WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning I welcomed my brother, Andy Maindelle, his son, Trent, and my brother’s son-in-law, Paul Stenstadvold, aboard for a rainy, cool morning of fishing.
My brother works in Austin’s corporate scene, Trent, a TAMU Sea Aggie ROTC graduate, is headed for his U.S. Army Field Artillery officer’s leadership training course this month, and Paul is working his way up the ladder running tugboats on the Texas coast.
We had planned to gather Saturday evening one last time as a family before seeing Trent depart for ~5 months, but, when the forecast went south, I moved the father and 10-year-old son I had traveling in from Houston to fish with me back to Monday, and offered my more weather-tolerant family members a shot at catching fish, albeit in a blowing rain.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Trent Maindelle, Andy Maindelle, and Paul Stenstadvold with a half-dozen quality fish taken at our first stop of the morning. We let these go right away and right where we’d landed them so they could carry on with their spawning efforts.
PHOTO CAPTION: Andy with our largest fish of the trip, and the only fish which was not a white bass of the 62 we landed this morning in a steady, cool rain.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 13 March 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
As we got underway with heavy grey skies and rain falling, I noted 2 distinct groups of birds working over fish in deep, open water. These birds were few in number, and were pretty tentative, so I passed on them in favor of shallower action.
Despite the lack of bird activity up shallow, we were able to quickly look over large tracts of bottom with side imaging and find patrolling, schooled white bass. We wound up fishing three distinct locations in 14-18 feet of water and doing well at each by working bladebaits horizontally with a sawtooth-style retrieve.
The last of these three areas gave up the greatest number of fish and the greatest variety of year classes of white bass. While at this location I witnessed the first topwater action of the year with white bass chasing shad to the surface on several instances over a ~45 minute span.
Around 10:05, the fish, which I was watching move in and out of the “sheet” of sound generated by my side-imaging out to the sides of the boat, dispersed fairly quickly. From that point on we saw no further fish activity nor bird activity; I did not find any more fish to fish for on sonar despite another half-hour of searching. We called it a (cool, wet, soggy) morning right at the 4-hour mark with 61 white bass and 1 largemouth bass landed. Bladebaits accounted for 100% of our fish this morning.
Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 62 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Had a 2.75 hour window of activity today after which the fish just shut down despite lack of an obvious weather/environmental trigger. Non-stop action from 7:20 -10:05
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45A
End Time: 10:40A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Elevation: 0.45′ high with a 0.00’ 24-hour change and 1 CFS flow thru the dam.
Water Surface Temp: 57.3 F
Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were SSE7-11 the entire trip.
Sky Condition: Murky grey skies with light to moderate rainfall 100% of the trip.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 1% illum. (1 day past new moon)
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 745/SH00752 (2 short hops)
**Area vic SH0104C (season’s first topwater)
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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