This past Wednesday afternoon I fished a multi-species trip on Lake Belton with father and daughter pair Mike Cox and Hallie Cox of Austin.

 

Above: Texas author Mike Cox with a nice 18.5″ Lake Belton hybrid striped bass.  This was only the second hybrid Mike has ever landed.  The first, a 12-incher, came just moments before this one struck Mike’s slab.

Hallie and Mike Cox display a sampling of the larger white bass that fell for our 3/8 oz. slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks in mid-afternoon over 32′ of water.
Back in September, I was invited by Mr. John Jefferson to speak at the Austin Woods and Waters hunting and fishing club and Mike was in the audience. My topic was a addressing a typical year of fishing through all of the seasons on both Belton and Stillhouse Hollow. While Hallie was home from the University of Texas on winter break, Mike decided to see for himself if the fishing was as good as I had advertised.

Mike started his career as a reporter, with much of his early work done for the Austin American Statesman.  Later, he began writing books and has authored over 20 works, mainly about Texas, including Time of the Rangers: The Texas Rangers, 1900 to Present, as well as The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900, and Texas Disasters, True Stories of Tragedy and Survival.

Our conditions this afternoon were very good. We found ourselves at the tail end of a warming trend with mostly cloudy skies and a breeze just west of the south.

We were able to get on deep fish in clear water right away this afternoon thanks to some loons diving down on shad and indicating the presence of fish.  In our first 90 minutes on the water put over 70 fish in the boat. There was then a bit of a lull in the action as the skies brightened and the wind slacked off a bit for about 45 minutes. Around 3:30 or so, some low grey clouds obscured the sun, the south southwest breeze begin to blow a bit stronger, and the fish responded well to this change. Over the next 75 minutes we were able to take our tally up to 115 fish before the fish discontinued their feed in the 32 foot water we were fishing, the sending us hunting for active fish once again.

Surprisingly, no gulls or terns fed this evening, so all of the fish we found we found with sonar. Around 4:45 I pulled up on the same area that lit up with fish just prior to sunset last evening, and just like clockwork, the fish moved in, perked up, and bit well right up until dark. We put a final 53 fish in the boat at this area including the very first hybrid striped bass Mike had ever landed. He replaced that 12 inch long personal best just moments later with a nice 18 inch hybrid striper that weighed in right at 3 1/8 pounds.

As the sun set, our grand total stood at 168 fish.

TALLY = 168 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:00p

End Time:  5:20p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  58.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW6-9

Sky Conditions: 50% cloud cover on a fair sky

Water Level:  0.50 feet above full pool

GT =  30

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1023/678 –  large, deep school of smaller white bass in 42′ giving up 70 fish in 2 hours

**Area 1871 – school of mixed class of 1, 2, & 3 year fish in 32′ giving up 45 fish

**Area 1001 – excited school of fish in low-light feeding conditions in 25′ giving up 53 fish

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

As the last day of balmy, 70 degree weather moved east out of Texas, I conducted the last Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip of the year with 11-year-old Emily Reynnells and her 8-year-old brother, Josh, aboard this past Wednesday morning, Dec. 28th.

 

Above: Emily Reynnells, daughter of U.S. Army Major Steve Reynnells and his wife, Johanna, with the largest fish of the final SKIFF trip of 2016.  This Stillhouse Lake largemouth measured 18 inches.

 

From left: Emily and Josh Reynnells with white bass that fell for our small, 3/8 oz. slabs.

Like many military kids today, it seems Josh and Emily’s dad, Major Steve Reynnells, has been gone on duty more than he has been at home during their lives.  Major Reynnells served in Iraq from 2010 to 2011.  He was then sent to Fort Polk, LA, from 2014 to 2016.  Then, just when he thought he might get to return to Texas and his family from Fort Polk, he got orders sending him to Afghanistan, where he is currently serving, for nearly another year.  And then there is the training, field time, and schooling that takes place even when our soldiers are back at their home posts that often keep them from truly being at home, even when they are “home”.

I picked the kids up at their home in Harker Heights, TX, with my boat in tow and we headed for Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, a 6,000 acre impoundment managed by the Corps of Engineers.  With school out for the Christmas break and dad overseas, the kids’ mom, Johanna, scheduled a bit of needed respite time without the kids around.  This is one of the most welcomed features of the SKIFF program – providing a break to the homefront parent.

The kids were excited to see whitetail deer along the way, and the flock of coots at lakeside that greeted us as we arrived at the launch site.

The conditions were good for white bass fishing, with some grey cloud cover and a manageable southerly breeze.  Additionally, a migratory population of gulls feeding on shad pushed to the surface by hungry white bass beneath made fish location fairly simple.

Over our 4 hours together, the kids landed exactly 51 fish with Emily’s 18 inch largemouth anchoring the catch.  Using an “easing” tactic with a white 3/8 oz. slab was the key as we held steady over top of the fish using the newest Minn Kota trolling motor “Spot Lock” technology so the kids could more easily look and feel for strikes down 20 to 40 feet below the boat.

