This morning I welcomed father & son team Kelvin Reynolds and Kelvin Jr. aboard for a morning of white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow.  Little Kelvin is only 4, so, I knew I’d need to keep things moving and keep things interesting for him.  As I’ve learned over the years in fishing with hundreds of children, even on the best days of fishing, young kids’ attention spans run out, the novelty wears off, and, no matter how good the fishing may be, if you don’t change things up, boredom will set in.

Kelvin and Kelvin Jr. both caught plenty of fish and learned a lot on today’s 4-hour trip on Stillhouse Hollow.  Here, Kelvin holds 2 of our largest white bass of the 45 fish we boated today.

CUTE FACTOR: Very high.  This was Kelvin Jr.’s first fish ever caught!

And now looking a bit more relaxed and confident…

“Big” Kelvin is a transportation officer in the U.S. Army and it originally from the northern Virginia/Washington D.C. area.  He had an opportunity to fish for big catfish on the James River in Virginia, but, other than that his experience was fairly limited, so, he learned a lot today.

Fortunately, I had an opportunity to do some scouting yesterday and found a shoal of fish that stayed active for a full 3 hours beginning just before sunrise and going until 10am.  Just like clockwork, those same fish were back feeding on shad again this morning and allowed us to immediately get a good mess of fish in the boat and engage young Kelvin in spotting fish, retrieving the spinning outfits we were using, reeling in the fish, putting them in the livewell for photos, and holding and releasing small fish.  During the first 20 minutes on the water, Kelvin Jr. landed the first fish of his life!!  We snapped photos and will submit all the necessary paperwork to get him a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish Award” for that accomplishment.

After our initial success on bladebaits began to wear thin after about 90 minutes of fishing, we changed over to downrigging.  Young Kelvin’s favorite part was pushing all the buttons on the electronic downrigger to set it to depth and then to automatically retrieve the ball after a fish was hooked.  We did well on the downriggers for another 30 minutes, then we noted the tell-tale signs of “fidgetiness” setting in and decided another transition was in order.

I moved us several miles from where we’d been fishing to another area where I suspected we’d encounter larger, 2 and 3 year class fish.  Upon arrival we picked up 4 fish on the downriggers right away and spotted heavily schooled fish holding on bottom.  Big Kelvin and I went after these with bladebaits as Kelvin Jr. napped after being lulled to sleep by the drone of the outboard on our ride to this area.  We double-teamed these fish and took our fish count from 29 fish up to 43 fish before departing after Kelvin awoke in a bit of a grouchy mood thanks to the hot sun beaming down on him and the windless conditions causing us all to sweat and be a bit uncomfortable.

We took another boatride to cool down a bit, put Kelvin Jr. on a few sunfish up shallow near some isolated hydrilla beds, then called it a day right on the 4-hour mark.

TALLY = 45 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  75F

Water Surface Temp:  84.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light and variable

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with 20%

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1439 thru 1172 — active fish under birds from 7:00 to 9:00am

**Area 070 thru 1255 thru 867 — solid fishing for about an hour via downriggers and with blades

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

In my guide service, I run the vast majority of my trips between Spring Break and the week the kids return to school in August.  Things then slow down as folks move on to hunting, football, and kids’ sports schedules.  So, I had some time on my hands for a change after a very busy summer (which I’m thankful to God for– both the business and the break, that is!) and did some probing in areas I normally wouldn’t fish this time of year.

Part of this was fueled by the fact that I have a 4-year old boy coming out with me tomorrow, and I know that my standard late-summer approach of strictly downrigging for white bass is not going to offer enough variety for him.  I also know that the jigging and casting I normally do after finding fish by downrigging is going to be too technical for him.  So, I went search for options.

As I probed water I don’t normally fish this time of year, I found conditions which, if they hold up, will be just right for my young angler and his dad tomorrow.  Here is a sampling of fish in the 0, 1, and 2 year classes.

I was fortunate to find, right at sunrise, about 20 terns working over about 4 acres of water.  They were picking off shad driven to the surface by small white bass, mainly in the 0 and 1 year classes.  These fish were very abundant and were easily caught using bladebaits fished vertically and horizontally,  by using small, 3/8 oz. TNT slab fished vertically, and on 3-armed umbrella rigs fished on my downriggers.  This was good news as it offered the variety I am hoping to bring into tomorrow’s trip.

Additionally, some nice, isolated stands of hydrilla were found nearby, so, I knew I could also bring some sunfishing with poles into the game, as well.

I wound up this trip with 72 fish including 68 white bass in the 0, 1, and 2 year classes, along with 4 freshwater drum.

TALLY = 72 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  75F

Water Surface Temp:  84.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light and variable

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with 20%

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1439 thru 1279 — active fish under birds from 7:00 to 10:00am

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This Labor Day Monday I fished with grandfather-granddaughter team Ken Botsch (known as Pa to his grandkids) and Lucy Scott of Round Rock, Texas. Ken has followed my Facebook blog for quite some time now and decided to take the plunge, give me a call, and book a trip.

Ken Botsch and his granddaughter Lucy with 4 of the 42 fish we caught today, primarily on downriggers in 28-32 feet of water.

Ken is the owner of his own small business, Earthmovers Supply, Inc., with a brick-and-mortar location in Hutto, TX, from which he supplies off-road vehicle specialty parts into the roadmaking and quarrying industries.  Ken is also an avid kayak angler.  Lucy just started her 4th grade year in Round Rock public school.

We got going at 7:15 under cloudy gray skies and with a SSE wind blowing at 8 to 9 mph. We ran sonar over two areas looking for bait and the white bass pursuing that bait, and found nothing. As we approached the third area I had hoped to fish, and just as the heavy grey cloud cover was thinning, suspended schools of white bass began to appear on sonar at 28 to 32 feet deep over a deeper bottom. This was a classic case calling for downrigging, so we put the downriggers in and I gave some quick, simple instructions to Ken and Lucy on how to use the downriggers.

Using line counter reels, we set our baits back very precisely the same distance every time, and using the depth counter on the downriggers, we set the depth at which our baits would be presented very precisely every time. From the downrigging arsenal I selected a pair of three armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons intended to match the size of the small forage these fish were attracted to.  We first set out Lucy’s rod, then Ken’s, then studied sonar. We had gone no more than 30 yards with both lines set when we encountered a nice school of white bass.  The baits, which were 5 to 8 seconds behind us, reached the school and a white bass grabbed onto one of Lucy’s three Pet Spoons and the fight was on.  She did a great job of fighting that fish to boatside and landing it. I’m not sure who really got hooked right then — that fish, or Lucy!!

Over the next 90 minutes we caught fish consistently through this area including singles and doubles of fish in the one, two, and three year classes. Around 8:45am this bite began to weaken, so we began to search elsewhere with 28 fish now landed. We spent about an hour probing several areas and finding little in the way of bait or fish that I was confident would produce for us, so we pressed on.

Around 10 AM we encountered another concentration of fish with most individuals holding off bottom at 29 to 30 feet down over 32 to 34 foot bottom. These were spaced closely enough that I suspected a smoking approach would attract a bite, so we began smoking with 3/4 oz slabs and put seven fish in the boat via that method. At no time did the fish really school heavily under the boat or really turn onto that technique, so as soon as that action slowed we went right back to downrigging and finished up our trip consistently boating fish in the two and three year class on 3 arm umbrella rigs with Pet Spoons. We finished up the day today with exactly 41 white bass and 1 freshwater drum boated, and really made a fisherman out of little Miss Lucy. Her Pa was very, very proud of her persistence and her success. All three of us agreed that we needed to make it a point to get her sleepy brother Christian out of bed for our next trip!.

TALLY = 42 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15am

End Time:  11:15 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  76F

Water Surface Temp:  84.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8 shifting to S14

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with 50% cloud cover.

Other: GT=20

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1260 to 864 to 863 to 1134 from start through 8:45a

**Area  1102 through 912 through 1417 in last 75 minutes

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Labor Day marks the end of summer for many, with kids back to school, vacation time completely spent, and football and hunting seasons just getting going.  If you are headed out on our area lakes this weekend I suggest going early to beat the heat and to take advantage of the low-light topwater action that typically erupts this time of year.

Beware: Labor Day, 01 September, falls in the new license year for hunting and fishing licenses, and, in an effort to combat “Boating While Intoxicated”, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Game Wardens and Corps of Engineer Park Rangers are typically on patrol on holiday weekends like this one.

I fished Belton Lake this morning on a scouting trip and encountered some very enjoyable, albeit short-lived, topwater action.  I found fish feeding on small baitfish in three distinct locations between 6:30am and 8:15am.  It was very important to scale down the size of my artificial lure.  At one point I had several other boats around me and while I caught a fish on one in every two to three casts, the other boats using large topwater plugs, large slabs, and crankbaits rarely caught fish at all.

I’ve included a photo to illustrate this, below.  Pictured is a 19″ hybrid striped bass, and placed on the deck of my boat just in front of its mouth are 6 baitfish located beneath a nickle for perspective.  The 2 fish in the column I arranged on the left are silversides, and the 4 fish in the column I arranged on the right are threadfin shad.  This is the size of the forage these fish are eating right now and anglers will do well to imitate this or results will lag.  These baitfish were all regurgitated by the white bass and hybrid stripers I caught this morning.

This 19″ hybrid fell for a Pet Spoon approximately 1.25″ in length which imitated the small forage it was feeding on.  Note the 6 small baitfish near the fish’s mouth.

The two skinnier fish on the left are silversides, and the four sway-bellied fish on the right are threadfin shad.  All of these fish were regurgitated on my boat deck this morning by the fish I caught.

As always when fishing for topwater fish, try to keep your distance so as not to spook the fish off the surface.  Maneuver in with your trolling motor, NOT your outboard, and keep your retrieve speed high so the fish don’t get a good look at your presentation.

Be courteous, watch your wake, and keep your distance.  Have a safe Labor Day!

TALLY = 36 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30am

End Time:  8:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  76F

Water Surface Temp:  84.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm to E3

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with no cloud cover.

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1304 to 793 topwater from 6:30 to 7:30a

**Area 082 to 178 topwater from 7:30 to 8:15a

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This morning I conducted the 18th SKIFF trip of the 2014 season with members of the Pappas family and the Cancel family aboard.  SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

L to R: Jose Cancel, Yuneisy Cancel, Chantelle Cancel, Chanelle Cancel, Shaydee Pappas, and Josiah Pappas.

Both moms joined me today on the water, which is really nice especially where younger elementary-aged kids are concerned.  Representing the Pappas family was Mrs. Shaydee Pappas and her 5-year-old son, Josiah.  Josiah’s dad, U.S. Air Force Tech. Sergeant Pappas is currently deployed to Qatar where he supports the U.S. Army as a weapons director.  He has served almost 13 years in the USAF.  Mrs. Pappas is  a USAF veteran, having served in the USAF’s Air & Space Operations.  Representing the Cancel family was Mrs. Yuneisy Cancel and her three children, Chantelle (age 12), Jose (age 11), and Chanelle (age 7).  Yuneisy’s husband, Jose, has 6 years in the U.S. Army under his belt and is currently supporting U.S. Army troops in Afghanistan as a digital systems engineer focused on communication systems.

None of the four kids aboard today had ever caught a fish before, and all earned a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award” as a result of their accomplishments today.

Although during several attempts at working slabs vertically for fish we found congregated on the bottom the kids did very well at this technique, the fish were reluctant to cooperate.  We made 3 stops and tried vertical jigging after making successful downrigging passes over heavy schools of fish and tossing a buoy on the fish to mark the location of the schools.  On only one of these three attempts did the fish perk up once we got our slabs down to them.  On that attempt we picked up 3 fish in short order and missed a 4th that was hooked but pulled off before being landed.

