WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, July 10th, I fished with first time guest Mike Brunsvold from Comfort, Texas, in the Texas Hill Country.
Mike, a fairly new subscriber to In–Fisherman magazine, saw my article about fishing for white bass using the MAL Lure with various tactics in this month’s issue which arrived in some mailboxes back in June. My approach intrigued him, and he wanted to see everything firsthand.
Mike is 83 years old and is in incredible shape. He retired twice. Once after serving 20 years in the United States Air Force, and then again after 20 years as a dental instructor at the University of Texas in San Antonio.
Here is how the fishing went…
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Next available dates are July 31 & August 2 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Mike Brunsvold, age 83, booked a trip with me specifically to put into practice the methods described in my most recent In-Fisherman magazine article entitled “In-Line for White Bass”. He landed 38 fish during his 4-hour trip on this hot July morning on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.
PHOTO CAPTION: This was the article which piqued Mike’s curiosity.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 10 July 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
Being a little unsure of finding his way for the first time to the boat ramp under cover of darkness, Mike arrived really early, but, that gave us some time to chat about the techniques before we needed to put them into use, and allowed Mike to ask a number of questions that he had formed after reading the article.
Once 6:35 rolled around, it was getting light enough for the food chain to start cranking up, and we headed on out to the fishing grounds. The approach I had described to Mike was exactly what we followed this morning. We downrigged in order to find productive water, gauge fish activity level, and catch fish, then, if abundant numbers of active fish were present, we would work them vertically at first using a smoking tactic, then follow up with a horizontal sawtooth tactic thereafter.
As we got downrigger lines in to begin this process, Mike came up with a triple right off the bat. The two largest fish in the triple are shown in the photo above, hence the absence of direct light on those fish. Later, he would come up with yet another triple.
Interspersed in the downrigging effort were three bouts of stopping atop fish with Spot-Lock and fishing for them both vertically and horizontally. Of the two approaches this morning, the fish showed a very definite preference for the horizontal tactic. Although I could get fish to stack up readily beneath the boat with the splasher and the commotion we made while fishing vertically, they just did not get as enthusiastic as they do at other times about the smoking tactic this morning.
When 10:30 rolled around, Mike, let me know he needed to scoot to get back home to his wife, of whom he is the primary caretaker. Along the way, we discussed how Mike might be able to take some of these techniques I have developed and adapt them to the waters he fishes, and with the equipment he fishes with.
Our final count of 38 fish included one freshwater drum, and 37 white bass, 100% of which were of legal size with multiple fish surpassing 14 inches.
TALLY: 38 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: Light largemouth bass schooling activity on topwater peaked as the winds began to ramp up around 8:10A.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:25A
End Time: 10:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F
Elevation: 14.60 feet low, 1 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S5-7 all morning
Sky Condition: Light blue skies with zero cloud cover
Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 45% illumination.
GT = 75
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Downrigging from vic S0120C thru SH0223G with stops atop concentrations of fish mixed in
Stopped to “smoke” & “sawtooth” white bass found via downrigging at Areas: vic 1423, vic SH0059C, and vic SH0235G
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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