Fished an adult half-day morning trip this morning with Eric T. and his fiancee, Amanda L., both of Ohio. Amanda is pursuing her doctorate in vet. medicine at A&M, and Eric came to Texas for her Spring Break for a visit.

AMANDA WITH TWIN 15+ INCH STILLHOUSE WHITES

Start Time:7:45a


End Time: 1:10p


Air Temp: 58F at trip’s start, warming to the low eighties by the afternoon peak.


Water Surface Temp: ~58-59F

Wind: Winds were flat calm until around 10am, then a SE ripple began and built quickly to a nice breeze at S 8-10.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

We started off in the morning calm downrigging to get a feel for the fish, the water, the bait, etc. We contacted fish consistently in and around Areas 375 to 143 to 106. These were all white bass, and all just over 11.5 inches. We landed 8 this way



As we downrigged, we encountered a significant congregation of fish holding on Area 108 so we stopped to jig for those fish and added 14 fish to our tally here.

When these fish went quiet, we resumed downrigging picking up 4 more whites and then this area shut down.

We tried a little flatline trolling at Area 374 but scratched there.

We then headed to open water to search for some deepwater fish now that the sun was brilliant and the winds were flat calm. Around 10a, a slight breeze began to ripple the surface. At this time, the birds began to get restless, and by 10:30 we found a good number of terns and gulls working within a 50 yard radius of Area 400. We closely examined the area with sonar and found tightly schooled white bass holding on a 36 foot break here. We got the TNT 180’s headed to bottom and immediately began to pull fish via jigging and smoking. We landed a mix of whites and blacks here in a 90 minute span, bringing our tally to 78 fish before the fish got sluggish. Two whites here went over 15 inches.

At this time, the birds began to coalesce over Area 401. This was a nearly identical situation as at Area 400. Again, the fish were tight to a 40 foot break and were very active, responding to both a jigging and smoking retrieve. By 12:45, we’d landed 92 fish and agreed to stick it out for 100 even, despite the fact that the fish were beginning to get sluggish. Well, it took us an extra 25 minutes, but, at 1:10, fish #100 came over the side and we called it a great day.

TALLY = 100 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

Fished a half-day morning trip with 3 young men from Nolanville — Cody, age 14, Michael, age 14, and Dylan, age 7. This was a birthday gift from Grandpa Dave who lives in Hawaii.

DYLAN, THE LITTLEST KID WITH THE BIGGEST FISH!!

CODY THE BIRTHDAY BOY WITH A JUMBO WHITE BASS.

MICHAEL WITH THE LARGEST OF THE WHITE BASS HE CAUGHT.

Start Time: 7:30a (with DST now in effect)


End Time: 11:50a


Air Temp: 48F at trip’s start warming to ~80F by day’s end.


Water Surface Temp: ~57F

Wind: Winds were light and variable during the morning hours.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright after some early morning patch fog burned off.

We started off with a little flatline trolling to get a feel for the fish, the water, the bait, etc. This was my first time back on Stillhouse following last week’s rains and cold snap. The water is not at all dingy, but does have some flotsam. The trolling gave up 4 white bass and 2 largemouth, including a 3.25 pound fish.

As the fog began to lift, we headed to the deepwaters between Area 102 and 107. Birds were searching and both bait and gamefish appeared scattered throughout this area. We ran downriggers hoping to both catch fish and to find large congregations of fish which we could instead jig for. We managed 9 more fish including 2 largemouth and 7 whites on the downriggers and then located a large group of fairly deep white bass holding fast on a breakline in 29-36 feet. We buoyed these fish around 9:30a, sent 4 slabs down, and caught fish steadily via a smoking retrieve and a straight jigging retrieve for the next 2 hours and 10 minutes. Things started strong, stayed moderate for a long while, and then tapered off at the end. We caught all the jigged fish on the TNT 180 slabs in 3/8 oz.

We were quite fortunate to find these densely schooled fish, and to find them staying put as long as they did, as typically bright sun and calm winds can lead to tough fishing.

By noon we were back at the dock, high-fiving, taking photos, and telling fish stories to dad. A great day on the water with 3 enthusiastic young fellows!!

