WHO I FISHED WITH: On Thursday, June 13th, the two oldest sons of Captain and Mrs. Zach Dugger came aboard for a morning spent in pursuit of white bass and sunfish on Stillhouse Hollow. This was the third SKIFF trip of the 2019 season.
CPT Dugger is a West Point graduate who commissioned as an Army aviator. He went on to certify in fixed-wing aircraft. CPT Dugger recently deployed to Southwest Asia. Zach, Riley, and their boys will next head to Bozeman, Montana, where Zach will attend Montana State University to obtain his Masters Degree, then move back to West Point, NY, where he will instruct cadets.
Caleb, age 3, and Zane, age 5 were surprisingly alert at our 6:20am start time. I try to start as early as parents are willing to arrive so as to get in our fishing before the summer heat really kicks in by late morning.
PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Army Captain Zach Dugger’s oldest son, Zane, with a downriggered white bass taken on a 3-armed umbrella rig set at around 20′.
PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Army Captain Zach Dugger’s middle son, Caleb, with a white bass. Both Caleb and his brother, Zane, earned their TPWD “First Fish Award” during this morning’s trip.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Multi-species; mainly white bass and sunfish
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: 13 June 2019, AM
HOW WE FISHED:
With kids this young, I knew we’d have to shoot for instant gratification and build in multiple transitions to keep their interest up.
Neither young man had ever landed a fish before, to “Job 1” was to get each boy to land a fish. We accomplished that within minutes of their arrival by using fiberglass bream poles and balsa floats to target bluegill feeding on hatching insects in the pre-dawn light near shore.
These fish earned the boys a TPWD “First Fish Award”.
We moved on to do some downrigging for white bass but didn’t find much at the first place we searched, so, it was back to sunfishing before trying once again to land some white bass.
On our second shot at white bass I found a school of loosely schooled, suspended fish on sonar. They were holding at around 22 feet deep over a deeper bottom. My summertime staple, the 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons run behind my downriggers did the trick for singles and doubles time after time until the boys grew tired of the success.
As we came up on the 3 hour mark, we decided to take one more shot at sunfish to end the trip on a lively, productive note. When all was said and done, Caleb and Zane had landed 30 fish and earned their First Fish certificates.
TALLY: 30 fish caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:20a
End Time: 9:00a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F
Elevation: 3.35 feet high on a 24-hour fall of 0.41 feet and with a flow of 1750 cfs
Water Surface Temp: 82.6F
Wind Speed & Direction: NE3-4 all morning
Sky Conditions: 30% white, high, thin clouds all morning
GT = 0
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Areas for sunfish: 456, 420, and 203
**Areas for white bass: vic SH0110C/SH0111C/SH0113C, and SH0119C
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