TARGETING TUFF-MAN — 60 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, January 19th, I fished with bass tournament fishing partners John Del Rio and John Riley.

There has been an upwelling of interest in fishing vertically in deep water for winter bass in advance of the high-stakes Tuff-Man championship event to be held this coming Saturday and Sunday, with the first day’s event on Stillhouse, and the final day’s event held on Belton.  Only those in the top 50% of the field based on day one’s performance will advance to Lake Belton.

These fellows wanted me not to take them bass fishing, but wanted to really study the approach I take to consistently boating white bass in the winter months, knowing that my bycatch often consists of enough quality fish to place in tournaments this time of year.

Although we did catch bass this morning, I believe the biggest eye-opener for these experienced bass anglers was the effective use of multiple forms of sonar to find, position on, then effectively fish for fish of several species, as well as seeing the intricacies of really working a slab vertically, based on fish behavior.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Although our focus was on white bass, as is typical in the winter months, and especially when fishing with some form of cover nearby, we also landed quality largemouth bass using the same 3/8 oz. and 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs (with stinger hooks) which the white bass find so appealing.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Fat and sassy white bass, the females bulging with eggs, were the staple of our 60 fish catch as a wet cold front moved in this morning, dropping the ambient temperature 11 degrees in 5 hours, from 60F to 49F.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 19 January 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

An incoming wet cold front is about as hurtful to fishing as an incoming dry cold front is helpful.  With limited time to get this trip in in advance of the lakes going “off-limits” in advance of the Tuff-Man tournament, we fished through the weather this morning, and, although the fish were pretty lethargic, they allowed me to demonstrate some of the winter fishing fundamentals the fellows were interested in.

Birds were of little help today — mostly flying high and looking tentatively or focused on loons.  This correlated with the non-aggressive feeding activity we witnessed on sonar.  When gamefish are not willing to venture far from bottom to chase shad, dead and crippled shad do not show on the surface with enough regularity to draw the birds’ (gulls and terns) attention.

So, we really had to rely on sonar this morning to find our fish.  The first tool put to use is side-imaging to cover great expanses of open water looking for baitfish, and looking for gamefish patrolling for those baitfish.  The second tool put to use was Garmin LiveScope, once we Spot-Locked atop the fish we’d found.  The LiveScope allowed us to see all three of our vertical presentations simultaneously, as well a fish response (and lack of response) to them.

We wound up fishing mainly deep flats today and never really found fish congregated along the river channel.  We took our first 30 fish on slabs, then switched over and put our last 30 fish in the boat primarily on bladebaits (which is something John D. specifically wanted me to give him a refresher on).

We finished up with exactly 60 fish, including 2 largemouth bass, 1 drum, 1 channel catfish, and 56 white bass (all well-exceeding minimum size).

Hazy Eye Slabs and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 60 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  The water temperature remained at 49.6F.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:20A

End Time: 11:20P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 38F

Elevation:  0.79′ high with a 0.05’ 24-hour drop and 240 CFS flow thru the dam.

Water Surface Temp: 49.6F  (second trip this winter with sub-50F water)

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at launch time, with the wet cold front moving in during our first hour on the water, dropping rain and the ambient air temperature with a cold wind blowing N10-12.

Sky Condition: 100% cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 37% illumination 

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas 0226, 0270, and 0220 through 1179.

 

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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