Stillhouse Summer Patterns Finally Turn On -- 49 FISH -- 23 July 2011
Posted At : July 23, 2011 2:23 PM | Posted By : Admin
Related Categories: 2011 Fishing Reports

I fished today with Mr. Andy S. of Belton, and three of his four children -- Sullivan (13), Jaxson (8), and Kelsey (6). This was a "Kids Fish, Too!" trip, so only the kids fished -- and they tore 'em up!!

VIEW TRIP PHOTOS HERE

Fishing really couldn't have been much simpler today. We found abundant fish at the first area I began searching over this morning and although the fish slowly transitioned from place to place, they never left this vicinity, so, we spent no time traveling in search of fish nor scanning hopefully with sonar, we simply fished from start to finish over willing schools of white bass with occasional black bass mixed in.

We fished along the contour stretching from Area 258 to Area 040 to Area 481. From sunrise to around 8:35, our best success came from the southern end of this expanse of water, close to Area 040. As the morning progressed, the fish slowly moved north, and were located closer to Area 481.

In the midst of all this, I spotted a tightly bunched school of white bass on bottom right on top of Area 853. I buoyed these fish and, for about 25 minutes the kids boated fish after fish putting a quick 15 fish in the boat using slabs, and taking our tally from 24 fish (all of which had been downrigged) up to 39 fish very quickly. When the school dissipated, we returned to the downrigging that had treated us so well up to this point, and we continued to put fish in the boat.

Our last 90 minutes on the water was (as is often the case on morning trips) slower than the first part of the trip. During this time, we boated 10 additional fish, 8 of which came on the downriggers and 2 of which came on slabs. These slabbed fish were our last two fish as my youngest guest Miss Kelsey was beginning to play out and it was clear the the best of the morning bite was now well behind us.

TALLY = 49 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY'S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 10:30a
Air Temp: 78F at trip's start.
Water Surface Temp: ~85.7F
Wind: Winds were S7 at trip's start, slowly increasing to S13.
Skies: Skies were ~30% cumulus clouds on a blue sky. A heavy grey cloud bank in the east obscured the sunrise for ~30 minutes and high, thin cloud cover at our trip's mid-point made the increasing temperatures bearable.