WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, July 5th, I fished with three (of the four) granddaughters of John and Ellen Agan (Pops & Mimzy) — twins Zoe and Nora, age 10, and their 8-year-old sister, Sena. The girls had come in for a week from their home in Sugarland, Texas, to visit with their grandparents, and that visit included this morning‘s fishing trip, as well as fireworks, some floating around in the pool, playing with cousins, and more.
John and Ellen were super folks; John has been in the banking business in Temple for many years, and Ellen is a retired physical therapist — the two of them were there to help me help the girls be successful and did a great job at that.
After taking the day off from fishing and conducting only a morning sonar training yesterday to avoid crowded holiday fishing conditions, we returned to a nearly empty lake and plenty of peace and quiet this morning to conduct this “Kids Fish, Too!” trip, just for the girls.
Here’s how the fishing went…
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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php
Next available dates are July 24 & 31 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Sena, John, Zoe, Ellen, and Nora Agan with a trio of quality Stillhouse white bass. The girls caught & released a total of 70 fish during their 3.5-hour “Kids Fish, Too!” trip.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 05 July 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
Before we put lines in the water to catch fish, I did a dry run with each of the girls on how to use spinning rods and reels to fish the MAL Heavy Lure using a “smoking“ tactic. After very little practice, all three got the hang of smoothly reeling their bait up off the bottom while getting the spinner’s blade spinning early in the process. Once that was accomplished, I showed them how to hold and handle the casting rods we would be using for downrigging, and then we were off in pursuit of fish.
We employed what I have found is a tried, true, and consistent summertime producer for white bass, which is to use downriggers to both find fish and catch a few, then, use the information gathered while downrigging to fish vertically using MAL Lures for heavily concentrated fish first encountered while downrigging.
Over the course of the morning, we encountered three solid groups of fish, which, based on their appearance on sonar, and the fact that they aggressively chased and bit our downrigging set, led me to believe we could stop atop them using Spot-Lock and catch them vertically. All three of these attempts panned out and, when everything was said and done, the girls wound up catching exactly 70 fish, including 68 white bass and two largemouth bass. Both largemouth were legal, and only one of the 68 white bass was short.
For our downrigging, we used three-armed umbrella rigs with each of the leaders terminated with a #12 Pet Spoon, and as we smoked from a hovering position while using Garmin LiveScope, I had MAL Heavies with white tails tied on all of the girls’ spinning outfits.
As is typical for summertime on Stillhouse, the quality of the white bass far exceeded the quality of white bass at Lake Belton, however, there was next to no topwater action, thus, all fish had to be ferreted out using sonar, especially dialed-in side-imaging.
TALLY: 70 fish caught and released.
See a tutorial on the smoking tactic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: No schooling largemouth bass or white bass activity observed. Here is the temperature profile measured on Stillhouse on 03 July:
0 feet, 85.9F
5 feet, 86.2F
10 feet, 86.4F
15 feet, 86.4F
20 feet, 86.4F
25 feet, 85.9F
30 feet, 79.4F
35 feet, 72.7F
40 feet, 69.0F
45 feet, 66.3F
50 feet, 64.7F
55 feet, 62.9F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:25A
End Time: 10:00A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F
Elevation: 14.30 feet low, 1 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S8-11 all morning
Sky Condition: Light blue skies with 60-70% white cloud cover
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 94% illumination.
GT = 25
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Downrigging from vic S0120C thru SH0223G with stops atop concentrations of fish mixed in
Stopped to “smoke” white bass at Areas: vic SH0223G, vic SH0120C, and vic SH0228G – used MAL Heavy w/ white tails
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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