This afternoon Mr. Rod Reagan and his son, Colin, of Salado, TX, joined me for some white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow.

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From left: Rod Reagan and his son, Colin, amassed a catch of 82 fish, all via vertical jigging with 3/4 oz. slabs in water ranging from 25 to 63 feet deep as a mild, dry cold front moved in over the course of our trip.

Thanks to clear, bright conditions, the fishing this afternoon was all deep, vertical jigging.  Staying focused on good technique for four hours is tough enough for adults, but young Colin stuck with the program and really came on strong at the end as we worked to polish up his technique.

Although we found fish at 3 distinct areas and at 3 distinct depths, all of the fish were somewhat reserved in that they simply didn’t very aggressively turn on, nor did they feed long once the schools we found got active with the appearance of our baits among them.

We wound up with a grand total of 82 fish caught, including 81 white bass and 1 freswater drum.

TALLY = 82 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 86F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW13, slowly tapering to NNW6.

Sky Conditions:  Clear blue skies.

Water Level: 625.47 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2159 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.16 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 20

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   128 — mid-depth vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~36′.

**Area   947/947  — deep vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~63′.

**Area   1716 and toward shore  — shallow, low-light vertical jigging in 25′.

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This morning, March 15th, I was joined by John and Matthew Morrison of Temple, TX, for a morning of white bass fishing on Stillhouse.

From left: John and Matthew Morrison “tore ’em up” this morning.  We “parked” in one area and boated 90 of our 128 fish in the first 2 hours on the water as hungry, spawned-out fish returned to the lake and started hunting their favorite meal — threadfin shad.

Matthew picked up this plump largemouth as he worked his bladebait in ~14 feet of water amongst a mess of hungry white bass.

What a treat this morning’s trip was!  The flood-muddied water created by last week’s week-long rains have begun to clear, thus increasing the number of fishable areas.  And to fish with two really nice fellows was icing on the cake.  John is an executive with Ambit Energy and Matthew has dreams of a scholarshipped education golfing for the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor next year.

We read the birds this morning and this placed us squarely on top of a 2-hour long feed that was just getting underway as we encountered it.  Hungry, post-spawn white bass were corralling shad against the surface and chasing them throughout the water column.  Steadily worked bladebaits matching the forage size did the trick for us over, and over, and over again.   The Morrison’s boated exactly 88 white bass and 2 largemouth before the sun cleared the grey clouds it rose into.  Once the direct sun hit the water, the bite moved briefly deeper, and then died.

We were then pushed out to deeper, clearer water for the remainder of our trip.  We successfully jigged with 3/4 oz. slabs to add an additional 38 fish to our take.

The majority of the fish caught up shallow on bladebaits were 2 and 3 year old, 12-14 inch fish with gaunt bellies.  The deepwater fish we caught were split nearly 50/50 between 1 and 2 year class fish with an occasional 3 year old thrown in.

Matthew, a confessed recreational eater, gave me some good insights on some local eateries I’ve yet to try.  Topping the list was Raymond’s, right off of I-35 in Lorena.

A great trip with some great fellows.  The Morrison’s have fished with me through thick and thin.  This was their 15th trip with me since 2011.

TALLY = 128 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 69F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW7, slowly swinging WSW and increasing to 12 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions:  Thin grey cloud cover sufficient to obscure the sun until ~9am, then clearing to 30% white cloud coverage on a white sky.

Water Level: 625.59 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2159 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.14 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   741/1718 — casting bladebaits in 10-16 feet for post-spawn white bass herding shad

**Area   1719  — mid-depth vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~48′.

**Area   1715/312  — deep vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~48′.

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This afternoon, March 14th I fished the second of 12 planned “Spring Break Week” trips with the Vacula family.  Dr. Ben Vacula of Temple, Texas, brought his 3 children, Madeline (age 12), Olivia (age 10), and Gabriel (age 8), along with his parents, Dennis and Amy Vacula, of LaGrange, Texas, out for an evening of white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.  Ben and the 3 kids fished, while grandma and grandpa just enjoyed the boatride and taking photos and video clips of the grandkids.

From left: Gabriel, Olivia, Madeline, and Ben Vacula of Temple, TX, landed 127 fish during their 4-hour evening fishing trip on this first day of Spring Break 2016.

The reservoir crested and, thanks to a light flow of water from the dam, is now falling very slowly from ~3.75 feet above full pool thanks to abundant rains all last week.

