Fished a half-day morning trip this morning on Stillhouse with Steve B., his son, Franklin B., and his son-in-law, Brian S. As I expected, the lake had a good bit of traffic on it today, but the conditions were pretty solid until mid-morning and we caught fish throughout the early morning window.

BRIAN S. (L), FRANKLIN B.(W/ BASS), AND STEVE B.(R) ON THEIR MEMORIAL DAY 2009 TRIP

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 12:20p

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~77F

Wind: Winds were light from the NE for the entirety of the trip.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey until approx. 10:15a. During this time, no direct sun shone on the water. At around 10:15, the cloud cover began to thin, the skies brightened, and occasional direct sun shone on the water.

Prior to sunrise, given the calm conditions, we were able to visually scan a lot of water looking for surface activity. We looked closely in the vicinity of Area 206 and Area 440 and saw nothing. We then headed to Area 429 and found lightaction spread from here up to Point 555. We managed 3 fish here.

As the fellows fished, I was glassing for more fish and spotted some spread over open water between Areas 243 and 337, then E. toward the shoreline from there. We found a mix of white bass and largemouth feeding on small shad over open water. Quick, accurate casts were essential as the calm conditions ensured the fish would not linger near the top once they snatched the baitfish they were after. We used the Cork Rig very successfully and, by 9:20 had boated exactly 16 fish with about a 50/50 mix of white bass and largemouth.

By 9:20 or so, despite the heavy cloud cover, the sun continued to brighten through the clouds and by this time, put the fish down. We still saw ample fish holding suspended and in a feeding mood at the 27 foot range and so downriggered them with both a Pet Spoon and a Lunker Licker and did equally well on both, despite the small forage size. In a short 40 minutes we caught an additional 20 fish — 17 white bass and 3 largemouth. The majority of these fish came on or near the channel break from Area 176-243.

By 10:15, this bite was waning and the fellows wanted a shot at some larger fish to finish out the day. We looked over Area 206 once again and found solid schools of white holding down around 15-18 feet, but no surface action from largemouth as I’d found here at this same time recently. We headed over to Area 433 to work it over with jigworms. On the way 2-3 largemouth broke the surface and Franklin quickly got his Cork Rig out to them and managed one keeper out of that loose school. We headed on to fish Area 433 with jigworms going up the E. side first and the W. side after that. We wound up with 2 keepers in the boat, and one additional missed at boatside on the jump. As is typical of these fish, the bite was a light pressure bite and nothing more.

We wrapped up at 12:20 with the sun finally breaking through continuously for the first time all day, and thunderstorms beginning to build to the NE near Loop 121 and to the far NW, out near Gatesville and over the Owl Creek and Cowhouse Creek areas.

TALLY = 42 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