Shortly before the weekly Tuesday evening tournament scheduled for May 21, the 3X9 Series’ operating permit for Stillhouse Hollow Lake was revoked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers due to rising flood levels and the threatened closure of all public boat ramps.
On Tuesday, a full eight weeks later, the 3X9 series resumed, during which time Stillhouse rose as high as 15.95 feet above normal protection levels and was still just over two feet high when competitors returned to the water this week.
Perhaps the worst impact of the flooding was the damage the high, murky waters did to the thriving hydrilla crop that had been slowly spreading since the late 1990s.
It appears that the lake’s hydrilla crop was completely wiped out by the flood because the plants did not receive enough sunlight for a long period of time due to the flood.
When the series resumed, a total of 42 teams of two anglers competed. 31 of these teams managed to catch at least one fish.
The team with the highest three-fish limit on Tuesday was Donnie Mathes and Tim Rake. That limit weighed 22.12 pounds and included an 8.34-pound largemouth bass. The duo won $1,000 in prize money.
Mathes said of his win, “I went fishing with my grandson on Monday night and we found some fish and caught a 7.5-pound bass. (Tim and I) just went to that spot and never left. It’s really nice to be able to fish again. We caught fish in 12 to 25 feet of water, but it was a lot of time-consuming – it lasted about 45 minutes and we caught fish on several different baits as they were feeding.”
When asked about the hydrilla, Mathes said, “I haven’t found any hydrilla, but I’m sure some will show up somewhere.”
Second place went to Daniel and Tanner Barnes with 21.54 pounds.
Third place went to John Guerra and David Kipp with 20.17 pounds.
With the hydrilla gone, largemouth bass, a cover-loving, ambush-feeding fish, tend to congregate in large numbers on the much smaller timber and rock ledges on the lake bottom. This often results in fishing success increasing immediately after floods, but then declining again as the fish, now more easily caught, are caught and removed.
The series has returned to its Stillhouse Park location, next to the marina at the south end of Simmons Road.
If you have any questions about participating in the series, please contact Tournament Director Dean Thompson at 254-690-3474.
