We fished a full day trip today with Glenn W. and Kevin M. of Buchanan Dam, TX. These fellows are bass tournament partners and desired to gain confidence in deepwater fishing and the use of electronics prior to their forthcoming Fishers of Men tournament at the end of the month. Prior to this trip the pair had attempted fishing Stillhouse twice with poor results.

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time: 4:30p


Air Temp: 34F at sunrise (obscured by clouds), rising only to 43F by mid afternoon.


Wind: Winds were ENE at 10-12 until 10a, and then died off to near calm by 11:30, but then picked up again at ~8 mph from the E for the remainder of the day

Skies: Skies were cloudy and grey all day with few breaks. The direct sun shone for only minutes all day.

We planned to fish a bit of shallow wood cover early on and then spend the majority of the day in deep, clear water. Our shallow water results were nil, with only one good hookup by Glenn on a jig and pig resulting in a lost fish. We fished Areas 318, 317, and the bend at 262, with Area 317 giving up the one lost largemouth.

We headed onto the main lake before 9am and began to sight small groups of terns working over open water. We enjoyed success at 3 distinct locations, including Areas 340, 341, and 69. These areas held white bass with occasional largemouth, drum, and crappie in the mix. As fate would have it, despite catching largemouth regularly mixed in with white bass all through the cold months leading up to this trip, today we boated 22 fish before landing our first largemouth, which was atypical.

By the time we broke for lunch around 1pm, we’d taken 53 fish from these areas.

After lunch, we attempted some Carolina rigging at Areas 343 and 888. We didn’t catch any fish via this approach — I suspect that these shallower areas hadn’t warmed enough to draw fish up into the mid-depths, as no shad were seen flicking, no birds were working over these areas, and no herons were wading in these areas.

We returned to deepwater fishing and hit two areas, Area 342 and 131. By trip’s end we’d boated 77 fish, 6 of which were largemouth bass, and 4 of which were of keeper size. This black to white ratio was a little lower than typically experienced over the past weeks, but these friends left the water confident that they could make a go of it on tournament day, and confident they could catch fish in deepwater, aided by sonar.

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