WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning, June 1st, I fished with father-and-son team Curt and Ryan Sullenberger. Ryan teaches Bible and honors courses at Lipscomb University, a private Christian 4-year school in Nashville, TN. He and his family came to Texas to visit his parents who live on a farm between Cameron and Rosebud, Texas.
PHOTO CAPTION: Just look at that fish! A picture is worth a thousand words.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 01 June 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
With Belton Lake at nearly 7 feet high and rising, and with Lake Proctor (upstream of Belton, also on the Leon River) nearly 12 feet high, there is a lot of water yet to be released into Belton. However, with a more critical need to release water from Lake Granbury, Lake Belton’s outflow is fairly low, meaning the water is accumulating in Lake Belton for the time being, and with forecasts for more rain. Out of concern that Lake Belton may have limited/no access soon based on past experience, I turned my attention to Stillhouse, just in case.
Stillhouse has its own issues related to the influx of new water, but, thus far, has not experienced muddy water which is a big plus in targeting white bass.
We got out there this morning and just went to work with sonar looking for signs of life along the bottom and managed, several times, to find exactly what we were looking for. With the water squarely in the mid-70’s now, the white bass will typically chase and eat anything that comes close to them, so, the real challenge was in the finding, not the tempting, of these fish.
Although we searched (many) other areas, we did all of our catching at two areas, both in ~40 feet of water, and both on a gentle slope near the river channel.
I looked up shallow during our first hour, but we only landed two yearling fish on bladebaits doing so.
All of our catching took place between 7:50 and 10:15. The MAL Heavy in white was just more than the fish could stand this morning. If that bait came within six or seven feet of a white bass, that white bass was going to attack it.
By 10:15 the fish had all but shut down. I switched over to downrigging to try to strain a few still-active fish from out of the disinterested majority, and we managed one final white bass doing that, taking our final tally to 109 fish.
MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 109 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Proctor is 10+ feet high with 2828CFS flow, Belton is 6.8 feet high with no release, and Stillhouse is 2.15 feet high with no release
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45A
End Time: 11A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Elevation: 2.09 feet high, +0.31 24-hour change, 202 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 75.7F
Wind Speed & Direction: NNW2-4 at trip’s start, shifting and increasing to NNW6-8 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous; 58% illumination
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1984 – 49 fish on MAL Heavy (white)
**Area 0183/SH0011C – final tally to 109 on MAL Heavy (white)
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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