Scattered & Suspended — 24 Fish, Stillhouse, 13 June 2015

 This morning I fished with 3 fellows who were all buddies from their high school days — brothers Jordan and Luke Miller, and Dave Garrell.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Friends since school days — from left, Jordan Miller, Luke Miller, and David Garrell shared a morning on the water in pursuit of Stillhouse Hollow white bass.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Jordan with an unusually large bluegill for Stillhouse Hollow, and the largest he had ever landed in a lifetime of fishing.  This big boy measured 8.50 inches and slammed a downrigged Pet Spoon.

As Jordan called to schedule this morning’s trip, I tried to shoot him as straight as I could, being clear that the fishing is very tough thanks to scattered, suspended fish which have been put off of their normal early summer habits due to the recent flooding and ongoing release of water from the dam on Stillhouse.  He appreciated the candor and was looking forward to the trip regardless of the slow fishing.

We met up at 6:45am (a bit later than normal due to the forecast for heavy overcast conditions) and launched out in search of fish.  I first found abundant bait in the upper 15 feet of the water column in the vicinity of Area 1184-175, mixed with the occasional gamefish signature.  With no topwater action showing whatsoever, and what gamefish we were seeing being both scattered and suspended, we went directly to a downrigging approach and, in the first 70 minutes of the trip, boated 12 white bass and 1 largemouth. we were using umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.

We then experienced a bit of a lull, which was broken when the sun began to shine through the diminishing cloud cover as we arrived at and began to fish deeper, at around 24-28 feet over a 35-45 foot bottom in the vicinity of Area 1440-1436.  We added another half-dozen fish to the count at this location before having to head back to drop Dave off for his 4 year old daughter’s dance recital, complete with a daddy-daughter dance.

Jordan, Luke, and I then headed back out and once again located more scattered, suspended fish in the vicinity of Area 124.  We added a freshwater drum, a bull bluegill sunfish, and 4 more white bass to our count before calling it a day at the 5 hour mark, around 11:45am.

I am very hopeful that this coming week’s forecast closure of the floodgates on Stillhouse will bring on much improvement in the fishery.

 

TALLY = 24 FISH, all caught and released

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time:  8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  76F

Water Surface Temp:  84F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-12

Sky Conditions:  80%  cloud cover with light drizzle in the first hour’

Note: Stillhouse is at 622.49 and dropping

Other: GT=70

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

**Area 1184-175

**Area 1440-1436

**Area 124

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Fort Hood SKIES Program Fishing Trip — 23 Fish with Evan & Johnny

This morning I fished with 10-year-old Evan Darsam and his brother, 8-year-old Johnny Darsam, of Ft. Hood.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This big channel catfish required a little brotherly teamwork to get in the boat.  Great job Evan and Johnny!!

Evan and Johnny are the eldest two sons of U.S. Army Specialist Mattew Darsam and his wife, Jennifer.  The boys woke up at 5am this morning and met me at 6:15am for a 6:30 trip start time on Stillhouse Hollow.  We waved goodbye to mom and little brother and got right down to business with a brief talk about safety and then a short introduction to the equipment we’d be using today.

While the boys were stationed at Ft. Stewart, GA, they fished unsuccessfully on the Savannah River, so, we had a pair of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department “First Fish Awards” at stake today.  The boys had also never been in a boat before.

To allow for some instant gratification, I chose to pursue sunfish with bream poles to start off our morning.  This turned out to be a great choice as the boys really liked it and stayed engaged in pursuing sunfish for about 2 1/2 hours, which was longer than I thought that would keep their attention.  Indeed, Johnny caught his first fish, a blacktail shiner, and Even caught his first fish, a bluegill sunfish, within 15 minutes of being on the water. Both went on to catch several more bluegill sunfish and green sunfish.

After the novelty of sunfishing wore off, we set out in pursuit of larger quarry — the white bass.  For this hunt, we used umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons on downrigging gear to present these small baits at between 27 and 31 feet down where we found these fish suspended and scattered using sonar equipment.

Johnny’s rod was lucky and he wound up catching a white bass first, but, not to be outdone by his little brother, Evan bounced right back and landed a double — two fish on one rod at the same time.  Somewhere in there the boys also landed our largest fish of the trip, a nice 3.5 pound channel cat.

This fishing trip was conducted as part of the Ft. Hood SKIES Program.  SKIES stands for Schools of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration, and Skills and falls under the larger banner of the Army’s Children, Youth, and Students Services (CYSS).  It took a good bit of work to become qualified to conduct such trips, including a lengthy background investigation, providing proof of liability insurance, and going to CPR, First Aid, and Child Abuse Awareness classes, etc., but now with all that behind me, I’m looking forward to focusing on the fishing.

 

TALLY = 23 FISH, all caught and released

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time:  10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  77F

Water Surface Temp:  84F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW9-13

Sky Conditions:  80%  cloud cover.

Note: Lake has dropped 0.14 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 622.49 above sea level, with 622.00 being full pool.  Gates expected to shut early/mid next week

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

**Area 1258

**Area 200

**Area 1440

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Make It Happen, Cap’n!! — 28 Fish, Stillhouse, 11 June 2015

This morning I fished a father-and-son trip with Mr. Joey Rogers and his son, Coleman, on Stillhouse Hollow in pursuit of white bass.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Under tough, rapidly falling water conditions, Joey and Coleman Rogers were able to downrig a nice catch of 28 white bass on Stillhouse this morning.

 Coleman was given a fishing gift certificate by his mom this past Christmas and decided to cash it in in conjunction with his dad’s visit to central Texas from Utah, where he works and resides.  Coleman, who has fished with me a few times since he was in middle school, just graduated from high school and has his sights set on attending Colorado University to study computer science.
Fishing continues to be tough as the Corps of Engineers continues to let water out of the reservoir working to get it back to full pool after recent minor flooding.  In a recent conversation with USACE Lake Manager Ronnie Bruggman, the Corps expects to shut the gates sometime next week, barring anymore rain.
Fish are scattered and suspended, hence, we fished the entire trip with downriggers set from 25 to 32 feet deep with umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoon behind the downrigger balls to land every last fish we landed this morning.
The first hour of the day was very slow under bright, near-calm conditions.  As the breeze and cloud cover increased, the bite escalated right along with it.  Our peak period of success came from 9a to 10a, when we took our tally from just 6 fish up to 24 fish.  The last hour of downrigging kicked in just four more fish as the morning bite tapered off.
One nice thing about downrigging is that for those who prefer to make their fishing trip more social, this technique allows for that.  Coleman definitely coveted this time with his dad, and we all got to chip in some good fishing stories.  I believe Joey’s took the cake — he described how two “city slicker” with a big, fast ski boat plopped their boat in the water inside the no-wake zone and, once the tow vehicle driver returned to the boat, prepared to water ski.  The driver tossed a ski rope to his buddy who was now in the water with skis, and shouted to him, “Ski King, are you ready?!?”.   The skier shouted back, “Make it happen, Cap’n!!!”, at which time the driver gunned it and pulled the skier up on plane.  Moments later the game wardens patroliing the no-wake zone pulled King and Cap’n over to issue citations!!
By the end of our trip we’d put together a catch of exactly 28 white bass and had a lot of fun doing it.  I even got a good recommendation on a BBQ joint down in Austin!

 

TALLY = 28 FISH, all caught and released

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  11:20a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  84F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW2 until 9am, then increasing swiftly to SSW13

Sky Conditions:  30%  cloud cover.

Note: Lake has dropped 0.13 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 622.59 above sea level, with 622.00 being full pool.  Gates expected to shut early/mid next week

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

**Area 650-858

**Area 208-454

**Area 1569-458

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

First Fish Triple-Header — 18 Fish, Paton Family

Last week I got a call from Tony Paton of McKinney, TX.  He and his wife and family were planning a bit of vacation time at a cabin near Lake Georgetown and asked if I could take them on a guided trip during their stay.  Due to recent flooding on Georgetown, and subsequent, ongoing release of water there, my preference was to bring them to Stillhouse, which they agreed to.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

As the sun began to set and the afternoon heat let up, the white bass began to feed, allowing all the kids to cash in on some fish larger than the sunfish we started out with.  From left front, Sarah, Sam, and James; Cathryn standing behind.

As our big adventure began, mom (Cathryn) and the 3 kids actually made the trip, with Cathryn chaperoning and Sarah (age 10), James (a twin, age 10), and Sam (age 11) intending to do all of the fishing.

The kids had never landed a fish before in their lives, so, that was challenge #1.  We started with the basics, using bream poles and bait to land everyone their first fish — a sunfish — and then we progressed on from there.

Since this was an afternoon trip, many of the quiet places where sunfish like to roam were also pretty windless and hot, so, once we got the First Fish Award requirements nailed down, we headed out to open water and spent the remainder of our time in pursuit of the scattered, suspended white bass that have made up the majority of the catch on recent trips since the flooding.

When all was said and done we were able to land not only a number of white bass, but a freshwater drum and a largemouth bass, as well.  The kids enjoyed seeing and learning about the variety of species in the lake and their habits.