These rains have muddied the upper 1/3 of the lake and forced us to fish deeper, clearer water that I would normally not be fishing this time of year.  This has made our trips a “one-trick-pony” of vertical jigging, but that has been successful.

We fished only 2 areas this evening, with exactly 100 fish landed at our first area at which the fish stayed actively biting for over 2 hours.  This area was in 63′.  The second area was in ~27 feet of water.  The bite was intense, but short lived as the light began to fail toward sunset.

My approach, since I knew vertical jigging was going to be the key to success, was to show everyone exactly what needed to be done before we ever left the dock.  Then, I “tested” each person individually while watching their technique, offering pointers where I saw some polishing was required.

Although a lot of our fish were small, the action was very steady, which is just perfect when having a number of youngsters aboard.

TALLY = 127 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45a

End Time:  7:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 84F

Water Surface Temp:  64.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW14, tapering down to SSW8

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with less than 5% cloud cover.

Water Level: 625.64 and falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2159 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.09 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   1717 — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in 63′.

**Area   1716  — vertical jigging for schooled fish in ~27′.

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This morning I fished the first of 12 planned “Spring Break Week” trips with the Wheeler clan.  Grandpa Cass Wheeler brought his grandchildren, 12-year-old Trinity Wheeler and 7-year-old Cash Wheeler, out to Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir for a morning in pursuit of white bass.

Trinity was like a machine.  I showed her one time what to do at dockside, polished up her technique the first time we encountered fish, and she steadily reeled ’em in the entire time on the water.

Cash, like most 7-year-old boys, stayed engaged for a while, then needed “alternative assignments” to hold his interest.  So, he became my aerator-switch-operator, my net-man, and my check-on-the-health-of-the-fish-in-the-livewell representative.

After a bit of early morning searching, we got on fish around 8:20a and stayed on them right until 10:45 when both the kids and the fish played out.

We fished three distinct areas this morning.  The first area was on a flat, clean bottom over 34′ of water.  The second area was a gently sloping bottom going from 42′ to 45′.  Finally, as it got brighter and calmer, we moved out even deeper into 48′ and continued to vertical jigged for moderately concentrated fish.

The white bass we caught were heavily congregated near bottom, and therefore responded best to vertical jigging.  We used white, 3/4 oz. slabs the entire time this morning.

Once an area “played out”, I moved us very slowly a few yards in one direction or the other staying in the same general vicinity and, using sonar, stopped us right on top of the next patch of action we found.

We wound up with exactly 81 white bass and one largemouth this morning.

TALLY = 82 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Under 5 mph from the SSW for the first 90 minutes, followed by an hour of NE5, followed by an hour of calm, followed by a steady breeze from SSW at 8.

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with less than 5% cloud cover.

Water Level: 625.73 and has hit its crest and is now falling with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2161 cubic feet per second

Other: GT= 25

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   1716 — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in 34′.

**Area   1567/978  — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in ~43′.

**Area  1715 — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in ~48′.

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

On Saturday afternoon, 12 March, I fished with Army buddies Brandon Griffel and Jared Zornes and their sons, 7-year-old son, Payton Griffel, and 13-year-old son, Ethan Zornes.

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From left: 7-year-old Payton Griffel and his dad, Brandon Griffel, and Jared Zornes and his son, 13-year-old Ethan Zornes.  This crew of 4 put 80 fish in the boat today fishing slabs in deep, clear water away from the mud brought in by the Lampasas River and Trimmier Creek due to recent rains.

We had all manner of weather going on this trip, some of which helped us and some of which hurt us.  At the start of the trip, the last of the heavy grey clouds which had moved in around 10am was about to clear from south to north.  These clouds held some rain to the point that there was some sprinkles falling even as the sun shone as we prepared to launch.

This turbulence and change in the weather turned the fish on at an unusually early part of the afternoon.  We made our first stop where I’d witnessed some terns feeding over 36′ of water, and, in our first 50 minutes boated 40 fish in the 1, 2, 3, and 4 year class using slabs.  Once this action dried up, we had quite a lull in the action before the fish cranked up again.

From 4:00p to 5:15p we got back on fish in 38-44′ of water.  These fish were not overly aggressive and required that we make short hops to move regularly to present our lures to “new” fish, as the fish were not active enough to come to us as the fish we boated created commotion beneath the boat.

We put another 26 fish in the boat over this span of time.

