September | 2018 | Fishing Report

ONWARD INTO THE FOG — 34 Fish with Bob Roberts

September 28th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, September 28th, I fished with Bob Smith. Bob makes his living as an attorney up in the Dallas area but keeps a second home on Lake Belton. When Bob got the hankering to go fishing, he recalled that I’d fished with his son, Marshall, back in January of 2016, and so he called me up.

We had an unexpected, unforecast blanket of fog make the going tough for us this morning. I’ve yet to figure out why, but, foggy mornings tend not to produce well. I’ve noted this many times in my reports; I suspect it has something to do with reduced light levels and the absence of sudden brightening (as occurs during an unobscured sunrise), but that’s just a theory. Bottom line, we worked for the 34 fish we caught this morning.

Our third hour of the trip, from ~9a to 10a, was our most productive. This coincided with the clearing of the fog and some brightening of the skies with a SE breeze at about 7mph blowing steadily. During this time we saw a mix of white bass and largemouth begin to push shad around in the lower half of the water column over 34-39 feet of water. Our best catch rate occurred during this time.

We got only one school of white bass to fire up strong enough and long enough to take vertically fished tailspinners this morning.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday morning, 28 September 2018

HOW WE FISHED: We covered a lot of water with downriggers this morning looking for small groups of active fish under conditions which typically make the fishing tough. We found fish in 3 distinct areas. Strangely, the least productive of these areas for downrigging was the most productive on the vertical presentation of tailspinners. As we entered this area, fish were seen holding loosely and in a passive mood in the lower third of the water column around 36-39′. Most of our horizontal efforts with the ‘riggers went ignored. When I found a heavier-than-average concentration of fish, I SpotLocked on them and we worked slabs through them without result. We then switched over to tailspinners and had to work them a bit before the first bite. Once the first fish hit, we got the school fired up for a short while and caught fish steadily until they turned off once again. I attempted downrigging through the remaining fish without success.

STILLHOUSE HOLLOW FISHING GUIDE OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: Under heavy fog, our best results came in the hour that followed the start of the clearing of the fog as a SE wind continued and 100% grey cloud cover ensued.

TALLY: 34 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:20 am

End Time: 11:35 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Water Surface Temp: 77.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: ~SE7 all morning, tapering to SE3-4 in the last hour

Sky Conditions: Fog and heavy clouds all morning.

Water Level: 7.94 feet low and falling

GT = 17

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0052C – light action on downriggers early under dense fog

**Area SH0059C – a few fish on downriggers leading to the sighting of suspended fish at 34-38 feet which we successfully worked tailspinners for

**Area SH0047C to SH0048C to 1969 – downrigging at the top of the lower half of the water column for mixed whites and largemouth chasing shad under clearing, brightening conditions

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Wake up! This is not a joke! We’re going fishing! — 120 fish with the Goods

September 27th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, September 26th, Dr. Josh Good, a Baylor Scott & White anesthesiologist, slipped into his son’s room after wrapping up his hospital shift just an hour earlier at 5am. Josh tried to rouse his son who, suspecting his dad was working to wake him up for football practice at the normal time of 6am, resisted. When Josh told Jacob that he did not have football practice but was instead going fishing on the occasion of his 12th birthday, Jacob was in disbelief. It wasn’t until his dad showed him my email with details and directions to the boat ramp that he realized this was actually going to happen.

At a few minutes before 7am, I welcomed Josh and Jacob aboard and thus started an awesome morning of pre-frontal fishing on Stillhouse Hollow.

Jacob got a reprieve from school and football practice on this, his 12th birthday. He and his dad, Josh, landed 120 fish.

We caught a nice mix of fish, including 19 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 99 white bass.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 26 September 2018

HOW WE FISHED: This morning we were blessed with pre-frontal conditions. The season’s first noticeably cool cold front was to move into our area around midday. We enjoyed the wind shift from S, through SW, to W over the 4+ hours we fished. All during this time the wind velocity was quite manageable, never exceeding 10mph. We also had just the thinnest layer of light, white haze to cut the direct rays of the sun as the trip began, and then enjoyed increasing cloud cover thereafter. The fish fed long and hard this morning, allowing us to catch them by downrigging, by vertical jigging, by working horizontally off bottom, and by sight casting.