 

 

TALLY = 18 FISH, all caught and released

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time:  8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  91F

Water Surface Temp:  85F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE6-8

Sky Conditions:  20%  cloud cover.

Note: Lake is still dropping .2 to .3 feet per day.  Gates expected to shut early/mid next week

Other: GT=15

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

**Area 189

**Area 1436-458

**Area 208-454

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Fishing After the Flood — 28 Fish, SKIFF Trip #2015-5

This morning I conducted the fifth SKIFF trip of the 2015 season, treating Parker Smith, age 12, a soon-to-be 7th grader, to a free fishing trip on Stillhouse Hollow while his dad, U.S. Army Major Jeff Smith, is deployed to Afghanistan.  Also joining us this morning for a “Kids Fish, Too!” program trip was Kaden Lehrman, the most skilled elementary-aged angler I’ve ever had the pleasure of fishing with on my boat.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

From left: Kaden Lehrman and Parker Smith with a pair of white bass taken on Pet Spoons fished on umbrella rigs with Cannon downriggers down about 24 feet over a 40+ foot bottom.

Kaden’s mom, Michelle Mikeska, arrived first, allowing us to catch up a bit since the last time I fished with Kaden back on 22 Dec. 2014.  For the past few years Kaden has gone to summertime fishing camps in Texas and Louisiana, focusing on both fresh and saltwater fishing.  This year, he’s expanding his horizons even further, heading to the East Coast near Boston to fish for lobster, cod, and tuna, and do some whale watching beginning this weekend.
Parker’s mom, Jennifer, arrived shortly thereafter.  Her husband is the commander of the 555th Forward Surgical Team currently stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan.  He been deployed about a year now, but will return to Ft. Hood soon, after which the family is looking at a permanent change of station (PCS) move to another post.
Fishing has been tough lately thanks to the recent flooding that occurred, bringing much needed water to central Texas, but also bringing a great amount of environmental change very suddenly.  Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir rose a total of 16 feet to over 3 feet above full pool level, then, as the Corps of Engineers began to lower the lake back to full pool, we saw a discharge rate of 2,400 to 2,700 cubic feet per second of water going through the dam, thus lowering the lake 0.2 to 0.3 feet per day for the past several days.  The flood water was initially turbid with debris, but is now clearing (yet another change!).  As I observed the fishing situation for trends, there seems to be none right now, and other local anglers I’ve spoke with report the same thing for species other than the white bass I am targeting.  Eventually we’ll settle into a summer pattern – most likely beginning when the floodgates shut in a few more days.
 We worked today, using a variety of tactics to boat the 28 fish we caught.  We used poles with slipfloats to catch smaller fish up shallow (Areas 239 & 1098), we used downriggers to catch scattered, suspended white bass (Areas 1265 and 866 – 1253), and we tried unsuccessfully to bag a few largemouth off of deep hydrilla beds towards the end of our trip.
The two boys got along wonderfully and helped each other out the entire time.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service, thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

 

TALLY = 28 FISH, all caught and released

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  10:40a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  82-83F

Wind Speed & Direction: WSW4-7

Sky Conditions:  10%  cloud cover.

Note: Lake has dropped 0.29 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 622.85 above sea level, with 622.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 15

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

**Area 239

**Area 1098

**Area 1265

**866-1253

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

And the “First Fish” Award Goes to … Logen! — 19 Fish, Stillhouse, 06 June 2015

This morning I fished with Lance Lee and his 6-year-old daughter, Logen, of Hobbs, New Mexico.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Logen with the first fish of her life  — a fish that earned her a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish” Award.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Not to be outdone, Lance landed a few nice white bass of his own this morning.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Logen landed our largest fish of the trip — this 2.25 pound largemouth caught over top of a deep hydrilla bed.   She was not as excited about touching it as she was catching it!

Lee is an acupuncturist who was visiting the Salado area to enjoy some downtime with his family and participate in some martial arts training.  We spoke by phone about 2 weeks ago to arrange for this trip.  I could tell he was very excited about the prospect of his daughter catching fish.

This was Logen’s very first fishing trip ever, so, with that, and her age considered, I planned to use a variety of tactics, each for a short while, to try to give her a broad exposure to fishing and ensure success.

We left the ramp at 6:35am, and, by 6:48 Logen was reeling in the first fish of her life — a cooperative white bass that hit our bladebait thrown into some light topwater action generated by white bass feeding on young of the year shad on the surface.  This area, Area 1234-160, would go on to produce a number of strikes but only one more landed fish over the first 50 minutes of the trip.

Next, with a bright sun on a cloudless sky and near windless conditions, we headed deep.  The first area we probed revealed fish on sonar, but they were unwilling to strike.  The second area we checked with downriggers, Area 453, gave up a total of 11 white bass on downriggers set at both 33 feet and 21 feet trailing Pet Spoons on tandem and umbrella rigs.  We were scoring consistently here and could have had continued success here, but, the novelty of downrigging had worn off for Logen and so it was time for a transition.

We headed shallow to Area 1256 and targeted sunfish in the newly submerged terrestrial vegetation found there.  We made quick work of putting 5 sunfish in the boat on slipfloat rigs and, with about an hour left in the trip and the sun getting hotter, headed out to employ our final technique.

We put 4 rods out over a deep hydrilla bed using live bait to target largemouth bass.  I suspended our baits ~ 3 feet over the top of the deep hydrilla topping out at ~21 feet beneath the surface.  In the vicinity of Area 062-1394 we got 3 “visits” resulting in 1 largemouth hooked and landed — a nice 2.25 pound fish and our largest fish of the morning.

As we waited on the live bait to work its magic, we polished off the snacks, snapped photos of the fish we’d set aside in the livewell for that purpose, and then released all of the fish on the boat.  By the time the temperature reached its highpoint and beads of sweat were gathering on Logen’s forehead, her body language let us know she’d reached her limit.  We called it a good day right then and there and enjoyed the breeze generated by the boatride back to the launch site.

TALLY =  19 Fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 5 sunfish, and 13 white bass  — all caught and released
GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp: 81F

Wind Speed & Direction: S3 mph, decreasing to calm by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Fair, cloudless skies

Other: GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1234 – 160 – two on topwater

**Area 453 – thirteen whites on downriggers

**Area 1256 – five sunfish

**Area 062-1394 – one largemouth

 

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

Back in the Saddle Again – 39 Fish, Stillhouse, 04 June 2015

This morning I fished with Mr. Steven Crawford of Beaumont, TX, and his son, Hunter Crawford, who is a student at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, TX.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

From left: Steven Crawford and Hunter Crawford with a few of our nicer fish taken in 38 feet of water with vertical tactics.

This was the first trip I’ve conducted with clients aboard since the heavy rains and flooding ceased late last week.  The rains brought Stillhouse from over 13 feet low to just over 3 feet above full pool.  The rains also brought a lot of silt and floating debris into the lake, as well.  The Corps of Engineers is slowly releasing water from Stillhouse now.  Belton, on the other hand, is now over 13 feet high after being over 13 feet low, and no water is being released due to construction work being done in the tailrace area below the dam, which began before all of the rainfall.

In advance of this trip I fished a scouting trip on Tuesday evening and found fish at 3 distinct areas.  I fished just until I hooked and landed one fish at each area so I could spend a maximum amount of time covering more water to locate additional productive areas.

This scouting paid off, as a majority of the fish we caught today were caught at two of the three areas I scouted, with one other area I did not scout contributing 4 fish to our total of 39.

Our first success came between Areas 1234 and 160.  We found small pods of white bass surface feeding on young of the year shad and were able to dupe them with accurately cast Cicada bladebaits.  We boated 4 fish, although the potential was there for a greater catch.

Our most productive area today was in the vicinity of Area 453 in approximately 37 feet of water.  I initially approached this area with twin downriggers set with a tandem rig and a 3-armed umbrella rig, both equipped with Pet Spoons.  As we moved over this area, I saw aggressive white bass launch off bottom and pursue the downrigger ball.  As soon as our baits trailed through, both Steve and Hunter hooked up.  As soon as we caught and released those fish, we maneuvered back over that area, Spot Locked on top of these fish with the Minn Kota Ulterra and fished them vertically with both Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs slabs and Cicadas.  We landed a total of 29 fish in this area before the bite died.

The last area we hit called for a straightforward downrigging approach in deep, open water.  We encountered small groups of 2-6 fish on a routine basis from Area 859 to Area 1253 and from Area 041 to Area 258.  For every 5-6 groups we passed over, we could draw 1 or 2 strikes.  I feel this area would have fished better during the 8:30 to 9:45 peak time, but, we got on it as the bite was tailing off and took only 6 fish off this area.

TALLY =  39 Fish, including 1 largemouth bass and 38 white bass  — all caught and released
GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 10:20a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 71F

Water Surface Temp: 78-81F

Wind Speed & Direction: S3-5mph

Sky Conditions: Fair, cloudless skies

Other: GT = 50

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1234 – 160 – four on topwater

**Area 453 – twenty-nine on slabs and blades

**Area Area 859 to Area 1253 and from Area 041 to Area 258 – six fish downrigging deep

 

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)