Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Report — 28 May 2009 (AM) — 35 Fish






Fished a half-day morning trip this morning on Stillhouse with Ken C., and his adult nephew, B.J., from Maryland. Neither fellow had fished extensively, so we kept it simple with a blend of topwater sight-casting and downrigging as sonar revealed that approach would be successful.

KEN C. WITH 1 OF 35 TAKEN ON A COMBINATION OF TOPWATER AND DOWNRIGGING


B.J. TIED INTO SOME GOOD FISHING ON THIS, HIS FIRST TIME SETTING FOOT ON A BOAT

A SHOT OF THE LARGE BROWN MAYFLIES COVERING THE SURFACE THIS MORNING

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 70F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~79F

Wind: Winds were light from the ENE at around 7-8 at the start of the trip, slowly turning around SE, and slackening to near calm.

Skies: Skies were bright and clear the entire morning.

Prior to sunrise, given some fairly calm conditions, we were able to visually scan a lot of water looking for surface activity. We looked closely in the vicinity of Area 176 and found a mix of white bass and small largemouth feeding lightly. These fish were well-spread, thus requiring some long, accurate casts which in many cases were beyond the ability of my guest. Once the sun rose and the wind picked up a bit, this topwater action dried up, so we turned to downrigging almost immediately after putting only 3 fish in the boat off topwater in over 45 minutes of effort.

Once the ‘riggers were down, we found fish eager to bite from Area 176 to Area 243 as they stacked up between 22-27’ in a very easily identifiable band on sonar, mixed with bait. A sizeable hatch of large, brown mayflies took place overnight but surprisingly little topwater resulted, even amongst sunfish. We spent about 50 minutes downrigging and put 23 fish in the boat on a combination of Pet Spoons and Thin Fins. As the sun got brighter and the winds slacked off, even this deepwater bite began to go soft, so we put up the downriggers and decided to pursue strictly topwater largemouth.

We checked 3 areas (451, 007, and 242) and found topwater action at all 3. The action at 451 was light and well-dispersed. The action at 007 was solid and exploitable due to the fact that the fish were grouped in packs making them that much more competitive and aggressive. The fish at 242 were somewhere in between, and were in the clearest waters of all, and shallow water, to boot, so they were a bit tough to fool despite good numbers of them. Across these 3 areas, using strictly the Cork Rig, we managed an additional 9 fish all of which were keeper largemouth.

By 11:00 things were slowing to a crawl with the sun blazing and the wind nearly still. We did a quick sonar scan from Area 452 to Area 453 to check on the presence of bait and any suspended gamefish that might be relating to them, and found little. We called it a good morning at that point and headed back to the dock.


TALLY = 35 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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