If you own a sonar unit and don’t know how to use it, don’t have confidence in interpreting what you are seeing, or don’t know how to adjust your unit, the time to get on the water is now. If you don’t own a sonar, and plan to get one for Christmas, the time to get on the water is now. I can show you how to make the most of your sonar and will even send you home with a listing of the best setting for your unit, all while catching solid numbers of white bass.

THIS SONAR SCREEN IS SCREAMING “GOOD FISHING!!” If you couldn’t quite tell that just by looking, you should come out and learn to read sonar while catching fish at the same time. This time of year lends itself to many “shots” at sonar-spottable fish on any given trip.

What’s happening right now is this: The water temperature is dropping slowly, and the fishes’ metabolism is decreasing as well. The fish group more tightly and move less frequently then during the hot months, all the while feeding on shad that are also slowing down and bunching up. White bass consume most of the protein that goes into egg and sperm development for the Spring spawn beginning now. With cool weather and deer season upon us, the lakes are underutilized — it’s just a great time to be out. Here’s what happened today…

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 63F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~67.5F

Wind: Winds were due ENE at 6-10 mph.

Skies: Skies were 100% grey and heavy.

As I launched, the winds had a ENE bearing — usually not a good sign, but, they were damp, warm winds, not driven by cold front conditions. This was a good sign.

I looked for any natural sign to clue me in to fish location, but found little. I headed first to Area 443 and found sparse, scattered, small suspended white bass here. I caught 1 and had several more fail to respond positively and thought I’d be in for a tough morning.

I then noticed some surface activity at between Area 537 and 538 (BA-2HG/1O) and over 21 to 29 feet of water. I stealthily pulled up on this activity and went to work with a cork rig and very quickly put 16 small white bass in the boat beginning around 7:30. I stayed on this area until exactly 9:03 when, after catching my 70th fish of the trip (69 whites and 1 short largemouth), I decided to leave these fish as they were still active in order to try to pin down the location of additional active fish for future reference. These fish responded equally well to a jigged slab, a lift-dropped slab, and a smoked slab after the topwater died off, and in both the 3/8 and 1/2 oz size TNT 180. This is the first time this fall I’ve had fish willing to hit the larger 1/2 oz. profile. Had I brought a Hazy Eye Shad Rig, doubles would have certainly been possible given the high activity level of these fish. The size of these fish was solid. Most topwater and suspended fish were smallish, but all bottom-hugging fish were at least legal, with many going 13+ inches. The largest white bass today was 14 1/8 inch.

I checked a few areas, but failed to find bait at most, Area 088 being one exception. This area had a bit of bait holding near bottom in 36′. Once I got a slab down there, I raised one school of about a dozen fish, but little else.

I moved on and wrapped up the trip at Area 539. There is a well-defined slope here and the fish and shad were holding off the face of the slope at the 29-32 foot mark. These fish would not respond to the 1/2 oz. slab, as the activity level was falling off rapidly. I caught 11 fish here (10 whites and a 16.5 inch largemouth), 2 struck off bottom, and the rest came out of very stationary suspended groups of 2-3 fish. By 11:00a, the fish would simply not respond any longer, despite still being suspended slightly off the bottom. I packed it up at this point and headed in.

TALLY = 81 fish, all caught and released

I fished a split trip today, solo in the morning and then with two deployed US Army soldiers’ kids in the afternoon.

Robert Stovall (son of deployed SGT Jeffery Stovall, A/2-8 CAV, 1st Cavalry Division) with our biggest of the trip.

Jay Smith (son of deployed CW2 Anthony Smith, A/2-227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division) with a nice white bass he fooled by vertical jigging a TNT 180 slab.

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 9:00a

Break: 9:00am – 2:30p

Start Time: 2:30p

End Time: 6:05pm

Air Temp: 63F AM & 74F PM at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~68.4F

Wind: Winds were SSE at 6-7 mph., then going calm about 45 minutes prior to sunset

Skies: Skies were 100% grey in the AM, and partly cloudy in the PM.

