A DOWNWARD SPIRAL — 101 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, March 29th, I fished with returning guests Steve and Dave Wise.  The brothers fishing with me last in the autumn of 2017 when Dave drove down from Minnesota to visit Steve at his home in Georgetown, TX.

Dave is retired from the business of printer maintenance and repair, and Steve is still working developing software for a Silicon Valley-based company.

I don’t know if Dave will be returning to Minnesota this go-round, mainly because Steve took him to Miller’s Smokehouse after the trip … ’nuff said.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Dave and Steve Wise with a few of the 101 fish we took on this morning’s very “front-loaded” trip on Stillhouse Hollow.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Steve Wise with our largest fish of the morning — a 3.25 pound largemouth mixed in with a school of white bass.  It struck the chartreuse version of the MAL Lure worked vertically.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 29 March 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite the overnight ambient air temperature dropping to 46F, the water surface temperature was between 60-61 this morning.

I expressed concern to Steve (who coordinated the trip) over the weekend about the lack of wind and cloud cover forecast for today.  As it turned out, that certainly did impact us negatively.

As we began the trip, the winds were light and variable from SE to S to SW basically just puffing.

Under the early morning, low-light conditions, the white bass fed well.  Thanks to the nearly-calm surface, we could see individual fish and small packs of fish push schools of shad to the surface routinely.

We worked MAL Lures exclusively this morning to catch 100% of our fish in about 26 feet of water.  We used the chartreuse version of the MAL lure in this instance, and worked them as I describe in my tutorial video found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Thanks to the lack of wind and clouds, our results were heavily front-loaded.  We landed 93 fish in our first two hours on the water.  In our third hour, we landed only 4 more fish, then, in our final 75 minutes, we landed only 4 more fish.

Once that sun got to a certain point in the sky, and without cloud cover to diffuse it, the fish just quit.

The water’s surface was glassy, no birds were working, no bait was dimpling the surface, etc.  Although the wind did eventually begin to blow, it was a case of too little, too late.

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

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released (2 largemouth bass, 99 white bass)

OBSERVATIONS:  In the near-calm conditions from sunrise and for about 90 minutes thereafter, we could see white bass pushing schools of shad to the surface and feed upon them aggressively (not quite ON the surface but NEAR the surface).

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:15A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Elevation:  0.26feet high, .02 foot 24-hour drop, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 60.7 F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light & variable through 9:15A, then calm through 10:30, then quickly picking up through S9 thereafter

Sky Condition: Clear, bright skies.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous at 99% illum. (1 day past full)

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 554 – 93 fish in 2 hours without ever moving the boat

 

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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