OCTOBER 2008 SUMMARY






Here’s the summary of our results for the month, and a bit about what’s happening right now on Belton and Stillhouse


30 OCTOBER 2008 = 100

27 OCTOBER 2008 = 35

20 OCTOBER 2008 (AM – Flyfishing Trip) = 8

20 OCTOBER 2008 (PM) = 77

16 OCTOBER 2008 = 82

13 OCTOBER 2008 = 58

11 OCTOBER 2008 = 50

10 OCTOBER 2008 = 62

06 OCTOBER 2008 = 58

04 OCTOBER 2008 = 45

01 OCTOBER 2008 = 26

TOTAL CATCH FOR OCTOBER 2008 = 601 FISH

AVERAGE CATCH PER TRIP = 54.6 FISH


Water Conditions: Temps fell through the 70’s this month and currently stand at around 71F. Both lakes are ~2-3 feet low and clear. With only 2 major cold fronts having pushed through so far, we have few birds to provide hints as to fish location.

Hybrid Stripers: Hybrids began showing up regularly on deep structure in 40-50 feet, and have remained consistent in shallower water in the Leon River arm. Downrigging to find them and then slabbing to catch them has proven very effective of late. Very little topwater.

White Bass: Are now predictably schooled up in large congregations and are being found in the same areas as hybrid. Slabbing is very reliable and can account for high numbers in short time spans. Very little topwater.

Largemouth: I’ve seen very little topwater action in the past 2 weeks. Large shallow rocks, shallow rock piles, rip rap, and the like are attracting black bass right now. The mid-day bite on crankbaits and rattle baits is solid. Jig and eel fishing in heavy timber on Stillhouse is getting going now.

Fall’s a great time to book a trip — cool days, less pressure, great fishing. I’m currently booking for mid- and late-November.


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








30 OCTOBER 2008






Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day morning trip with father and son Dick and Ed G. This trip was Ed’s birthday present to his now 85 year old dad, Dick. By the way, Dick is the eldest fisherman I’ve ever had the honor to have on board.

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:30am

End Time: 11:50am

Air Temp: 57F at trip’s start, warming to 80F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 69-70F

Wind: SE at 5-6 by sunrise, increasing to 16-18 by noon, and tapering back to 13-14mph by sunset and thereafter.

Skies: Skies were fair all day.

Environmental Note: We witnessed 2 large flocks of gulls lift, form into V’s and head to the N. on the S. wind just pre-sunrise. Birds were not helpful in finding fish today. We also witnessed a bald eagle soaring over the lake today on our return trip to the dock.

We were blessed with some pretty easy fishing today. We got onto the expanse of bottom bounded by Area 86 to the NW and by Area 300 to the SE, and spent 3 ½ solid hours pretty steadily catching white bass and hybrids here. We initially began downrigging to have lures in the water while looking things over with sonar and immediately got hooked up. By about our 6th fish, we noted a strong congregation of fish right off the breakline, suspended at the same depth as the high edge of the breakline here. We pulled up the lines, dropped the trolling motor, and began slabbing, smoking, and lift-dropping as long as the action stayed reliable. Once things quieted down, we’d continue looking with sonar while running downriggers, picking fish up constantly on the downriggers, until we encountered another strong congregation of fish, then we’d break out the slabs again and work those fish over. We continued in this manner until the bite tapered to nothing by about 11:40a. By this time the fellows were well-satisfied with their catch and decided to head out for a father-son meal. Our total catch to this point was exactly 70 fish, including 6 keeper hybrid and several short hybrids, and the balance consisting of whites averaging right at 11 inches.

Given that we caught all of our fish off of one area, and the fact that I have another trip coming up shortly, I decided to check out some areas with similar characteristics to see if I could find other fish. In summary, I caught 10 quick white bass at Area 297 and left them biting while the conditions were still good to attempt to find other active fish. I caught 2 drum and missed a 3rd at Area 298. And, finally, since I was so close to that magic 100 fish mark, I moved to Area 294 and fished a 90 degree arc about 50 yards to the W through S of Area 294 for a final catch of 18 fish here including 17 whites, 1 small largemouth, and 1 missed hybrid.

TALLY = 100 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








27 OCTOBER 2008






Stillhouse Fishing Report by Stillhouse Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day morning trip today with two young men from Memorial Christian Academy of Killeen today, Devon H. and Mario G.

Conditions:

Start Time: 8:00am

End Time: 11:45am

Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start, warming to 76F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 71.9F

Wind: A strong NNW wind blew in a dry cold front (our second major front of the season) from around 11p last night through this morning’s trip.

Skies: Skies were bright and clear all day.


Strong dry fronts usually bode well on Stillhouse in the Fall and today’s weather setup was no exception. We caught fish from start to finish and only needed to stop at 2 areas.

Due to the chilly conditions and wind, I opted for flatline trolling until the sun got up and warmed the air a bit for the boys. We trolled twin Bombers in 8-13 feet from Area 110 to Area 116 and to the NNE of it and put 3 largemouth bass and 3 white bass in the boat for the effort before the sun climbed and brighten to the point of pushing the fish out of shallow water.

Then, in this same vicinity, back in 16-21 feet, we gave vertical jigging a try after seeing schools of whites both suspended and on bottom. As we began hovering and studying sonar while jigging, we saw ample activity. I caught 3 white bass, Mario caught 1, but the cold air was getting to the kids and their jigging technique was less than it needed to be to do consistently well. So, we left this effort behind and began donwrigging in expanse bounded by to the S by a line from Area 109 to Area 130, and bounded to the N by a line from Area 89 to Area 106, all in16-22 feet, and picked up one fish after another, including a few doubles as the wind speed increased to over 20mph.

We noted a pair of ospreys working this area the entire time, and saw the first herring gulls of the season arrive on the north wind.

TALLY = 35 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








20 OCTOBER 2008 (AM)






Stillhouse Fishing Report by Stillhouse Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day morning trip today with father Dave B. Sr. of Missouri and son Dave B. Jr. of Waco.

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 1:15pm

Air Temp: 65F at trip’s start, warming to 76F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 74-75F

Wind: A promising SW breeze blew pre-dawn at about 8, but then, by sunrise slacked off to near calm. From then on, the breeze only puffed lightly from the SSW and never got up and sustained.

Skies: Skies were bright all day. The sun was brilliant in the morning, then toned down a bit in the afternoon due to fair skies caused by increasing humidity.

This was a tough trip today. Dave Jr. and Dave Sr. desired to fly fish. I suspected our best, and perhaps only, shot at fish on the fly was going to be around sunrise for whites, and, possibly, for schooling largemouth thereafter. So, we posted ourselves between Areas 206 and 232 and kept a sharp lookout for fish and birds. Some very light activity occurred with just 2-3 fish wolfpacks popping shad on top, and a single large school of whites showing just briefly. Within 20 minutes after sunset even this ended, and things went downhill. For the next 40 minutes nothing happened on top at all.

Fearing that the period of the morning feed was going to slip away on us as we sat and wait for diminishing chances at fish on the fly, we changed over to conventional tackle, an, over the course of the next hour managed to put a mixed bag of 8 largemouth and white bass in the boat by downrigging in 37-42 feet. Over this time, we saw occasional wolfpacks of largemouth feeding sporadically over open water, but nothing solid or sustained enough to attempt even with conventional gear.

With mid-day approaching and the wind still very light from the SW, we checked multiple other areas, but never found active fish.

We ended the trip around 1:15p and had to settle with just that handful of fish caught mid-morning on the downrigging gear. We enjoyed one another’s company at lunch at the Stillhouse Marina where we shared some fly tying techniques and where Dave Jr. showed me his first handmade bamboo fly rod. Great company and an enjoyable pair to be with, but the fish just didn’t cooperate today.

