Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report – 03 October 2009 – 24 Fish






I fished a morning trip today with 4 long-time buddies from Houston. Richard E. and Al A. joined me in my boat, and Bill P. and Dave F. join my friend Henry N. in his boat. Henry and his crew went on to target strictly largemouth whereas my boat was primarily after white bass and whatever leviathans we could lure with live shad. I knew Al was really looking forward to this trip as he planned it nearly 3 months in advance, so, in preparation for the trip I fished the previous Thursday just as I intended to fish with he and Richard. That paid off to a degree as we were able to get right on fish this morning even though the weather threw us yet another curve ball.

IT WAS RICHARD’S DAY TO SHINE. AL CALLED IT BEGINNER’S LUCK — This was the 5.33 pound fat girl.

Best buddies & 1/6th of the Dirty Dozen — Al (with 3.00 pound bass) and Richard

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 65F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~77.6F

Wind: Winds were very light from the ESE at 6-8 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were mostly cloudy as sunrise and only get heavier and lower over the length of the trip to the point of sprinkling during the last hour on the water.

We found fish at 2 locations today. Our first stop came pre-dawn at Area 407. We fancast and jigged bladebaits here in 8 to 17 feet of water and began to pick fish up right before sunrise. The fish never really turned on hard, but, stayed moderately consistent for about 2 hours, over which time we landed 22 fish including a 2.75 pound largemouth, a 5.33 pound largemouth, another just-keeper largemouth, and 1 keeper white. The remainder of the fish were short whites of various lengths. We also lost 3 other fish, all at boatside, including 1 short largemouth and 2 short white bass.

After this area played out, we headed to Area 120 and setup on a downwind drift with live shad. As we drifted, I could see multiple schools of small whites working the surface consuming shad. As we neared the end of our drift on the W. side of this feature the rod with the largest ~5.5 inch shad on it went down. Richard boated a nice 3.00 pound largemouth. Due to the fact that we only had one strike on that whole drift and the fact that the whites were up and active, I tried a downrigging pass in the area. We came up with what I suspected we would, a very small white. When these are present, you always run the risk of towing a fish without realizing it, so, we left the downrigging alone and rigged up to sight cast to these fish. Richard got into a just-legal largemouth but lost it right at boatside, then, we never really saw much more in the way of topwater as the skies began to significantly darken and the winds came more easterly. We cranked up and continued the hunt.

We searched Areas 186, 70-71, 444, and 480, all without success.

As the weather continued to deteriorate, we set up on 2 final drifts with shad over Areas 57 and 59. Area 59 yielded one missed strike, again, on the largest bait we had on the 3 downlines — this one a ~5″ shad.

By 11:40 we decided to call it a day as the boys had a 1:00p tee time in Salado!

TALLY = 24 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