2 GRANDKIDS DOWN, 1 TO GO — 138 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, June 21st, I fished with returning guests Larry Brewer, his friend, Blake Hoekstra, and Larry’s 16-year-old grandson, Eymon McCormick, who is visiting with Larry and his wife for a few days.

Mr. and Mrs. Brewer host their three grandkids, one at a time, over the summer, and, beginning last summer, began taking each on their own fishing trip with me.

On June 9th, Larry’s granddaughter, Finley, enjoyed a solo 83-fish day as we combined white bass fishing and sunfishing into a shorter 3.5 hour trip intended for elementary-aged kids.

This morning, all three of my guests fished a standard 4-hour trip and we focused strictly on white bass.

I’ve been off the water for 10 days as Rebecca and I headed out west on a prairie dog hunt after running ~6 trips per week every week since early March.  As much as I enjoyed that time in Wyoming, it was good to be back behind the wheel and the sonar screens this morning hunting for white bass instead of rodents!

MAL Lure

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Larry Brewer, Blake Hoekstra, and Eymon McCormick with a few of the 3-year class white bass which made up the vast majority of our catch this morning.

MAL Lure

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   White bass weren’t the only fish hitting the MAL Heavy this morning.  Larry took this 3-pound class largemouth working the MAL vertically in deep water.  It was one of two legal largemouth we landed this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 21 June 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I don’t make it any secret that June is my least favorite month to fish of the entire year (which is one of the reasons I take off a week in June to go hunt prairie dogs).  There is typically a lot of environmental change taking place in a short span of time.  These things include the setup of the thermocline, the corresponding movement of fish into depths at or shallower than the thermocline, water temperatures rising above the white bass’ preferred temperature range, the appearance of young-of-the-year shad in open water, and, this year, high flows out of the dams at both Belton and Stillhouse.

No matter how well you do today, that is no guarantee on how you’ll do tomorrow; simply put: June lacks consistency.

This morning we did well given all that is going on.  The morning started a bit murky with 100% cloud cover, but, by ~7:30, we could see the orb of the sun barely showing through the thinning (but still 100%) coverage of clouds.

In our first hour, we hit two areas after finding a few fish scattered near bottom and with shad in the vicinity.  During that hour we landed 22 white bass on the MAL Heavy Lure in white.  We had a lot of fish chase but not commit, and we had a lot of fish not chase at all.

I relocated to a stubby underwater point which was being impacted directly by the southerly wind now blowing at 10 mph, and, in our second and third hours here, we landed 38 fish and 47 fish, respectively without ever moving from this slow-sloping area in about 46 feet of water. We continued to catch fish (17 more) here into our fourth hour on the water, as well.

The bite began to soften substantially by 9:45, and, in our final 45 minutes on the water we moved 3 different times to put a final 16 fish in the boat, for a final tally of 138 fish landed, including two legal largemouth bass.

The fishing was identical at each location … we’d find the fish with sonar (relying on DI, SI, and 2D equally), Spot-Lock atop them, drop and work MAL Heavy Lures (in white) vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope and enjoy the results over and over again.

As the bite waned in our final hour, despite finding lots of fish, they would “flare” with interest only briefly, allowing us to catch 1 or 2 fish per angler before settling down to bottom and remaining there, albeit disinterested.

Of the 138 fish we landed, only 2 white bass were sub-legal, with the vast majority being 3-year class fish at ~13.00-13.50 inches.

MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 138 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Over at Lake Belton the water is falling at a steady clip.  Today it stood at 8.00 high, with a .41′ 24-hour fall and an outflow of 4,728 CFS.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:20A

End Time: 10:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Elevation:  1.02 feet high, -0.22 24-hour change, 778 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 80.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: S6 at trip’s start, building slowly to S13

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover for first 2.5 hours, then breaking up to 80% grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous at 85% illumination

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1239 – relatively disinterested fish due to very low-light penetration through thick clouds

**Area vic 854/862 – moderately interested fish as the wind built and the skies brightened a bit

**Area  1419 – best stop of the morning – over 100 fish landed here in over 2 hours of solid fishing

**Area 889 – 2 short hops for a few quick fish at each as the bite was tailing out

**Area 071 – a few quick fish as we first presented baits as the morning bite was tailing out

 

 

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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