WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, July 11th, I fished with Mr. Clint Butler of Rockdale, TX, accompanied by his two children, Caylee (age 8) and Case (age 5), and by his father-in-law, Richard Pivonka, of Caldwell.
Clint seriously pursues white bass on his own, primarily on Lake Somerville, and primarily by trolling with Jet-Diver-like devices to get spoons down to where the fish are.
In addition to spending some vacation time with his kids, Clint also hoped to nail down some lessons on the summer tactics I employ. To that end, I planned the trip such that we’d do at least a little downrigging, vertical MAL work, and horizontal MAL work.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next openings will be on August 23rd, 24th, and 25th. 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: Clint, Caylee, and Case Butler, and Richard “Poppy” Pivonka with a few of the 107 fish they landed this morning using vertical and horizontal tactics.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 11 July 2022
HOW WE FISHED:
I’ll be honest … the lack of wind had me a little spooked this morning. We had a mild cold front shift our winds to the N. late Saturday, and the winds have been light and variable ever since. There was just enough wind to ripple the surface most of the morning, and that was enough to get the fish in gear.
I found our first group of fish with down-imaging, stacked up near bottom in just over 40′ of water. We stayed on these fish a full hour and took 30 fish during that time, even as the kids were working through the learning curve of using the MAL Dense vertically. We all watched each “cycle” of reeling and dropping the MAL Lures to bottom and cranking them up through the fish thanks to Garmin LiveScope technology. I positioned Clint and Case on the starboard stern unit, and Richard and Caylee on the forward starboard unit so everyone had a good view, as well as some elbow room.
Once this first group of fish shut down around 8A, we changed things up a bit and began to downrig, both to catch fish, and to figure our where larger, catchable groups of white bass were holding so we could capitalize on the information by ‘parking’ on those groups and fishing them vertically as long as they would tolerate it. We did this several times over in ~32 feet of water, all in about a 300 yard radius, and added another 38 fish to our count.
A few times during this stop I witnessed patrolling schools of white bass out to our starboard side (which was facing toward shallower water). I introduced Clint to the “sawtooth method” and soon, he was catching fish out horizontally with the MAL Dense while everyone else continued to catch while fishing vertically.
We did likewise at the third and final area we fished this morning, only these fish were in ~43 feet of water. I was thinking at this point (around 10A) that the bite had softened enough that we’d likely only continue to catch fish on the downriggers as we “sifted” the few still-active fish out from amongst an increasingly disinterested population. But, as I downrigged and watched sonar, I could clearly see entire schools of fish rising up off bottom expressing interest in the downrigger ball as it passed over. Seeing this, I knew these fish were active enough to chase MAL Lures, so, we set up atop these fish and went vertical one final time, adding a final 39 fish to our count for a grand total of 107 fish.
We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons (#12, silver, white feather).
We fished vertically and horizontally with MAL Dense Lures with white bodies and chartreuse tails.
A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Our 107 fish catch was made up entirely of white bass, with only 1 short fish all morning.
The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 107 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Consistent topwater action could be seen from about 8A on as small “schoolie” largemouth chased small packs of shad to the surface and fed upon them there. The near-calm surface aided in sighting this action. Between the heat and humidity, this was the hottest trip I’ve fished thus far this summer. The overnight temperatures only dropped to 80F, and the humidity made it extra-uncomfortable.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:45A
End Time: 10:45A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F
Elevation: 6.29 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 86.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable, under 4mph all morning, predominantly from the N.
Sky Condition: Cloudless, dry skies
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 92% illumination.
GT = 95
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas SH0032G/SH0031G (30 fish)
Area 1198 (38 fish)
Area SH0202G (39 fish)
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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