31 JANUARY 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a tough half day morning trip today from 6:45a to 12:00 noon. At launch time the air temp was 53 F and the water surface temp was 50.3F. The winds were light from the west at 6-7 mph.

First order of business was to quickly net some shad. Came up with 2 dozen in about 8 throws and were off to fish before sunup.

With a strong, windy, dry cold front forecast to arrive, our window of opportunity was going to be limited, so I headed where I anticipated fish to show up instead of waiting for signs of fish already present, and the educated guess was good.

Put 3 fish in the boat using slabs (including two beefy white bass and a 3.25 pound largemouth) before the birds started working in the Area 54/102 complex.

Once the sun cleared the cloud bank to the east which yielded the thunderstorms of the past night, the birds started working on the shad pushed to the top by gamefish. Both gulls and terns worked for about 2 hours, but their activity mimicked the fish activity in that they were widely scattered and moving.

Sonar revealed a lot of fish in this area, but the fish were in small, tight schools, some on bottom, some suspended, and none shallower than 16 feet.

Over the two hours that the birds worked, the wind continued to rachet up. During this window we put 16 fish in the boat, all of which were very healthy 12-14 inch white bass. These were taken on slabs, primarily off bottom in 23-34 feet, with occasional suspended fish seen on sonar also taken.

Around 10a, the action started to slow and the wind speeds continued to increase, and were now beyond 20 mph.

I anchored up over a small high spot and put downlines in with shad. I used all my small threadfins first and they got hit well, accounting for 3 more white bass. Once I had to use the larger gizzard shad, we got fewer hits and missed 50% of the hits we got. Over a 75 minutes span, we only added 2 more fish to the count using the gizzards.

By noon, we continued to see fish on sonar, both on bottom and suspended, but these fish were shut down and would not respond to bait or slabs.

We returned to the dock at noon, feeling rather windblown, but glad we had stuck it out in tough conditions for the 2 dozen fish that came over the side.

By 12:30, the National Weather Service reported 29 mph winds gusting to 41. We picked a good time to scoot!

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








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