BUDDIES SINCE BASIC — 103 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, March 3rd, 2020, I fished with Josh Abbatoye and his friend, Shawn Poole.  The two men went through Army basic training together and have been friends ever since.  Both have now chosen to live in the Central Texas area post-military.  Josh operates a very unique small business named Spotless Crime Clean LLC in which he and his wife pick up the pieces and help families impacted by crime put their homes back in order when damage has occurred as a result of crime.  Shawn is happily retired.

Josh contacted me hoping to expand his horizons when it comes to white bass fishing, particularly in the area of sonar use.  Accordingly, during our trip I made every effort to point out how my electronics were helping me make decisions which got us on fish and kept us on fish.  Both men walked away extremely impressed with the means by which I’ve put Garmin LiveScope to use on my boat.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Despite calm, foggy conditions, the increasing day length (photo-period) and increasing water temperature (going on a 5th day of warming prior to a cold front’s arrival tonight) trumped the negatives and produced just over 100 fish for us this morning in right at 4.5 hours on the water. That’s Josh Abbatoye (left) and Shawn Poole.

WHEN WE FISHED:  03 March, 2002, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Just as Josh and Shawn arrived, a light blanket of fog began to form over the entire reservoir as the warm, damp air was chilled by the lake’s cooler surface temperature.  Gulls have been very routinely starting to feed atop loons and white bass in four or five very predictable areas.  These areas typically have produced moderate action until enough light begins to penetrate the depths to get larger concentrations of white bass utilizing the river channel on the move.

Without being able to see birds from any distance, I started us off at two of the general locations where these birds have been massing.  Both paid off.  In fact, at the first location, the fish became active enough for about the first 30 minutes that we were able to do some deep water bladebait work with Cicadas, thus covering bottom more thoroughly than we could by simply going vertical, given that we could see on sonar that multiple “wolfpacks” of white bass were moving around at a pretty fast clip over these two moderately deep flats we were working.  By the time we got to the second flat, the fish had already throttled back, thus, we slowed down an went vertical from that point on.

By 8:30, despite persistent fog at lake level, the sky above was brightening, and we began to encounter fish along the river channel beginning to feed.  We caught the vast majority of our fish in two such locations with one other quick stop under birds over a third mid-depth flat between those two channel-oriented stops.

The fish never got super aggressive today, which I expected thanks to the low-wind situation; and, they turned off a bit earlier today as well.  We absolutely ground it out for our last few fish in order to intentionally surpass the 100 fish mark right around 11:20AM.

Both Josh and Shawn immediately appreciated the power of Garmin LiveScope.  Once they got the fundamentals of our technique down, the LiveScope provided real-time input on precisely when to put the technique to use and when to be patient and allow fish to accumulate before attempting to lure them with the artificial baits we chose for today’s work.

With the exception of about a dozen whites taken early on bladebaits, the remainder of our fish came on my 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook attached in white color.  We landed about a dozen drum; all other fish were 1, 2, and 3 year old white bass and all were very healthy with plump bellies and wide backs.

 

TALLY: 103 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   7:00A

End Time:  11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 3.25′ low, +0.02 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  56F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover  with a varying thickness  of fog the entire trip

 

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area v 1980 – scattered fish under gulls active enough to take deep bladebaits

**Area v 1063- scattered fish under gulls with loon activity

**Area vic SH0014G – channel breakline congregation of whites

**Area vic 1528 – scattered fish on mid-depth flat

**Area vic 1154  – channel breakline congregation of whites

 

 

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

PRE-FRONTAL WX SETUP YIELDS 106 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, March 2nd, 2020, I fished with returning guests Tommy and Sylvia Maedgen from near Troy, TX.  Tommy has fished with me twice before, both in pursuit of white bass on Stillhouse.  Sylvia joined him for one of those trips.  Then, just last month, they both returned in their own boat to do some sonar training with new Lowrance gear installed on both console and bow.  Our next trip will be after Belton hybrid in May, Lord willing.

I was excited about getting on the water this morning, as I am any time pre-frontal conditions are brewing.  Making this morning even sweeter was the fact that it came on the end of a 4-day warming spell.

 

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Tommy and Sylvia Maedgen joined me for a nice Texas late winter morning of white bass fishing on Stillhouse.  The couple’s last trip with me yielded 53 fish; this morning, we persisted until we doubled that figure.  The grey skies and southwesterly breeze helped fire up the bite this morning until right around noon.

WHEN WE FISHED:  02 March, 2002, AM

HOW WE FISHED: As hard as it was to ignore bird activity this morning, that is exactly what it took to put fish in the boat.  The “resident” population of wintering gulls on Stillhouse have become conditioned to feed every morning in about 4 distinct locations, whether or not white bass are present.  Although there are a few white bass in these areas, this morning sonar quickly revealed they were few and far between.  Most folks fail to recognize the root cause of the gull action right now is loon activity, not white bass activity.  These loons kill and cripple sunfish which then float or linger near the surface and become easy targets for the gulls, which then draw anglers. A few anglers draw more anglers, and , before you know it, there’s a whole lot of boats and none of them catching anything. Thanks to a state holiday, a few areas with this gull/loon scenario looked like boat parking lots this morning, but few fish were taken in those areas.

Rather, the breakline dropping into the old Lampasas River channel continues to be a steady producer of not only quantities of fish, but quality fish, as well, especially in comparison to the unusually high number of smallish white bass Belton has been pumping out since September.

A few times we commented on how slowly the fish were swimming and reacting to our presentations, all because their surroundings are still in the low 50’s.  Indeed, one white bass I pulled up near trip’s end when the air was warmest felt like an ice pack when touched.

Accordingly, presentations were painfully slow this morning, but consistency in that regard was rewarded over and over again as we used an easing tactic in combination with “match-the-hatch” sized 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks attached.  Garmin LiveScope was the ticket to knowing when to move the slab and when to lay off.

I’ve arrayed my infinitely-adjustable LiveScope transducer to view both downward and along the starboard gunwale of my boat.  I position as many clients on that side as possible.  I have two Garmin GPSMAP 1242xsv Touch units mounted on that gunwale so as many as 5 anglers can watch what is happening below them in real-time.  Although the same raw sonar data is being fed to both units from a single transducer, the displays are independently adjustable so those toward the bow can isolate their little “patch” of bottom, and those clients toward the stern can do likewise.  This way, everyone gets a zoomed view of just the vertical segment of water they are working.  It is a sweet setup.  It keeps everyone engaged, enhances their success, and makes us very efficient.

Every once in a while we encountered slightly more active fish up higher in the water column which required a “slow smoking” retrieve, but most fish were bottom-oriented this morning.

Our bite wound down to nothing by noon, with peak activity from 9:15 to 11AM.

 

TALLY: 106 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Spotted the first couple mosquito hawks of the year last night while working outdoors.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   7:00A

End Time:  Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Elevation: 3.27′ low, +0.01 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  54F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW8-12 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

 

GT = 15

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1512 – scattered fish under gulls with loon activity

**Area 988/2017- scattered fish under gulls with loon activity

**Area vic 1358 – channel breakline congregation of whites

**Area vic SH0001C  – channel breakline congregation of whites

**Area 103/746 – channel breakline congregation of whites

**Area vic SH0023C- scattered fish under gulls with loon activity

**Area vic SH0014G – channel breakline congregation of whites

 

 

 

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