My intent in the morning was to fish only 2 areas that I’d not fished for a while, and to fish them very thoroughly, as they are both fairly expansive.

The first area, Area 113 – 115 yielded nothing. Although sonar showed, on occasion, what I would have bet were small, single white bass, I could not get anything to hit. I covered water with a flatline troll using Rip Shads, and I fished water in detail with blades and slabs, but came up empty handed.

The second area, N. of Area 999 did have abundant shad showing suspended at 12-16 feet over a bottom ranging from 16-22 feet. I sampled this area with a blade to check for active fish and found none, and so slowed down and fished the blade vertically for the regularly showing suspended white bass now materializing in the area. As I got settled in here, small white were occasionally driving very small shad to the surface and making their characteristic feeding sound on top which was audible despite the wind. The cool, damp conditions just didn’t have a fishy “feel” to them this morning, and the fish were slugging. I caught 14 fish here including 1 short black bass, 1 nice crappie, and a dozen white bass, 3 of which exceeded 11 inches — in all a pretty slow morning. I departed at 9:00a only to return at 2:30p for an afternoon SKIFF trip.

In the early afternoon, I picked up two young men for what would be our 12th SKIFF trip of the season. SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) Trips are provided at no charge to those military children with a parent deployed in harm’s way or who has passed away while on active duty. Here is the report I furnished to the Austin Fly Fishers, the people who raise the funds to make these SKIFF trips possible:

SKIFF TRIP #12

Since our last SKIFF trip of October 19th, Stillhouse Hollow rose to over 8 feet above full pool, and has now receded to a shade above full pool. During this time of great environmental change, and as the days are getting shorter and the water cooler, I avoided bringing kids aboard knowing the fishing would be spotty at best. This past week I encountered the first reliable activity since all of the rainfall as our water has cleared up, and so got two young men lined up to join me on the water today.

Robert Stovall is the 4th Grade son of Jeffery and Lynn Stovall. Jeffery is stationed in Iraq at Camp Taji. He is an Infantry Sergeant with Alpha Company, 2-8 Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. Jay Smith is the 5th Grade son of Anthony and Stephanie Smith. Anthony is also at Camp Taji. He is a Warrant Officer and flies helicopters in Alpha Company, 2-227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division.

Robert and Jay hit it off real well and were a joy to have aboard. We got on the water today around 2:15pm with a SSE breeze pushing at about 8-9 mph. My afternoon trips of late have started off slow, peaked about an hour before sunset, and then died right at dark, and today’s trip followed that same pattern. The water temperature rose about 3.5 degrees this week due to calm winds and brilliant sunlight all week, and as a result, we have a lot of suspended fish feeding up high in the water column as that is where the shad are, typically from 10 to 16 feet below the surface. Be began with twin downriggers deployed using a standard Pet Spoon on one and a doctored Pet Spoon on the other between Areas 035 and 161 We immediately got into fish fishing the ‘riggers staggered at 14 and 18 feet deep. As the boys got more adept at rigging the lines, I added a third, and then a fourth presentation to the spread by flatlining crankbaits over the downrigger spread. Within 90 minutes we’d boated 12 fish including 11 whites and 1 largemouth. The Pet Spoons pretty much split the take, with the smaller of the two Rip Shad baits accounting for 1 small white, and the larger one accounting for none.

I wanted to introduce the boys to technique of vertical jigging, so we left the downrigging behind after the fish tapered off and headed to Area 089. The fishing here has been consistent both for me and a local osprey over the past 2 weeks. As we idled in, sonar lit up with white bass hanging within a foot of the bottom at the base of a breakline in 25 feet of water. I buoyed these fish and gave the boys instructions on how to work a slab. Within minutes, both boys caught their first fish here, and we added a total of 10 fish to the tally during our 35-40 minutes spent here.