TALLY = 87 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

Fished a scouting trip on Lake Georgetown in advance of a father/son outing scheduled for this coming Thursday. After fishing G’town, I opted to run that trip on Stillhouse instead. G’town is about 18 feet low and there was a lot of recreational traffic on it. I fished today with Stephen F. Austin college student Zach B. of Georgetown. We met at the Central Texas Boat Show in January and planned this trip then. He was going to show me a bit about largemouth fishing on G’Town, and I was going to show him my electronic sight fishing technique.

Start Time:4:00p


End Time: 8:00p


Air Temp: 80F at trip’s start, cooling slightly by day’s end.


Water Surface Temp: ~57F

Wind: Winds were flat calm.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

We started off with a little downrigging to get a feel for the fish, the water, the bait, etc. We contacted fish at Area 398 and landed a small white bass there and moved on to continue to try to find fish holding waters.

Our next success came at Area 394. We saw a single gull patrolling over this area acting reluctant to leave and, upon drawing closer, found occasional whites popping shad on the surface. We picked up 4 whites here on the downrigger and Zach picked one off on top with a bladebait.

We continued searching and saw good sonar returns at Area 396. This was fairly shallow and with an undulating bottom, so we hit it with bladebaits and managed 6 more white bass here.

We then headed upriver and again saw a few birds working over scattered fish driving shad to the surface. We worked over a fairly expansive area and managed 8 more whites, all on fancast bladebaits.

Once the river action died, we headed back to the main lake and checked out the drop at Area 397. I teased up 1 white crappie here on a slab.

We finished up the night working along the bank at Area 404 and managed 3 whites and 2 largemouth. All but one fish came on the bladebaits; that one largemouth came on Zach’s Carolina rig.

TALLY = 22 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

Fished a half-day afternoon trip today with Dave L., a general contractor from Denver, CO, and his son, Andy, an air defense artilleryman now stationed at Ft. Hood. Things started a bit slow but ended with a bang as the cold, raw NE wind and damp conditions of the past few days finally relented.

ANDY POSES WITH OUR FIRST FISH OF THE TRIP, A DOWNRIGGERED BLACK BASS.

DAVE HOISTS THE LARGEST FISH OF THE DAY, A HYBRID THAT FELL FOR A TNT 180 SLAB.

Start Time: 2:00p (with DST now in effect)


End Time: 7:45p


Air Temp: 44F at trip’s start warming to 48F by sunset (obscured).


Water Surface Temp: ~57F

Wind: Winds were NE at 7-9 until abour 3:30p when they slacked off to 3-5 and went due N.

Skies: Skies were heavily overcast the entire trip.

We started off with a little downrigging near Area 365 to get baits in the water and get a feel for the fish activity level, location, forage status, etc. We immediately picked up a nice 3 lbs. black bass on a Swimmin’ Image and continued working the rigger for 4 more whites and a juvenile hybrid, all on the White Willow spoon. At one point we came up on a 35′ to 25′ transition and saw whites stacked up on that slope. We buoyed, dropped slabs (3/8 oz. TNT 180’s) and worked that school over for 9 more fish — all white bass between 10-12 inches. The fish were in a very sluggish mood at this point, so we decided to look for more active fish or birds.

We headed to the vicinity of Area 172 and found plenty of bait, as well as suspended and bottom hugging gamefish. The water was a little murky due to the rains so I was a bit concerned. We ran the downrigger first and picked up 2 whites right on the shallowest part of this feature on back to back passes. Thinking the fish were pretty active, I backed off and rigged us up with bladebaits. Working these for about 10 minutes over the area that the 2 downriggered fish came from only resulted in 1 caught and 1 other missed strike. I put the rigger back down and we picked up one very small white, but then failed to see fish on sonar on subsequent passes.

We gave up on that and headed to Area 388. Scattered bait was about all that was showing here. We downrigged while the fellows snacked a little. We got one suspended largemouth of about 1.5 lbs. and left this behind.

Our final stop came at around 5:25p at Area at this point we’d boated 20 fish. I spotted terns working in the distance over this area while glassing with my spotting scope. As we arrived, the birds were acting very fishy — circling tightly over one area, occasionally diving down to capture shad. We got to these fish quickly, knowing that wintertime fish activity on a cold front can be brief. We immediately got into the best action of the day. We found very aggressively feeding white bass in 22-27 feet. A standard jigging approach with slabs was the most consistent producer, although an easing approach was required later as these fish slacked off towards dark. We caught numerous doubles and triples as the three of us worked these slabs effectively near bottom. Fish number 40 was the best fish of the day — the hybrid pictured above — landed by Dave. In all, from 5:30 to 7:45p we caught 58 fish within 50 yards of our buoy, only occasionally moving to stay under the most active birds. Of these 58 fish, we got 2 largemouth, 1 drum, 1 hybrid, 1 sunfish, and 54 whites, many exceeding 13.5 inches, and all with slender, concave bellies indicating a lack of heavy feeding over these past few days of cold front conditions.

TALLY = 78 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

Fished a half-day afternoon trip today with Ryan S. of Temple. Ryan’s in his 1st year of residency (the toughest) at Scott and White, so vacation time is very limited. Despite the poor conditions Ryan really wanted to get on the water, so we persisted and did alright given a damp NE wind, and falling water temperatures on the heels of an early March cold front. I had planned to be on the water anyway to do a little scouting for birds and bait in advance of a trip later in the week. We agreed to do a “ride along” trip, where I did what I needed to do to scout, and we did a little fishing along the way.

RYAN S. HEFTS ONE OF 4 KEEPER HYBRID WE FOUND WORKING BAIT IN TODAY’S WET, COLD CONDITIONS

RYAN TURNED THE CAMERA ON ME DISPLAYING 2 HYBRIDS THAT FELL TO A BLADEBAIT

Start Time: 2:00p (with DST now in effect)


End Time: 7:45p


Air Temp: 41F the entire trip.


Water Surface Temp: ~57-58F

Wind: Winds were NE at 9-12 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were overcast the entire trip.

We started off with a little downrigging near Area 387 as Ryan had never seen or used this technique. We saw ample suspended gamefish, but little in the way of bait. We put 2 average whites in the boat using White Willow spoons in the first 25 minutes, and decided to move on and continue looking for birds and bait.

Our next stop came in the vicinity of Area 367. There were terns patrolling the area, but not really working over fish. Enough terns hit the water on occasion at this particular spot to make it worth a look. We slabbed here and managed 3 whites and a small black and then decided to move.

We headed to Areas 294, 354, 346, 347, 348, and 24 and found little action at any of these area.

We then looked over Area 376 and all the way to Area 365 and downrigged through hoping to find a congregation of fish to jig for, but that wasn’t in the cards. We pulled two white bass on the White Willow spoon and then headed for greener pastures.

We headed to Area 388 and found a good number of birds working here, both gulls and terns with a few herons on the shore. This was looking good. The birds weren’t diving, just hovering, so I studied sonar, saw fish consistently down at 17-20 feet over 45-50 feet and so changed over to a Swimmin’ Image crankbait behind dual ‘riggers. Before I could get the second rigger down, we had our first hybrid on the other one. No sooner had we netted that fish, than the birds began diving. We put on bladebaits and worked these lures in a countdown fashion and managed 3 more keeper hybrid and a jumbo white bass over the next 20 minutes. As is so typical of cold front activity, this was intense but very short lived. Sonar continued to show a whole lot of fish suspended and and around bait, but their jaws were clamped once they finished that brief feeding spree. We managed 2 more white bass in about 30 more minutes of downrigging and then moved on.

Our final stop came at Area 172. Fish were here, grouped tightly on bottom, but very reluctant to strike. In over an hour’s time, constantly seeing fish on sonar, tight to bottom, we could only get 9 in the boat. These fish would half-heartedly respond to a slow easing approach, following the bait a few feet as it was raised, but then would give up and slowly descend back to bottom. Our catch here included 7 whites, 1 short black, and 1 crappie. By now we’d run out of daylight with 22 fish to show for the effort. Really not a bad day given the conditions — cold, wet conditions with an easterly component to the wind are predictably the worst conditions on our area lakes.

TALLY = 22 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

Fished a half-day morning trip today with father-and-son team Marty and Kyle W. of Killeen. The weather dealt us a difficult hand today in that our string of windy days with breezes from the S and W began to breakdown in advance of an approaching low pressure system. The winds began to swing E bringing slower fishing with it.

MARTY AND SON, KYLE, WITH A NICE MIXED BAG OF WHITES AND BLACKS

Start Time: 7:30a (with DST now in effect)


End Time: 12:05p


Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start. Temps peaked at around 78F today.


Water Surface Temp: ~60-61F

Wind: Winds were SE at 8-9 before sunrise (obscured) and then actually went slack for about 45 minutes leading to a premature end to the morning feed. The winds then steadily built to 22 with higher gusts to 25 by afternoon from the SE.

Skies: Skies were overcast the entire trip.

We started off doing some flat line trolling near “The Trough” without result.

We then headed to the S of Area 375 and I showed the fellows how to use a bladebait. Once they got the hang it, we were fortunate enough to see bird activity develop over Area 375 and to the S. of it, up as shallow as 14 feet. We worked over these aggressively feeding fish with bladebaits for about 30 minutes, putting a total of 15 fish in the boat in short order.

At this time, the winds went slack and the birds lifted off of the fish which had turned off, and focused on some nearby loon activity.

We then began to search with sonar for fish, hoping I could find a concentration of fish that had slipped back into deep water. Instead we found fish very scattered at 26 feet and shallower, both at mid-depth (on occasion) and (primarily) on bottom. These fish were not well schooled, so a downrigging approach seemed the way to go. We dropped dual riggers down and began to steadily pick up fish again. We added 6 fish to the tally and the wind began to blow again, and again from the SE. I chose to leave this area as the wind built up on it, hoping the w

I found fish at between Areas 186 and 362 , in about 41-43 feet of water. These fish were very sluggish, responding only occasionally to an easing technique. I picked up 5 white bass here and moved on.

To finish out the trip I headed to between Area 107 and 103 in 25-27 feet of water, and, from 11:15 to 12:05 was pleasantly surprised to find still-active (albeit barely active) fish. I jigged for these fish and caught 13, all white bass, and all caught on the pause of a standard jigging approach.

TALLY = 34 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

Fished a half-day morning scouting trip today to fish areas that traditionally hold fish this time of year but which I haven’t fished lately.

SONAR SCREENSHOT OF SHAD SUSPENDING AT MID-DEPTH PRE-DAWN THIS MORNING

SONAR SCREENSHOT OF GAMEFISH SUSPENDING IN PURSUIT OF THE DENSE SCHOOLS OF SHAD IN THE AREA RIGHT AT SUNRISE

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 12:05p


Air Temp: 64F at trip’s start. Temps peaked at around 83F today.


Water Surface Temp: ~58.4F

Wind: Winds were S at 13-15 before sunrise (obscured) and steadily built to 22 with higher gusts to 25 by afternoon.

Skies: Skies were overcast the entire trip with occasional breaks in the clouds existing by trip’s end.

I started off in the vicinity of Area 102 with high confidence that fish would be there and would indicate when the morning feeding window opened. As the fish got going, they started off high up in the water column pursuing shad to and near the surface. I caught them on a smoked blade bait when they were ramped up at the beginning of the bite, and then caught them on an eased TNT 3/8 oz. slab while they were still feeding but had slowed a bit. After boating 25 fish, I left these fish still biting and headed out to check other areas while the window of opportunity was still open.

I found fish at between Areas 186 and 362 , in about 41-43 feet of water. These fish were very sluggish, responding only occasionally to an easing technique. I picked up 5 white bass here and moved on.

To finish out the trip I headed to between Area 107 and 103 in 25-27 feet of water, and, from 11:15 to 12:05 was pleasantly surprised to find still-active (albeit barely active) fish. I jigged for these fish and caught 13, all white bass, and all caught on the pause of a standard jigging approach.

TALLY = 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

Fished a half-day morning trip today with a father (Marty W.), his 4th Grade son (Evan W.), and Evan’s 4th Grade buddy (Jonathan A.). These boys were well behaved, they wanted to do well, and, because they listened well, were very successful, especially given the tough wind conditions we had today.

EVAN W. AND JONATHAN A. WITH A PAIR OF STILLHOUSE BLACK BASS.

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a


Air Temp: 63F at trip’s start. Temps peaked at around 79F today.


Water Surface Temp: ~58.1F

Wind: Winds were SSW at 15 before sunrise (obscured) and steadily build to 20+ with higher gusts to 30+ by 10:00am.

Skies: Skies were overcast the entire trip with occasional breaks in the clouds existing by trip’s end.

Following launching and my basic safety talk, we headed out hoping the birds would help us out today. As we watched and waited on the birds, we did a little flatline trolling and scored a single white bass on a Bomber bait. Soon, around a dozen gulls began to show interest in and around Areas 89 and 143. We cruised in with sonar on, verified the presence of fish, got lures in the water and got a feel for what kind of lure size and retrieve would work best today. After figuring that out and considering the boys’ abilities, we went with a 3/8 oz. TNT180 slab fished smoking style. After the boys each struggled to get their first, second, and third fish, their minds began to put together what it would take to be consistently successful. After they mastered that learning curve, there was no stopping them. Over the next ~2 hours we spot hopped, but only yards at a time, to stay under the hottest bird activity. During this time, the boys landed a total of 54 additional fish consisting mainly of 11-13 inch white bass, with an occasional small largemouth mixed in.

By 9:15, the birds had lifted and the bite slowed a bit. We rigged up the downriggers and trolled a bit so we could still have lures in the water as the boys snacked and as I searched some deeper haunts with sonar. We picked up one white bass on the downrigger with a White Willow Spoon and then spotted a large congregation of fish holding at the E-W oriented lip of the hole between Areas 102 and 55. We stayed on these fish for about 30 minutes, and took the tally up to a total of 64 by the time the wind began to blow so hard we couldn’t maintain boat control with the trolling motor. Since the fish had about played out here anyway, we headed for some more protected water.

From ~10a to 11a we downrigged in the vicinity of Areas 330 and 385. There were very sluggish and very scattered, bottom-oriented white bass and largemouth bass on this flat in 19-22 feet of water. We ran twin ‘riggers with White Willow Spoons on both and finished off the day with a total of 7 fish off this area. By 11:15 it was back to the dock to tie up and photograph and release a few of our better specimens.

A great day on the water!!

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

Fished a half-day morning trip today with First Sergeant Joseph A. of Killeen. Joe is just back from 15 months in Iraq where he served with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and is taking some much deserved leave time. Joe had never fished for white bass before and did really well at all the techniques I asked him to try in order to be successful.

JOE A. WITH ONE OF OUR LARGER WHITE BASS AND A KEEPER BLACK BASS – ALL CAUGHT SLABBING TODAY.

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:05a


Air Temp: 32F at trip’s start. Temps peaked at around 63F today. Ice formed in our guides until around 7:20a


Water Surface Temp: ~56.6 to 56.8F

Wind: Winds were flat calm until around 9:30 when they began to puff out of the ENE. Slowly but surely the winds turned through the E to SE by trip’s end, never exceeding 8 mph at any time.

Skies: Skies were clear until around 9:00a and then became fair with some high thin clouds passing over.

Environmental Notes: We sighted a single flock of ~40 Sandhill Cranes migrating north today around 10:30a. Mosquito hawks are also abundant considering the dry spring we’re experiencing.

We began the day looking for some near-dawn action at “The Trough”. Nothing materialized here by around 7:25 despite a number of gulls passing over on patrol.

We headed to between Area 55 and 102 and found some helpful bird activity there over 20-22′, catching 3 fish a piece on bottom-worked blade baits, then switched over to slabs to stay after those fish on bottom when the birds and the horizontal action died off. On and off through around 9:00 the birds helped us stay on fish. During this entire time we fished with 3/8 oz. TNT 180 slabs. A standard jigging approach took fish while they were easy, and an easing approach took them after they slowed down. By 10:00a we’d taken 88 fish and the action had ground to a halt in this area. We hated to stop that close to 100 fish and agreed to give it another hour or so to see if we could attain the century mark.

We checked the Area 148 complex and the Area 329 complex with nothing to show. We were in the middle of checking the Area 243 complex when we spotted 2-3 terns working on and around Area 383. Soon 2-3 terns turned into 8-10 terns and the game was back on. In about 35 minutes we sealed the deal with our final 12 fish, this time slabbing and smoking 3/4 oz. TNT 180’s in 45 to 50 feet of water.

For our efforts today we were blessed with 100 fish caught including 4 white bass over 14″, one keeper largemouth and 3 shorts, and 1 deepwater drum.



TALLY = 100 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