Jacob broke the ice this morning with a “triple” on our first attempt at the first place we chose to put lines in the water. As the bottom just showed to be alive with fish on my sonar screens, I realized that although downrigging would remain effective, working tailspinners from a hover atop these fish would be even more effective. We had 28 fish in the boat before we moved from that spot less than 40 minutes later.

As we continue looking for fish, I spotted some topwater action from a mix of white bass and schoolie largemouth bass herding shad against the surface. These shad were ~2.75 inches in length, and most of the fish we caught were just packed full of them. We sightcast to these fish using long-casting outfits with my 3/8 oz. slabs on the business end until the action died down. We then spent the remainder of our trip, right up until 11:15, using a smoking tactic with those same slabs to catch white bass by the dozens. When all was said and done we landed exactly 120 fish of which 2 where freshwater drum, 19 were largemouth, and the remainder were white bass. The action was non-stop this morning — just right for a 12-year-old boy so as to keep him engaged the entire time.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: Despite several hours of topwater action, no bird activity was witnessed overtop of the action. The bait the fish were regurgitating this morning were 2.75″ threadfin. This was in stark contrast with the young of the year shad the fish have been burping up all summer up to this point. The thermocline numbers looked like this today:

0 feet 81.5

5 feet 81.5

10 feet 81.3

15 feet 81.3

20 feet 81.2

25 feet 81.2

30 feet 81.2

35 feet 80.9

40 feet 79.7

45 feet 77.8

50 feet 68.1

55 feet 63.1

TALLY: 120 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00 am

End Time: 11:15 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Water Surface Temp: 81.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: 8mph from S, shifting SW, shifting W, then ramping up suddenly from WNW as cold front arrived around 11:50am

Sky Conditions: Thin white haze on a bright sky, slowly clouding to 60% as the front drew nearer

Water Level: 7.92 feet low and falling

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0057C – found fish with downriggers and capitalized with tailspinners

**Area SH0041C through SH0058C – spotted topwater action and stayed with the action by moving and sightcasting until the action subsided with a windshift.

**Area SH0059C – smoking 3/8 oz. slabs

**Area v1446 – smoking 3/8 oz. slabs, then returned to sightcasting as the fish made one final binge in advance of the cold front.

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Live … From Poland … it’s… DAD!!! –30 Fish on SKIFF Trip #12

September 17th, 2018September 17th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, 17 September, I fished with 5-year-old John David Bowen and his mom, Lacey Bowen. This was the season’s 12th S.K.I.F.F. trip conducted exclusively for military children separated from their parent’s due to their military duty.

In John’s case, his dad, U.S. Army Sergeant Tom Bowen, an Army medic, is serving with an engineer battalion in Poland on a months-long deployment there. SGT Bowen has been in the Army for 10 years. John was super-excited to get to talk with his dad via FaceTime all the way from Poland for a few minutes. At that point, he’d landed 4 or 5 sunfish and talked so fast about all he was seeing and doing that I have no idea how SGT Bowen understood him!

John’s siblings are all girls and his mom had been at a loss for a way to provide him with some “guy time” activities, so, when she heard about SKIFF, she knew this would be a good fish. So, after getting everyone either shipped off to school or entrusted to the care of her mom visiting from South Carolina, Lacey loaded John up for an on-time arrival at Stillhouse Hollow for 7:15 this morning.

