Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report – 17 August 2009 – 51 Fish






Fished a half-day morning trip today with father and son Jim and Preston B. of Temple. Young Preston is really into fishing and his dad is trying to keep up with him. Jim wanted to learn some approaches to catching fish that the family could then duplicate in their own boat on area lakes.

Preston holds the largest of our white bass today measuring 15 3/8 inches which will earn him a TP&WD Big Fish Award

An 11th hour surprise — as we were about to wrap up the trip, this nice channel cat tore into Preston’s Lunker Licker!


Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 1:00pm

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~84.4 to 85.5F

Wind: Winds were SW all day; very light until around 8:45, then slowly tapering up to ~13, then slacking off to a sustained 10-11mph.

Skies: Skies were fair all day.

We started off looking for topwater in the vicinity of Area 061 and to the S. over deeper water. I wasn’t too hopeful about the prospects as the winds were very light. We found several pods of fish very briefly feeding and they were scattered all over the surface. The fellows did pretty well getting accurate casts out and correctly retrieving, but the fish really weren’t schooled tightly enough nor were they all that aggressive. We zero’ed on top this morning, but the technique of sighting and casting to surface feeding fish was understood, so we moved on to “Lesson 2”.

For this, we headed to Area 203 and used a bream pole and slip float to target sunfish. We got 1 very quickly and missed a few more. Again, the intent was to show the pair different things they could do to catch fish themselves. We didn’t spend much more time at this as the wind began to increase, and I knew we needed to look deep at that point for some white bass action starting to ramp up.

We headed directly for the span from Area 056 to Area 176 and I showed the fellows the basics of downrigging. We immediately got into fish and caught a total of 18 fish here including whites ranging from juvenile to 11.25 inches, as well as a single drum. Jim commented that he just didn’t see them attaching a downrigger to their own boat, so I quickly tried to think through what other approaches we might take as downrigging has been my bread-and-butter tactic this summer and the morning was still early. We went to Area 444 and briefly ran the riggers once more and picked up 2 more white bass from 11-12 inches before I suggested that we might attempt to catch a few more sunfish and then fish downlines with a drift sock using the sunfish as bait. Preston liked the idea, so, off we went to capture 11 more sunfish at Area 239.

That (enjoyable) chore finished, we put downlines in at Area 222 and drifted to the NE on the SW breeze. We immediately got a 3″ sunfish hit by our largest white bass of the trip, a 15 3/8 incher. After another drift here, and another parallel to the shoreline from Area 476 to the NE we came up with nothing but a few hits. By now we’d normally be wrapping the trip up, but I hated to end on a slow note, so, I suggested we could put the riggers down again and stir things up for one last go at them. Long story short, down went the riggers at the span from Area 444 to Area 206 and up came 21 more fish in about 35 minutes, including our largest fish of the trip, a nice channel cat that dined on our large Lunker Licker. At that, we headed back to the dock.


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








Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report – 13 August 2009 – 46 Fish (AM Trip)






Fished a half-day morning trip today with father and son team Pitt and Robert G. of Round Rock. The Garrett’s are in the insurance business together and Pitt is a new boat owner. His goal today was to learn to use downriggers.

Pitt came to learn downrigging today and did well by mastering the basics by trip’s end.

Rob holds the largest of our white bass today, 14.75+ inches taken on a Pet / Licker combo


Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 12:15pm

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.5F

Wind: Winds were light and variable up through 10:40, when a sustained WNW ripple pushed by a 5-6 mph breeze finally began.

As we began our day I explained a few things at dockside about the day I anticipated: topwater at sunrise followed by downrigging thereafter, and gave the fellows some tips about retrieve methods and speed to help them be successful. The fact that we had absolutely no wind was a big concern. As we searched for topwater action just as the sun rose just to the WSW of Area 062, I found the fish had a “delayed start” versus the past several trips, but finally did feed, albeit fairly lightly, beginning around 7:20. We took only 4 fish on top today. By 8:10 things were quiet here. We went to Area 333 looking for more topwater but found about the same.

At this point it seemed a good time to provided the detailed coaching Pitt desired on downrigging. We began with just one rigger out. I set it and explained each step of the process as I did so. We were blessed to catch a white bass immediately so they could both see what a strike looked like in the rod tip, and so they could then work through re-setting the downrigger themselves. At first, I explained each step again, but, by the end of the trip both fellows were able to get the gear down efficiently and accurately based on where fish showed on sonar. Once we had the basics down and bumped up to two downriggers, we enjoyed some consistent action in the vicinity of Area 480 / 481. It gave up 11 fish in short order but then the bait dissipated and the whites did, too. We then struggled a while as the sun increased in intensity and the surface was mirror slick, catching only 2 more fish over a 55 minute span. We found ample bait with gamefish nearby around Area 444, Area 205, and Area 217, but the fish just refused to turn on.

Around 9:30, a light NW ripple began, so we immediately headed to the south side of the lake where this wind was impacting the most. We looked hard on sonar with riggers down from Area 495 to Area 452 but still came up with nothing. By now, that NW blow had rippled the entire surface of the lake and so, having already identified a number of areas holding bait, we headed back to those areas to see if the wind would spur on some activity. We first checked in the vicinity of Area 444. We found a little better action here, but small fish. We headed to the SSW and finally got into some fish just as they turned on for a about an hour coinciding with the best wind we’d had to that point, a 5-7 mph WNW breeze. From 10:45 to 12:15, at Area 471 / 476 we put the majority of our entire catch in the boat — 29 more fish to be exact — including 4 sets of tandems. During the peak of this activity, some fish were seen chasing shad clear to the surface, although the action was too far dispersed to consider casting to them.

By noon, the wind had slacked back off, the fish were settling down, and Pitt’s back got to hurting a bit from all the bending, reaching, cranking, and reeling that he was doing while going through the downrigging learning curve. At 46 fish boated, we called it a morning and headed for lunch.


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








Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 13 August 2009 – 46 Fish (PM Trip)






I was scheduled to fish a half-day evening trip today with a dad and his 11 year old boy, but, as a consequence for something he’d done, the young man lost his privilege to attend, so, I wound up fishing solo a bit unexpectedly this evening.

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time: 8:45pm

Air Temp: 94F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.5F

Wind: Winds were variable today, starting off from the S, then turning N as thunderheads developed with afternoon heating. As the storms passed the winds swung from NE through E, to SE by evening’s end.

I finished the morning trip at Stillhouse and hustled over to Belton (before knowing of the soon-to-be-adjusted plans) in order to scout out some fish for my young guest to catch.

I found bluegill easily taken on the fly near my launch site and put 5 in the boat and left them alone.

I then downrigged from Area 490-491 looking for whites and hybrid. I picked up 2 whites here, but really didn’t find the kind of quantities of bait I like to see, so left this area alone.

I then headed to Area 492 and found some easy bluegill fishing on the fly here, too. Put 5 in the boat and left them alone.

By now it was 3:15 and storms were beginning to pop up. I beached the boat and waited things out until around 4:30 when I got the call about the cancellation. By now the storms had passed and grey skies, and cooler NW winds prevailed.

I looked over the breakline in the vicinity of Area 488 and found the bottom blanketed with bait. The fact that bait was there was good, but the fact that it was not balled up indicated the bait was relaxed. I knew it’d be tough but went ahead and vertical jigged for over an hour here and every once in a while was able to perk up a fish, but the gamefish present were very sluggish. I caught 3 white bass, 2 largemouth, 1 crappie and 4 small blue cats here on blades and slabs.

I then moved to Area 489 and ran the downriggers over some bottom oriented fish here taking 3 whites and another blue cat before the fish thinned out; no bait was present here.

I then downrigged from Area 483 to Area 472 and encountered all small white bass here, boating 3 before moving on after spotting some surface action.

At a stretch of bank from Area 493 to Area 494 fair sized schools of 2-3 year old white bass were surface feeding on 1″+ shad. They readily took a Cork Rig with appropriate trailer and bladebaits as well. Fishing here was easy, and without any other boats nearby. I put 19 fish in the boat over the 25 minutes that these fish stayed active. By 7:35 they were done.

I wound up the evening fishing in a short stretch of water near Area 027. Around 7:45 the sun disappeared for good behind clouds to the west. Fishing stayed slow until actual, albeit obscured, sunset. Then, renewed surface action broke out and stayed minimally visible for about 15 minutes, with fish just popping here and there, not really feeding on the surface. I landed 5 fish via surface and sub-surface retrieves, and then, after dark, got 3 more fish with slow, steady retrieves along bottom, all with a bladebait.



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








Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Report – 10 Aug. 2009 – 51 Fish






Fished a half-day morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip this morning with repeat customers Dr. David B., and his 7 and 10 year old sons, Jay and Jack.

Jack, Jay, and David with some of the largemouth taken topside during their sunrise feeding spree

From L to R: The downrigger ball (horizontal blue/red line) tracks into a thick, suspended school of white bass, and then over a bottom-hugging school of bait with white bass hovering over top of the bait and pinning the bait to bottom. This shows but a cross-section of a school of fish consisting of several hundred individuals which we fish over for about an hour.


Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~84.3F

Wind: Winds were SE at 5-6 at sunrise, transitioning and increasing to SSW at 14+ by trip’s end.

Skies: Fair skies all day.

We started today’s trip on the dock with some review on casting with closed face reels since the boys’ last trip back in June. The topwater schooling bass we were soon to search for are much more finicky now and are requiring smaller baits versus the Spooks and Sammys used previously. The boys looked good after a few throws, so we headed out as the sun was about to rise to chase fish.

Just minutes after sunrise the largemouth began to work in schools on the surface chasing shad in the vicinity of Area 061. They stayed active for 75 minutes, quickly tapering off around 8:15am. During this spree, the boys landed 13 largemouth of which 5 were of legal length. 2 other fish were lost on the shake at boatside.

After the largemouth sounded, we searched out deep water white bass. The first two areas we searched, Area 217 and vicinity and Area 481 and vicinity yielded little, although Area 211 held a bunch of bait.

On our third look we contacted fish and bait at Area 485. These fish were suspended, and our downrigging approach was very appropriate for taking these fish. We made pass after pass over these fish, and they bit for about an hour solid. We boated 35 fish here, mainly white bass, with a few largemouth thrown in, and including 2 sets of tandems on the Pet / Licker combo for Jack. When things really got hot, little Jay commented, “I could do this until midnight!”. By 10:45, these fish were slacking off pretty good.

I returned to the bait I’d found at Area 217 to see if gamefish had found them yet, but zeroed after ~10 minutes with lines in.

We wrapped up our trip just to the SE of Area 258. The groups of fish in here were both bottom hugging and suspended. The best action came when the downrigger balls scraped bottom on the little knob here and then came clear on the deep side. Just as the lures were about to come over the drop, the fish would strike them reliably. We took the count up over 50 and then called it a good day. The boys even got to steer the boat a little on our way back in.


TALLY = 51 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 Fishing Guide Report – 06 Aug 2009 – 58 Fish






Fished a half-day morning trip this morning with Bill (grand-dad), Ricky (dad), and young Tanner.



L to R: Ricky, Tanner, and Bill with a mixed bag of fish taken both on topwater and via downrigger

Ricky with one of several tandem hookups we caught on the Pet / Licker combo. Look closely and you’ll see the line connecting the lures still in the fishes’ mouths

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~83-84F

Wind: Winds were SW at 7 at sunrise.

Skies: We had with some thin grey clouds which cleared by 8:45am. The full moon shone as it set for the first hour of today’s trip.



As we began our day prior to sunrise, I coached Tanner a bit at dockside on the use of a spinning reel. He got the hang of it in about 7 casts, so I game my little safety talk as we motored out of the no-wake zone, and it was off to hunt the fish.

As the sun cleared the low morning clouds, largemouth bass began to feed in schools on the surface between Area 222 and 061 and to the south. We got right on them and stayed on them for just over an hour until they quit around 8:20am. The key to success was quick, accurate casts and a retrieve that kept the lure up in the surface film which the fish were visually oriented to. Bill and Ricky did well in this scenario, but Tanner struggled a bit, so, after the topwater, we rigged up with downriggers so he could catch up a little. We boated 19 largemouth by the time the topwater action died, with several more getting away on the jump.

We then began downrigging. We started off at between Area 222 and 460. Bait was thick on sonar here and the gamefish (white bass and largemouth) were right in the mix with them. We put 12 fish in the boat over the next 30 minutes and slowly saw the bait and the gamefish dissipate.

Next it was on to an expanse of water in the vicinity of Area 205. Here, we found fish very active on and near bottom in 22-24 feet. As the bottom is fairly here, I ran the balls quite close to bottom. Over the next hour plus we boated 16 fish here including 3 tandem catches on the Pet / Licker combo. Most fish were white bass striking the Pet. At one point, when I saw a heavy school of whites right on bottom, I buoyed, backed off, and tried to coach Tanner to catch a few on bladebait. That kind of backfired as I caught 3 fish (2 whites and a drum) while he zeroed … back to downrigging. We left this area once the bait and gamefish thinned out with exactly 50 fish landed.

We looked over Area 452 and Area 197 with sonar and found little.

We wound up the trip at Area 458 after seeing some good sonar returns showing gamefish (without bait nearby) holding tight to the bottom. I got Bill and Ricky up on the casting deck to my left and right and we worked these fish over with bladebaits landing our final 8 fish in about 2 minutes, which included 2 largemouth and 6 whites from out of 24-28 feet.


TALLY = 58 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 Fishing Guide Report – 03 Aug. 2009 – SKIFF Trip #5 — 43 Fish






Fished a half-day morning trip today on Stillhouse with 2 young men, Caleb Visser of Harker Heights, and Joseph Henry of Killeen. This was the fifth SKIFF Program trip that I’ve run. SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. SKIFF trips are funded by donations both given by and collected by the members of the Austin Fly Fishers. AFF has 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. The boys’ dads, Phil Visser and Lionel Henry, are currently serving our country in Iraq and Kuwait.

Caleb with a pair of whites caught at the same time on his tandem rig — a Pet / Licker combo

Joseph with a chunky largemouth that jumped 3 times before we landed it


Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 10:55a

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~84.3F

Wind: Winds were light from the SSW at around 4 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were bright and clear the entire morning.

After meeting both boys and their moms at dockside, we put snacks onboard, covered some safety items and headed out to the fishing grounds.

Both boys had fished before and were good listeners. We scouted for some signs of topwater, but the near calm conditions rarely allow for that to happen. When no topwater action became apparent, we deployed the downriggers amidst bait and white bass showing strong on sonar in the vicinity of Area 444. We caught fish continuously through 9:40am when things began to weaken a bit. During this time we landed 34 fish including 8 fish taken on tandem rigs which each consisted of a white bass/largemouth bass combination — I’ve never seen that happen so many times in such a short span of time.

The entire time we downrigged fish would sporadically break the surface, but not in numbers sufficient to convince me to change tactics. Besides, the boys were having a great time using the downriggers and were “double-teaming” the fish. When one rod went off, one boy would fight the fish while the other reeled up the downrigger ball. Once I unhooked the fish, the one who caught it would pay his line back out and reset the rig, all so we could maximize the time spent with lures in the water. The boys really got into working the fish like that.

After 9:40a, we moved on to check a few other areas. As we covered ground from Area 056 to Area 176 we picked up a 2 largemouth, 1 white bass, and 1 drum. After failing to find much bait in this area, we moved on just to the NE of Areas 145 and 148 where we finished off the trip with 2 more largemouth and 3 more white bass.

I let the boys steer the boat a bit on the way back to the dock. As Joseph was at the wheel, I saw him yawn. I asked him if driving the boat was boring. He said, “No, I just didn’t sleep good last night ’cause I was so excited about the trip.”. I’ve been that boy’s shoes!!

I normally insist that we release all fish caught, but today I made an exception. Caleb took home a single fish so as to work towards a Boy Scout badge for catching and cleaning a fish.


TALLY = 43 FISH, all caught and released (except the white bass needed for the Boy Scout requirement!)


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