WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, March 2, I fished with a crew of five on a bachelor party outing in advance of Jeff Rose’s wedding to be held in mid-March.

The five fellows joining me either are now, or have been in the past, affiliated with the Temple Independent School District where they help maintain the district’s bus fleet.

Although all had fished before, none had fished the way we approached the white bass fishing this morning.

Here is how the fishing went…

Next available dates are 20,22 March (AMs)




PHOTO CAPTION: From left: John Cooper, Lindsey Davis, George Bell, James Horton, and Jeff Rose with a few of the 145 fish they caught and released this morning, March 2nd.



Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 02 March. 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

After record high temps around 90F on Monday and Tuesday, we dropped back down with highs at only 54F on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday warmed up, but the lack of cloud cover put us back at 46F on the boat ramp before sunrise this morning.

We had some light fog and (worst of all) calm winds with clear, bright skies until around 9:30. Our results up until 9:30 reflected the tough conditions with only 6 fish landed in two hours of effort. At exactly 9:34, the lightest ripple of wind approached from the SW with no calm patches remaining upwind. The fishing turned around “big time” once this wind began. From 9:30 until 12:20, my five man crew (now VERY well practiced at the tactics they needed to employ) took full advantage of the improving bite.

The fish went strong for a full hour, then slacked off as the wind slacked off for about 20 minutes — from about 10:40 to 11:00. The wind picked back up and then blew even stronger than it did earlier from 11AM until we wrapped up at 12:20.

During the entire morning we used only one tactic and only one bait. Everyone had the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab tied on and used it with a slow-smoking tactic. The fish were very choosy as to retrieve speed. I helped everyone zero in on the correct retrieve speed by using my thumper as a metronome beating faster when the wind blew and the fish swam and chased aggressively, and beating more slowly when the wind was light and the fish were more lethargic.

We closed out the trip with a grand total of 145 fish landed, including 1 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 142 white bass.

Here is a tutorial on the snap-jigging method … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtrnAQ_T94&t=55s

Here is a tutorial on the slow-smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ

TALLY: 145 fish caught and released



OBSERVATIONS: Here was the water temperature measured in 5′ increments from the surface to the bottom in 50′ this morning, 02 March…

0 feet, 58.3F
5 feet, 58.9F
10 feet, 58.9F
15 feet, 58.7F
20 feet, 58.4F
25 feet, 58.3F
30 feet, 57.1F
35 feet, 55.6F
40 feet, 54.3F
45 feet, 53.6F
50 feet, 52.9F
WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 12:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 649F

Elevation: 16.84 feet low, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 57.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for 2 hours, then going SW 4-11 for the rest of the morning

Sky Condition: Pale blue skies w/ no cloud cover after a light lake fog cleared by 8:10A

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 61% illumination.

GT = 0



Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Vic 350, SH0044C, 2022, SH0260G, SH0268G, SH0269G (3 hops), SH0283G (2 hops), vic 980


Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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Good times. Nice post and fish. As always good job.