WHO I FISHED WITH: 16 year old Keyshawn Price and 13 year old Christijan Steven — brothers from Killeen, TX.  Their trip was “scholarshipped” by their next door neighbor, Marcy Brown, who thinks very highly of these two young men.

Thanks to a little disturbance in the weather which brought a light NW breeze and cloud cover, observing the surface for fish feeding on topwater lead to great sub-surface results this afternoon — 90 fish in all.

After doing well at vertical jigging, Keyshawn gave sight-casting to topwater feeding largemouth a try.  In doing so, he landed our largest fish of the trip.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday evening, 07 October

HOW WE FISHED:
The fish were really cranked up this afternoon, thanks to a mild weather disturbance and some grey, overcast skies.  Topwater action was abundant and widespread, and pointed the way to even better sub-surface action.  We immediately got onto, and stayed on, heavily congregated white bass in 47 feet.  Each time the fishing got slow, I took a couple serpentine passes into gradually shallower water and found them (four times) just as heavily congregated.  We only stopped using tailspinners to fish vertically because the boys’ wrists were getting sore, so, we cast the bladebaits and fished them lift-drop style, then closed out the evening downrigging both where we had fished all afternoon, and at one additional location for the last 25 minutes of light.

OBSERVATIONS:  Second consecutive day witnessing migrating white pelicans; flock of migrating teal are now commonplace.

TALLY: 90 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  83

Water Surface Temp:  79.4

Wind Speed & Direction:  NW3-5

Sky Conditions:  20% white cloud cover at sunrise, increasing to under 30% by trip’s end

Water Level: 1.22 feet low

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2019, then progressively shallower to to a line from 1882 through 664 – vertical work

**Area vic 088 through 1439 downrigging in the last 25 minutes of daylight

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Californian-turned-Texan Eric Balders now living in Marlin, TX, after moving from Chula Vista, CA, to work in the aerospace industry here.

 

Eric Balders caught the first white bass of his life today, and used a Carolina rig to catch his first largemouth on such a rig, thus opening doors to more than just fishing visible cover for that species.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass in the first 3 hours, then on largemouth bass for the remainder of the trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 07 October

HOW WE FISHED: Eric’s hope was to recalibrate from the saltwater fishing he’d grown accustomed to in California where he pursued yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, and yellowtail, over to freshwater fishing.  We split the trip into two distinct parts involving a focus on white bass early, then a focus on largemouth towards the end.  While fishing for white bass, we used downriggers, tailspinners, and slabs (smoking and easing).  After some limited success on downriggers, we found a cooperative school of white bass that “stayed put” for nearly two hours allowing us to tally exactly 51 fish before we set our sights on largemouth. Eric had never before landed a white bass.

From just before 10am to our wrap-up around noon, I coached Eric on the use of a Carolina rig to help him access other than shallow water fish at his new “home” lake of Tradinghouse Reservoir, near Waco.  At our first of 4 stops Eric felt a largemouth take his bait, responded quickly by taking up slack and doing a sweeping hookset, and then hooked and landed his first largemouth on a Carolina rig.

OBSERVATIONS:  Compared to Thursday and Friday’s topwater action, this morning’s topwater action was much reduced.  The bite also began later today, not really getting going until around 8:15 versus right at 7:30 on Thursday and around 7:45 on Friday.

TALLY: 53 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:00noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  70

Water Surface Temp:  78.8

Wind Speed & Direction:  SW5-7

Sky Conditions:  20% white cloud cover at sunrise, increasing to under 30% by trip’s end

Water Level: 1.22 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1998 sparse success on downriggers

**Area 2020 – 0.5 hours of solid white bass action on tailspinners

**Area 1027/1029 – ~1.5 hours of solid white bass action on tailspinners

**Area 771, 680, 534, and 675 – Carolina rig for 2 fish at 771

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Shaun Trinkle of Harker Heights, TX, and his two sons, Bradley (age 6) and Wyatt (age 4).   Shaun is on active duty in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Hood, and is originally from Virginia.

 

Bradley Trinkle with one of many white bass he brought over the gunwales today.

“Okay, Mr. Bob, take the picture any time now.  The sun is killin’ me!!”   — Wyatt Trinkle with a 2-year class white bass.

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass in the first 2.5 hours, then on sunfish in the last 45 minutes.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday morning, 06 October

HOW WE FISHED: Given the boys’ age and limited experience, we used downriggers as long as the boys stayed interested in that method.  Once the novelty wore off (about the same time the first two areas we fished successfully began to taper off), we changed over to vertical tactics using tailspinners over a very cooperative school of deep white bass mixed with a few small largemouth in 47′.  We wrapped up with a round of shallow water sunfishing around weeds/rocks/brush for the last 45 minutes of the trip.

OBSERVATIONS:

TALLY: 76 FISH, all caught and released, including 48 white bass, 2 largemouth bass, and 26 sunfish

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  71

Water Surface Temp:  78.9

Wind Speed & Direction:  S5-8

Sky Conditions:  10% white cloud cover at sunrise, increasing to under 20% by trip’s end

Water Level: 1.21 feet low

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1523-1715 – low light downrigging with balls set at 36-38′ through 8:35a

**Area 074-1278 – downrigging with balls set at 30-32′ through 9:15a

**Area 2018 – tailspinners for white bass and 2 largemouth through 10:05a

**Area 667 – sunfish on slipfloats up shallow for 26 fish through 11:00a

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Mr. Todd Smith of Belton and his mother-in-law, Juanice Hamm, of Temple.  Juanice used to live in the Brookhaven Community which was on the south bank of Cowhouse Creek before Camp Hood came along in the 1940’s.  Todd makes a living selling Coca-Cola products locally.

 

Todd Smith of Belton and his mother-in-law, Juanice Hamm of Temple, enjoyed a half-day outing in pursuit of primarily white bass on Stillhouse.  Juanice’s daughter, Tina Smith, presented a fishing gift certificate to her mom and husband for Christmas 2016 and today was the day they chose to redeem it.

As the bite was winding down at the first place we had success at using vertical tactics, catfish and drum moved in to clean up the feces and regurgitated shad left on the bottom by the heavily feeding white bass we caught over the previous hour.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 02 October

HOW WE FISHED:  Our first hour was spent downrigging successfully over 40-50 feet of water for fish that were suspended.  We set our downrigger balls at 36-38 feet for fish that were at, or just slightly deeper than, this depth.  Our second hour saw a halt to natural activity (no birds, no bait moving, no fish on sonar, etc.) as a murky, grey cloud bank moved over and reduced the light to pre-dawn levels.  By 9:15 this murk began to clear and the bite picked up again, allowing us to catch fish consistently from out of bottom-hugging schools with vertical tactics.

OTHER NOTES/OBSERVATIONS:  Noted abundant, widespread largemouth bass schooling action in a number of open water areas both this morning and this afternoon, with more action in the PM than in the AM.

TALLY: 62 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Water Surface Temp: 78.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE under 5 for first 2 hours, then SE at 10-11 with slowly clearing skies for the last 2 hours

Sky Conditions: The morning started out with a grey cloud bank in the east through which the sun would rise.  Just about the time the sun was clearing this cloud bank (around 8:15) our conditions got quickly murky with dark, low, grey clouds under low-wind conditions.  The fish dropped off and we went for an hour just searching for fish unsuccessfully.  Once the clouds cleared and a breeze resumed around 9:15, we again got on active fish and stayed on them through the close of the trip just after 11:15.

Water Level: 1.36 feet low

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1523 through 590 — 19 fish in an hour’s effort using 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons and balls set at 36 and 38′.

**Area vic 470 — 19 fish in an hour’s effort from 9:15 to 10:15 using slabs with a smoking and easing tactic, and using tailspinners.

**Area vic 1034 — 24 fish in an hour’s effort from 10: 25 to 11:25 using slabs with a smoking and easing tactic, and using tailspinners.

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: 12-year-old Jayden Abbott and 10-year-old Tyler Nolen

 

12-year-old Jayden Abbott celebrated his birthday aboard my boat this afternoon, landing his fair share of the 91 fish that we caught.

 

10-year-old Tyler Nolen celebrated his birthday, as well, doing a bit more snacking than Jayden, but still holding his own in the fishing department.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday evening, 30 September

HOW WE FISHED:  Given that I’d only come off the lake from the morning trip about 5 hours before the start of this trip, and (more importantly) that the weather had not changed since the end of the morning trip, we essentially drove from the courtesy dock to the fish and had both boys tight on fish within minutes of saying goodbye to their dads in the parking lot.  The fishing stayed solid all afternoon as the winds stayed blowing as higher pressure and brighter skies prevailed.  We fished vertically for the first 3 hours with both slabs and tailspinners, then, mainly for variety’s sake, changed over to downrigging in the final hour.  All fish were caught between 36 and 43 feet on bottom.  The last 45 minutes prior to sunset saw the fish pull up off bottom by as much as 8-10 feet where we ran the downriggers at 32-36 feet to continue catching them right up until trip’s end at 7:15p.

OTHER NOTES/OBSERVATIONS:  Noted abundant, widespread largemouth bass schooling action in a number of open water areas both this morning and this afternoon, with more action in the PM than in the AM.

TALLY: 91 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15p

End Time: 3:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp: 80.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE under 10mph

Sky Conditions: Under 20% white cloud cover for the entire trip. First day of clearing after a mild cool front passed and then stalled, bringing cooler temperatures and about 2 days’ worth of rainy, humid weather.

Water Level: 1.32 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2014 – tailspinners accounted for exactly 35 fish from out of a heavily congregated school of fish on bottom.

**Area vic 1034 – tailspinners and slabs accounted for exactly 20 more fish

**Area 2016 and then Area 1993 to 2014 gave up a final 36 fish in the form of singles, doubles and triples (x2) on downrigged 3-armed umbrella rigs as fish moved up in the water column and shoreward as the light faded before and at sunset.

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle