SOLID RESULTS DESPITE THE FLOODING — 55 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, September 5th, 2020, I fished with Killeen native Keith Carroll and his 5-year-old son, Andrew.

Keith, an Ellison High School graduate, now lives with his wife in Cedar Park, TX, where he makes his living as a graphic artist working in the clothing industry with a firm based in San Marcos, TX.

Since many of you who follow my blog/Facebook page are local, I’ll mention that Keith’s mom, Barbara Carroll was a foreign language and TAG program teacher at Ellison H.S. ‘back in the day’.

Although Andrew has been fishing before, he’d never been on a boat before, but, it seemed no big deal for him as we cruised around 30 mph toward our first fishing area as we awaited sunrise.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  Keith Carroll and his 5-year-old son wound up with 55 fish this morning on a day I thought would have been tougher than it was thanks to 3.5+ feet of flood water coming into this ~6.400 acre reservoir. WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

HOW WE FISHED:  I really was not sure exactly what to expect today.  We had a number of negative factors working against us, namely the NE wind, and 3.5 feet of new water brought in by 3 days of rain which dropped about 3.5 to 5.5 inches throughout the Leon and Lampasas River watersheds.

So, we just got out there and fished!  We looked for natural signs of fish activity and we used sonar and wound up piecing together a pretty solid trip. The fish definitely got more active in the last 2 hours than they were in the first two hours.  The first two hours of the trip saw cloud-darkened skies and lighter winds, whereas the winds picked up (although still from the ENE) and the skies brightened to “squinting intensity” in the last two hours. We alternated between fishing for white bass and sunfish as Andrew’s interest level and attention span dictated. 

As we fished for white bass, we encountered 3 instances where the fish were sufficiently congregated to allow for vertical work with the MAL Lure, otherwise, we had to downrig for them.

The sunfishing definitely got easier with all of the flooded vegetation now standing in the 1/2 foot of floodwater versus trying to access them in the matted hydrilla which existed while the lake was nearly 3′ low earlier in the week.  We went after ’em with lightweight floats, small hooks, small splitshot, and small baits presented with a bream pole.

In our first round of white bass fishing, we landed 13 white bass and 1 largemouth.  During our first round of sunfishing, we landed 13 sunfish.  We switched back over to white bass and landed another 22 white bass, then finished up fishing shallow for sunfish, putting a final 6 bluegill in the boat.

TALLY: 55 fish caught and released (35 white bass, 19 sunfish, 1 largemouth bass)

OBSERVATIONS:   Fishing was not nearly as negatively impacted as I suspected it might be with 3.51 feet of fresh floodwater coming in over a 3-day period.

Temperature Profile:

0 feet 82.6F

5 feet 83.3F

10 feet 83.6F

15 feet 83.6F

20 feet 83.6F

25 feet 83.6F

30 feet 83.1F

35 feet 80.9F

40 feet 77.4F

45 feet 75.7F

50 feet 74.8F

55 feet 73.9F

60 feet 65.5F

65 feet 61.9F

 

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  6:40A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation:  0.55′ high, +1.18′ 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow (up 3.51 feet after ~4.50″ began fell on Wednesday – Friday)

Water Surface Temp:  81.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE6 at obscured sunrise, increasing to ENE9 by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous with 90% illumination (full moon +2 days )

GT = 0

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  N/A  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1395-041 – early downrigging for whites

**Area 914-1102 – early downrigging for whites with 1 round of MAL Lures worked vertically

**Area Sh0121C – sunfish

**Area 671-1447 – late downrigging for whites with 2 rounds of MAL Lures worked vertically

**Area 189 – sunfish  

 

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

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