Although he immediately took to handling the smaller sunfish we started out the day with, when it came to handling the “big game” we pursued later, John just wasn’t too sure about them. Lacey promised John she’d hold the fish out as far away as she could to get John to join her for the mother-son photo.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 17 September 2018

HOW WE FISHED: This morning we focused on the simplicity and instant gratification offered by shallow sunfish for as long as John stayed engaged, which was for about 2 hours worth of effort up shallow using bream poles. When the novelty wore off of that approach, we re-rigged with downriggers and began presenting Pet Spoons at 29-31 feet down for white bass holding in slightly deeper water. We picked up our first 2 fish in the form of a double, discovered that John really didn’t like reeling in these larger fish and DEFINITELY did not like to be near them when they came aboard, so, after landing another double which struck just minutes later on the other downrigger rod, we packed that equipment in and continued fishing for sunfish for another 30 minutes or so. When all was said and done, we’d landed 26 sunfish (bluegill, longear, and redear) and 4 white bass.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: Several small flocks of white pelicans stopped over during the weekend as teal season opened and damp, cloudy weather hung around for going on 2 full weeks now.

TALLY: 30 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15 am

End Time: 10:15 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Water Surface Temp: 82.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable under 2mph

Sky Conditions: 25% white cloud cover

Water Level: 8.11 feet low and falling

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas 201, SH0055C, and 203 for sunfish

**Area vic 1715 for downrigged white bass

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

The Coachable Coach — Ken Powell, 57 Fish

September 13th, 2018September 13th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning I fished with retired high school educator and coach, Ken Powell. Ken phoned me a while back and told me how, after combing over my website, he was intrigued about the various methods I use for white bass in the summer months, and how he wanted to take a trip with me to be introduced to these tactics. Residing in Burnet, most of Ken’s summer fishing has involved live shad fishing for freshwater pelagics with guides on Lake Buchanan, so he was looking forward to some variety. The first thing I told him was, “Ken, we’re about to find out if the coach can be coached.” He just grinned as he understood what I meant. As our trip came to a close, Ken handed me the balance due in cash, AND a deposit for our next trip in November! He was pretty excited about all he’d learned.

Retired coach Ken Powell remained coachable and had a great trip despite unstable weather as we pursued white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 12 September 2018

HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was pretty slow for our first 2 hours as the weather was a continuation of yesterday’s fairly dark, murky skies, despite a forecast for lighter winds and brighter skies. Those two things did materialize by around 9:30am and the fishing responded pretty quickly. We downrigged and caught fish slowly but steadily in those first two hours, simultaneously watching sonar, the water’s surface for topwater action, and the skies for feeding terns. We got into our first productive area, hooked up with a double-double (two fish on both downrigger rods all at the same time), and immediately stopped on these fish using the i-Pilot Link connection between my Humminbird and Minn Kota Ulterra to position us right on these fish. We worked them over with tailspinners until they grew disinterested, then “mopped up” with downriggers as long as the fish would respond, then moved on to our next area after the fish grew inactive (as indicated by them not chasing the downrigger balls as the balls passed over them as seen on sonar). At our next area, the winds varied from 2-5mph ESE, and the skies grew as bright as they would get all morning. As thinner patches of clouds (under 100% cloud cover) allowed more sun through, the fish would respond instantly and feed on the surface; when thicker cloud cover made it darker, the fish would stop feeding on the surface. We fished tailspinners vertically and cast slabs horizontally to tempt these very active white bass with largemouth bass mixed in. When all was said and done, Ken okayed us to leave them biting so he could make an appointment down by San Antonio later in the day. We boated 57 and lost a few more, especially amongst the largmouth hooked on topwater which often got off “on the jump”.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: The light level in our last 75 minutes on the water teetered right on the treshhold which either spurred fish to feed on top (as the skies grew brighter), or pushed them down (as the skies grew darker). It became very predictable as we watched that sole variable “adjust” the fish mood like a volume knob. Pretty cool to observe this!

TALLY: 57 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15 am

End Time: 11:35 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Water Surface Temp: 83.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE4-6

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover.

Water Level: 8.08 feet low and falling

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1448-0056 – whites on downrigger with one episode of vertical work with tailspinners

**Area SH0056C – whites on downrigger / tailspinners fished vertically / 3/8 oz. slabs fished horizontally

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Fall Friendzee Fishing with Grandpa Alan and Samuel — 39 Fish

September 12th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning I fished with Mr. Alan DiSomma of Mesa, Arizona, and his 14-year-old grandson, Samuel Rahm, of Belton. Last year, Alan participated in a very well-run, online fundraiser for Lakewood Elementary School called the “Fall Friendzee”. One of my guided multi-species fishing trips was on the list of items to bid for, and Alan and Samuel’s family were the high bidders. Today we turned that paper gift certificate into fish and had a fun time doing it on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.