Otherwise, we spent the rest of the trip using the downriggers and working through a 4-way rotation from youngest to oldest among the four kids.  This worked out pretty well as there are other tasks than just catching the fish that downrigging entails, including letting the lines out the correct distance behind the boat, letting the downrigger weights down below the boat to the correct distance, and then bringing the balls back up to clear the hardware from the water after a fish is hooked and is being fought to boatside.  Even Josiah, our youngest fisherman today, stayed engaged right to the end of the outing today.  I guaranteed the moms that everyone would be “nap-ready” following lunch today.  I know I was!

In all, we boated 27 fish today including 26 white bass and 1 freshwater drum.  After seeing how much their kids enjoyed the sport, both moms mentioned that they thought going fishing would be something their husbands would enjoy doing with the kids upon their return from overseas.

Demand for SKIFF trips (and all fishing trips, for that matter) tends to drop off sharply once the school year commences once again and schedules fill with sports and other activities, so, I was glad we could accommodate these families just days before the start of school on Aug. 25th.

Thank you, Austin Fly Fishers, for the work you do behind the scenes to allow it all to come together for trips like this one!

TALLY = 27 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  79F

Water Surface Temp:  84.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S10-13

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with 15% white cloud cover.

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1437-1438 downrigging for the first 90 minutes for 16 fish

**Area  1265 for the final 2 hours downrigging for 8 fish and slabbing for 3 fish

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This morning I conducted the 17th SKIFF trip of the 2014 season accompanied by Anna & Matthew Niles.  SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

Anna Niles, dressed to the nines with this pink dress, matching top, and pink ice cream cone earrings, caught this nice 3.00 pound largemouth bass on a Pet Spoon worked down around the 25 foot mark where schools of white bass and wolfpacks of largemouth were feeding on shad.

Matthew Niles had never caught a fish before today’s trip.  He started us off right today catching a “double” consisting of this 2.50 pound largemouth bass and an 11 inch white bass landed at the same time on the same rod which was rigged with 3 Pet Spoons to imitate a small school of shad.

Matthew, age 6, and Anna, age 8, are the two youngest children of U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Rolland Niles and his wife, Mrs. Shawna Niles, of Harker Heights, Texas.  LTC Niles deployed to Afghanistan with the First Cavalry Division earlier this summer for approximately a year’s time. Shawna has now taken on the role of single parent to her three children for the remainder of this deployment.

Given the kids’ age, the slightly elevated wind speed, and the fact that I was fishing without assistance today, we stuck strictly with downrigging this morning and did quite well. We used several sizes and colors of Pet Spoons on twin 3-armed umbrella rigs trolled at just over the level the fish were holding at to keep the fish coming in the boat steadily over the course of the entire trip.

The best action came in the first 75 minutes of the trip and slowly tapered off from that point to our close at 11:00am.  I was surprised at how, when I described what fish looked like on sonar (yellow, boomerang-shaped arches), the kids picked up on that and were constantly watching sonar for fish to appear, and then intently watching the downrigger rods for a result as our baits passed by the fish we’d just spotted on sonar just seconds earlier.

As we wrapped up our trip and beached on the gravel near the boat ramp, Shawna was just rolling in to the parking lot to come pick the kids up. We held back two fish in the livewell because the kids wanted to take a picture of their fish with their mom so that dad would be able to see what they caught on their trip today.

Although Matthew and Anna had been on a boat before, neither had fished before and so the fish they caught today were the first fish they caught in their lifetimes.  After cleaning up the boat, grabbing a little lunch, and a quick nap, I filled out the necessary paperwork to get a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department “first fish award” headed by mail to the kids to recognize their achievement.

At one point during our time on the water I asked the kids if they thought their mom’s job was harder with their dad gone. Anna answered instantly and said, “Yes, because that’s just one person doing the job of two people.”.

As the Niles family headed back towards their car to head home, I let Shauna know that if she and her eldest daughter needed to have some mother daughter time without the little ones at some point during this deployment, she was welcome to call on me for a separate trip.

TALLY = 34 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  79F

Water Surface Temp:  84.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW9-14

Sky Conditions:  Cloudless fair skies

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1437-1438 downrigging for the first 75 minutes for 20 fish (4 doubles)

**Area  1226 downrigging for 6 fish (1 double)

**Area  1437-1438 returned here for final bite of 8 fish (2 doubles)

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

I fished a tough evening trip this evening with Mr. David Nix of Liberty Hill, Texas, and his 15 year old son, Noah. David works for State Farm insurance in Austin, and Noah is entering high school as a freshman this year. His interests lie in playing basketball, running track, and competitive swimming.  David called on short notice this past Tuesday hoping to put something together for the two of them before the school year kicked in and life got busy again.

David Nix and his son, Noah, with a few of the fish we had to work extra hard tonight to get in the boat — it was a tough evening all around.

TALLY = 13 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45pm

End Time:  8:30pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  99F

Water Surface Temp:  84.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S14-18

Sky Conditions:  Cloudless fair skies

Other: GT=0; R=55

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1419 for 3 fish early and 3 more at second to last stop

**Area  1250 for 5 fish on Cicada a mid point

**Area  1231 thru 668 had abundant fish and shad but gave up only 2 fish

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

I fished on Stillhouse Hollow this morning with Mr. Steve Niemeier of Temple, his daughter Emily, and his granddaughter, four-year-old Emma. As with most summertime trips involving youth, we targeted white bass today — they are sporty and abundant, cooperative and predictable — just right for kids, and adults, too, for that matter.

L to R: Steve Niemeier, his 4-year-old granddaughter, Emma, and Emma’s mom, Emily .

This was Emma’s very first time on a boat, so you can just imagine all the things, both fun and scary, running through her head.  As we eased out of the no wake zone near the ramp, Emma gave me the thumbs-up that we were okay to “go fast”. As we arrived at our first fishing area, I slowed down to idle speed to set our downriggers out. There was something about the waves slapping on the fiberglass hull that really drew Emma’s attention.  Emily told her that when she was a little girl she used to think that that sound and feeling of the boat going through the waves was the boat striking alligators’ heads.  Emma probably spent more time during our trip today hanging with her head over the side watching the waves lap on the hull than she did engaged in catching fish, but that was just fine by me!

At our first location we picked up six fish by 8:05 AM by downrigging with a pair of three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons. As has been typical over the past three weeks, the low light bite offered some so-so fishing for scattered suspended white bass.

As we left this area behind and begin to survey the second area we would fish, looking for topwater action on the surface and fish feeding below us using sonar, we found more active fish just turning on at around 8:30 AM. I was just about to deploy the downriggers when I came across a very tight school of bottom oriented white bass on a break line dropping from 25 to 29 feet. The fish were stacked on the slope’s face of this feature, and on the shallower tier. Using the i-Pilot, I hovered right over top of these fish and we all went to work using slabs finished vertically to capitalize on what we had found. We caught fish steadily for about 30 minutes first using the slabs, and then extending our reach beyond the boat by using blade baits fished in the lower third of the water column. At the same time the topwater feeding largemouth quit feeding, the white bass also turned off and we left this area to search for more fish.

Around this same time the wind began to ramp up to well over 15 mph with gusts up over 20 mph, making things a little tougher. We went for about 50 minutes pulling only three more fish on the downriggers, and not really finding congregations of fish in the three or four areas that we searched during that time. Around 10:25am we finally found another bunch of fish again, near a breakline going from 27 to 33 feet deep, and holding at the top of the break. Again we used the i-Pilot to hover, slabs to fish vertically for all the fish we could catch from directly beneath the boat, and then used blade baits to “mop up” from around the boat in all directions. We took our fish count up to 53 at this location.

By 11 AM, and after suffering a yellowjacket sting on her forehead, Emma was pushing the limits of her four-year-old endurance. We decided to call it a good day right there, took a few family photos, and let Emma steer the boat through the no wake zone to wrap up.  For our efforts today we boated a total of 53 fish, including two freshwater drum, and 51 white bass in the one, two, and three year classes.

TALLY = 53 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   77F

Water Surface Temp:   84.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:    S12-16

Sky Conditions:

Other: GT=35

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1435-1436 downrigging early

**Area 668 downrigging to find fish and then slabbing and blade baits to exploit

**Area 907 slabbing and blade baits

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

Today I fished a morning trip on Stillhouse Hollow with Mr. Jack Sims and his two grandsons, Jackson and Kyle. Jackson and Kyle are visiting for about a week from the Houston area before heading back to school.

L to R:  Kyle, Jackson, and Jack with 3 of the 57 fish we had to work for today.  Heavy clouds kept the activity level fairly subdued today.

TALLY = 57 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:30am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   77F

Water Surface Temp:   84.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:    S10-15

Sky Conditions:    100% greyed over with heavy clouds enough to cut the light to below ‘sunglasses requirements’

Other: GT=35

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1436 thru 1435 thru 465  downrigging

**Between Areas  1255 thru 822 limited success smoking despite heavily schooled fish on bottom

**Area 668 thru 1265 thru 1224 downrigging for scattered fish

**Area 1259 thru 070 fair fishing via smoking, blades, and downrigging for the most active fish of the day 10:05 to 11:20.

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

This morning I finished with Garrett Jones, the son of Tim and Mitzi Jones of Michigan.  Both Garrett’s mom and his “favorite aunt” Aunt DeAnn joined us as non-fishing spectators/sunbathers.

Garrett Jones joined me for some multi-species angling this morning all the way from Michigan.  We caught largemouth on topwater baits, and white bass and freshwater drum on slabs, blade baits, and downrigged spoons.

Garrett’s family traveled to Texas to visit a very ill family member, and decided to add a little silver lining to life in the way of a fishing excursion while they were here.

As we got going this morning I did a bit of instruction on fishing vertically with slabs as I anticipated we would find aggressively feeding fish given today’s weather conditions. We have had a return to moderate high-pressure, southwesterly winds, and some haze in the atmosphere, all of which contribute to a strong bite. When we actually got on the water and began searching with sonar, these expectations of finding aggressively feeding fish were quickly met.

We finished only two areas this morning and found a strong feed underway at both. The first area gave up fish on the downrigger for about our first hour on the water, then a few top water largemouth, followed by a strong slab bite from bottom-oriented, heavily schooled white bass in 32 to 30 feet of water.

These fish fed for another two hours right up to 10 AM. When the feed at this first location ended, we were fortunate to drive directly to yet another aggressively feeding school of bottom-oriented fish in 28 feet of water. This school of fish had evidently been feeding for a while and we were lucky enough to hit the tail end of that heavy feed. We finished blade baits in the lower third of the water column to cover a 40 yard area over which sonar indicated these fish were spread.

When the fish begin to turn off they often go from hitting the Cicada blade bait hard and hooking themselves on the forward hook, to just nipping at the lure and getting caught on the rear hook.  While they are still biting hard, the strike to land ratio can be right around 1 to 1; but once the bite gets sluggish it can drop to 5-6 strikes to every 1 landed fish, and shortly after this the bite just dies completely.  Things went flat for us right at 11am today.

As we wrapped up, our tally of 54 fish included 2 freshwater drum, 3 largemouth bass, and 49 white bass.  54, incidentally, is Garrett’s football jersey number.

TALLY = 54 FISH

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   78F

Water Surface Temp:   84.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:    SSW10-12

Sky Conditions:    Fair with 30% white clouds

Other: GT=40

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1419 downrigging

**Area  1436 smoking, blades, and topwater

**Area  836 blade baits

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX