Fished a half-day morning trip on Stillhouse today and did some scouting in advance of a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip tomorrow.

This 3.75 pound largemouth was suspended at 25′ over 40′ in open water and was feeding on small shad

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 12:30a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~80.3F

Wind: Winds were light from the SE at around 10 at the start of the trip and stayed that way until around 10:45; they then began to shift to the S. and increase to ~14mph as the skies began to brighten for the first time this morning

Skies: Skies were overcast and grey the entire trip to 10:45 when they dissipated and cleared.



Due to the diminished light level and E. component to the wind, there was no topwater to be found today.

In advance of tomorrow’s trip, I did a downrigging “milkrun” to determine if active gamefish were to be found amidst the plentiful bait congregations seen on sonar in several areas. In summary, I successfully downrigged for white bass in the following areas:

Area 459, Area 464, Area 191, Area 462, Area 463, and Area 056. I spent just enough time in each one of these areas to catch 2-3 fish and then I moved on. By 10:45, I’d put 29 fish in the boat. I did attempt vertical jigging at Areas 459 and 463. Fish were there but very reluctant — there would have been no way to instruct a kid to catch fish over fish as lethargic as these were — the horizontal approach was definitely the way to go.

Due to an appointment set for 12:45, I headed back toward my launch site intending to take a close look, at least with sonar, at the Area 145 complex. As I arrived, the area was heavy with bait and I began attempting to slab. Not 3 minutes into the effort I heard one, then another, then another surface feeding fish pop a shad on top. I let off the trolling motor to eliminate the bow slab and listen better. I was right on the lead edge of what would be a 40 minute mid-day largemouth bass feed on the surface. I stayed on the fish with the trolling motor and work them over with a Cork Rig. A straight-line, fairly brisk retrieve is what they wanted. I landed a total of 17 largemouth (8 legal) in this short time span. By the time I had to leave, the fish were tapering off, but were still seen scattered on the surface.



TALLY = 46 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 evening “Kids Fish, Too!” trip on Stillhouse with best friends Joseph H. and Tyanna E. of Killeen.

TYANNA WITH A BIG OL’ CHANNEL CAT

CAN YOU TELL JOSEPH WAS EXCITED ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING?

Start Time: 5:30p

End Time: 9:00p

Air Temp: 90F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~81.3F

Wind: Winds were from the SE at around 12 at the start of the trip, slowly tapering off to around SE at 9 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair entire trip, with a bank of grey clouds obscuring the sun’s setting for the last 45 minutes of the day.

After mom dropped Joseph and Tyanna off with me, I spoke with each of them about thier fishing experiences, what they thought our trip would be like, and what kind of equipment they were already familiar with. Tyanna had no fishing experience and had never caught a fish before. Joseph absorbs all he can about the sport through books, movies, fishing shows, and magazines, but has had little opportunity to practice what he’s learned.

We began the trip using bream poles and bait. As we did so, the kids learned the importance of being stealthy in their approach to fish, about how fish use cover to ambush from, and about how to match tackle to quarry size. After about 40 minutes we’d covered about 200 yards of shoreline from Area 455 to Area 456, and each landed 3 sunfish. I offered that we could pursue some larger fish and the kids snapped at the chance to do that, so we headed out to some deeper waters and in no time sonar revealed that bait and gamefish were sandwiched at 22-27 feet to the E. of a line from Area 118 to Area 145. We ran downriggers over these fish and steadily caught white bass, largemouth, and even a crappie. Before long both kids were able to raise and lower the ball, set the ball to the correct depth, and correctly rig the release clip. They worked well as a team with one reeling in the downrigger ball as the other landed a fish so the rigs could be quickly set out again to enhance our chances of another hookup. After boating 8 fish here, the fishing quieted down so we moved.

We once again successfully located fish near Area 056, and in a “box” about 150 yds. x 150 yds. to the S. of it. These fish were also suspended in a band, this time from 18-24 feet. The same Pet Spoon and Lunker Licker combination did the trick for our final 5 fish of the evening including 3 white bass and 1 average largemouth, and the big ol’ channel cat that Tyanna is proudly displaying above.

This was a really nice trip. These two kids got along really well, they both wanted to succeed and were willing to listen the the instructions necessary for that to happen. As is typical of Stillhouse, the evening bite was a bit weaker than the morning bite today, but we made the best of it and put a total of 19 fish in the boat tonight.

TALLY = 19 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 “S.K.I.F.F.” trip on Stillhouse with brothers Logan H. and Ethan H., of Harker Heights. This was the second S.K.I.F.F. Program trip that I’ve run. S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. The Austin Fly Fishers (AFF) have commissioned me to take the children of soldiers deployed in harm’s way and the children of soldiers killed while on active duty on guided fishing trips. S.K.I.F.F. trips are funded by donations both given by and collected by the members of the Austin Fly Fishers. The boys’ dad, Sergeant First Class Mat Henderson, is currently deployed at Forward Operating Base “Gary Owen” in Iraq, serving with the 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion.

ETHAN AND LOGAN SHOW THEIR EARLY MORNING CATCHES

ETHAN HOISTS HIS DEEPWATER CHANNEL CAT

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~79F

Wind: Winds were stiff from the SSW at around 14 at the start of the trip, slowly creeping up to S at 17 by 10, then leveling off around S 15 after that.

Skies: Skies were fair entire morning.



Because their mom has two younger boys at home, I picked Logan and Ethan up at their doorstep at 5:55a. They’d been up since 5:00a getting ready and were fired up. They asked 1,001 questions on the 20 minute drive to the boat ramp. By 6:15a we were launched and baiting up some bream poles to catch a few sunfish just to break the ice at Area 239. Both boys had been fishing only one time before, and neither had ever caught a fish. Needless to say, they weren’t very familiar with equipment and terminology, so I had to take it slow and teach step-by-step this morning. Before long, we’d tallied 5 sunfish and transitioned over to using a rod and close-faced reel. The boys both picked up on that in 3-4 casts and, despite the heavy wind, we headed out looking for a glimpse of topwater activity.

With the high winds, there was no topwater action to be found, so I showed the boys the basics of downrigging and we capitalized on the suspended, shad-oriented white bass that we saw regularly at 23-28 feet on the E. facing slope between Area 205 and Area 459. We ran a Lunker Licker on one rod and a Pet Spoon on the other and stayed in the fish enjoying moderate action for a full 2 hours, bringing 17 fish over the side including a truly large 16 1/2 inch white bass on the Lunker Licker. This fish will qualify Ethan for the new Stillhouse Catch & Release lake record in the Jr. Angler division.

After continuing to see solid action right at Area 459 on pass after pass, I dropped a buoy hoping, despite the wind, that we could either jig or lift-drop a few fish here just to change up the routine a bit and give the boys a chance to practice their casting. This just didn’t work out well. Logan did get one small drum on a jigged blade bait, but the fish were just too spread out over the bottom to get anything going with 2 novice casters facing the teeth of the wind.

Ethan expressed an interest in catching more sunfish with the bream rod, so, we rigged back up, headed to Area 239 and dabbled with the sunfish for a while, putting 5 more sunfish over the side. The boys got excited about now using our small sunfish as bait to lure larger gamefish, so we tried 2 drifts with downlines and the drift sock out at Area 199 and 457, but scratched at both areas. However, as we approached the end of our drift at Area 457 I began to see consistent suspended white bass showing on sonar. Logan enjoyed the downrigging most of all the techniques we tried and wanted to give it another try before we wrapped up our morning. So, once again we deployed twin ‘riggers with the Pet Spoon and Lunker Licker tied on and worked from Area 457 to Area 458. In the last 15 minutes of our trip we managed two more keeper white bass, and, for a grand finale, a 3.5 pound channel catfish that hit the Lunker Licker as it slowed on the inside of a sharp turn.

We finished up our trip at this point with a short, but wet, ride back to the ramp as we practically surfed our way back in on the now large waves pushed by 17-18 mph winds over open water. A great trip with two great boys!!

TALLY = 31 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

Well, all good things must come to an end. The back-to-back 100 fish days didn’t continue on today as our high pressure broke down and that old SE wind kicked in and brought some cloud cover with it. I fished a half-day morning trip with Andy and Amy M. of Ft. Mitchell, KY, this morning. We had a great time with an abundance of topwater action — it just wasn’t as long or strong as over the past few days.

ANDY AND AMY WITH TWIN BLACK THEY CAUGHT ON SUB-SURFACE RETRIEVES OVER SCHOOLING FISH

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78.8F

Wind: Winds were from the SE at around 7 at the start of the trip, slowly ramping up to over 18 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair with some high, thin clouds to the E which the sun did not clear until around 9:15.

Things got off to a slow start this morning as the light level was diminished around sunrise by the thin clouds in the E. sky. By 7:00a some tentative surface feeding by white bass began to develop N. of Area 444 and slowly spread to Area 204. We fished over these fish with bladebaits slowly retrieved subsurface. By 7:30 we’d boated 10 fish and then spotted better action to our SE under a diving heron.

We got quickly over to just NW of Area 042 and found abundant white bass and black bass feeding on the surface. By now the surface had a fair chop on it, so the fish were getting quite “splashy”. Amy and I used Spook Jr.’s and Andy tried his hand with my flyrod using a Polished Chicken in #2 size. We all caught fish here in the 25 minutes or so that the action lasted, taking our tally up to 23 fish.

We headed back to the vicinity of Area 444 and found the action about as we had left it. Amy kept on with the bladebait while Andy and I gave Cork Rigs a try. Again, we all caught fish. At this point the sun finally cleared the thin clouds and the intensity of its heat could be felt on the skin for the first time. At the same time the skies brightened substantially. This caused an immediate spike in the surface activity and provided us with our most consistent portion of the trip. Over the next 35 minutes, we boated an additional 26 fish, consisting of a 40/60 mix of largemouth/white bass.

Around 9:25, the wind very suddenly increased in speed, and this seemed to put the lid on the fishing for the morning. I immediately went to downriggers, but even then only came up with one additional fish in this area where both bait and gamefish were just both active and abundant. Failing at that, we downrigged Area 452 to 453, and looked over Areas 250 and 251 with sonar, and found nothing at either location. We returned to Area 444 — nothing. We made one final check at Area 199 — nothing. Realizing this morning’s window was now shut hard, we called it a day with exactly 50 fish caught and released to fight another day.

TALLY = 50 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 “Kids Fish, Too!” trip on Stillhouse today with a very nice family from Temple. Ken and Julie S. treated their boys, Reid (10) and Ryan (8) to a summer vacation fishing trip. These boys were very respectful, very well-behaved, and eager to do well. Little Ryan even had a bit of a competitive streak and made very sure I counted every fish that came over the side!

FROM L. TO R. — MOM JULIE, LITTLE BROTHER RYAN, BIG BROTHER REID, AND DAD KEN WITH TWO 14+ INCH WHITE BASS

ONE OF MANY FISH CAUGHT TODAY THAT REGURGITATED NUMBERS OF SMALL SHAD. THIS WHITE BASS HAD 6 FISH IN THE BACK OF ITS THROAT.

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp: 62F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78.3F

Wind: Winds were light from the E at around 4 at the start of the trip, slowly dying to calm by late morning.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright the entire morning following the passage of a cool front on N winds yesterday afternoon and evening. Winds went slack around 9p last night and stayed down through trip’s end.

After meeting the entire family and getting everyone’s names down, I did an “on the dock” casting lesson with both boys to ensure they could cast a closed faced outfit safely and straight. I anticipated ample topwater action today and wanted to ensure the boys could throw to or beyond breaking fish without missing to the left or right. The boys caught on to the concept of overhead casting very quickly and so after a few pointers about safety, we were off to the fishing grounds.

Fishing was basically a cookie cutter of the very productive fishing that I experienced yesterday morning. There were a tremendous number of white bass feeding on and near the surface, and for an extended period of time. Once again, at dawn the fish were a bit selective on size, as only very small shad were found on the surface at that time. As the sky brightened, multiple sizes of shad began to appear and mix together, and then the fish began to hit anything that moved. During this early bite, I put on a silver blade bait for both boys. Later, I left Ryan using a blade bait on the closed faced outfit, and switched Reid over to spinning gear with the blade bait, and then later placed a Spook Jr. on it just to give him some more exposure to different tackle and techniques. The fishing was nothing short of awesome … I commented to Ken on one occasion that the aggressiveness the fish displayed today reminded me more of a saltwater scenario than white bass in freshwater. The boys fished hard, and, by about 9:15a, we’d boated exactly 100 fish. Every single fish was of legal length with seven fish going between 14-15 inches. All were clean and healthy. Many had newly swallowed shad in their gullets.

Around 9:15 most everything had settled down pretty well, although “popcorn” schools of whites could still be seen regularly over open water. To pursue these fish would require a lot of running and turning with the trolling motor and a lot of long casts with many going unanswered. I didn’t think this best for the boys, so, we changed up at this point and went with the downriggers.

We downrigged for about an hour. By the time we finished up, the boys were setting the lines and lowering and raising the balls by themselves. We caught fish regularly with baits (Lunker Lickers and Pet Spoons) trolled at 15 to 22 feet as sonar dictated. We finished up around 10:15 when “nature called” to Ryan, with 121 fish now on the tally board.

Being the die-hard young fisherman he was, Reid continued fishing at the dock as Ryan answered nature’s call. I rigged him up with a pole and line with a light slip cork and a small hook and he pestered the local sunfish population for a while, later joined by Ryan. The two of them added 6 more fish to the count including bluegill sunfish, longear sunfish, and a green sunfish.

Around 10:30 we wrapped things up and headed our separate ways — of course not without Ryan verifying that he’d contributed to exactly 127 fish being landed this day. This was a great trip with a great family.

As I was loading the boat on the trailer, a big ruckus broke out about 80 yards behind the boat as a school of largemouth began tearing into shad. Not being one who can turn down a shot at topwater action of any sort, I scooted the boat right back off the trailer, left the truck sitting on the ramp, cast a Spook Jr. into the fray, and landed 4 keeper black bass in about 8 minutes!! A little icing on the cake for the old guide!

TALLY = 131 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 on Stillhouse in advance of a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip tomorrow.

PENDING STILLHOUSE CATCH & RELEASE LAKE RECORD: WHITE BASS, 15 1/8 INCHES, TAKEN ON REEFRUNNER CICADA BLADEBAIT

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78.8F

Wind: Winds were light from the NE at around 7 at the start of the trip, slowly increasing to around NE at 13 by late morning, and growing even stronger into the afternoon in advance of a cool front due to pass late this evening .

Skies: Skies were fair the entire morning.

Fishing was very simple this morning. It was just a matter of being at the right place at the right time. The right place was Area 444 and the right time was from 6:40 to about 9:30. Over this time span I saw some of the strongest topwater feeding I’ve seen on Stillhouse in a long while. I attribute this to the lack of hydrilla once again allowing the white bass and small black bass to freely drive shad across expanses of water without anywhere for them to hide, and to an abundance of small shad now in the system due to a very successful spawn which coincided with the 3.5 foot water rise a few weeks ago. Once the sun peeked over the horizon the fish turned on on topwater. At first they were a bit selective on size, as only very small shad were found on the surface. As the sky brightened, multiple sizes of shad began to appear and mix together, and then the fish began to hit anything that moved. During the early bite, a well-placed Cork Rig or a silver blade bait did about equally. Later, the Cork Rig and a Spook Jr. did the trick, and both allowed for long distance casting. By the time the melee ended, I’d boated 75 fish, 100% of which were white bass and 100% of which were legal. All these fish were clean and healthy; 3 fish went 14.5 inches.

After the topwater settled down to just dribs and drabs, I began to focus on concentrated bottom hugging fish. By hovering in place with the troller, I cast out to 23-25 feet of water where sonar indicated white bass were grouped. I then lift-dropped a blade bait back to the boat with a slow, steady retrieve. I stayed in one spot and added exactly 45 more fish to the tally, including 1 largemouth, 4 drum, and 40 white bass. The largest white bass went 15 1/8 inches and 1.25+ pounds and will qualify as a new lake record under the brand new waterbody catch and release category which opened on June 1st.

By 10:00 all had settled down, although “popcorn” schools of whites could still be seen from time to time over open water.

Just out of curiosity, I checked from Area 454 through Area 208 to Area 207 for signs of bait and gamefish on sonar while running downriggers. Over this span, I came up with only one short largemouth on a silver White Willow. Not much was showing for bait here, either. With that run completed, I wrapped it up with 116 fish brought to boat today.

TALLY = 116 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 on Stillhouse after a ministry-packed weekend. It was good to have the boat to myself with no cell phone and some cool, quiet time alone.

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~81.3F

Wind: Winds were light from the SSE at around 5-6 at the start of the trip, slowly increasing to around S at 11 by late morning .

Skies: Skies were bright and clear the entire morning.

I went armed with my flyrod and topwater tackle today, hoping the fish are getting their stride on their summer patterns now. I quickly checked several areas without making a cast, including 176, 451, and 242. I saw very, very light action at each location, but nothing to get excited about.

I then headed to Area 007 and found better concentrations of fish in 6-12 of water here, and willing to pop up on top now and then. I very quickly landed 2 fifteen inch blacks on my Polished Chicken fly on the flyrod as several small wolfpacks of fish broke water right near the boat. After that, I just didn’t stay lucky, and found most of the schools of fish on top much more distant. I then switched over to conventional tackle using the Cork Rig and went to work on ’em. Over the next 2 hours I landed 24 more fish including white bass and largemouth, all on the Cork Rig. These fish were all in small wolfpacks of 4-6 fish each and were spread N to S from Area 007 to Area 205. By 9:30 these fish were just about done.

I then headed between Areas 434 and 245 and found even smaller packs of 2-4 fish, mostly short blacks, working on shad over 16-22 feet. I once again just concentrated on topwater fish and managed 3 short bass over about 40 minutes. The activity window for the morning was clearly on its way to closing.

I made a quick run to Area 450 and ran sonar, finding abundant bait blanketing the bottom. When bait is seen blanketing the bottom versus being grouped into balls, it is a sign that they are relaxed and not being forced about by gamefish — not good. I did see gamefish marks mixed in with the bait on occasion, so I decided to give slabbing a try regardless. It took a little work to get a few fish perked up enough to strike, but I did manage to take 6 whites and 3 drum from this area sitting in 25 feet of water. All of these coame on a TNT 180 in 3/8 oz. Once these fish quit, I had that sixth sense feeling that the morning bite was done, and headed on in.

TALLY = 38 FISH, all caught and released except the sunfish we used as bait

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