Our final action of the trip came from 6:20 to 6:50 under terns feeding on shad forced to the top by white bass feeding in the failing light right at and just after sunset.  We put a final 14 fish in the boat in this flurry of activity, putting us right at the 80 fish mark for the trip’s total.

All fish were caught on slabs today.

TALLY = 80 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 2:30p

End Time:  7:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  64.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light and variable

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with less than 5% cloud cover.

Water Level: 625.67 and rising with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 2159 cubic feet per second

Other: GT= 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   1714 — vertical jigging for heavily schooled fish in 36′ during the last turbulent weather of the day under light sprinkles and clouds before the skies cleared and dried.  40 fish (half of our overall catch) came in our first 50 minutes on the water.

**Area   1567/1564/1563  — after an hour’s lull under brightening skies and calm winds, we found a few patches of fish by spot hopping in this general vicinity, fishing in 38-42′.

**Area  1192/072 — “last light” bite took place here with ~12 terns pointing the way to the action in 25-35′ along slope.

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This Saturday morning, March 12th, I was joined by fiancees Sean Cousens and Courtney Denman for a birthday outing celebrating Sean’s 36th birthday.  We targeted white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.

We had solid fishing this morning from roughly 7:30 to 10:20a.  Our catch consisted of white bass mainly in the 1 and 2 year class, with a few nice 13+ inch 3 yearolds like those shown above thrown in for good measure.

As often occurs when white bass feed in the same spot for an extended period of time, bottom feeders like catfish and drum will move in after detecting the odor and commotion of the white bass, to feed on the scraps that have fallen to the bottom.

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time:  10:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Water Surface Temp:  63.0F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were light and variable for the first 2.5 hours, then picked up and tapered up to 13 SSW by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  60% clouds on a fair sky increasing to 80% coverage by trip’s end.

Water Level: 625.41 and rising with 622.0 being full pool.  Water is now being released at a light 2157 cubic feet per second.  Water discolored to beyond Union Grove.

Other: GT= 50

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   158 to 067 under birds in 25-27′ with slabs

**Area  vic 978 to 1567 under birds at first, then fish continued biting after birds left.  45′ deep.

**Area 1713 final stop of the day — short, intense bite, typical of late morning

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This (rainy!) Friday morning, March 11th, I met up with Dennis Moses, his wife, Nakeya, and their 7-year-old son, Ayden.  Let me start out by saying, all three were real troopers to put up with the wind and rain they put up with this morning.  In the end, they were definitely rewarded for their persistence.

From left: Dennis, Ayden, and Nakeya Moses with Ayden’s 4.5 pound largemouth taken on a bladebait in 25 feet of water.

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The white bass fed for a solid 2 hours this morning, allowing for consistent action on both bladebaits and slabs during that feeding window.

TALLY = 63 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time:  9:40a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Water Surface Temp:  63.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were higher than forecast this morning – NNE13-14

Sky Conditions:  100% grey skies with a light mist or drizzle falling most of the trip.

Water Level: 624.78 and rising with 622.0 being full pool.  Water is now being released at a light 1819 cubic feet per second.  Water discolored to beyond Union Grove.

Other: GT= 0

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   946-1165 – exactly 100 fish taken here in 63′ on slabs

**Area  1710-758 – Casting blades for mid-depth whites under birds.

**Area 888 – one white bass via flatline trolling

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This afternoon, 10 March, I fished with brothers Kim and Keith Herald, originally from Nebraska.

Keith Herald of Nebraska took this nice 6.50 pound bluecat from amongst a school of deep white bass in 63 feet of water.

Keith also caught this largemouth within feet of the same area that gave up the large catfish.

Kim Herald of Killeen shows one of the 133 white bass we caught this evening on a combination of slabs and bladebaits.  This is a 2-year-old fish from the 2014 spawn.

Kim and Keith are both retired from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad where Kim served as a conductor, and Keith as an engineer.  The pair cut their teeth hauling coal out of the Powder River area during that “boom” time, back when as many as 6 men worked a single train.

After doing his homework, Kim decided to retire to the Killeen area about 6 months ago, and Keith just made the 13 hour drive down to see him.

Given such turbulence in our weather and such rapid change in our weather conditions, I was uncertain about what to expect today.  I did do a recon in advance of our trip to see how far the mud plume extended downlake from the Lampasas River mouth.  Discolored water can be found all the way down to Union Grove, which means I would be fishing even farther downlake than than.  I just do not like fishing muddy water.

