Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Trip conditions:

Trip duration: 6:00a to 8:45p

Air temp: 65F at launch time

Surface temp: 71.8F

Wind: WNW breeze at 9 at sunrise (obscured) with heavily overcast skies just shy of drizzling, slowly building to 17mph with slowly clearing skies, then a slackening in the wind near noon with clearing skies. Skies stayed clear and the air comfortable and dry for the remainder of the day.

Fished from 6a to 3p with LTC Greg D. of Killeen. Greg is headed to Saudi on Sunday and this was his “last hoorah” fishing trip before heading out. As I awaited his arrival, I observed gamefish crashing the abundant spawning threadfish shad against the shoreline and caught a white and a hybrid on a white blade bait from out of this fray.

Once Greg arrived, our day got off to a quick start with 4 solid white bass landed on live shad in the vicinity of Area 133, directly off the ramp. As soon as good seeing light came up, these fish disappeared. I hoped for birds to point the way to some topwater action but found none.

We struggled for a while to contact fish, but then managed to get into a small school of whites and small hybrids along the slope at Area 174. This was short-lived and so we moved after boating only 4 more fish here.

Headed to Area 155 and picked up 92 fish just a few yards to the S. of the actual waypoint here including white bass of all sizes and some 13-15 inch hybrids. These fish came by a combination of slabbing, easing, or smoking. Keeping the action going was the key to success. Any pause put the fish off and the process of getting them teased up had to start all over again.

After hitting the 100 fish mark, we agreed to focus just on hybrids with live shad. This was a tall order as the winds were now high and the sky bright and clear. We checked a number of quality locations, and, upon checking Area 169, found primarily deep largemouth bass including quality fish. We opted to rock back and forth over the area with me working the trolling motor and Greg working the rods. We ended up with a total of 11 black bass and 1 sunfish (which was subsequently used for bait to catch the largest bass of the day, a 7.00 pound fish – Greg’s personal best!). Greg also landed a 5.00 pound largemouth on live shad.

We concluded the trip round 3 p with 112 fish caught when the action at this area dried up. Although we did catch hybrids, none were of legal size during this morning trip.

After dropping Greg off at the boat ramp, I headed to Area 170 to attempt to net shad for an upcoming trip. I found abundant gizzard shad suspended at 11-14 feet over 22 feet in this area and put 45 in the tank and a dozen more to experiment with myself.

From here, I headed to Area 171 and marked fish, individually and tight to bottom in 23-26 feet of water. Caught 8 consecutive keeper hybrid here in the next hour with a single downline used in conjunction with sonar. These fish went 8.25 pounds (24 7/8 inches), 6.00 pounds, 6.00 pounds, 5.75 pounds, 5.00 pound, 3.75 pounds, 3.50 pounds, and 3.00 pounds. Every one had a moderately full belly and all were healthy. Also put 3 whites in the boat here on live shad. I noted that another angler positioned over the transition area at Area 172 was also doing well on white bass and smaller hybrids fishing with artificials.

When it got within an hour of sunset, schools of surface feeding whites were regularly observed. I first used a popping cork with a Polished Chicken fly behind it, but was regularly having the popping cork struck at and so up sized to a Jr. Spook in clear. This did bring the average size up a bit. By the time the surface action died I had managed 26 fish.

TALLY = 151 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

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Trip conditions:

Trip duration: 4:00p to 8:45p

Air temp: 75F at launch time

Surface temp: 72F

Wind: Southeast breeze at 7-9 for a majority of the this evening’s trip. Partly cloudy skies, becoming lightly overcast with high thin clouds by day’s end. At and after sunset winds went slack.

Had success at 3 primary areas today, although I also tried other areas, as well.

Upon launching, headed to Area 145 after looking with sonar at the adjacent areas nearby. A large school of white bass was camped out on this area. I dropped down a ¾ oz. slab and caught 16 whites and 4 largemouth in no time, including a nice 6.00 pounder.

I left this area with the fish still biting to try to identify other productive areas while the “window was open”.

I found a few fish on bottom in 23-26 feet in the vicinity of Area 161, but these were of a mixed bag (sunfish, black bass, crappie, and white bass) and no evidence of schooled fish was apparent. Caught only 4 fish here.

At this point I did a little exploring but found little on sonar and during slab drops. Picked up 4 largemouth here and there but no schooled fish congregated on bottom features.

The last run of success came right at and after sunset. As the winds slackened, I fished in the lee of Area 159 and could see schools of small whites working on schools of juvenile shad on the surface. Picked up a total of 27 fish in the last 45 minutes of the trip including 4 largemouth bass and 23 white bass up to 12 inches. All of these came on a popping cork with a Polished Chicken fly behind it.

TALLY = 51 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

Belton Lake Fishing Report by Lake Belton Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fish two half-day trips today. The report for each is listed separately.

Evening trip conditions:

Trip duration: 4:00p to 8:20p

Air temp: 88F at launch time

Surface temp: 79F

Wind: East breeze at 7-9 for a majority of the this evening’s trip. Fair skies, becoming lightly overcast with high thin clouds by day’s end. At and after sunset, some thunderstorms developed in Coryell and Burnett Counties with the grey skies, light sprinkles, and lightning reaching Belton Lake.

Fished this evening with Craig M. of Salado and Jay S. of Harker Heights. This was a “farewell” trip of sorts as Jay heads to the Mid-West to take on an ROTC cadre assignment at a university there.

After getting settled and going over the plan for the evening, we headed to the S. of Area 165 and set up dual downriggers mainly in order to keep baits in the water as I scanned the entire area with sonar. We made 4 passes parallel to the breakline in this area with the balls set at 21-25 feet, and each time came up with 1-2 smallish white bass. I decided to search further to the NW of Area 165, and as we made our way through Area 164 and to Area 163, the sonar just lit up and stayed lit up with white bass blanketing the bottom over this entire stretch. Around 5p, we buoyed and dropped the slabs and caught fish until the fellows were tired of catching them, about 2 ½ hours later. These fish were nearly 100% white bass and averaged 12″ with many going 13.5+. This was the best quality of fish in that quantity I’ve taken on Belton in quite some time. With 108 fish boated, we shifted gears, put on topwater gear and took advantage of the scattered pods of fish feeding on topwater. We put a quick additional 7 fish in the boat this way, and then took a snack break.

I had hoped that the topwater would increase toward sunset, but nature threw a curve when the dark grey cloud bank began to move in from the SW and the winds went flat in advance of the thunderstorms that affected several towns in the region later in the evening. So, after the snack break, and with no topwater showing, we put on bladebaits and worked them horizontally up shallow and added a final 9 fish to the tally before the distant rumble of thunder to the SW sent us back to the ramp about 20-25 minutes early.

TALLY = 124 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

Belton Lake Fishing Report by Lake Belton Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fish two half-day trips today. The report for each is listed separately.

Morning trip conditions:

Trip duration: 5:20a to 1:15p

Air temp: 68F at launch time

Surface temp: 76-79F

Wind: Very light SE breeze at first light followed by flat calm for a majority of the morning trip. Fair skies, becoming lightly overcast with high thin clouds by day’s end. At and after sunset, some thunderstorms developed in Coryell and Burnett Counties with the grey skies, light sprinkles, and lightning reaching Belton Lake.

Arrived at Ramp Area 166 at 5:20a and found shad much less abundant than over the past 2 weeks. Spent about 45 minutes to net 40 shad of all sizes in the vicinity of Area 166.

With the Waechert and Woodard party of 3 on board by 6:30am, we headed out. First stop, due to lack of any topwater action, was a slow drift from ESE to WNW from the vicinity of Area 46 to the vicinity of Area 84 with live shad. We picked up a few white bass and lost 2 hybrids. There were other boats in the area and they were managing about the same.

As we drifted just E. of Area 84, the bottom 4-5 feet of the water column lit up with fish on bottom in 31-34 feet. We buoyed here and had Keith work live bait while I had Marcus and Brittany work with slabs. Brittany (in her early 20’s) caught the very first fish of her life here!! We managed to bring the tally to 21 before we departed this area.

We then headed to Area 155 and found white bass loosely schooled and patrolling in and around this area, specifically, just S. of the spine. As we first arrived, I had Marcus and Brittany drop live bait down shooting for the larger, faster hybrids and/or larger whites which typically respond first. Keith worked the slab. We managed 13 fish in this area, but it was pretty slow and no hybrids showing.

We made one final move to Area 151/152 and did better here in this deeper water. Whites were schooled and small pods of hybrids were suspended and on bottom. Everyone got a keeper hybrid here and we landed several smaller ones as well primarily on larger live shad, and the white bass responded well to the slab. We also picked up a drum and a nice blue cat here as well. We brought in a total of 26 fish here and, with the heat increasing and the wind offering no hope of increasing any time soon, we called it a day.

All in all we did pretty well given the flat, bright, hot conditions.

Made a run to Area 167 for shad after the trip concluded. Got 3-6 shad per throw in 18-22 feet of water here, and the shad were consistent in their size, all about 3.75 inches, and almost all threadfins. Left with ~65 shad.

TALLY = 60 FISH, all caught and released, with exception of 1 blue catfish

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

03 MAY 2008

05/03/08 9:03 PM

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day morning trip from 6:30a to 11:30a.

Today’s conditions:

Air temp: 54F

Surface temp: 69F

Wind: Hard from the NNW at 22 at dawn, slowing dying down to 16mph by trip’s end

Weather: High pressure building in following yesterday’s cold front passage. High, clear blue skies, becoming fair with high thin clouds by day’s end.

As I launched pre-dawn, I was going to try to locate shallow whites stalking on windblown points, and did find such activity at Area 162. I found fish scattered around this point in 6-9 feet of water and very willing to hit a bladebait work lift-drop style. Picked up 9 solid white bass up to 14 inches and 2 largemouth bass here in about an hour. This action died as the sun climbed higher.

Next, due to the wind, I headed way uplake and tried to use the north shore as cover from the wind, but the whites have vacated this area, and I found nothing at Area 999, Area 144, Area 116, and in the Area 54/108 complex.

I returned downlake and found a small flock of helpful terns pointing the way to some light schooling action by largemouth and white bass amid the whitecaps at Area 161. I saw a lot more at depth on sonar than I did with the naked eye on the surface, and so went with a slabbing & smoking approach here beginning around 8:30am and stayed on fish here for 3 straight hours resulting in a catch of 60 fish, mainly consisting of 11 inch white bass with larger and smaller ones thrown in, as well as several 2 pound largemouth and several 1 ¼ pound drum.

TALLY = 71 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

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day afternoon trip from 3:30p to 8:30p with Jason and Melissa G. of Lewisville as they took a break from work, kids, and scouting for a weekend in Salado by themselves.

Today’s conditions:

Air temp: 82F

Surface temp: 72-73F

Wind: Light and variable from NE to E at 0-4

Weather: High pressure building in following a turbulent morning with a cold front’s passage accompanied by thunderstorms and brief, high wind gust. Skies were high, blue and clear, sun was hot and brilliant.

We started deep first, due to the lack of wind and the bright sun. Came up with 11 fair white bass at Area 129 and then gave a little downrigging a try to create some breeze for Melissa who was getting uncomfortably warm. We wound up with only 3 small fish on Pet Spoons while downrigging, but, this wasn’t really an ideal time/location for that technique. These downrigged fish came within a 100 yard arc to the NE of Area 129 in 25 to 37 feet of water.

We pulled in our lines and headed uplake a little ways to looked at sonar at Area 131. It was completely lit up with white bass both suspending, chasing bait, and tight to bottom. We set up here with the nose into the slight ENE breeze that had developed and put 61 fish in the boat in about 90 minutes. These fish were mostly barely keeper whites, with drum, largemouth, and a crappie thrown in for good measure. We could have kept right on catching fish here, but, since they were smallish, I offered the option of leaving them in pursuit of larger quarry. Jason and Melissa were willing to roll the dice on that, and the gamble paid off.

After looking over several areas and doing some “trial jigging” without success, we finally hit into another big bunch of larger white bass at Area 122, located just to the NW of the waypoint by about 70 feet. These fish literally swam up to meet the descending slabs as they fell. We landed 26 fish here in no time, including primarily 12-14 inch fish, with several shorter fish and 3 15-16 inch largemouth thrown in.

By now it was around 6:50p, and we had planned to search for some twilight topwater downlake, so, with their permission, we left these fish biting to go look for some topwater action. Melissa had never cast with the equipment necessary for this, so we got her trained up and casting well, but never encountered topwater in the vicinity of Area 222, as I thought we might. So, we headed to Area 159 in (slim) hopes that we’d find topwater there. We found none, but did manage one final drum and one final largemouth bass here while fancasting bladebaits waiting for topwater action.

TALLY = 104 FISH, all caught and released except 2 drum that didn’t make it