Samuel Rahm and his grandfather, Alan DiSomma, put together a 39 fish haul under tough weather conditions.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, 11 September 2018

HOW WE FISHED: Given that both Alan and Sam had prior fishing experience, we focused on white bass for the entirety of our time on the water. Due to the unstable weather, murky skies, and easterly winds, fish action was pretty subdued this morning. We wound up downrigging for the entire time save for one brief bout of vertical work with tailspinners around 9:45. We routinely found small pods of suspended fish, numbering perhaps 5-8 fish at most and watched on sonar as the downrigger balls went past them with no reaction from the fish versus shooting upward toward those balls as we hope for. When all was said and done, we landed 38 white bass and 1 largemouth. The downrigging was all accomplished with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: I’ve noted that the population of egrets on the lake has risen over the past several days and that these birds are flocking together in large groups. Perhaps some early migrators rode the most recent cold front in.

Thermocline observations:

0 feet 83.4F

5 feet 83.6F

10 feet 83.6F

15 feet 83.6F

20 feet 83.6F

25 feet 83.6F

30 feet 83.7F

35 feet 83.4F

40 feet 79.6F

45 feet 70.8F

50 feet 66.8F

55 feet 63.9F

60 feet 61.1F

TALLY: 39 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00 am

End Time: 11:15 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: E6-8

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover.

Water Level: 8.06 feet low and falling

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0024C – whites on downrigger

**Area 914 – whites on downrigger

**Area SH0056C – whites on downrigger/tailspinners

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Three Generations Aboard, & a “First Fish” to Celebrate — 37 Fish

September 10th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I fished with Mr. Steve Niemeier, his daughter, Emily Haberer, and Emily’s daughter, 3 1/2 year old, Zoey Haberer. This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip just for Zoey. This was Zoey’s first fishing trip and her first time on a boat. Zoey is among the youngest anglers I’ve ever taken out, as I normally start around age 5, but, I knew Steve was already familiar with all of the tactics we’d be using and that he and Emily would work to help me make Zoey successful, so I was at ease with taking on the challenge. Within just a few minutes of having Zoey on board, she had landed the first fish of her life, a small longear sunfish, thus earning a “First Fish Award” from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

This was 3 1/2-year-old Zoey’s largest fish caught on her very first fishing trip ever! This 16″ largemouth was lurking down in ~36′ of water over a deeper bottom gorging on young of the year shad about 1.25″ long. It struck one of the 3 Pet Spoons on one of our two umbrella rigs presented by way of downriggers. The fish leapt from the water twice on its way to the boat, but the hook held fast and Zoey brought it to net like a pro.

This was the fish that got the ball rolling this morning. This 3.25″ longear sunfish struck just minutes after Zoey came aboard. It got her engaged and earned her a TPWD First Fish Award.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 10 September 2018

HOW WE FISHED: This morning, in order to build in “transitions” necessary to keep a 3 1/2-year-old engaged, we fished using two very different tactics and used these both in a number of different areas. With kids this young, even in the midst of the most successful fishing, they can lose interest pretty quickly, so, sometimes just a quick boatride elsewhere to continue doing the exact same thing is all they need to re-energize

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: Thanks to cooler, cloudy, rainy weather, our surface temperature dropped from 85.0F on Saturday down to 82.4F before dawn this morning.

TALLY: 37 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00 am

End Time: 10:30 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp: 85.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were light SSW at sunrise under 4mph, then swung more and more westerly as the morning went by, ending up at WSW8 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover.

Water Level: 8.04 feet low and rising slowly thanks to steady rains region-wide over the past several days.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0055C – 20 sunfish

**Area 1707 – sightcasting for topwater largemouth under birds

**Area 1246-1241 – downrigging for white bass & largemouth under birds; balls set 30-36′ deep

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Meet Adan Tijerina, Central Texas’ Newest Fisherman — 54 Fish

September 8th, 2018September 8th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I fished with Adan Tijerina, accompanied by his mom, Mandie Tijerina, who serves on active duty in the U.S. Army. Mandie scheduled this trip for her son through the Ft. Hood SKIESUnlimited Program, which offers activities of all sorts, from art to cooking to dance to martial arts and more, to military and DOD kids, all led by qualified, background-checked professionals who enjoy introducing kids to their area of interest. The activity I lead is called “Fishing 101”, and it is a 3.5 to 4 hour introduction to fishing by boat just right for kids from Kindergarten right up through high school.

Those interested in such activities may go see Brenda Brown, Instructional Program Specialist, Child & Youth Services in Bldg. 121, 761st Tank Battalion Ave., Room 145, Fort Hood, Texas, or visit with her by phone at 254-287-4592.

Adan really picked up on detailed things very quickly, which allowed him to do far better than most 7-year-olds I have aboard. Once I told him and then showed him something, he was off and running on his own and doing well.

After starting our trip with a run of 23 sunfish, our first shot at downrigging yielded these much larger fish (one is a white bass and the other is a largemouth), which came as a double (2 fish on the same 3-armed umbrella rig at the same time). Adan didn’t leave his jacket on for very long as he worked up a sweat reeling in the big ones.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 08 September 2018

HOW WE FISHED: We began our morning up shallow fishing for sunfish with live bait under slipfloats. Adan landed the first 5 bites he got and I knew right then it was going to be a good trip because he was very coachable and listened very well. We went on to land 23 fish on slipfloats, including longear, green, and bluegill sunfish, as well as a single blacktail shiner. After this, we graduated up to “big fish” and caught them with a variety of tactics. First, we used downriggers to catch loosely schooled, suspended fish holding over top of bottom-oriented bait. Next, we found the gamefish getting more active and beginning to drive bait throughout the water column and to the surface. Once we observed plentiful topwater action, we sight-cast using shad imitating lure with enough heft to be cast long distances. We started out with me casting (accurately) and Adan reeling the bait in through the fish, then progressed to him casting. We also enjoyed a few episodes of working tailspinners for bottom-hugging fish, as well as casting those tailspinners horizontally for more white bass action.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: We experienced a long, aggressive topwater bite on a westerly wind with cloud cover in advance of a slow-moving cold front which shifted winds to the north around 5pm later the same day. As cloud cover increased and the skies darkened, the bite intensified; as clouds thinned and the skies brightened, the bite weakened. This went on and on from ~8:00 – 10:45am.

TALLY: 54 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00 am

End Time: 11:00 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Water Surface Temp: 85.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were light SSW at sunrise under 4mph, then swung more and more westerly as the morning went by, ending up at WSW8 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions: 100% cloud cover thru 9am, then thinning to ~70% with some blue sky showing thru the breaks.

Water Level: 8.05 feet low and rising slowly thanks to scattered storms and reduced evaporation

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 201 – 23 sunfish

**Area 1246-1241 – downrigging, sight-casting, and tailspinners for a mix of 30 largemouth and white bass

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

LAST FISH CAUGHT WAS 1967 – WITH A GRENADE!!

September 6th, 2018September 8th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I fished with retired golfing buddies Bill Torenko and Larry Mladic. Bill treated Larry to a fishing trip for his birthday. Neither had been fishing in quite some time, in fact, Larry recollected that the last time he went “fishing” it was with some other US soldiers and some Vietnamese allies in Vietnam. The Vietnamese had a seine the strung across the shallow part of a stream while Larry and others lobbed 4 grenades into the stream simultaneously. Bottom line according to Larry: “Man, we ate good that night!”

