25 SEPTEMBER 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 7:00p

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start, and 84 for the day’s high

Water Temp: 77.6 to 79.0 F

Wind: Winds were flat calm until around 9a, then light and variable with a favoring towards NE, at around 11:30 winds went NE, but very light. By 1:30 winds were NE at 8-10 with gusts to 13.

Skies: Skies were bright with a thin layer of high clouds.

Environmental Note: A thick overnight hatch of mayflies left large rafts of shed casings on the lake surface. At dusk, another hatch began and the shallows were alive with shad and sunfish feeding on these insects.


Fished a half-day morning Kids Fish, Too! trip and then fished solo for the remainder of the day.

At 7:00a I met brothers Matt and Mark C. of Kempner, and their dad, John, for a Kids Fish, Too! trip to celebrate Mark’s 8th birthday. We did a quick safety briefing, a casting/equipment familiarity assessment, and then headed to the fishing grounds. This morning’s trip was a bit tough, as the winds lay nearly calm until 1:30p – the time we wrapped up the morning excursion.

First stop at 7:20a was in the vicinity of Area 205/206. We found moderately active schooled white bass in 22-25 feet of water and downrigged for 2 hefty whites, each 13 inches; one came on a Pet Spoon, the other on the Lunker Licker.

As we were rigging up to go for another double, surface activity erupted around Area 160. We went up into the shallow water here (1.5 to 7 feet) and threw Teardrop Rigs for 12 white bass and 2 largemouth. These were 11 inch, 2 year old white bass feeding on 1 1/8 inch long shad. By 8:30 this surface action died.

We headed to Area 64 looking for topwater but found none. Shad were lacking here compared to the past 2 weeks, but we did make a quick attempt at vertical jigging and came up with 1 white bass.

We headed to north of Area 209 and downrigged the 34-40 foot breakline here and came up with another pair of white bass, but saw no shad at all – very unusual for this time of year.

Headed to Area 56 and downrigged in a NE to SW orientation in 25-33 feet with balls set at 2 feet above bottom and at 13 feet for suspended fish. We came up with an additional 12 fish here as we waited out the nearly calm conditions. We netted 12 more fish here including 4 largemouth and 8 white bass, and had 2 largemouth jump and shake loose right at boatside. Our best fish of the day came out of 22 feet of water on a large Pet Spoon. It went exactly 3.5 pounds on the certified Boga Grip.

Around 12:30, the wind finally got a definite direction and velocity, but the effects of it didn’t build in until after the trip had concluded. We managed one more vertically jigged largemouth out of 36 feet at Area 186, and then called it a good day with 33 fish landed between the two young men.

After getting the guest back to the dock, I headed back out knowing that the strengthening wind was going to have a positive effect on the fishing. I searched several areas with sonar and located strong gamefish and bait returns at Area 126. I stayed right on top of this area for 2 solid hours and caught fish the entire time. The catch here was all white bass at first, without exception. These fish were in large schools suspended just above the bottom. They aggressively swam up to meet the slab as if fell, and chased it upward as I worked it. After about an hour of catching whites, they slacked off, and the catch then became a 50/50 mix of whites and largemouth; at this time I switched over to a ¾ oz. bait to see if that would produce some larger fish. It seemed not to really make a difference. By about 3:30 the bite had tapered off to a crawl, so I switched over to a blade bait, and continued to catch fish on that. The largest fish of the day, a 5.5 pound largemouth, came on this bait. A total of 75 fish came off this area, of which 6 were crappie, 2 were drum, and 5 were largemouth over 16 inches. The rest were whites between 10-12.5 inches and smallish largemouth.

There was a definite lull between 4:30 and 5:30. I did some on-the-water neatening and cleaning until things picked up prior to sunset.

At exactly 5:20p, some light surface activity began in what was now a 10+ mph wind between Areas 88 and 158 over 18 to 30 feet of water. Small wolfpacks of small 11-14 inch largemouth were aggressively pursuing shad to surface and feeding on them on the surface. I used the trolling motor to travel from pack to pack and used the Cork Rig to close the deal on 18 blacks. I used a slightly larger hook today on the business end of the rig, and that seemed to up the hook-to-land ration by reducing shaken hooks.

By 6:45, things went quiet. I looked with sonar on a few classic sunset white bass areas, but fish were not to be found. I ended the trip at 7p.


TALLY = 126 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