WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, March 30th, I fished with first time guest Chris Glenn of Salado, TX.
Chris served both in the U.S. Air Force and then as a firefighter. He now operates an adult daycare business focused on looking after primarily elderly clients who need some manner of assistance on a daily basis.
Chris’s request was very specific … he wanted an introduction to Stillhouse so that he and his son can get the most out of their time on the water, since they live quite near the lake. I was very upfront with him, letting him know that Lake Belton would certainly produce more fish this time of year.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next morning opening will be on the 6th of June. Weekday mornings are always best.
PHOTO CAPTION: Chris Glenn with a pair of spawned-out Stillhouse white bass taken in about 28 feet of water. We used a combination of MAL Originals, MAL Heavy Lures, and 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs to put our catch together and to give Chris as thorough an introduction to the accompanying presentations as possible.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 30 March 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
We launched this morning just as the tail-end of a cold-front induced line of storms moved eastward, out of Central Texas after taking about 3 hours to blow through with high winds, hail, thunder, lightning, and about 0.25″ of rain.
The conditions were calm and cloudy for the first hour, quickly clearing to cloudless and bright as the winds came up from the west, then began increasing sharply while swinging NW. By trip’s end, it was bright, cloudless and windy with straightline winds at 21mph, gusting higher.
The fishing was slow but steady, with a definite uptick occurring just as the wind speed picked up from just making a ripple to moving the water with the morning’s first wave action, around 9:40AM.
On these trips where my client’s goal is to learn more than to catch, I try to “think out loud” and verbalize why I am doing what I am doing, while also encouraging my client to ask questions so I can “scratch where they itch”.
One of the biggest “takeaways” for Chris was the extend to which I rely on well-tuned side-imaging to find (and then return to and Spot-Lock upon) fish. Additionally, Chris was able to appreciate firsthand why I rely on light spinning gear to fish for white bass, and how counter-productive hard, fast hooksets can be to putting fish in the boat.
We intentionally employed more tactics today than we really needed to, mainly to give Chris an intro to them. We used slabs vertically with both and easing tactic and a slow-smoking tactic, we smoked MAL Lures vertically, and we used both MAL Originals and MAL Heavy Lures horizontally with a sawtooth retrieve. All tactics put a few fish in the boat, with the slow-smoked slabs (for deeper fish) and the MAL Heavy Lures (for shallower fish) putting the majority of the fish in the boat.
When all was said and done, we caught and released 40 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 1 drum, 1 crappie, and 37 white bass.
MAL Lures and Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 40 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Light, helpful gull action at first light only.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:10A
End Time: 11:40A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F
Elevation: 3.41 feet low, 0.01′ rise in last 24 hours, 1CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 60.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at trip’s start; W ripple around 8:40A, shifting NW around 9:40, then quickly building to NW21.
Sky Condition: Grey, fully clouded skies at trip’s start, clearing to unclouded, light blue skies.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 4% illumination.
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas fished successfully today: Areas vic 745, SH0129G, SH0074C
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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