WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning, May 22, I fished with Mr. Clint Currier of Belton, TX, and his three kids, 7-year-old Ali, and her twin 5-year-old brothers, Logan and Mason.
This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” package trip, geared specifically for kids (only). Dad was there to help me help them. I charge considerably less for these trips, and they last 3.5 hours versus 4+ hours for my adult trips.
Although the fishing has been great over on Belton, the ever-present potential for a 300-boat weekend fishing tournament, and the fact that the COE began running over 3,000 CFS of water through the dam yesterday, made me opt for Stillhouse instead.
PHOTO CAPTION: Just look at that fish! A picture is worth a thousand words.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mason (6), Ali (7), and Logan (6), with their dad, Clint Currier.
PHOTO CAPTION: The Curriers with their largest fish of the trip, a freshwater drum landed by Mason (with hoodie on) on a well-worked MAL Lure.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 21 May 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
The morning started out a bit rough, with three young, eager anglers facing a cool, cloudy, rainy morning. We gave flatline trolling with crankbaits a try up shallow where I’d scored on bladebaits the previous morning, but, there weren’t many fish where I looked. Ali landed one white bass on a crankbait and we changed our plans.
I moved us up into more protected waters as the kids were dressed a bit lightly for the conditions, and I felt the wind-cooled rain was going to be a comfort issue for them very quickly. I looked for sunfish up shallow so we could use a poling technique with slip floats and baits to provide lots of action for the kids.
This worked out well. We found an area with a nice combination of rock, wood, and hydrilla and landed a variety of sunfish, including bluegill, longear, and redear, over a 90-minute span. Clint helped one of the kids at all times, as did I, and we worked out a rotation on the two rods so the kids stayed engaged given the fast pace of the fishing. We wound up catching 54 sunfish before I sensed the kids needed a change of scenery.
By now, the skies had brightened, the wind had settled a bit, the rain was on and off but light, and it had warmed up a few degrees, so, I felt it okay at this point to be out in more exposed water to search for white bass.
We scored on the very first place we searched, finding a school of white bass on a breakline into an old creek channel. After showing the kids what to do, I got Ali working on her own, and Clint and I each covered down on one of the boys to help them execute an appropriate retrieve with the MAL Lures we were using. As long as the fish stayed active, we caught them successfully. As soon as the fish showed signs of slacking off, we moved.
After landing 14 white bass at that first area, we looked at four more similar areas without success. With about 20 minutes left in the trip, and because the kids had expressed interest in the downriggers, I rigged them both up to fish Pet Spoons on 3-armed umbrella rigs to see if we could get one last shot as some white bass and end the trip on a positive note.
I chose an open-water high spot to run our baits over and, just as I describe in my In-Fisherman magazine article entitled “Wrecking Ball Whites”, as the downrigger balls, set at about 32 feet deep, traveled above the 37-foot bottom, dozens of white bass otherwise unable to be detected on sonar just materialized from off the bottom and gave chase. We scored a double on one rig and a triple on the other, then brought in the gear, turned about and Spot-Locked on what we’d just found.
The kids wrapped up the trip hauling in a final 16 white bass before we wrapped up the trip by working MAL Lures vertically through this now-excited batch of fish.
Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 85 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Yesterday the COE cracked open the flood gates just a bit, running 201 CFS. Belton also opened up to 3121 CFS.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 10:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F
Elevation: 0.59 feet high, +0.01 24-hour change, 201 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 72F
Wind Speed & Direction: ESE7 at trip’s start, shifting and increasing to SE11 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous; 68% illumination
GT = 25
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area SH0044G – 54 sunfish on poles/floats
**Area 1319/1048 – White bass on MAL Lures
**Area 088 – downrigging leading to vertical work with MAL Lures
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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