Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report – 18 Sep. 2009 – 19 Fish






Fished a morning half day trip with Gary Winters of Frisco, Texas, today. Gary’s step-daughter is to be married in Salado tomorrow. His very wise wife booked him with me to keep him out of her hair during all the pre-nuptial goings-on, and cleverly disguised the tactic as a “present”. Smart, smart lady that Mrs. Jane — or so says my wife!!

Gary’s best of the 19 we boated to today. This one went 3.75 pounds and came out of 25 feet of water.

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:15pm

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78.6F

Wind: Winds were from the NNW the entire trip at about 8-10 .

This doggone low pressure just won’t let up and the fish are in a deep funk. We struggled a bit today in the face of a damp NNW wind that’s been around for 8 days now. The skies were heavily clouded to the point that I moved our start time back to 7:30 to have enough light to spot any bird, bait, or fish activity that might be there to observe. But, even with enough light, there was little to see.

We fished open water first as I was concerned the winds might pick up as they did yesterday. We hit Area 484 and came up with a largemouth and a white bass on downrigged Pets, but after that it got awful quiet.

We worked our way south from here and picked up another white bass at Area 041. These fish were just suspended in the middle of nowhere, not relating to bottom, to bait, or with many other fish.

Next we headed to Area 120 / 142 and were relieved to find some bait here, but found primarily smallish fish relating to that bait. We initially rigged up with downriggers and quickly put 2 fish in the boat and saw what looked to be solid bottom-hugging fish here in 25-27 feet of water. We hovered over these fish with the trolling motor and worked blade baits over them both vertically and horizontally, picking up 2 fish, both of which went ~12 inches and would be the largest white bass we’d take all day. We continued working blade for a few more minutes without success, so we then rigged back up with the downriggers and worked a broader area in this same locale, picking up 9 more fish, including 8 small white bass and the best fish of the trip, a nice largemouth going 3.75 pounds.

After this area played out, we headed to Area 243 and closed out the trip by boating a keeper white, as short largemouth and an average crappie in quick succession, all solo and suspended at mid-depths over 45+ feet of water.

Gary and I spoke in advance of the trip and his goal was to learn a few new techniques for the day he gets his boat lake-ready and takes on nearby Lake Lewisville and Ray Hubbard. By trip’s end he was comfortable rigging the downrigger independently, as well as reading a modern flasher, vertical jigging, and horizontally working a blade bait. To him, the fish were icing on the cake. To me, I guess I just like lots of icing!

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








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