FISH SATURDAY … GET MARRIED MONDAY — 40 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Saturday, July 11th, I fished with returning guest Shawn Leverington who has been out with me twice before.  Accompanying Shawn this go-round were his sister and brother-in-law, Sarah and Matt Todd, as well as his soon-to-be father-in-law, Mike Carroll.

Shawn is to be wed this coming Monday to his fiancee, Kelly, in an evening ceremony at the Dead Fish Grill on Lake Belton, so family from both sides have come to town for the event.  Sarah, a teacher, and Matt, a federal fire fighter, drove down from Wisconsin, and Mike, a estate planning attorney, came in from Austin.

Shawn is a U.S. Army Reservist working full-time at Fort Hood as commander of the Warrior Transition Unit there.  The WTU’s stated mission is to provide command and control, primary care, and case management for soldiers in transition to establish conditions for healing and to promote the timely return to the force or transition to continue serving the nation as a veteran in their community.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Sarah and Matt Todd, Mike Carroll, and Shawn Leverington

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!!  3 fish on the 3-armed umbrella rig simultaneously.

WHEN WE FISHED: 11 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: After experiencing just so-so fishing on Belton yesterday morning, and given that I expected a heavy weekend crowd there, I fished with Shawn and crew on Stillhouse today and was glad we made that call.

Summer fishing is always a challenge, but, thanks to some wind from the SSW, we did alright today.  The bite started just as the sun cleared the eastern horizon and went strong until around 8:15, after which fishing slowed dramatically.

As has been the case for the last few weeks, and will be the case for weeks to come, we found and caught fish on the downriggers, which allowed us to cover ground with sonar and to cash in on the occasional “patch” of bottom-hugging fish via vertical jigging with MAL lures.  The ‘riggers were equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs rigged with Pet Spoons.

We actually gave vertical work a try before our first downrigger run this morning, as I saw a nice 50-60 fish school right on bottom in water just over 45 feet, but, it was still pretty dark down there and we just couldn’t get them excited.  We stopped to work vertically about 5 times this morning, catching fish on two of those pauses.

We witnessed no topwater action today, which was not surprising, as there was next to zero cloud cover.

We finished our morning right around 10:30 with 39 white bass and 1 largemouth landed.

TALLY: 40 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  No clouds, no topwater action.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation:  0.57′ low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  83F

Wind Speed & Direction: S7 +/- 1 mph all morning

Moon Phase: Last day of the waning gibbous, moving into the last quarter moon tomorrow.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0030G to SH0031G to SH0032G  – downrigging and vertical work

**Area vic 878 –  downrigging

 

 

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)

 

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle