07 FEBRURARY 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Killeen Area Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Caught the frontal activity just right today and had a great day with exactly 70 fish landed.

Fished a half-day morning trip from 6:45 to 11:45am. At launch time the air temp was 41 and the water surface temp was 52. There was a light SW breeze at 5-6, the skies were clear and bright.

I thoroughly checked out the uplake areas near the long bridge and the Cedar Gap launch and, surprisingly little is going on there. Don’t know if it is the lack of rain causing a lack of current to draw fish up there or the fact that the water never really got cold, but they just aren’t there and should be.

Nonetheless, headed down lake and continued to find fish and birds in the 54/102 complex. Stayed in the area the entire time today and found fish shallower (19-25 feet) early on, then transitioned out to active fish in deeper (30-39 feet) water as the morning progressed. Birds were somewhat helpful in getting to deeper areas at the right time.

While the wind remained SW and light, the bite was pretty slow and shallow through about 9:45 am with 18 fish landed. As soon as that wind stopped and immediately went strong out of the NW at 15-20, the bite went deep and strong, and the tally surged to 70 fish by 11:00. At that time the winds let up and the bite immediately died off.

All fish were caught with a vertically jigged slab today. Just a straightforward lift and drop did the trick – no short-hops, no deadstick, nothing fancy.

Caught good quality fish today including several 14-15 inch white bass of the 59 brought on board (in fact, only 12 whites were short), and also caught 5 drum, 1 fourteen inch crappie, and 5 largemouth. A 7.5 pound black anchored the string.

If you have been thinking about taking a trip to learn how to fish a slab or simply to get out on Stillhouse , don’t wait long — this pre-spawn stage is a high number AND high quality game that won’t last long.

Tally = 70 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








05 FEBRUARY 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Killeen Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day morning trip today from 6:45am to 10am. At launch time the air temp was 62F and the water surface temp was 54F. Winds were 7-8 from the south.

At first light I netted a few shad (threadfins and gizzards) and then headed out to look for birds. At sunrise, what has become fairly predictable gull and tern activity redeveloped at and around Area 89. I stayed here for the duration of the trip and caught a mixed bag on slabs and live shad.

The catch consisted of a 20/80 mix of short/legal white bass with 3 of 38 exceeding 15 inches. The balance of the catch consisted of 2 drum, 1 sunfish, 1 crappie, and 6 largemouth bass (3 short, 3 legal with the largest at 3.25 pounds).

Of these 48 fish, only 5 came on live shad. The rest came on a slab fished both on bottom and through suspended fish.

Tally = 48 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








04 FEBRUARY 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Fort Hood Area Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a short trip this evening to keep in touch with fish activity. Launched at 4pm and returned at 7pm. Air temperature was 68F and water surface temperature was 52F. The winds were SSE at 14, slowly tapering to 7 at dusk.

There was already some moderate bird activity taking place from both gulls and terns as I got on the water. I watched the birds carefully and spotted promising behavior from several gulls.

I slowly motored in and around this area (Area 105) and found both suspended fish and fish holding tight to the bottom. I dropped a slab down and worked for a few minutes to figure out what the fish wanted and then did well on both the bottom oriented fish and the suspended fish, although the suspended fish were much more picky.

I caught 15 solid white bass, all 12-14 inches, one fat 16 inch white bass, one dink white bass, and a barely keeper largemouth at this first location in 19-21 feet of water.

After things tapered off here I moved ~ 100 yards to the east to get under some fresh bird activity. Didn’t find much going on here, but did have two missed hookups on a horizontal bladebait presentation.

Moved one final time to the last visible location of bird activity and found a mixed bag of fish in 21-22 feet of water. Caught 4 good 13 inch whites here from suspended schools, as well as 2 small largemouth, 3 crappie, and a drum. Interesting to note that this is the first time crappie have shown up as a by-catch since the fall.

Tally = 28 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








02 FEBRUARY 2008






Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Had some downtime this afternoon and so took a leisurely afternoon trip just by myself today. Since I wasn’t on a customer’s schedule, I waited on some wind before heading out.

A light breeze began to push from the SSE around 2:30p, so I headed out and was on the water by 2:55p. The breeze slowly built up to ~12mph SSE at most, but it was enough to get the fish going.

I made a quick stop at a mid-lake hump I hadn’t fished in a while. No shad were showing, but I graphed a few fish, so I gave it a try and came up with a 15 inch largemouth on the first drop of the slab. That was all that area had to offer, so I moved on.

I hit another midlake feature where a breakline occurs prior to another drop into the channel (Area 104). I usually don’t find fish here this time of year, but, I saw 4 large herring gulls resting on the water here. As I drew closer, they were oddly reluctant to lift off the water and flee. I suspected they were hungry and were sitting on top of an uncooperative food source … and that hunch was right on.

As I ran sonar thoroughly over the area, I saw plenty of fish with bellies to the bottom. Down went the slab and up came the white bass. From 3:15 to 5:00pm I caught 24 keeper whites, all within a quarter inch of 11 inches in length. I also caught 2 largemouth, a sunfish, and one dink white bass here.

Then, at the same area, from 5:00 to 5:40p the fish turned on and in that short span of time, I added 14 more keeper whites to the tally, all on a slab, with ~60% coming off bottom, and the balance out of suspended schools. These were of the same size as the rest, right around 11 inches.

By 5:40 things shut down hard. The fish quit, the terns flocked up and went to roost, and it was all over but the boat washing.

I said a prayer of thanks to the Lord as I headed back in to the dock for the few hours of peace and quiet He afforded me today.

Tally this day was 43 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