LEARNING, AND UN-LEARNING — 53 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 20 March, I fished with Mr. Tommy Maedgen of Troy, TX.  Tommy retired from life as a “shop” teacher in the Temple Independent School District where he taught woodworking, metalworking, small engine repair, and more.  Tommy’s wife, Sylvia, was to join us today, but duty (in the form of Master Gardener responsibilities) called, and she was not able to make this outing.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Tommy Maedgen of Troy, TX, with two fistfuls of chunky Stillhouse white bass taken from out of 36 feet of water as the wind rose and cloud cover moved in.

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:   20 March 2019

HOW WE FISHED:   This morning’s trip divided neatly into two parts.  The first part was a slow, shallow water bite from sunrise until around 9:30a, during which time we had little wind and little cloud cover.  During this time we threw bladebaits in under 17 feet of water to scattered white bass up feeding on shallow flats where life is getting more and more abundant with the lengthening days and (slowly) warming water.  We landed a total of 18 fish using 1/2 oz. opaque Cicada bladebaits.  This included 1, 2, and 3 year class white bass, and 3 drum.

Part 2 of our morning began around 9:30a when a light WNW breeze began to ripple the surface and some patchy white and grey cloud cover began to move in from the WSW.  During this time a “slug” of mature, migrating white bass moved upstream in a segment of the Lampasas River channel.  These fish were all tight to the bottom but were able to be “teased” up off the bottom using an “easing” tactic in combination with the Hazy Eye Slab/Stinger combination (white, 3/8 oz.).  Tommy and I stood (and later sat) shoulder-to-shoulder with our eyes glued to the Garmin GPSMAP1242xsv Touch which was displaying the information fed to it by the LiveScope transducer I have transom-mounted to view down the starboard side of my center console.  As we viewed the screen together, I coached him on what it would take to consistently fool fish into biting.  As a long-time largemouth angler, Tommy not only had to learn some new tricks, but he also had to unlearn some old ones, especially in the area of aggressive hooksetting.  In the end, he was consistently fooling, hooking, and landing solid white bass.  His enthusiastic parting words were, “Thank you, Bob, I really learned a lot today!”.

OBSERVATIONS:   Lots of observations today:  1) I spotted sunfish in the shallows for the first time since they vacated last fall.  2) During the period of calm prior to 9:30am there was more “action” on the surface of the lake today, indicating life is shifting upward and shoreward.  3) I witnessed multiple instances of pods of white bass chasing our bladebaits both when schoolmates were hooked and when the lure was coming back without a hooked fish. 4) Several of the white bass we landed were oozing milt or eggs.  5) Based on credible reports, we ought to have both pre-spawn and post-spawn white bass in the lake any time now.

TALLY: 53 fish caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time: 11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  56F

Elevation:   0.42 feet high with a 0.15 foot 24-hour drop

Water Surface Temp:  59.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were NW9 at trip’s start, tapering to NE1-3 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  70% thin grey clouds which burnt off by 10am

GT = 30

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic SH099C, vic SH0091C, vic SH0100C, and vic SH0101C — shallow blade bait action

**Area SH0102C and SH0103C – vertical work for deep fish in conjunction with LiveScope

 

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