TALLY = 8 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








20 OCTOBER 2008 (PM)






Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day afternoon trip with father and son Scott and Spencer L. of Temple.

Conditions:

Start Time: 3:00p

End Time: 7:20p

Air Temp: 65F at day’s start, warming to 76F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 74-75F

Wind: A promising SW breeze blew pre-dawn at about 8, but then, by sunrise slacked off to near calm. From then on, the breeze only puffed lightly from the SSW and never got up and sustained until after noon. In the afternoon, we enjoyed a consistent S breeze at 8-9 mph, and the fish responded positively.

Skies: Skies were bright all day. The sun was brilliant in the morning, then toned down a bit in the afternoon due to fair skies caused by increasing humidity.


On the heels of a tough morning trip, thing perked up nicely this afternoon. We caught fish from start to finish, with the peak of the action coming at 4:00p to 5:00p. We fished only two areas today and found abundant gamefish and bait at both locations on sonar.

Our first stop came at Area 295. As we arrived, I put the downriggers down so we could fish and study sonar at the same time. We marked fish consistently at both breaklines at about 34 feet and at about 39 feet. Most bait appeared at the deeper break. We put on twin Pets and caught both whites and hybrids on nearly every pass. This indicated the fish were in an aggressive mood, and so we stopped over the deeper break where the bait was located and jigged and smoked slabs over these fish, and then fished our slabs in a lift-drop style (similar to a blade bait). Fish came from a 180 degree arc from E, thru N, to W of this area. These fish slowly played out by about 5:45p, so we made a move after putting 54 fish in the boat here.

Our second and final stop came at Area 171. We found white bass and hybrids here at 17-19 feet upon arrival by downrigging and put our two largest fish of the trip in the boat by this means, a 4.75 pound hybrid, and a 4.00 pound hybrid, as well as 11 smaller fish. As dusk came, the fish moved a bit shallower and got a bit more active so we changed over to throwing blade baits and picked up 8 more whites, and 2 more small hybrids this way. We headed in around 7:20p.

TALLY = 77 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








16 OCTOBER 2008






Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a full day trip today with father Bill H. of Belfalls and son David H. of Temple.

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 7:20p

Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start, warming to only 68F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 74-75F

Wind: NNW at 15+ by sunrise, increasing to 18 by midmorning, and tapering back to 10 by sunset and thereafter.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey all day with a very light sprinkle falling pre-dawn. There was dampness in the air all day. The sun was visible only during the last few minutes of sunset.

Although we managed 82 fish today, these numbers don’t tell the whole story. We fished hard all day spending a lot of time searching with sonar often not finding anything, or, finding fish but finding them very sluggish or totally inactive even to a live shad presentation. Most of our fish came in 2 short spurts of activity on this day where cold air poured in with damp skies following yesterday’s front passage.

Areas where we enjoyed success included:

Area 147 – we caught a single white bass here by downrigging prior to (obscured) sunrise and saw strong sonar returns here at the high side of the breakline, but caught nothing further either downrigging or slabbing.

Area 151 – we caught a single jumbo crappie and a single blue cat here in 40 to 50 feet. We saw strong sonar returns as well as abundant shad here, but didn’t enjoy the success that we anticipated.

Area 169 – we caught a single white bass here via downrigging, but saw little on sonar to keep up in the area

North of Area 188 – in the deep basin here we saw abundant shad and suspended gamefish relating to them in the 31-37 foot range over the 42+ foot bottom. After downrigging unsuccessfully, we took a couple drifts through this area with live shad and picked up a single white and another jumbo crappie.

Area 294 – around 11am, we ran sonar here and saw promising returns tight to bottom, but a lack of bait. We put our live shad and drifted them near bottom and almost immediately picked up 3 white bass and a short hybrid. I buoyed this area, continued drifting, and then returned to the buoy afterwards. On the drift, we picked up 2 more whites, then returned to the buoy and enjoyed about 90 minutes of solid activity using smoked slabs picking up 61 more fish including white bass of all sizes, and 3 more short hybrids. When action died around 12:30p, it died hard and stayed very sluggish until near sunset.

