I hate summertime fishing.  It's hot, there are 54billion people on the lakes, and the big fish hide from me really, really well.  The last few trips to Stillhouse have been reasonably productive on my new love, Carolina Rigged Senkos, but I'm not pulling anything over 3lbs out.  That's bad.  The best I've gotten so far is a 2lb largemouth off of an Ika.

In a hydrilla choked reservoir with submerged roads, bridges, weedlines and weedbeds, and steep rocky bluffs, I can't seem to find any real good fish.  There are plenty of submerged and flooded timber lines and humps and we've targeted them all.  Jigs, C-Rigs, T-Rigs, Ikas, senkos, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits....1-2lb fish.  Needless to say this is getting to be a waste of $3 a gallon gasoline when I can go to a small pond and pull 6-8lb fish out of a $200 boat instead of a $17k Nitro.  It's annoying.

Any tips on finding deep water beasts in this Texas Summertime heat?  I've read up on the articals on this site written by a few guys (and re-read the Mike Iaconelli one 40 times) and nothing really seems to be paying off.  What do you guys do to find the big ones when the temperatures are threatening to melt your outboard down to a pile of goo?  

I haven't tried night fishing and because of my schedule, I probably won't be able to.  My fishing schedule is pretty much saturday and sunday morning from 4am to 10am and that's it    What do y'all suggest?

Fish Chris will be with you shortly.

I wish I had something magical to offer, especially since you are fishing just down the street from me.  Unfortunately, with the heat lately I have only been night fishing (except the last hour of daylight) and only fishing Belton.  We've been doing well in the dark but what little daylight I've been fishing has been slow.  

This may sound obvious but worth considering nonetheless... once the sun get up, try to find a deep point or other terrain feature off a deep bank that is still in the shade of a bluff or hill.  The last places to get sunny in the mornings and the first areas to shade in the afternoon...  those types of places have been better to me lately.  

As far as baits go, I've actually been hooking my better fish on the smallie beaver, for the past month plus.  Caught lots on the regular size but every fish over about 3lbs has been on the smallie size... and I'm fishing them in the exact same areas.

None of my friends are fishing stillhouse right now so I can't even offer 2nd hand suggestions on it.  

I hope you figure it out soon!

Well, I can tell you how to catch big smallies atleast the way it's worked best for me this year. I just throw on a glow in the dark jig with a scented plastic worm and let it sink down just to the top of the weeds and reel in slowly, i've bin catching mostly around 5lbs smallmouths with this technique i use when it's hot.

the dog days of summer are the hardest times of the whole yr. to catch BIG bass.its like hunting a needle in a haystack.they are there they just dont want to bite.here in fl. stick marsh is noted as yr. round big bass waters,and even Geoge and the other guides are having difficult days.only suggestion is keep trying and hope for the best.

fishingj,

Where are you catching "mostly around 5 lb smallmouth"?

Aint Texan,

This weekend was big bite weekend.   The moon and the storms had them biting.

Was out with about 50 guys, and we had lots of fish over 8lbs, biggest 11.02.   Night bite was good.

Stillhouse can best the best of them.    I'm a jig man on StillHouse, nice and slow.  

Can I ask what type of line you are using.    The house is always clear, some lines don't seem to work there for some reason.    Never had good bites with braid, P-line, or anything over 17 lbs test.    Throwing jigs in heavy grass(hydrilla) with light line was never a consideration, but the house brought me down to smaller lines and Big Game green 15-17 lb test made a difference in my jig fishing.

Hookem

Matt.

14lb Silver Thread pretty much exclusively, but occassionaly use stren clear.  I never go over 14lb test but never under 8lb.  Question about those jigs.  What type, size, color, and how in the heck do you fish them?  I've used brown, watermelon, pumpkin, and green pumpkin from 1/8 oz to a full oz.  I've tried booyah, stone jigs, and justice jigs in every concievable configuration with trailers ranging from chunks to senkos.  I've never caught a fish on a jig at stillhouse.  My newest experiment is a watermelon seed hula grub on a stone jig head in 3/8, but I think my location, casts, and presentation are completely wrong...ESPECIALLY on grasslines.  I'm starting to hate this lake  Thanks for any help you can give Matt.

Just keep fishin' and enjoy yourself.  8-)