Fished a 1/2 day evening “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Dr. Kenton Z. and his children, Gillian and Tor of Pittsburg, PA. The kids were down visiting during their Spring Break. On this day, we enjoyed near 80 degree temps at trip’s start, but with it, endured a wicked NW wind that really cramped our style a bit.

KENTON AND THE KIDS, GILLIAN AND TOR, TROOPERS ALL!!

A WIND-DRIVEN 5,000 ACRE BRUSHFIRE ON FT. HOOD COULD BE SEEN FROM THE LAKE OVER THE ENTIRETY OF OUR TRIP.

Start Time: 3:45p


End Time: 7:45a


Air Temp: 83F at trip’s start.


Water Surface Temp: ~61-64F

Wind: Winds cranked up to near 30mph for the first 90 minutes of the trip, then tapered off to less than 14 by trip’s end, all from the WNW.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

As we began our trip, I got to know the family a bit and learned that Gillian, age 13, had never caught a fish before, and that Tor, age 11, had only reeled in a fish someone else had hooked. I promised the kids that by trip’s end they’d both be catching fish independently, and they really seemed enthused at that prospect.

Based on the length and intensity of the morning bite (fairly strong bite, ending around 9:30a) I was hopeful we’d see a moderate pre-sunset bite this evening, and that is what we experienced. I had hoped to fill in the ‘meantime’ with some deepwater fishing in the relatively lower light conditions found there, but the very strong winds denied us access to that.

So, we sampled some mid-depth areas and struck out, and headed to the shallower waters of Area 412 by 5:30p, about an hour before I’d normally try there. We were modestly rewarded here with 8 fish … but those fish were the first these kids had ever caught on their own and they were super excited about it. Once Tor caught his first fish and realized how important correct lure presentation was, he asked me to double-check his presentation every time he dropped his slab!!

As the 6:30-7:00p timeframe came, birds began to coalesce in our vicinity, but they never grouped up tightly nor fed heavily — nor did the fish. We hopped over to Area 389 and found more fish during this time right on bottom with just a few getting active enough for a short span of time to allow us to enjoy a second spurt of activity resulting in 13 more fish coming aboard — all average white bass. We also lost 3 right at boatside — but that’s how it goes with new anglers going through the learning curve.

By 7:30 the fishing here had all but shut down and the birds had departed. We headed back towards the dock looking for birds as we went but found none.

So, the count for the day stood at 21 fish by the time the trip was through, but for two brand new fisherman in some tough, frontal, windy conditions, that was pretty darn good. Great job kids!!

TALLY = 21 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

Fished a 1/2 day evening trip with Tim S. and his fishing buddies, Steve, Jay, and Shawn. The four were taking part in a trade show at the Expo Center and made a little time to fish after getting set up.

Start Time: 2:30p


End Time: 7:55p


Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start.


Water Surface Temp: ~62-63F

Wind: Winds were variable from 5 to 12 from the SW.

Skies: Skies were fair.

I had a good feeling about today’s trip due to the hard, cold wind that had blown all day on Monday, dropping Monday’s sunrise temperature to 41F, and allowing for an overnight freeze into this morning. That, coupled with calm winds this morning added up to a 36 hour period of unfavorable feeding conditions followed by increasing temperatures, the presence of wind, and a wind direction of SSW right in time for this trip.

We began our trip vertical jigging in 24-30 feet of water at Area 417 along the breakline here. We immediately got onto fish, putting 7 white bass in the boat in no time. These fish were not tightly grouped up (scattered) and were in a neutral mode. I felt we could be doing better given the conditions so we moved.

I headed to Areas 346 through Area 301 and ran sonar over all areas in between these two areas and saw very little on sonar. I ran a downrigger to test the waters as I graphed the area, came up empty, and we soon left.

We next headed to Area 150. I found solid sonar returns showing fish holding very tightly to the bottom here. As soon as our slabs went down we started pulling fish. These were all white bass in a mix of sizes from 7 to 13 inches with a single largemouth thrown in for good measure. We caught 38 fish here hovering over a 35 foot swath of bottom.

Once this dried up, we again located fish on sonar, this time at Area 187. We encountered nearly identical results here … a size mix of white bass feeding moderately and steadily, tight to the bottom. We managed two crappie here as well, bringing our catch at this location up to 20 fish, and a total of 65 for the trip thus far. It was now 6:30p and the light level was beginning to wane a bit.

