Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:40a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start

Water Temp: 84.0 F

Wind: Light puffs from the S at dawn, increasing to S at 11 by trip’s end

Skies: High-pressure induced clear blue skies, very bright

Fished a half-day morning trip with David K. of Cedar Park. As I waited for his arrival I noted strong minnow feeding action on topwater as they sipped on a hatch of small insects that blanketed the surface.

After greetings, some basic instructions, and checking out his casting abilities, we headed out after some topwater action.

We slowly motored up on the NW quarter of Area 555 and spotted 2 schools of surface feeding white bass. We worked the kinks out on one of these schools by getting down casting distances, the importance of leading the schools when casting, how exactly to work the presentation, etc. Although we didn’t capitalize on this school, we did have one brief hookup, but were very ready for the next opportunity.

We didn’t have to wait long, within 10 minutes of our arrival, the surface was alive with both schools of whites and largemouth feeding on very small (~3/4 inch) shad. The activity ramped up, peaked, and then died to nothing by 7:45a. By that time David had landed 39 fish, all on the cork rig.

Next we headed to Area 191 and saw some very light topwater feeding by smallish largemouth. It was hard to tell whether this deeper water action was just getting going or tapering off, so we remained in the area as David kept casting at any boils we noticed, and I kept scanning near and far for signs of activity. We managed 3 largemouth here. Within 10 minutes or so, we noted heavy surface feeding beginning in the vicinity of Area 26 (to the NE of it) and stayed on top of these very aggressively feeding fish for over two hours. During this time we caught and released 67 largemouth bass. I was surprised given the quantity and size of the bait here (about 1 ¼ inches) that we didn’t catch a single white bass, smallmouth, or spotted bass. At around 9:55a this action died to nothing and we began to search deepwater haunts for white bass.

In about 40 minutes of searching with sonar and probing with slabs, Areas 57, 58, 59, and 171 all yielded nothing.

We made a final stop at Area 186 and the sonar lit up as I searched the breakline here.

We dropped slabs down deep here and immediately hooked up a double of white bass. We stayed on these fish for about 40 minutes catching mainly white bass, with a few drum and even fewer largemouth mixed in. We tallied 20 fish here and called it a very good day by the time these fish began to slack off.

TALLY = 129 FISH, all caught and released, except one drum that didn’t make it

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing