21 AUGUST 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start, and into the mid 90’s for the day’s high

Water Temp: 83.4F

Wind: Light and variable from SE at 4-8

Skies: Early morning clear skies began to cloud to the point of thunderstorms by noon, lasting into the mid-afternoon.

Fished a Kids Fish, Too! morning trip this morning with 8-year old Andrew N., his 15 year old sister Elizabeth, and their mom and dad. As we met at dockside, I assessed both kids’ casting abilities, and then we got out on the water. Neither child had fished seriously before, so we were essentially starting from scratch. The low pressure system that brought some rain earlier in the week has moved to the east, but still was bringing much moisture into the area, resulting in the rain in the afternoon.

I took a few sonar sweeps of Area 206 that’s been productive of late, and there was not nearly the amount of bait nor gamefish that I’d seen in the recent past. Nonetheless, I stayed there until the light level was about right for any surface activity that may have taken place to begin, but saw none.

I began glassing over open water and saw surface feeding largemouth beneath terns in the vicinity of Areas 62 and 71. We arrived to find well-dispersed wolfpacks of largemouth bass pushing shad to the surface. This was excellent activity, but a bit frustrating, as it required accurate and often long casts, which the kids were just not capable of. We managed 3 fish in about an hour’s time, and then went with a downrigging approach to avoid unsuccessfully fishing through this window of activity due to lack of casting skill.

In this same general area, and then transitioning slowly to the NW over to Area 217, we successfully downrigged for a nice mixed bag of white bass of all sizes, a few largemouth, and 3 freshwater drum. By 10:15 we’d put together a good catch of 21 more fish, and the kids really took to setting the downrigger balls, retrieving the weights, etc. and enjoyed participating in that.

Right at the very last part of the trip, a large school of white bass began to surface feed off of Area 222. Despite the kids’ limited casting abilities, these whites were dense enough and aggressive enough for us to give it a try. We moved into these fish with the trolling motor and in the next 45 minutes or so, each child was able to cast to, retrieve through, hook, and land several of their own fish without assistance. We managed 5 white bass this way and then called it a day once that school sounded.

We headed back to the dock and I bid them farewell, then I headed back out to the Area 62/71 action and managed to find some of those largemouth wolfpack still forcing shad to the top. Long, accurate casts on the cork rig accounted for 10 more fish, all largemouth from ¾ to 2.75 pounds.

I closed out the trip catching a mix of exactly 20 sunfish in case they were needed as bait for an upcoming trip. I spent less than 25 minutes with my bream pole at Area 239 and got a mix of sunfish, longear, and redears. In noted some spawning activity still going on in this area.

TALLY = 59 fish, with all gamefish 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