I also wanted to introduce the boys to the use of spinning gear (as neither had used spinning gear before). We hit the shallows shoreward of a line between Areas 130 and 407 as sunset approached, hoping we could cast blade baits for white bass laying up in the shallows, but, unfortunately, the winds began to slack off right at this time. Flat winds = flat fishing, and this evening made no exception. From the time the wind died and through the sunset period, we only put 2 more fish in the boat as we returned to downrigging and worked over 14 to 26 feet of water between Areas 535 and 418.

Jay admitted to being a real history buff, with a keen interest in World War II. Jay let his imagination wander a bit as we were doing the last of our downrigger duty and proclaimed a nearby bass boat to be an enemy ship. This caused Robert to giggle, which was all Jay needed to keep thinking up ways to convert our center console into a battleship. He suggested the downriggers could serve as machine guns, the rod holders as mortar tubes, my Carolina rig weights as bullets, my two marker buoys as binoculars and night vision goggles, and the list goes on (actually, for quite a while!). The boys got so entertained at this that our last two white bass of the night nearly took a backseat to this great sea battle about to commence.

Robert, our scientist, explained to all why the sky appeared red as the sun set – that being due to a combination of pollution and volcanic dust being transported by the jet stream.

By dark we’d done all we were going to do and headed back in. The boys both thanked me (twice) without any prompting from their moms as I carried them home and delivered them safe and sound.

We tallied 24 fish this afternoon.

TALLY = 38 fish boated today, all caught and released

Today’s success underscored the advantage of living on the south shore of Stillhouse and being able to observe lake and wind conditions from my house. I was able to time today’s trip with the arrival of the first significant winds of the entire week, and found the fish very active as a result. I hadn’t planned on fishing today, but, seeing these conditions starting to line up just right, I made a quick solo venture out there and was rewarded.

Start Time: 2:55p

End Time: 5:55pm

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~68.4F

Wind: Winds were due S at 9-10 mph.

Skies: Skies were fair.

This entire week we experienced high, blue, clear skies, and very light, variable winds due to high pressure being firmly in place.

Today, in advance of a disturbance moving in over the weekend, the high pressure began to break down, resulting in S. winds. Oftentimes when the wind begins to blow after an extended period of calm, the fish crank up, and today was no exception.

I fished 4 windblown areas, finding ample fish at 3 of them.

First stop came in the form of a downrigging circuit run between Area 035 and 161.

A prospective customer from Goldthwaite called me just minutes into the trip as I was steering the boat, and as I got to talking, I came up a bit shallower than I had intended, and, at the 24 foot mark here, saw the bottom light up with white bass on sonar. Up to this point, I’d boated 7 whites, all suspended, on Pet Spoons. I buoyed this concentration of fish, got the downriggers stowed, noted the area (Area 536), and began vertical jigging for these fish. I put 22 white bass in the boat, all nice, solid 12.5 to 13.75 inch fish and fairly plump — by far the best quality fish I’ve come on in any numbers for quite a while. All of these slabbed fish came on a TNT 180 in 3/8 oz.

After things calmed down here, the wind continued to blow even as sunset was approaching, so I headed to Area 089, and, just shoreward of this area found another solid concentration of fish, again, on bottom and in 25-26 feet of water at the base of the slope. I put 10 fish in the boat very quickly (only 2 were legal) and decided to leave these fish biting to go search out additional congregations of fish so I’d have a nice milkrun to make for the next several booked trips.

I hit Area 531 without result, then hit Areas 052 and 053 with sonar only and found nothing. By now it was within minutes of sunset.

I headed back to the vicinity of Area 089, but moved up shoreward and found fish on bottom with sonar in 16-18 feet of water. I jigged just beyond sunset and boated an additional 5 fish.

TALLY = 44 fish, all caught and released

Slack winds = slack fish activity. With high pressure firmly in place we had no wind to speak of this morning, nor is there much forecast for the next several days. Fishing was tough as a result.

Start Time: 6:35a

End Time: 11:05am

Air Temp: 48F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~64.5F

Wind: Winds were light and variable to near calm the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

I did a good bit of cruising this morning hoping to find some bird activity as the time is about right for that to kick in. I did spot 6 herring gulls, but, they, too, were cruising and not on fish.

I first found fish at Area 161 and worked this area over pretty good from 19 to 28 feet resulting in one nice white bass jigged off bottom and 4 other smaller whites taken as solos or from small suspended schools, all on the 3/8 oz. TNT 180. I decided to move after putting 5 in the boat so as to try to locate additional reliable fish holding areas given our current slightly flooded conditions.

I checked in at Area 535 which has been very reliable of late, and put 5 quick fish in the boat — all small whites from larger suspended schools — and then left them alone to search for more action.

I found a few fish holding on the slope at Area 130, and landed a small largemouth, a nice crappie, and a nice white bass, all jigging right on bottom.

I then noted an osprey working open water nearby grab a live white bass off the surface. I went over to investigate and found numerous schools of small whites holding at 12-17 feet down over 20-25 foot depths. I put out twin downriggers to cover some water quickly and quickly came up with 3 whites and a short largemouth, all on the Pet Spoon.

I’d planned to fish only ’til 11:00 today, so, with no indicators that the wind was going to pickup, I headed on in and checked Area 534 along the way, and picked up one just-legal white bass there from a school that materialized then disappeared, allowing for just that one fish to be taken.

Not once did I raise an active school of whites, and not once did I catch fish back-to-back. The fish were taken steadily, one at a time, and each had to be worked for. I saw many more suspended fish on sonar than I actually caught, as these fish were just turned off and unwilling to chase a presentation. You can pretty much bet on it: Slack winds = slack fish activity.

TALLY = 19 fish, all caught and released

I post a monthly summary of results so those looking to plan a trip in advance can have a feel for where the fishing typically has been for that particular month in years past. Note that the cooler months (when bookings often fall off) can offer some of the most productive fishing of the year.

October 2009 helped us shake off the funk of the low pressure systems of September, then gave us enough rain in two short shots to put the lake 8.6 feet high.

Regardless, fish have begun moving into their winter haunts and the vertical jigging pattern is coming increasingly into play heading into November.

Our cool weather patterns are beginning to fall into place, with vertical jigging in various forms now accounting for a majority of the fish caught. This trend will become more and more reliable right on through February. If you’re a blog follower or have fished with me in the summer months (or both) and you’ve been waiting to experience “electronic sight fishing” where we watch fish respond to our presentations on sonar, this is the time to get on the water with me. This morning I fished a second trip with high, stained water on Stillhouse. The water is still in rough shape, but the weather and wind conditions trumped all else, as usual, and we put together a respectable morning.

Start Time: 7:35a

End Time: 1:05pm

Air Temp: 46F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~64.5 to 65.5F

Wind: Winds were from the W to WNW the entire trip, but light except for a 45 minute span near noon when we had a steady 9 mph blow.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.



I started off the day in shallow water and moved gradually deeper given the bright, clear conditions today. There are no birds yet working, so all the fish-finding was done the hard way — via sonar. The lake has come down from its peak on Wed. of 8.4 feet high, and is now 7.6 feet high. The fish really didn’t do much in the low light period. I missed a keeper largemouth in the saddle area off Area 245. I then headed to Area 386 and picked up a small largemouth and a crappie. I moved on to Area 532 (off in 12-16 feet of water) and saw little action and so covered a lot of water while watching sonar and flatline trolling. This time spent watching sonar revealed a heavy concentration of shad at 10-12 feet below the surface.

