Fishing Report

This morning I fished with Lance Lee and his 6-year-old daughter, Logen, of Hobbs, New Mexico.

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Logen with the first fish of her life  — a fish that earned her a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish” Award.

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Not to be outdone, Lance landed a few nice white bass of his own this morning.

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Logen landed our largest fish of the trip — this 2.25 pound largemouth caught over top of a deep hydrilla bed.   She was not as excited about touching it as she was catching it!

We left the ramp at 6:35am, and, by 6:48 Logen was reeling in the first fish of her life — a cooperative white bass that hit our bladebait thrown into some light topwater action generated by white bass feeding on young of the year shad on the surface.  This area, Area 1234-160, would go on to produce a number of strikes but only one more landed fish over the first 50 minutes of the trip.

Next, with a bright sun on a cloudless sky and near windless conditions, we headed deep.  The first area we probed revealed fish on sonar, but they were unwilling to strike.  The second area we checked with downriggers, Area 453, gave up a total of 11 white bass on downriggers set at both 33 feet and 21 feet trailing Pet Spoons on tandem and umbrella rigs.  We were scoring consistently here and could have had continued success here, but, the novelty of downrigging had worn off for Logen and so it was time for a transition.

We headed shallow to Area 1256 and targeted sunfish in the newly submerged terrestrial vegetation found there.  We made quick work of putting 5 sunfish in the boat on slipfloat rigs and, with about an hour left in the trip and the sun getting hotter, headed out to employ our final technique.

We put 4 rods out over a deep hydrilla bed using live bait to target largemouth bass.  I suspended our baits ~ 3 feet over the top of the deep hydrilla topping out at ~21 feet beneath the surface.  In the vicinity of Area 062-1394 we got 3 “visits” resulting in 1 largemouth hooked and landed — a nice 2.25 pound fish and our largest fish of the morning.

As we waited on the live bait to work its magic, we polished off the snacks, snapped photos of the fish we’d set aside in the livewell for that purpose, and then released all of the fish on the boat.  By the time the temperature reached its highpoint and beads of sweat were gathering on Logen’s forehead, her body language let us know she’d reached her limit.  We called it a good day right then and there and enjoyed the breeze generated by the boatride back to the launch site.

This morning I fished with Mr. Steven Crawford of Beaumont, TX, and his son, Hunter Crawford, who is a student at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, TX.

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From left: Steven Crawford and Hunter Crawford with a few of our nicer fish taken in 38 feet of water with vertical tactics.

This was the first trip I’ve conducted with clients aboard since the heavy rains and flooding ceased late last week.  The rains brought Stillhouse from over 13 feet low to just over 3 feet above full pool.  The rains also brought a lot of silt and floating debris into the lake, as well.  The Corps of Engineers is slowly releasing water from Stillhouse now.  Belton, on the other hand, is now over 13 feet high after being over 13 feet low, and no water is being released due to construction work being done in the tailrace area below the dam, which began before all of the rainfall.

In advance of this trip I fished a scouting trip on Tuesday evening and found fish at 3 distinct areas.  I fished just until I hooked and landed one fish at each area so I could spend a maximum amount of time covering more water to locate additional productive areas.

This scouting paid off, as a majority of the fish we caught today were caught at two of the three areas I scouted, with one other area I did not scout contributing 4 fish to our total of 39.

Our first success came between Areas 1234 and 160.  We found small pods of white bass surface feeding on young of the year shad and were able to dupe them with accurately cast Cicada bladebaits.  We boated 4 fish, although the potential was there for a greater catch.

Our most productive area today was in the vicinity of Area 453 in approximately 37 feet of water.  I initially approached this area with twin downriggers set with a tandem rig and a 3-armed umbrella rig, both equipped with Pet Spoons.  As we moved over this area, I saw aggressive white bass launch off bottom and pursue the downrigger ball.  As soon as our baits trailed through, both Steve and Hunter hooked up.  As soon as we caught and released those fish, we maneuvered back over that area, Spot Locked on top of these fish with the Minn Kota Ulterra and fished them vertically with both Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs slabs and Cicadas.  We landed a total of 29 fish in this area before the bite died.

The last area we hit called for a straightforward downrigging approach in deep, open water.  We encountered small groups of 2-6 fish on a routine basis from Area 859 to Area 1253 and from Area 041 to Area 258.  For every 5-6 groups we passed over, we could draw 1 or 2 strikes.  I feel this area would have fished better during the 8:30 to 9:45 peak time, but, we got on it as the bite was tailing off and took only 6 fish off this area.

