April 11, 2009
Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir – Belton, TX
This month’s stop in the ATX Bassmasters tournament
season was at the popular Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir. Stillhouse
Hollow is known as one of central Texas’s favorite
reservoirs with its beautiful clear waters and wonderful
scenery, but Mother Nature put a damper on being able to
enjoy some of that. The fishermen faced dark, overcast skies
all day long with a good chilly wind to go with it. Many
of the anglers showed up for the day wearing sandals and
shorts because the weather forecast had called for things
to warm up as the day went on. At the weigh-in, however,
everyone was still wearing their jackets and sweatshirts
trying to stay warm because the weather certainly didn’t
warm up. Despite the adverse conditions, several anglers
were able to put decent limits of bass in their boats. After
not being able to fish any of the other club events so far
this year, it was Stephen Malina who reigned victorious.
Stephen was able to put together a limit worthy of first
place honors with 16.79 pounds. His winning strategy involved
running to the upper end of the lake where he found large
concentrations of shad, off colored water, plus shorelines
with plenty of rock and timber. In the area he was fishing,
he could see shad everywhere. Stephen caught his fish by
fishing a jig in shallow water along the rocky, timber strewn
shorelines. Occasionally, Malina would see shad jumping
out of the water and land flopping on the shoreline. Taking
the cue that these shad were being chased, he’d immediately
pitch his jig to where the shad had jumped, and often times
would put a good bass in the boat. He also noted that a
little later in the day, he stopped catching fish when the
shad had disappeared out of the shallows, so he started
fishing his jig a little deeper and started getting the
good bites again. Good work, Stephen!
Michael Waldrop continues to prove that he is a force that’s
not to be ignored in this year’s ATX tournaments.
So far this year he’s on a roll with either placing
in the top three or getting the big fish in every tournament.
He continued that roll at Stillhouse by placing in the number
two spot with a limit totaling 15.77 pound. Michael started
his day in the morning by putting a couple of fish in the
boat throwing a spinnerbait. After the action on the spinnerbait
slowed, the rest of his fish came by alternating between
throwing a fluke and a drop-shot rig for the rest of the
day. He focused his efforts by fishing mid-lake in spots
reasonably close to the launch ramp and caught fish everywhere
from super shallow down to 15 feet. Very nice staying consistent
with putting them in the boat, Michael!
Rounding off the top three was Patrick Anderson who weighed
in a limit of bass weighing a respectable 13.17 pounds.
Patrick was fairly modest in sharing his success story,
but he says it was just a laid back day of fishing. All
of Patrick’s fish were caught by simply fishing a
Texas-rigged worm in less than 10 feet of water in the south
end of the lake. He caught his biggest fish by pitching
his worm into about two feet of water. Patrick mentioned
at the weigh-in that he was catching some fish shallow,
but it wasn’t until he started fishing even shallower
than he was that he started getting the better bites.
The big bass of the tournament was bagged by Mr. Club President,
David Bueche, and weighed a whopping 5.55 pounds! David
seems to have a knack for being able to put the big ones
in the boat when it counts. Earlier this year at Lake Buchanan,
David put a 7 pound bass in his boat in the last 30 minutes
of the tournament which was just the fish he needed to give
him the first place title in that tournament. Well, once
again, here at Stillhouse, we find David putting the big
one in the boat in the last hour of the tournament. At about
2:00, he found a small timber-filled cove that he decided
to spend the rest of the day in. Having not been on a very
good pattern for most of the day, he was alternating between
throwing his ½ oz jig with a Rage Tail Craw trailer
to shallow targets and deep targets. The fish hit after
letting his jig fall vertically along a tree in about 18
feet of water. Having thought he was hung on a limb at first,
David didn’t get a great hookset on the fish and said
he was lucky to get it in the boat. He was even luckier
after deciding to swing it in the boat instead of waiting
for a net because of all the timber around. “I was
hoping it would sort of help me out as it was swimming up,
but when I went to swing it, it was just dead weight. I'm
really lucky my line didn't break at that point or it didn't
slap against the side of the boat and fall off the hook.”
The next stop in the ATX Bassmasters tournament trail will
be back to Lake Travis on May 17th and we will be launching
at Mansfield Dam. Those interested in club events are encouraged
to come to our club meetings the first Tuesday of every
month at Threadgill’s on Riverside at 7 PM.
Full
Results Here
