Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report – 30 July 2009 – 59 Fish






I was scheduled to fish a 1/2 day morning trip on Stillhouse today with Mr. Barry C. and his 13 year old son, Hunter, of Desoto, KS. I picked them up at the Holiday Inn in Salado and we headed to the boat ramp pre-dawn, but the weather did us in. No sooner did I get the boat launched than the wind turned NW at 20+, the skies darkened and the temperature dropped. A mild thunderstorm with lightning and rain persisted through 9am and by then we agreed to postpone and try for the afternoon, but plans just didn’t work out.

The weather did clear by 1:30pm, but the boys had to head back to Kansas. Not one to be “all dressed up with nowhere to go” I just went on and fished by my lonesome.

This was actually the first time I’ve been out in over a week. I took some down time to invest in our church’s Vacation Bible School and put the boat in the shop for some scheduled maintenance at the same time.

Start Time: 2:30p

End Time: 8:30p

Air Temp: 94F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~ 84F

Wind: Winds were calm with a slight W. ripple until around 4:30, then the skies darkened and a NW wind came in with rain threatening. After that threat passed, the cool front filled in behind with NE breeze and cooling, drying air.



As I got on the water, the sky and air just had that right “feel” for topwater largemouth activity to be present somewhere. I did a good bit of running and looking with optics and finally found some strong topwater in the vicinity of Area 333. I found schooling largemouth chasing shad from 1.24 up to 3.75 inches in length here, and they were really chasing hard. Due to the grey skies, the fish were pretty easily fooled and over the next 2 hours I landed 31 fish, all on the Cork Rig, and, the best thing — never saw or heard another boat for 2 solid hours!! As they say, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

By 4:30 this action began to taper. Not 20 minutes after the last fish broke water did the NW wind began to blow in another little disturbance that threatened rain. Leary, I headed back a little closer to the boat ramp and did some more looking. I found a few small bass and some schools of juvenile whites working the surface between Area 75 and Area 135 and picked up 3 more fish here.

Once the skies began to clear following the disturbance, I headed back for some downrigging which accounted for the balance of the fish caught this trip — mainly white bass at 11 to 11.75 inches.

I contacted fish and bait at Area 217 and again at Area 471 to Area 459. I didn’t fish either area hard as I planned to bring tomorrow’s guests to these areas. At Area 459, at around 7:15 to 7:40p, I hit into a school of active, bottom hugging fish and pulled 8 nice whites out of that congregation with a blade worked lift-drop style.


TALLY = 59 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








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