THE SEASON IN REVIEW …

Thanks to your donations, contributions, fundraising efforts, scholarships, grants, program discounts, encouragement, and more, we were able to put exactly 44 kids on the water over the course of 19 guided trips in 2016, thus bringing the total number of kids SKIFF has taken fishing since its inception in 2009 to 346.

This year those 44 kids landed 1,081 fish – an average of over 24 fish caught per child.  The grand total number of fish caught since the program’s start now stands at 8,382.

In 2016, seven of our SKIFF participants landed the first fish of their lifetime and were awarded a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish Award”.

For all of this, “thank you” just does not seem adequate, but, nonetheless, THANK YOU!!!!

 

 

Details on the Reynnells kids’ trip…

TALLY = 51fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  60.0F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm at trip’s start, quickly building up to SSW01-12

Sky Conditions: 50% cloud cover on a fair sky

Water Level:  0.45 feet above full pool

GT =  0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1721 – wolfpacks of fish in ~26′ but pretty tight-lipped thanks to the near calm conditions for the first 35 minutes

**Area 1060 – single large school of white bass holding on a breakline

**Area 091 – single small school of white bass holding on a breakline

**Area 784 – most productive area, and the last one we fished under the windiest and cloudiest conditions of the morning.  Very large school of smallish white bass were holding in 32′ at the base of this hump.  We landed 26 fish in our final 40 minutes on the water here.

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Tuesday afternoon I fished with three young ladies aged 10, 11, and 12. My youngest angler was Annemarie Curran, joined by her cousins, Ella and Grace Rinehart.

 

From left: Ella Rinehart, Annemarie Curran, and Grace Rinehart put a grand total of 134 fish in the boat under balmy conditions on Dec. 27th.

 

Above: Grace landed our largest hybrid right near sunset.

Above: Annemarie landed our largest freshwater drum from out of over 40′ of water in mid-afternoon.

Above: Ella landed this 10″ white bass, the very first fish she ever caught!!

Chaperoning the girls were brothers-in-law Mike Curran and Eddie Rinehart, and the girls’ grandpa, Phil Curran, all from the Austin area.

Customarily, I arrive at the boat ramp about 30 minutes before my clients are due. Today, as I waited, the weather had me quite concerned. The thin gray cloud cover we had in place all day began to thin, and the light northeast breeze which never got up over 7 mph to start with, appear to be fading. Gray and breezy conditions are ideal; it we were headed for just the opposite – – clear, calm conditions.

As the kids arrived with their dads and their grandfather, I went over all of my usual dockside orientation items, and by the time we shoved off, a very thin gray layer of clouds began to obscure the direct sun, and a very light northeast breeze at 3 to 4 mph was at least rippling the surface.

The first area I searched with sonar revealed little. The second area I search with sonar revealed even less. As I looked over the third area I’d hoped to find fish at, I probed a bit deeper – – between 40 and 45 feet — and found a few fish. This was just enough of a hint to get me headed in the right direction, and, even though the bite wasn’t very strong here, Ella was able to catch the first fish of her life at this location — a 10″ white bass.

At the next area I searched, I found more fish at around 42 feet, and once we got those fish started, they bit for a solid 2.25 hours which is quite incredible given the nearly windless conditions that evolved as we sat on this area. We used white, 3/8 oz. Redneck Fish’n Jigs Model 180 slabs with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached at the line tie to seal the deal using an easing tactic the entire time.  We landed mainly white bass, but also had a few hybrid striper, largemouth, drum, and even one channel cat bite on our slabs.

By around 4:15 PM, as the 77th fish was pulled aboard, the sonar finally went blank and I knew it was time to begin searching once again. As I made my way towards shallower water (anticipating that if we were going to have a low-light evening bite, that it would happen in shallower water) we were blessed to find a handful of helpful gulls just starting to get antsy over top of a school of very active fish pushing shad to the surface where these gulls could get at them. We eased on top of these fish and used a smoking tactic with larger, three-quarter ounce white slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks to provide the girls with a grand finale. In under 40 minutes, we took our tally from 77 fish up to 134 fish with a mixed bag of hybrid striper, white bass, drum, and largemouth bass.

Despite this trip being dedicated to making the girls successful, Mike, Eddie, and Phil all thanked me, expressing how they learned a lot, too, especially concerning the use and interpretation of sonar.

 

TALLY = 134 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:00p

End Time:  5:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  58.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW4 at trip’s start, tapering to near calm

Sky Conditions: 50% cloud cover on a fair sky

Water Level:  0.51 feet above full pool

GT =  105

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1872- a few white bass by easing from a bottom-hugging school in 40-45 feet of water

**Area 1870 – 2.25 hours of steady action by easing from a bottom-hugging school in 40-45 feet of water

**Area 1001 – 57 fish in 40 minutes fishing 3/4 oz. slabs for bottom-oriented and suspended fish initially located under birds

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline