Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Report — 08 May 2009 — 18 Fish






Fished a half-day morning trip this morning with Danny and Kim M. of Georgetown, and Danny’s parents, Bonnie and Harold, visiting from New Mexico.

MRS. BONNIE WITH HER BIGGEST FISH OF THE DAY


MRS. KIM WITH HER 15″+ WHITE BASS TAKEN ON LIVE SHAD

HAROLD’S 11th HOUR BLACK BASS TAKEN ON A JUMBO GIZZARD SHAD


Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~73-74F

Wind: Winds were SE at 12+ at sunrise, increasing quickly to 22+.

Skies: Skies were mostly cloudy with high humidity causing haziness.

In advance of this trip Danny and I agreed that a more “laid back approach” than I typically take would be appropriate for his parents. We hoped to get on Belton to live shad fish for hybrid, but the wind forecast spelled trouble, so we stuck to Stillhouse and enjoyed the protection that the south shore affords.

We started the day looking shallow in 14-16 feet using slabs and watching sonar. Right off the bat we landed 2 whites as they passed suspended beneath us in a school. Harold had good reflexes and got his slab up through them in time to intercept, as did I. Mrs. Kim and Mrs. Bonnie were not quite as fortunate. Regardless, we established the presence of fish in the area, and although a few continued to show on sonar, none were on bottom. So, I rigged up one, then two, downriggers and we downrigged with White Willows (due to olive brown murk still remaining from the recent flood waters) landing 7 fish in this area before pulling out and searching elsewhere.

Our next stop came at Area 145. We made a short drift through here from SE to NW with a driftsock out. There wasn’t much in the way of fish or bait showing up, but Mrs. Kim did manage one nice 15+ inch white bass.

We moved again to Areas 429 and 430 and made 3-4 stops in an attempt to vertical jig a few additional fish, but got none. Again I deployed the downriggers, and we scraped up one keeper largemouth, this time for Mrs. Bonnie.

We left here and gave the channel break a try at between Areas 76 and 243. We added 7 more white bass to our count here using dual White Willows fished within 2′ of bottom and fished this action until it died.

Around 11:45 we set up on our last area of the day, Area 253 and about 180 yards to the NNW of it on a drift with large live gizzard shad. No sooner did we get our drift set up than all 3 rods went down. We only came up with one of the fish, but it was the largest of the trip caught by Harold — a 16 inch largemouth. We completed the drift with only 2 other “touches” and no hookups. A subsequent drift over this area yielded nil.

We called it a day at this point with the wind only continuing to increase and bellies starting to growl for some good ol’ Johnny’s Barbeque.

TALLY = 18 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 Guide








Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 07 May 2009 – 142 Fish






Fished a “split trip” today with Matt. W. of the Austin area. Matt had an earnest desire to improve his consistency on his home waters of Georgetown Lake and Lake Austin and fished with me to learn my approach to ferreting out fish and to pick my brain on a number of topics. Matt came with an open mind and was ready to learn, not to demonstrate what he’d learned already, and that made a huge difference in what I could help him with.


MATT WITH A SHAD-CAUGHT BELTON HYBRID

Start/End Time: 6:30a-1:15p, and 6:00p – 8:15p

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start climbing into the low 80’s

Water Surface Temp: ~73-74F

Wind: Winds were SE at ~7-9 until around 10:30a, then went SSW at 9-12 until around 1p, then stayed SE at 9-11 the remainder of the day.

Skies: Skies were mostly cloudy through mid afternoon, then went partly cloudy with some direct sun breaking through.



Our split trip took place in the morning on Stillhouse and in the evening on Belton.


On Stillhouse we encountered success at between Areas 007 and 217 finding light topwater feeding by whites and largemouth over open water. These fish were preying upon shad fry. Accurate, gently worked casts with the Cork Rig did the trick for 8 fish. This action was fairly short-lived.

We then found some rock-oriented largemouth at Area 433 and fished these with a jigworm. We boated 4 fish here, and had 2 more hooked and missed on the jump.

We then encountered a bit of a lull but the fish perked up as soon as the SE wind went SW. As this happened, I moved us to Area 429 / 430 and we immediately got into heavily schooled white bass congregated on bottom in 25-34′. Over the next 2 1/2 hours we stayed on these fish and, using the TNT 180 3/8 oz. slab, jigged up 115 fishing including mainly white bass with several largemouth thrown in, in addition to crappie and drum. By 1:15 the wind was swinging back out of the SE and the action diminished.

Before our evening trip I netted live shad. There were abundant, large gizzards found from Area 170 to Area 435. I typically got 2-5 shad per throw.

At 6p we met again at Belton Lake. I anticipated a weak bite tonight due to the late hour at with the morning feed ended and the fact that the SE wind hadn’t let up.

We headed to Area 163 and found semi-active fish on and just off bottom in ~24-26′ of water. I hooked the first fish — and then lost it at the boat — a hybrid of about 5-6 pounds.

We then managed 11 whites and 1 hybrid on the slab and 2 hybrids and 1 white on live gizzard shad. The largest fish of the night was a sweet 5.75 pound hybrid that Matt hit on the live shad.

As sunset came, we did not find any surface feeding fish as I hoped we might.


TALLY = 142 FISH


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 Guide Report – 04 May 2009 – 23 Fish






Fished a “Kids Fish, Too” trip this morning with a dad (Thom G.) and 3 boys, Carson age 3, Garrett age 5, and Kyle age 6, all from Georgetown. This trip was in celebration of Garrett’s fifth birthday.

THE BIRTHDAY BOY, GARRETT

LITTLE BROTHER, CARSON (a.k.a. Greg Louganis – just a little inside humor between dad and I)

BEST BUDDY, KYLE

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 56F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~69-70F

Wind: Winds were NNW at ~7-11

Skies: Skies were mostly clear

Lake Elevation: The lake has now leveled off at ~ 620.54 ft. ASL


We got on the water a little later than usual today and so forfeited the pre-dawn topwater bite, but did just fine, all things considered. The topwater I’ve found has required some pretty accurate casting, perhaps too accurate given the boys’ age on today’s breezy trip.

I checked out the Area 103 / 108 complex and saw nothing on sonar and left without wetting a line.

We began fishing in the vicinity of Area 429 / 430 by downrigging for white bass with Pet Spoons over 14-26 feet of water. On our very first pass we saw plenty of fish on sonar on and up off bottom and so my fears about the cold front that passed through yesterday having a negative impact on the fishing were relieved. The boys did well taking turns at catching the fish as the white bass cooperated for about 2 hours solid. During this time, we caught 10 white bass and 2 largemouth. The boys eventually expanded their horizons from just reeling in the fish to letting the line out to get the downrigger set, netting fish, retrieving the downrigger ball, and more. By around 10a, the white bass were playing out and the boys’ interest in this approach was waning, so we changed up a bit.

We headed to the south bank and did some flatline trolling. The Bombers came up with 3 largemouth, 2 caught and 1 escaping on the jump. Subsequent passes yielded little, so we changed up tactics once again.

We headed to Area 203 and baited up with poles and floats looking for the first sunfish of the year. As we got to this area and got our first line in the water, a large school of spottails showed themselves. After the two older boys learned to appreciate the importance of landing their presentation in the shade where the fish were hiding, they were able to catch these fish with little assistance from me. In all, we landed 9 spottails. By this time, we were about 4 hours into the trip and just about to the limit of the boys’ attention span.

Dad and I exchanged knowing glances and we headed back to the dock after an enjoyable, successful day on the water.

Now, at this point, the youngest, Carson, had 2 spottails in his fist and wasn’t planning on letting them go until he was back home in Georgetown! Well, the other boys then needed souvenir fish, too. Carson was willing to share one, so that left us one souvenir fish short. I quickly broke out the pole once again and quickly had a green sunfish in the boat so all 3 boys had something to take home to mom.

I just had to laugh at our birthday boy’s parting comment — his dad asked him “What do you think about doing a fishing trip for the rest of your birthday parties as you get older?” Garrett was very ready with a reply and, without batting an eye said, “Well, I’d like to do a fishing birthday party for every birthday up until I’m 19. Then when I’m 19 and about to turn 20, I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese instead.” And so ended Garrett’s big day on the water!!


TALLY = 23 FISH, all caught and released (save the two spottails and 1 perch the boys took home to mom as souvenirs!!)


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 Guide Report – 02 May 2009 – 30 Fish






Quick trip tonight to see if I could find any topwater action. As I looked over things earlier in the day, around sunrise, I noted abundant threadfin shad spawning in the newly flooded vegetation.


THE 2 AREAS OF “NERVOUS” WATER SHOW THE THREADFIN SHAD SPAWNING THIS MORNING


Start Time: 6:45p

End Time: 8:30p

Air Temp: 81F at trip’s start with occasional light drizzle.

Water Surface Temp: ~68-69F

Wind: Winds were SE at ~10-11.

Skies: Skies were entirely clouded grey the entire trip.

Lake Elevation: The lake rose has now leveled off at ~ 620.54 ft. ASL


The SE wind made good topwater conditions unlikely. I did get on Area 429 / 430 and found solid fishing from arrival at 7:00p until around 8:10p. During this time I caught 27 fish including 23 white bass of all sizes with none exceeding 13.5 inches, as well as 2 keeper largemouth, a crappie, and a drum.

At exactly 8:10, I heard topwater action and from that point focused only on surface/subsurface retrieves targeting these fish. When all was said and done, what little topwater cropped up only lasted about 5 minutes and was very weak and well-dispersed, from Area 429/430 to Area 159. I picked up 3 whites on top on the cork rig and called it quits at dark at 8:30 with exactly 30 fish boated.


TALLY = 30 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