By around 9am, a steady, but still light wind had kicked in and I gave a look over Area 533. There was some emergent vegetation here that had just started growing as the summer growing months were coming to a close. The presence of this vegetation made it difficult to see fish on bottom, but I thought I saw fish mixed in and so gave it a try. As it turned out, there were lethargic, inactive fish lying on bottom in 18-19 feet here, but, with suspended shad also appearing on sonar here, I found very active, very aggressive schools of white bass at 10-12 feet mixed right in with and feeding upon the shad that were constantly occupying that stratus. I chose a 3/8 oz. TNT 180 as that is what the fish were preferring on my last outing and used that as a starting point for this trip. The fish responded favorably to a smoking retrieve with this lure, so I never switched or experimented with anything else today. I caught fish consistently from ~9:00 to 10:30 here, putting 42 fish in the boat. When things got soft due to the slacking breeze, and near-calm, bright conditions at that point, I moved to a deeper but similar area, Area 535.

Here, in 22-23 feet of water, I found the same kind of action on high, suspended fish feeding on that band of shad at 10-12 feet, as well as some bottom oriented fish, although those fish were still tough to goad into striking. Around 11:15, the wind went more westerly, and increased to and then stayed at about 9mph. At this point the fishing ramped up and hit a peak for the day with the suspended fish chasing down anything that came near them, and the bottom-hugging fish also perking up, raising up off the bottom in schools, chasing a smoked slab, as well as a jigged slab. The fish caught off bottom were generally better quality fish than the much small, but more active

73 FISH CAUGHT, All caught and released

I launched this morning not really knowing what to expect. On the con side, we’ve had crazy weather, wind from all directions, new flood water come in, and dropping temperatures. On the other hand, this was the warmest day on the end of a warming trend, it was pre-frontal conditions, and the wind was brisk and with a westerly component to it. Stillhouse was 8.2 feet above full pool and fairly dingy. All courtesy docks are flooded and useless, and the ramps are underwater with the waterline now up into the turnarounds. There is a lot of floating debris due to the wind changing directions so frequently these past few days since Monday’s 2.5 inches of rain.

NEARLY ALL FISH CAUGHT TODAY WERE IN 21 FEET OR LESS, WITH ABUNDANT SCHOOLS OF SUSPENDED SHAD SHOWING AT 16 FEET ALL OVER THE LAKE.

STILLHOUSE WENT TO 8.2 FEET ABOVE FULL POOL TODAY.

Start Time:7:30a

End Time: 1:35p

Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~67.5 to 68.5F

Wind: Winds were from the SSW in the morning starting at 11mph and slowly ramping up to 20+ by 11:00am and turning SW. Around 1pm the temperature dropped very suddenly, the wind slacked off, then kicked up again from the NNW increasing rapidly to 25-30mph.

Skies: Skies were cloudy, but fairly bright.

Upon launching before sunrise I took it slow as there was a tremendous amount of floating debris, large and small. I put out two flatlines and trolled a bit waiting for enough light to run the lake safely. I picked up one barely legal black bass on a Rip Shad in 12-14′ between Area 119 and the shoreline.

At safe light it was off to Area 107/116 to see if the turbidity had driven fish from that fairly consistent location. In about an hour’s time I picked up 14 white bass and 1 largemouth (pictured above) all in 10-12 feet of water, and all on the Cicada blade bait (Jeff has these now at Salado Creek Outfitters). I could tell the fish were locating prey with their lateral line and not so much by sight, as many were caught on the rear hook which never happens in clear water. I could also see fish aggressively swimming after my blade on sonar when I jigged it, only to miss it, then hit it again when it came to rest. One of my goals this trip was to pin down some high water fish locations, so, I left these fish still biting and went looking for more active fish.

I next went and looked over Area 531. Nothing showed on sonar.

At Area 533, sitting in 19-21 feet of water, I found a great congregation of fish literally number in the hundreds. These fish were spread over an area about 30 yards in length and about 15 yards in width. Every time I dropped my slab I came up with a fish or a missed strike, and saw 6-10 additional fish on sonar following the hooked fish. This happened over and over again for a full hour, during which time I boated exactly 50 fish (49 white bass and 1 short largemouth). These white bass were thoroughly mixed in sized from as short as 5 inches, up to 13 inches, with most going right at 11 inches. These fish looked healthy, and most defecated silver feces meaning they’ve been feeding well on shad. Again, I left these fish biting and looked for additional populations of active fish.

I headed to Area 035 and found fish suspended upwind of the face of this slope in fair numbers on sonar. I buoyed a small group of fish on bottom in 26-28 feet, but these fish were very sluggish. They often perked up and gave chase to a smoked slab, but wouldn’t overtake it and strike. I managed only two just-legal white bass here in about 35 minutes’ time.

Next, I looked at Areas 072/034, but there was no signs of life here.

I then headed to the 20-22′ contour off to the NE of Area 555 and picked up just one suspended white bass seen on sonar. No congregations of fish were found here.

Finally, I moved to Area 534. I found a very aggressive mixed bag of fish here including largemouth, white bass, and drum. Over the final 90 minutes of the trip, I put an additional 20 fish in the boat here including 2 drum, 3 largemouth, and 15 whites. The fish were most aggressive early on as the spot gave up 13 fish, then things got sluggish and had I had to work for 2 more before the wind died and then began to shift from SW through W towards NW. During this short-lived wind shift in advance of today’s significant cold front, the fish went on a very brief spree. Seeing 3 separate occasions where white bass were aggressive enough to chase large shad to the surface, I switched over to an aggressively worked blade bait, casting from shallow to deep and working the blade quickly. I ended the trip with 5 white bass in 6 casts before the wind went N, a bit of cold rain began to fall, and they locked down, with 15 more casts going unanswered. The show was now over and it was time to head for lunch!

TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s trip really underscored the impact winds have on fishing. This morning was the first time in a long time we had a wind I could get excited about — slowly increasing in speed throughout the morning and from just south of southwest. This set of conditions virtually guarantees a great day of fishing when it occurs, and our results today proved that out. Of 93 fish taken, 84 of them came in the morning when the winds were SSW. After noon, as the wind got stronger and came out of the east, the bite died down, only giving up 9 in the last 4 hours of the day.

Jacob (L) and Zachary (R) with a pair of crankbait bass taken this windy October 19th afternoon.

Start Time:7:30a

End Time: 7:20p

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~73.1F

Wind: Winds were from the SSW in the morning starting at 7 and slowly ramping up to 18 by 11:30. Around 1pm the wind turned SSE and ramped up to about 22mph, tapering off to 14mph by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair, cloudless and bright.

I headed out this morning and did a little exploring given the current water temperatures, shorter days, and early transition to fall weather.

Before sunrise I fancast a blade around Area 999 probing for some shallow white bass. I got 3 strikes, but no hookups in about 50 casts, and all of these strikes were on the fall, indicating sluggish fish — which isn’t uncommon given the low light conditions at this point. Regardless, this didn’t scream out to me to linger here, so I continued the search.

I first searched over the expanse of water from Area 114 to Area 112 and found schools of small white bass surface feeding on late-spawn shad fry on the surface. You really had to suspect these fish were there to start with, as they were feeding on these small prey fish so lightly and the wind was rippling the water such that there was essentially no visual cue that these fish were there — no sound, no splashes, no spray thrown in the air — nothing but a little “nervous water”. I put 7 fish in the boat, all on a Cork Rig, and then moved on looking for other congregations of fish.

I checked out Areas 293 and 317 and found nothing.

I headed to Area 531 and just grinned ear to ear when I saw 3 ospreys all working over a tight little patch of water, and each of them making dives or partial dives several time per minute. This indicates active fish chasing bait at or near the surface. In this case, it turned out to be schools of small white bass chasing small shad to the surface, and it was the small whites that the ospreys were feeding on. I limited my sonar searching and boat noise by slipping into this action from downwind and cutting everything off once I saw the first solid fish returns on sonar. This was a classic vertical jigging scenario with fish responding to jigging, easing, and smoking presentations, and actively pursuing the 1/8 and 1/4 oz. Rattle Snakie slabs, as well as the 3/8 TNT 180. The 1/2 oz. TNT 180 was too much size for them and my catch suffered when I put that one on. I also experimented with white and silver, and white got the nod as the water is still a bit stained from all the wind and water of late. Once the color was nailed down, and the fish showed a willingness to go for up to a 3/8 oz. profile, I kept the TNT 180 on in 3/8 oz. white as I like to use as heavy a slab as the fish are willing to tolerate.

I an area less than 80 foot by 80 foot, I took 77 fish in about 2 1/2 hours’ time. This catch included 4 largemouth (all keepers up to 3 pounds), 2 drum, and 71 white bass. Of these white bass, ~20 went better than 12 inches, with none exceeding 13 inches. The remainder of the white bass were fairly small, but in good condition, going right at 9-10 inches. By around 11:15a the action began to soften so I headed back in to prepare for the evening trip, hoping the wind would keep up with a westerly component.

As 3:00pm approached, I picked up two local 3rd Grade young men for what would be our 11th SKIFF trip of the season. SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) Trips are provided at no charge to those military children with a parent deployed in harm’s way or who has passed away while on active duty. Here is the report I furnished to the Austin Fly Fishers, the people who raise the funds to make these SKIFF trips possible:

SKIFF TRIP #11

Today’s SKIFF trip was spent in the company of two young men, Zachary Leonard and Jacob Bretthorst. Both are 3rd Graders, both have two younger sisters, and both are very much looking forward to getting their dads back from Iraq. Zachary is the son of Private First Class Daniel Leonard who serves as a medic with the 1st Cavalry Division in Taji, Iraq; and Jacob is the son of Major John Bretthorst who serves as a transportation officer with the 180th Transportation Battalion out of Camp Arifjan.

In order to give the moms of these boys a break, I picked both boys up at their homes. On our way to the boat ramp, I was treated to a recitation of Hebrews, Chapter 11 by Zach who is home-schooled — what a nice touch that was!

As we drove toward Stillhouse Hollow Lake, I asked the boys about their familiarity with the different kinds of rods and reels I had on board, and tried to assess their experience level so I knew where to start once we got on the water. I also covered all the items in my safety briefing with the boys while we were on the road.

I kept a sharp eye on the sway of the trees as we neared the lake. The weatherman forecast winds at up to 18mph. It was blowing every bit of 22mph with gusts higher. I was concerned that the wind would greatly limit our options, and that concern turned out to be well-founded.

After getting launched, we headed to a protected area and I taught both boys to cast a spinning outfit. They both got the hang of that in about 6-7 casts each.

We then filled the livewell so we could revive our catch before taking photos, and headed out in pursuit of our quarry. We first searched Area 110 with Reefrunner Ripshads (200 and 400 series) in Mooneye Minnow color. In about an hour’s time the boys boated 3 largemouth bass, of which 2 were keepers and the largest fish of our trip. The boys did real well at playing and landing the fish into a waiting net. We placed the two legal fish in the livewell to revive and for photos. Once we had strained that area thoroughly, I suggested we give a different technique a try in a different area. The boys were up for that.

We headed to north of Area 329 and I quickly saw on sonar that there was both white bass and shad holding here between the face of the slope and the river channel, over the short flat that runs from the channel to the base of the slope. We put Pet Spoons down in 32-35 feet of water, just slightly staggered. We spent about 75 minutes combing over a fair sized piece of bottom, and managed 5 white bass. The first 3 were small, so, when the last two were caught, and they were larger, the boys decided they’d like to cash in their chips and take pictures of both largemouth and both white bass right then and there. The wind was blowing so hard that I knew a good photo was going to be difficult, so we beached for stability’s sake and snapped a few photos to send to their dads.

