30 JUNE 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 5:50p

End Time: 9:15p

Air Temp: 93F at trip’s start

Water Temp: 85.5F

Wind: Dead calm at trip’s start, with a light ESE breeze pushing easy at first, then building to 8-9, then calming to 2-3 by sunset.

Skies: Skies were fair and getting clearer the entire trip under the influence of clearing low pressure and approaching high pressure.

I fished solo today and visited as many of the traditional mid-lake deep water summer haunts as time and conditions allowed to see where the fish were and were not on this part of the lake.

I noted fish and bait appearing in a very stratified fashion on sonar. The fish seemed to be holding in horizontal bands. From place to place the depth of the bands would vary by a few feet, but 25 to 32 feet consistently held both fish and bait.

The past two full days have been nearly flat calm, so I was excited when not minutes after leaving my first stop (vicinity of Area 139 to 141) without a nibble, a fair ENE breeze picked up. I don’t know how the fishing was doing beforehand, but as soon as I began checking areas on sonar, the fish were there in abundance.

My next stop was at Area 190. I fished here over 34-35 feet for fish holding in a horizontal band at 26-31 feet deep. Managed 16 white bass, 1 largemouth, and 1 drum on a ¼ oz. slab before the wind began to die and the action along with it.

I moved over to Area 145 and bagged two whites from right on top of the feature here, but the fish, although appearing regularly on sonar, were acting very sluggish.

Knowing this decrease in activity wasn’t boding well for a hot evening bite, I gave into the temptation to once again break out my new 2 weight fly rod. I don’t care if they’re 2 inches or 12 inches, when a sunfish comes up and sucks in a little dry fly or some other topwater presentation, there’s something neat about that. So, I spent some time working over some sunfish and ended up with 10 bluegill, some mature, some not.

Toward sunset, I looked over 2 areas hoping to see a little spurt of topwater, but none was to be found.

I ended the trip at Area 201 an managed to miss 3 solid fish (all largemouth, no doubt) on live bait, but put the 4th in the boat – a nice 3.75 pound fatty. All 4 of these fish came off the northside seam here.


TALLY = 31 FISH, all caught and released

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