05 JULY 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 71F

Water Temp: 84.6

Wind: Dead calm at trip’s start, with a variable SW breeze of 7 to 11mph steadily building through the morning

Skies: Skies were mostly clear under the influence of strong high pressure. Perhaps 10% white billowy clouds.

I fished a half day morning trip this morning with Charlotte M., a very nice lady and school nurse from northern Kentucky visiting relatives for the summer. Charlotte wasn’t picky about species so we used a combination of techniques to expose her to different means of catching fish this time of year, and targeted several species.

We first stopped at Area 555 before dawn and thus before the surface activity began. We fancast this area with bladebaits and came up with 1 largemouth and 1 drum. By sunrise we found ourselves in the middle of ample surface activity, but as has been the case lately, most all fish here were short. We used the cork rig to put 12 topwater fish in the boat by 8:00am.

We next headed just to the SW of Area 56 after spotting some light surface activity here. We started off slabbing because the chop on the water and the glare made spotting surface activity very difficult. We caught 2 largemouth, 1 white bass, 1 crappie, and 1 sunfish. We used the sunfish for bait and immediately took a 2.75 pound largemouth on it. We never found solid schools of suspended or bottom oriented white bass or largemouth here as I had hoped for and so we moved on.

We headed to the slope between Areas 176 and 187 and saw ample bait, but that bait was blanketing the bottom and not in balls or schools, indicating that they were not feeling threatened by predator fish. We slabbed for a while and managed 1 largemouth, 2 crappie, 1 sunfish, and 1 white bass, but, again, no schools of fish.

We then headed to Area 202 and fished the 25 foot knob here. Things really started to pick up as the wind hit it’s greatest velocity of the morning and this area took a direct hit from the wind. We caught 31 fish here including 1 crappie, 3 largemouth, and 27 white bass, all about 11 inches in length. We caught these fish right up on the top of the knob and to the SW down into 34 feet of water, on the windward side of the feature. This action eventually tapered off and we moved.

Our last stop of the day came at just to the ESE of Area 149 in 35-41 feet of water. Sonar showed fish strung in a horizontal band at 32 to 35 feet deep. We smoked slabs through these white bass and quickly added a dozen fish to the count, bringing the tally up to 67. This band dispersed and we went looking for more.

We again encountered fish, this time tight to the bottom, in about 27 feet of water at just S of Area 34. We again used slabs and managed 3 whites and 6 drum. As soon as we hit the drum, I knew the big feed was just about over, and, sure enough, the fishing didn’t last another 20 minutes before they were done for the morning.

Charlotte was a joy to fish with – and enjoyed the variety we put into the morning from fishing with bladebaits to topwater to tightlining with bait to slabbing.

TALLY = 76 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








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