Accordingly, the bite began to soften, so we headed for brighter conditions and found ample fish under plentiful but undecided and scattered birds in both Areas 389 and 412. These fish were all 24-27 feet deep and were much more apt to be grouped together and to pursue a hooked schoolmate off the bottom, thus lending themselves to being caught in doubles and triples. When all was said and done, we’d put an additional 37 fish in the boat off of these areas including a better size distribution of white bass and a single average keeper black bass. This brought our trip total to 102 fish caught.

It is interesting to note that despite regular catches of hybrid up to this point, we did not land a single hybrid (legal or short) in this entire trip.

TALLY = 102 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

Fished a 1/2 day “Kids Fish, Too!” trip this evening on Stillhouse with Steve K. of Killeen. Steve comes from a single parent home and mom wanted him to have some “guy time”. Now, Steve is only 4 years old, and so his attention span is pretty short, so we fished in a way to cater to that fact — and I brought Rebecca as a second set of eyes, ears, and hands.

STEVIE K. WITH A NICE STILLHOUSE SPRINGTIME LARGEMOUTH

Start Time: 5:00p


End Time: 7:50pa


Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.


Water Surface Temp: ~62F

Wind: Winds were moderate at 12-15 from SSW at trip’s start and gradually tapered off to 3-4 mph by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair.

I started us out looking for some easy deepwater jigging over white bass, and found some at Area 410, but each time we caught a fish out of the fairly thick school there, we drifted off as we tried to show Steve the fish, take pictures, answer all his questions, etc. So, it was entertaining and educational for Steve, but we weren’t fishing very effectively — sometimes that okay, though. We kept a livebait rod rigged and down in this area.

We put 2 largemouth (on livebait) and 7 whites (on slab) in the boat off of this area before the school dissipated. We then searched downlake from here but didn’t find much going on. Around 6:50p we spotted a flock of terns working over a fair expanse of water with some occasionally indicating definite fish activity over Area 411. We got right on these birds (the first evening bird activity I’ve seen since January) and did real well. With all 3 of us jigging, we quickly put 26 fish in the boat in less than 40 minutes, all on TNT 180 slabs (3/8 oz.).

As sunset approached, these active fish began to move up in the water column and were still very active and catchable, but trying to explain to a 4 year old how to catch a suspended fish was just not in the cards. We left these fish biting and headed for one last stop in shallow water to check for some topwater, but found none.

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

Fished a 1/2 day “Kids Fish, Too!” trip this morning on Stillhouse with Jaylen G. of Killeen. Jaylen’s mom is being hospitalized and he needed a little time to decompress so we went out fishing.

JAYLEN WITH A SOLID FISH TAKEN ON CRANKBAIT

Start Time: 7:15a


End Time: 10:00a


Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start, and warming to only 62 in the afternoon.


Water Surface Temp: ~60F

Wind: Winds were light from the SSW until around 8:20, then shifted WNW and quickly ramped up to 35+ with higher gusts making boat control impossible.

Skies: Skies were clear blue.

The winds were barely blowing from the SSW at sunrise. We headed out to scout for birds but didn’t see much, so we then scouted with sonar.

We encountered good sonar returns tight to bottom in 21-24 feet of water at Area 108 and fished that area thoroughly fearing a light, short bite given the bright conditions.

The winds quickly ramped up from near calm to 20, then 25, then 30, then 35, until we simply could not control the boat well enough to fish any longer. By this time we’d boated 14 white bass and a fair largemouth all on TNT 180’s in 3/8 oz., and all via a standard jigging approach right on bottom.

At this point,Jaylen (who only weighs about 75 pounds) wisely decided to take cover from the wind behind the console while I packed it up and headed for shelter.

This suddenly felt more like an evacuation than a trip back to the boat ramp! The wind just kept getting stronger and stronger, and by now there was a dusty appearance to the sky that actually began to block sunlight because of all of the particulate matter the wind was carrying with it.

Well, we made it to the leeward shore and played around a little with some flatline trolling resulting in a single largemouth (albeit the best fish of the trip) off of Area 115 and a single crappie of about 11 inches from off the shoreline at Area 336.

We called it quits at that time around 10 am. When I arrived home, the NOAA radio reported 45 mph straightline winds with gusts over 50. That’s Spring fishing!!

TALLY = 16 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