Not much to write home about this trip. We landed 12 fish and they were something less than lunkers.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Georgetown

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 05 September 2018

HOW WE FISHED: If you follow my blog or Facebook, you’ll know I do not sugarcoat my fishing results. I report the good and the bad. Today was just bad! Georgetown has never been high on my list of lakes to fish. When Bill’s initial email came in asking to guide him on Georgetown came in, I tried to ask him to consider shifting to the consistent bite on Stillhouse, but, for a number of factors that didn’t work for him or Larry. So, we did our best on Georgetown. We found some light schooling action by small white bass in open water and similar light schooling action by largemouth bass in shallower timber, all focused on young of the year shad found at or near the system. The fellows were both a bit rusty on their casting, so trying to pick off fast moving topwater fish was not a good fit. We wound up downrigging for a majority of our trip. We landed 6 white bass, 5 short hybrid striped bass, and 1 small largemouth bass. I never saw on sonar a group of open-water fish sufficiently congregated to consider stopping and vertically jigging for. What fish we found we found in small packs and caught them in multiples, but never encountered more than a “wolfpack” of perhaps 10-15 fish at any given time. This, plus still wind conditions, just made things even tougher on an already tough body of water.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: Light and variable winds under 3mph, generally SE when they did blow.

TALLY: 12 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00 am

End Time: 11:15 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were calm at sunrise and for about 90 minutes hence, then building to SE7 through 10am, then going calm again.

Sky Conditions: 100% cloud cover.

Water Level: 16.24 feet low and falling

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area GT0004C, GT0005C, 396, and 1853

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Free Fishing Trips for Military Kids — 42 Fish with Matthew Carrillo

September 3rd, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I fished with Matthew Carrillo, the 14-year-old son of US Army Corps of Engineers Captain Alfredo Carrillo and his wife, Mrs. Amy Carrillo. Matthew was introduced to fishing by his grandmother and, according to his mom, watches every fishing TV show currently in production. Matthew came into the trip already very capable with a spinning outfit, thus allowing him to “reach out and touch” schooling largemouth bass during an 80-minute window when they fed on shad at the surface and gave their location away.

This was the season’s 11th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) program outing I’ve conducted thus far. Free SKIFF trips are available to military kids during times of separation from their military parent due to duty requirements such as TDY assignments, military school attendance, gunnery, NTC or JRTC rotations, and, of course, during deployments. Interested parents need only call me at 254.368.7411 to schedule such a trip.

Amy Carrillo accompanied her 14-year-old son, Matthew, on this Labor Day 2018 SKIFF Program trip while her husband, US Army Captain Alfredo Carrillo is deployed to Iraq. We found abundant topwater action on quality largemouth bass early in the trip.

As the skies brightened, despite remaining 100% clouded, the action moved sub-surface where we found quality white bass using downriggers.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 03 September 2018

HOW WE FISHED: Our trip broke down into 3 segments this morning. We sight-cast to topwater largemouth in our first 80 minutes on the water for fish schooled up into wolfpacks of 5-10 fish each, spread over a ~3 acre area. After the sun brightened the sky and brought this topwater action to an end, we moved deeper and found willing white bass in large, fairly immobile schools, thus allowing us to have success with downriggers, routinely catching doubles and singles. From 9:20 to 10:00, skies darkened temporarily as the SE wind peaked at 6mph, thus driving a late morning topwater feeding spree by largemouth and white bass which once again allowed for some exciting sight-casting. Once the clouds thinned and the skies brightened, the wind also calmed and the fishing nosedived. We wrangled only 2 more fish from 10 to 10:45 and then called it a good morning with 42 fish boated. Given Matthew’s age and experience, we forewent the sunfishing I normally include as a component of SKIFF trips and focused on quality fish using a variety of tactics to give him as much “hands-on” experience as I could.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: The SE winds, grey cloud cover and low pressure ushered in by tropical activity in the Gulf caused fish to become quite active this morning to the point of feeding on the surface for extended periods of time.

TALLY: 42 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00 am

End Time: 10:45 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temp: 85.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were calm at sunrise and for about 90 minutes hence, then building to SE7 through 10am, then going calm again.

Sky Conditions: 100% cloud cover.

Water Level: 8.11 feet low and falling

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 884-1434 – topwater largemouth

**Area vic SH0048C – downrigging for white bass

**Area 1241-1221 – topwater white bass and largemouth

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)