This morning I fished with Colton Price and two of his buddies, Lee Hosie and Jack Wronski, in celebration of Colton’s 18th birthday.

 

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From left: Jack Wronski, Colton Price, and Lee Hosie with a few of the better white bass we caught today on slabs.

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This trip was in celebration of Colton Price’s 18th birthday.

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Jack Wronski with one of the 127 fish we boated today.

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Lee Hosie, who once fished for mackerel off the coast of Scotland, added his fair share to our tally today.

Colton lives at Stillhouse Hollow Lake and is in his junior year at Salado High School.  His friends both drove in last night from Katy, TX, where Colton used to live.  Lee is a senior about to graduate from Katy High School, and is on his way to LeTourneau University to study mechanical engineering, and Jack is a junior at Faith West, a private Christian school near Katy.  Baseball is the glue that bonded all three of these fellows together.

As I awoke this morning I saw flashes of lightning to the SE and heard the low rumble of distant thunder.  I checked out the weather radar and saw two small, fast moving storm cells right along I-35 — one near Jarrell and the other down by San Marcos.  The first one passed on by before we launched, and the other forced a 15 minute off-the-water break at mid-morning, but otherwise we lucked out and had very manageable conditions.

Today was the first time our winds have had a southerly component in quite some time and the fish responded well despite the turbulent atmosphere.  We caught fish over the entire course of our 4+ hours on the water, with the best fishing coming just after the second storm cell passed, when skies were brightest (although still quite grey) and the wind peaked at ~11mph for a short time.

Every last fish we caught today came on a 3/4 oz. Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 slab in white color fished using a “smoking” technique.  During the first half of the trip the fish were active enough to migrate towards the commotion caused by other fish being caught, thus minimizing the amount of moving we had to do to stay in the fish.  Towards the end of the trip, as the fish got more and more lethargic, we would typically catch a few fish as soon as we dropped our slabs upon arrival at a new location, but then would have to move a few boatlengths to continue to get bit, as the fish were unwilling to travel very far despite the commotion caused by schoolmates being caught.

The boys were all very competitive and insisted on keeping individual fish counts to see who was in the “Lee-d”, and, as you might imagine, the banter level remained quite high the entire trip.

By 11am, although fish were still able to be observed on sonar, they had done all they were going to do for this morning, and we called it a good day right there.

This morning I finished with Cody Cooper and Garrett Walker on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, targeting white bass.

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From left: Garrett Walker and Cody Cooper worked up a tally of 54 white bass today using slabs in 25′ on Stillhouse Hollow.

 

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Garrett Walker landed our largest white bass of the trip right around 9:00am as we saw the “beginning of the end” of the morning bite begin to occur.

Cody serves as the operations manager at Cooper & Bright, a long-time, family-owned plumbing business in Killeen.  Garrett does tile work both independently, and for Carothers Homes.

I met Cody about 3 weekends ago as I was concluding a trip on Stillhouse.  He had just finished up checking some juglines in his jonboat and heard that the party I’d taken had just boated over 50 fish as we took a few photos of the larger ones at the boat ramp.  On the spot he gave me a $100 bill as a deposit and said, “I want to go catch 50 fish, too.”  So, today my work was cut our for me, and, around 9:30am, Cody’s goal was realized.

The fishing was strongest in the first two hours of the day, tapered off in the third hour, and virtually shut down in the final hour on the water.  Our first three hours yielded 51 fish and our last hour yielded only three.

The low pressure which has controlled our weather and brought us an abundance of rain and moisture, continued today giving us an east wind and drizzle the entire time. Although the fish certainly fed, and we were able to do quite well, they certainly were not frenzied at any time, and most all of the white bass we boated had concave bellies, and looked a bit gaunt, indicating they haven’t fed much since the cold front moved through two nights ago.  None of our fish regurgitated food or defecated digested shad.

I anticipate that when our winds turn southerly we will see another very heavy feed, but we’ll see.

All of our fish were caught between 25 and 27 feet deep today using a smoking tactic as we rigged up with 3/4 ounce Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 slabs in a white color.

As the fellows departed they told me of their weekend plans to head to the Windstar Indian Casino just across the Texas/Oklahoma border.  We’ll see if their good luck holds up.

This morning I fished Stillhouse for white bass with returning guest Ken Wilkins and his friend, Dwain Halm, who joined me for the first time today.  I was really looking forward to this morning trip, mainly because Ken is a very enthusiastic fisherman who is not set on any one particular species, lake, or technique.  He just likes to catch fish and is flexible in how we make that happen.  In preparation for today’s trip, I put in about 3 hours’ worth of scouting around on Stillhouse this past Tuesday and found 4 distinct areas that held fish.  I sampled the action, catching just 5 fish at each location and then moving on while the feeding window was open.  Today, that scouting paid off as we caught all of our fish on 3 areas, 2 of which were among the 4 I’d scouted Tuesday.