I once again offered a change of pace, this time to vertical jigging in some 20’+ water near Area 531 for what I thought might be a mixed bag of fish. We embarked on this effort at around 6pm, and found the fishing very tough from this point on. We managed but one more white bass on a 3/8 oz. TNT slab from a very inactive schools of small whites that were hugging bottom tightly. The boys never did land a fish via this technique, but enjoyed learning the technique nonetheless.

With dark approaching around 7:15p, we did a quick visit up into some wind-blown shallows to check on the possibility of white bass at Area 110 to 116. Th
e boys then got to cast blade baits a bit, but we didn’t find fish there.

Our final effort was made by flatline trolling crankbaits along the circuit from Area 114, through Areas 336 and 319, to Area 343. This lent itself to allowing the boys to take the wheel and get an appreciation for steering the boat and navigating by GPS. I was here that our comedian, Zach, posed the question: “What do you get when you cross a chicken and a caterpillar?” To his delight, I gave up. He announced the answer was “Drumsticks for everyone!” I had to chuckle.

At dark we wrapped up our big, wind-blown, adventure. The boys were grinning ear to ear and couldn’t wait to tell their moms all the details of the 9 fish they brought in today. We enjoyed some reminiscing on our drive back to their homes, and I bid farewell to both with a firm handshake.

TALLY: 93 fish, all caught and released

THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY OUR BOOTH !!

I want to thank all of you who stopped by the booth to speak with me this weekend. Whether you booked a trip, thought about booking a trip, picked up some literature or some good pre-owned equipment, or just swapped fishing stories, it was good to meet you (or see you again). I look forward to serving you on the water soon!

I was expectant tonight as I got on the water for a quick “stay in touch with the fish” trip for just a while before, during and after sunset. When these dry fronts come through, each one seems to spur white bass, hybrid striper, and crappie activity, while having just the opposite impact on sunfish and largemouth. I was targeting white bass on Stillhouse tonight.

Matching forage size is key all year long. This lineup accounts for 99% of my vertical jigging: the 1/8 oz. Rattle Snakie, the 1/4 oz. Rattle Snakie, the 3/8 oz. TNT 180, and the 1/2 oz. TNT 180.

Start Time: 4:35p

End Time: 7:05pm

Air Temp: 66F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~71.3F

Wind: Winds were driven by an approaching dry cold front and came from the NNW at about 16-17mph.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.



I looked over Area 033 with sonar and saw little so kept right on going over to Area 037. On the NW (wind impacted) side of this feature, game fish arches appeared on sonar both on bottom and suspended off the slope. I fished the 21-27 foot segment of the slope and steadily caught fish, putting 11 whites and 1 largemouth in the boat. With it now established that the fish were using this area, and while they were still biting here, I intentionally left them to seek out other areas holding active fish. This turned out to be a good bet, as I also found fish at Area 035 in 21-23 feet, putting 7 fish in the boat, and I found active fish at Area 110 in 14-17 feet and put 6 fish in the boat here. The fish started to go soft while I was here. I did attempt one last area, Area 034, just as the sun was setting, and did catch one just-legal largemouth out of a bit of random brush on the bottom here, but the fish were done by now and I packed in in.

The early fall is a period of transition. Often times when I’m not fishing with guests, I’ll leave biting fish to find other biting fish. This is one of the most successful means of finding new, productive areas to fish. Fish only have limited times of activity over the course of a given day. If you stay on one spot and fish it during the entire window of activity, then go hunting fish once the window shuts down, you’re not likely to find active fish, and thus are not likely to gain confidence in new areas. On the other hand, if you keep track of areas that are good prospects, and fish them during the heart of an activity period, you’ll eventually encounter fish and can then add that area to your collection of areas you do have confidence in.

TALLY = 26 FISH, All caught and released