under birds in deep water
**Area vic 1537- light action under birds in deep water
**Area vic 1345 – light action under birds in 25′ on both blades and slabs
**Area SH0095C – best action of the morning in the last 50 minutes with aggressively feeding fish in entire lower 1/3 of the water column turned on to a slow smoking retrieve
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