We found two significant concentrations of fish today.  The first was in deep, clear, open water along the river channel in 63 of water.  We located these fish after 3 previous unproductive stops.  We found a variety of year classes of fish here, from 1 to 3 year old fish, along with a single largemouth and a single blue cat that went 6.50 pounds.  We stopped fishing here after catching exactly 100 fish in order to roll the dice to head shallower for the final low-light bite of the evening.

This gamble paid off well.  We were fortunate enough to find about a dozen Forster’s terns working over an 80 yard stretch of water on a day when few birds were working anywhere, and those that were working were working over loons.  Anyway, these birds put us onto a strong concentration of fish in 25-27 feet of water, allowing us to work bladebaits along the relatively flat bottom for another 35 fish boated here before the birds and fish quit at the same time, right around 6pm.

We went on to catch only one more fish after this shutdown — a small white bass that took a flatline-trolled crank in ~16′ of water.

We wrapped up the trip with exactly 136 fish, including 133 white bass, 1 blue catfish, and 2 largemouth bass.

TALLY = 136 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 2:30p

End Time:  6:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp:  60F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNE16, steadily tapering to NNE9 by (obscured) sunset.

Sky Conditions:  100% grey skies with a light mist or drizzle falling most of the trip.

Water Level: 624.11 and rising with 622.0 being full pool.  0.01 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours due to heavy releases from other Brazos watershed lakes.  Water discolored to downstream of Cedar Gap.

Other: GT= 40

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   946-1165 – exactly 100 fish taken here in 63′ on slabs

**Area  1710-758 – Casting blades for mid-depth whites under birds.

**Area 888 – one white bass via flatline trolling

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This Saturday morning, 05 March, I was joined by Hank McKnelly, his daughter, Brenna, and his brother, Stew, from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Proud papa Hank McKnelly with his 8-year-old daughter, Brenna, displaying the 5.00 pound largemouth bass she caught out of 25 feet of water on a horizontally worked bladebait.

From left: The McKnelly crew: Hank, Brenna, and Stew with 14″ class white bass culled from among the 109 fish they boated this morning.

Hank pinned on his full-bird colonel wings this past week and so the trip was a celebration of sorts, and a way for Hank and his brother, who recently retired from the U.S. Marine Corps, to spend some time together.

Our trip actually played out better than I anticipated it was going to, thanks to some unexpectedly thick and long-lasting grey cloud cover.  The forecast showed light winds and light cloud cover, which is always a tough combination.

As has been the case for weeks now, the gulls fed hard right at first light, pointing the way for us as to where to begin our trip.  After the low-light feed ended, fewer birds continued feeding over mid-depths (20-30 feet), so we followed them.

Once the birds quit, we used sonar to search out a handful of areas where the white bass have been consistently gathering as they make their way into the Lampasas River to spawn.

We used bladebaits a majority of the time today, with some vertical jigging thrown in for about 30 minutes at mid-morning when the sun was at its brightest and the wind was at its slowest.

We had a real treat watching 8-year-old Brenna tussle with a 5.00 pound largemouth which struck her bladebait out in 25 feet of water.  The fish was very pale, indicating it has lived out in that deep water for quite some time.

With about an hour remaining, our fish count stood at 68 fish.  Stew wondered aloud if a 100 fish day might be possible.  I was a bit doubtful, given how strong the bite was so far along in the morning.  I suspected the “window” would shut at any time.  As it turned out, the S. wind kept puffing and enough thin clouds kept passing over to sustain the bite, thus allowing us to boat a grand total of 109 fish, including 107 white bass and 2 largemouth.

As I policed up the boat and cranked the outboard to head back to the dock, Brenna stated, “I’m very satisfied.”   Dad and Uncle Stew just shook their heads  … 8-years-old going on 28!

TALLY = 109 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Water Surface Temp:  59.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light S. breeze under 4mph all morning

Sky Conditions:  Fully grey skies at trip’s start, clearing to 40% white clouds on a blue sky as the front rolled in.

Water Level: 622.12 with 622.0 being full pool.  0.01 feet of water was released in the last 24 hours.

Other: GT= 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   531/1701 – Casting blades for shallow whites under birds at first light.

**Area  vic 1159 – Casting blades for mid-depth whites under birds.

**Area  1358-1160 – Vertical jigging @ 33′

**Area  092 – Sustained late morning action on bladebaits along slope.

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle