WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, July 7th, I fished with father-and-son Troy and Trace Hensley of Copperas Cove, Texas.
Troy, a U.S. Army veteran, and his 7-year-old son, Trace, just came back from a visit with family in Illinois where Trace got to do some fishing and learn a bit about how to use both spinning gear and closed-faced (push-button or Zebco) style reels. This helped greatly, as that was one less hurdle to clear before he could do what it takes to fish vertically in deep, clear water for summertime white bass.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next openings will be on August 11th and 23rd. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Trace and Troy Hensley landed a mix of white bass and sunfish during their morning outing in the midst of an early July Texas heat advisory which extends until 9PM on July 10th (another 3 full days).
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 07 July 2022
HOW WE FISHED:
I chose to fish Stillhouse for this trip, as I suspected Trace’s age would dictate more action, variety, and transitions than Lake Belton has been producing of late. I wanted to “stack the deck” in terms of having abundant sunfish activity to offer when the white bass fishing lost its appeal. Stillhouse, with its hundreds of acres of hydrilla, has a burgeoning sunfish population.
As we met just before sunrise, there was a hatch of small, flying insects which had the sunfish popping on topwater and revealing their lairs, so, we took advantage of that, landing 15 sunfish pretty handily before setting out in pursuit of white bass.
The first bunch of white bass I found was holding along the bottom in over 40 feet of water and they were stacked up pretty tightly. We worked MAL Dense Lures (white body/chartreuse tail) vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope to catch these aggressive fish, taking 35 fish (all legal size) in just over an hour’s time until the “crowd” dispersed and the action died down.
We headed up shallow for a shorter “Round 2” of sunfishing, then back out to deeper, open water for Round 2 of white bass fishing, this time with downriggers trailing Pet Spoons to change it up a bit. We landed 5 more sunfish and 5 more white bass and had plans to go one more round, but, Troy’s phone rang …
It was Troy’s wife, Lori, and she said they were taking on water back at home. She reported a bulge in their ceiling and water dripping into a light fixture at their house about 30 minutes away. We quickly brought the gear in and wrapped up a bit early as Troy made some calls to some trusted workmen. He and I suspected a clogged attic A/C unit condensate line.
A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Our 64 fish catch included exactly 44 white bass and 20 sunfish.
The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 64 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Some light topwater action could be seen here and there as small “schoolie” largemouth chased small packs of shad to the surface and fed upon them there.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:40A
End Time: 10:00A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Elevation: 6.12 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 86.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: S12 all morning.
Sky Condition: Cloudless, dry skies
Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 54% illumination.
GT = 5
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas 239 and 1416 for sunfish
Areas Sh0150G and 873 for white bass
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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