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Ken boated our best fish of the trip today — this nice largemouth was one of two he pulled out of a school of white bass using a slab in ~26 feet of water.

 

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Just minutes after Ken pulled up his largemouth, Dwain’s rod bowed deeply and he came up with this channel cat no doubt vacuuming up regurgitated shad that our white bass expelled as they were being brought in.

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67 of our 73 fish were white bass, mainly in the 2-year old class with some 1 and 3 year fish thrown in for good measure.

Mother Nature definitely tossed us a curveball overnight.  Earlier in the week, Thursday’s forecast was for light, easterly 2-4mph winds with abundant cloud cover.  What we got was a 15mph NNE blow at daybreak in the wake of a mild cold front’s passage last night.   The north wind is always a wildcard in the warmer months.  It can kill the fishing, spur the fish into strong feeds, and everything in between.  What we found today was somewhere in between.  The fish were definitely still willing to feed, but, after an initial blast of enthusiasm spurred on by competition, the novelty of our lures wore off, and we had to go hunt more fish.  Of the 3 areas where we found active fish, the first provided moderate action, the second provided the best action, and the last provided short-lived action, as is common at the tail end of the morning bite.

We found all of our fish on bottom in 25-27 feet today, and found fish suspended at that depth out over deeper water, as well.  The Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 was our go-to bait in 3/4 oz. white. A “smoking” retrieve was the go-to method.

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The annual spring hybrid bite tied to the spawning of the threadfin shad is now past peak.  One of the signs of this is a reduced occurrence of shad spawning in the shallows, and the appearance of young of the year shad (often pursued by white bass) on the surface of the reservoir.  Both of these signs were evident today.

I was able to net enough shad for today’s trip, albeit with more effort required than for any other trip thus far this season.

We fished a number of areas today from as shallow as 18 feet to as deep as 40 feet, but never really experienced a solid feed where the fish got excited and competitive and “turned on” to our live baits well.  As often happens when the bite is tentative, we had a rather high number of “pull downs” that failed to result in boated fish.  Often this is due to technique, but that wasn’t the case today, as both Tony and Ken are experienced in the use of circle hooks.

We boated a mixed bag today consisting of hybrid striped bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, white bass, blue catfish, and a single spotted bass.

I’m officially closing out the Spring 2015 chapter of live bait fishing for another season and will now begin to pursue fish strictly on artificial baits, spending a majority of the time on Stillhouse.

TALLY = 26 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  1:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  73.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light SE2-3mph for the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100%  cloud cover.

Note: White bass feeding on YOY shad in most of Leon arm.

Other: GT=100

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 691

**Area 1560

**Area 509

**Area 1561-1562

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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And the prettiest fish award goes to … this smallmouth bass!

Norm treated Rachel’s sister to a fishing trip over the winter, and today was Rachel’s turn.  Actually, it was Rachel’s turn quite some time ago, but a loved one in Norm’s family passed away on the first date we had scheduled, and one of Norm’s grandchildren was born prematurely, so the family has been spending a lot of time at the hospital.

Rachel is a sweet, friendly, curious young lady who caught on quickly to all I introduced her to on today’s trip, and who asked a lot of good questions about how things work.  Her family is a part of Temple Bible Church and homeschools Rachel and her siblings.  Thursdays are a scheduled break from bookwork, and usually involve adventures with PaPa Norm.

On today’s trip we experienced a slow start in the first 2.5 hours, and then things picked up a bit during the last 2+ hours on the water.  At first we had some difficulty finding fish, and then we had a tough time getting the fish we found to bite.  I compared notes with one retired guide, one other guide who was on the water today, and another recreational fisherman, and all reported tough, slow conditions, including difficulty in getting fish they did find to strike baits.

Rachel wound up with a nice variety of fish, including  1 blue catfish, 2 white bass, 1 longear sunfish, 1 smallmouth bass, and and 8 hybrid striped bass.

Nearly every time a fish would take an interest in a live bait and begin pursuing it, we could see this play out by watching the rod tip and sonar.  As we did, Rachel would say, “This is exciting!”, referring to the sense of anticipation that the rod was about to go down under the weight of another fish taking our bait.

TALLY = 13 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  68F

Water Surface Temp:  72F on lower lake

Wind Speed & Direction: SE12 for the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100% heavy cloud cover.

Other: GT=20

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1559

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com