The only area that produced in the afternoon was in and around Area 171. We picked up a few hybrid and whites on live shad fished in conjunction with sonar over the course of the afternoon, and then found lively action post-sunset in shallower water throwing blade baits. All told, we pulled 16 fish off of this area over the span of the afternoon.


TALLY = 82 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








13 OCTOBER 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start, warming to the mid 80’s by day’s end

Water Temp: 75F

Wind: Winds were steady from the ESE at ~7 prior to sunrise, and steadily increased to 11mph by 9:30 and then stayed there the rest of the trip

Skies: Skies were heavily overcast and leaden grey through 10:30am, and then began to brighten and clear to partly cloudy by day’s end.

Fished a half day morning trip today. My first job was to net shad in advance of a Belton hybrid trip on Thursday. Shad were pretty accommodating – managed 70 in 14 throws ranging from 2 1/8 up to 5 ½ inches, all gizzards, all around Area 262. I then focused on fishing by 7:50am.

Quickly fished a couple of areas looking for active fish given that the wind had a heavy easterly component and I suspected that might really dampen the bite. Tried Area 292, 293, SE of 114 and at around 12-14 feet off 999 without so much as a swipe, then headed elsewhere

As I arrived at the expanse of water between Areas 290 and 291, a topwater feed was just getting underway. Whites ranging from 7 to 12 inches were tearing up 1.25 inch long shad throughout the water column in 6 to 12 feet of water. The Cork Rig accounted for 90% of the catch, and a white blade did the trick for the remainder during brief lulls in the topwater action, and then again after it died off. The fishing was strong from 9:15 to 10:20, and then sustained at a slower pace until about 10:50a.

TALLY = 58 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








11 OCTOBER 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time: 12:20p

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start, climbing to 87F for the day’s high

Water Temp: 75-76F

Wind: An increasingly humid ESE wind prevailed today, starting pre-dawn at 8mph, building to 12+ with higher gusts by 11a.

Skies: Were fair at dawn, with a bank of grey clouds creeping in slowly from the west. By 30 minutes after sunrise, the bank of clouds obscured the sun for over an hour, then began to break up, and the skies went partly cloudy.

I fished a solo trip today primarily to see if the Areas 160 and/or Area 209 action was going to hold up, and, if so, experiment with a few presentations to tempt the largemouth once the sun was up and they got more selective. Unfortunately, I never got the chance as there was zero topwater today – not uncommon for a day with an east wind.

As I sat closely watching the surface at Area 209, I was able to jig up 4 largemouth and a drum on a slab, but these fish were tight to bottom and were very sluggish.

I spent more time looking at sonar today than fishing, searching the lower basin area for baitfish, and found very little there.

I then searched the major breakline at Area 261, and finally located bait and gamefish consistently in 37 to 42 feet. As I began jigging over these fish, they were very sluggish, but did have a spike in activity from 10:30 to 11:30, and then went sluggish once again. I tied up a tandem rig with both a blade bait and a slab as the anchor and a Hazy Eye Shad as the teaser. This produced 5 doubles over the course of the slow period. I caught a 30/70 mix of largemouth/white bass here. All of the whites were healthy, solid fish going 11-14.5 inches, and all but one of the largemouth were short. The one keeper largemouth went 5.25 pounds. All told, 45 fish came off this area.

Around 12:30 things slowed to a crawl as the day heated up and the winds began to slacken.

TALLY = 50 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








10 OCTOBER 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:10p

Air Temp: 64F at trip’s start, warming to the mid 80’s by day’s end

Water Temp: 75F

Wind: Winds were steady from the SSE at ~7 prior to sunrise, and steadily increased to 10mph by 9:30 and then stayed there the rest of the trip

Skies: Skies were fair with high, thin clouds. The air was dry.

Fished a half day morning trip today with Chuck and Matthew S of Cedar Park, and son-in-law, Edmond, from central New Jersey.

We began the trip downrigging 19-24 feet deep out from Areas 160 & 205. We picked up only 1 white bass as we were waiting for sunrise. There was a disappointing lack of shad in the entire area.

As first light came, I was hoping for the heavy topwater feeding at and all around Area 160 to Area 205 but, by the time the sun had risen and 15 minutes or so had passed by, no topwater was apparent here, so we moved looking for topwater while the window of opportunity was still open. While waiting for things to develop, the trio put 3 small bass in the boat.

We were fortunate and did find topwater action at and around Area 209, generally about 80 yards to the north and about 120 yards to the south, and over 23-35 feet of water. The action was heaviest at the onset, slowly tapering off, but never completely ending until almost 11:15a. At first there was a 50/50 mix of white bass and black bass, but as the high thin cloud layer burned off and the sun brightened, the whites tapered out and only the largemouth remained feeding on top. Shad ~2.5 inches in length were seen skipping out of the water ahead of the gamefish. We caught fish on top on a combination of Cork Rigs, Tear Drop Rigs, and with clear Spooks, with the Cork Rig doing best, then the Spooks, then the Tear Drops. When things slowed down and the fish were only popping up here and there briefly, we downrigged with larger Pet Spoons. We kept the topwater rigs ready to go and the guys did well quickly switching over from one method to the other as the fish dictated. This whole scenario yielded 52 fish.

By 11:15, the topwater went quiet, and we vertical jigged for a bit, picking up 5 more largemouth, and a white bass over 36 feet just to the SE of Area 209. The last fish of the day came around 11:45a as we downrigged up a largemouth and a drum between Areas 41 and 196.

TALLY = 62 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








06 OCTOBER 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 8:00a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start, only warming to 76 due to heavy cloud cover and rain.

Water Temp: 74 to 75F

Wind: Winds were steady from the SE at 7-9 the entire trip

Skies: Skies were heavy grey the entire trip. Rain fell lightly from the start of the trip through about 8:30a. Light mist occurred from time to time over the entirety of the trip.

Fished a half day morning trip today and found fish at 3 distinct locations.

As first light came, heavy topwater feeding began at and all around Area 160 to Area 205. At any given time 5-6 large schools (with perhaps one hundred fish per school) could be seen pushing shad to and across the surface. When rain fell heavily, the fish sounded; when the rain let up to a mist or stopped, the fish reappeared and fed with vigor. These fish responded well to a Cork Rig presentation. I landed 33 fish through 9:10a. The fish definitely migrated from shallow to deep (WNW to ESE) as the morning progressed.

Once the topwater was over, I downrigged in the same general vicinity and into deeper water to the SE hoping to encounter these large schools of white bass on sonar in order to slab them, but they proved to be elusive. Over the next 35 minutes or so, I managed only 4 more white bass and 2 largemouth on dual downriggers, with no large schools showing on electronics.

Next, I moved from 20-30 foot waters out to 30-40 foot waters. At Area 258 I encountered abundant gamefish stacked at 36-41 feet just back from the greatest slope in this area. I stayed on fish here, both largemouth and white bass, for nearly two hours, landing a total of 19 fish, including a 4.5 pound largemouth, several 3 pound largemouth, and several white bass in excess of 15 inches. At no time did the fish become really aggressive, and the fish came one at a time. Silver slabs, white slabs, and a ¾ oz. blade used in combination, all accounted for equal numbers of fish.

Near trip’s end, I visited another similar feature in the 40 foot range, Area 249, and found the top of the feature devoid of fish, but did consistently mark gamefish on the channel side of the feature, and bait on the side of the feature opposite the channel. I just spent a few minutes here and quickly boated 2 short largemouth, with sonar revealing more of the same both on bottom and suspend in the bottom 1/3 of the water column.

TALLY = 58 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