November | 2018 | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Cookie-Cutter Fishing — 70 Fish on Stillhouse with the Adkins

November 28th, 2018November 28th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning I fished with father and son team Martin and Westin Adkins, originally from the Los Angeles, CA, area. Martin is retired, owns an RV, and was camping at the Lake Georgetown Corps of Engineers campground at Cedar Breaks Park when the notion struck to go on a fishing trip with his son who flew in for a visit. They called Monday afternoon and we met up at 7:15am Tuesday morning for a 70 fish outing on Stillhouse Hollow.

Westin Adkins (left) and his father, Martin Adkins, had a 70 fish morning on Stillhouse this past Tuesday. Fishing is very consistent now thanks to minimal weather fluctuations and stable water temperature.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass. We also landed numerous drum and a single channel cat.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, November 27, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: We caught fish steadily from 7:15 to 10:30 this this morning with the typical low-light, sunrise spike producing the fastest pace catching of the morning, during which we caught fish both via smoking and then reverted to snap-jigging as the fish settled back. During the middle hours some scant bird action by gulls was helpful to get “in the neighborhood”; we then relied upon sonar to seal the location deal. Fish size was a good distribution of 1/2, 1.5, and 2.5 year fish. The Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 slab in 3/8 oz. with Hazy Eye Stinger hook (seen here) is my best producer.

OBSERVATIONS: Fishing is very consistent now with fish doing the same things in the same places at the same times daily thanks to only minor weather fluctuations. We are losing as much heat at night as we are gaining during the day, so the water temperature has also stabilized right at 56.5-57.5.

TALLY: 70 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 30F

Water Surface Temp: 56.7

Wind Speed & Direction: WSW6-8

Sky Conditions: ~25% white clouds on a blue sky

Water Level: 10.4 feet high and falling by about 0.29 feet daily w/ ~1530cfs flow from dam

GT = 5

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1712/1683 – low light feed right at sunrise; combo of smoking and snap-jigging

**Area SH0064C – bird assisted; snap-jigging

**Area SH0072C – bird assisted; snap-jigging

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

AND THE BEST PART … HE TIPPED ME WITH SAUSAGE!!! — 77 FISH w/ DIRK MILLER

November 27th, 2018November 27th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday morning I had the pleasure of fishing with a true Central Texas native, Dirk Miller, owner of Miller’s Smokehouse on Central Ave. in Belton. It was one of those win-win situations … I had a party which had to cancel last minute on Monday’s trip and so I posted a discounted trip on Facebook and, within the hour, Dirk let me know he’d like to go. He was already planning to try to kayak fish at Fayette (which would have been tough after the winds exceed the forecast by quite a bit).

Dirk is an avid multi-species angler, so, we had a lot to talk about. I really enjoyed our conversation about the trophy blue cat fishery over on Tawakoni.

At trip’s end, Dirk paid for the trip and then some, AND presented me with jalapeno and cheese stuffed summer sausage and a mess of beef-pork blend “snack sticks” (think Slim Jim, only way bigger and way better). Now, bear in mind, this was above and beyond that upon which we had dined on during our numerous snack breaks on the water! I texted my wife and told her to put our lunch plans on hold, as they had just changed for the better!!

We saved the best for last. This big ol’ channel cat took Dirk’s slab, came to net, and we called it a great day right then and there and headed for the boat ramp.

Despite the incoming cold front, the white bass really thumped our slabs this morning and fell for a variety of retrieves.

Oh yeah!!! I’ve received some good tips through the years. This ranks right at the top.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass. We also landed numerous drum and one chunky channel cat.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, November 26, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: We fished through the tail-end of a mild, dry cold front’s arrival this morning with winds 13-14 from the NNW the entire time, making for a wind-chill well below freezing. However, the moving water got the fish feeding well, allowing us to land fish consistently for the entire 4+ hours we fished. The fish were most aggressive in the first 90 minutes and actually chased a slab as we used a smoking tactic. After the skies brightened and mid-morning rolled around, the bite slowed and we had to downshift to snap-jigging, but the fish thumped us steadily and kept it busy enough to ward off the chill. We ended up with 77 fish including about a dozen drum, one channel cat, and the balance of white bass, mainly in the 1.5 and 2.5 year class.

OBSERVATIONS: We had a strong start and a strong end, with a slow hour in the middle. The fish really turned on in the last 90 minutes before the obscured sunrise; this action coincided with the appearance of many schools of small shad feeding on the surface all over the lake after the winds had been calm for about an hour.

TALLY: 77 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 34F

Water Surface Temp: 56.6

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW13-14

Sky Conditions: Full, grey cloud cover all afternoon

Water Level: 10.78 feet high and falling by about 0.18 feet daily w/ 1,182 cfs flow, increasing to ~1530cfs around noon

GT = 55

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0070C – low light smoking

**Area SH0067C- 1701-SH0064C – snap-jigging

**Area vic 713 – snap-jigging

**Area SH0071C – snap-jigging

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Mom: The Coordinator!! — 81 Fish with the Torralvas

November 26th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday afternoon I fished with Mr. Joe Torralva and his son, Adan, as well as Adan’s uncle, Scott Mullins, visiting from Virginia. Joe just came along for the ride while Adan and Scott did all the fishing. All of this was nicely coordinated in advance by Joe’s wife, Nicole, the week prior.

Scott runs an HVAC business on the East Coast where he pursues multiple species on multiple bodies of water, including targeting striped bass on the famed Buggs-Kerr Reservoir where some of the first freshwater stripers were stocked decades ago.

Joe works in the drinking water treatment business.

Adan Torralva of Temple, TX, and his uncle, Scott Mullins, of Virginia, put together an 81 fish catch using a slab/Hazy Eye Stinger hook combination under fully clouded skies.

Freshwater drum have become a very common by-catch this season. Here, Joe Torralva looks on as his son, Adan, hefts a drum approaching 4 pounds.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass. We also landed numerous drum and largemouth bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday evening, November 21, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: As we began the trip, we still had a light easterly wind pushing the water and rippling the surface. We scored over 20 fish on our first stop in ~50′ of water at the end of a gentle, deep point. By the time these fish quit, the wind had laid down to calm. We struggled to find fish for the next hour; however, gulls continued to work during this time, primarily attracted to loon activity. The fish really turned on in the last 90 minutes before the obscured sunrise; this action coincided with the appearance of many schools of small shad feeding on the surface all over the lake after the winds had been calm for about an hour. A smoking tactic used with a moderate cadence was the best producer this afternoon

TALLY: 81 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:15p

End Time: 5:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp: 56.6

Wind Speed & Direction: <E6

Sky Conditions: Full, grey cloud cover all afternoon

Water Level: 11.6 feet high and falling by about 0.14 feet daily w/ 1,186 cfs flow

GT = 105

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0069C – deep fish in lower 1/3 of water column taken on moderate smoking tactic

**Area vic 089 – suspended fish responding to thumper in ~30′, suspended at 20-25′ and taken with a moderate smoking tactic

**Area SH0068C – fish in ~25′ which fed hard for last 90 minutes prior to obscured sunset. Took eased, smoked, and snap-jigged slabs, as well as blades

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Stillhouse Gives Up 100+ Fish Two Mornings In a Row

November 24th, 2018November 24th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning I fished with Mr. Steve Niemeier and his grandson, Caleb Fowler, of Temple, TX. Steve has taken many trips with me through the years and has learned of the ebb and flow of the fishery, and thus times his trips well to coincide with peak times in the fishing calendar, typically coming out in April for hybrid and in November for fast action and a mixed bag.

Caleb Fowler and his grandfather, Steve Niemeier put together a 105 fish morning despite bright, windless conditions early on in the morning.

Steve landed a double the fell for his horizontally worked Cicada bladebait. Note the gloves and balaclava — it was 34F when we launched this morning.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass. We also landed numerous drum and largemouth bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, November 21, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: This trip broke down into three segments. First, we encountered fish feeding under low light conditions in over 25 feet of water. These fish were patrolling a mid-depth flat and came under our fixed boat position in waves. We caught these fish in spurts for about a half hour, beginning around 7:15am.

Next, we noted the action moving shallower into 20-25 feet of water and bait popping up all around us, leading me to believe the fish were spreading more horizontally as they often do in shallower water. We spent the next 45 minutes casting bladebaits horizontally and caught fish steadily.

As the sun climbed, the sky brightened, and the winds remained near calm, the action slowed.

We moved to a more current-influenced area and found more sluggish fish holding on a lip (or breakline) from 25 to 30′ deep. We snap-jigged for these fish with both slabs and Gulp! on jigheads and caught fish steadily from around 8:45a through around 10:30, doing several “short hops” in the area to stay on top of fish.

Finally, from 10:30 to 11:30, we found one final group of fish feeding strongly on the outskirts of a raised area of bottom. I suspect these fish ramped up their feeding activity in conjunction with the increase in the windspeed from under 3mph to around 8mph over a very short span of time. Winds were from the NNE.

OBSERVATIONS: Sparse but helpful bird activity observed this morning. The fish we threw bladebaits to under low-light conditions were the shallowest bottom-oriented fish I’ve encountered since the flooding began around 17 Oct.

TALLY: 105 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 11:30am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:

Water Surface Temp:

Wind Speed & Direction: <NNE 5

Sky Conditions: Under 10% cloud cover all morning

Water Level: 11.6 feet high and falling by about 0.14 feet daily w/ 1,186 cfs flow

GT = 30

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0066C – smoking in ~28′

**Area SH0067C – bladebaits in 20-25′

**Area 144-1345 – snap jigging and Gulp! slow on bottom

**Area SH0068C – smoking for re-invigored fish fired up by wind speed increase/wave action

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

An Afternoon Quick Trip — 28 Fish with Brianne and Family

November 23rd, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday evening, November 20th, I fished with Mr. Jim Stoa from the Houston area, accompanied by his granddaughter, Brianne Padilla from McAllen, TX, and Matthew Morrow from Arizona. The family converged on central Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday spent with relatives living near Belton.

Because Brianne did not have a lot of prior fishing experience, her mom thought it best to shorten the trip from the normal 4 hours, especially given the cool weather. So, we fished from around 3:00pm until dark, around 5:25pm.

Brianne Padilla of McAllen, TX, (right), her grandfather, Jim Stoa of Houston, and Matthew Morrow of Arizona all on an afternoon family outing on Stillhouse Hollow.

Brianne landed the biggest fish of the trip. This hard-fighting freshwater drum weighed in at 5 3/8 pounds.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday evening, November 20, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: The fish did not really perk up this afternoon as we struggled with cloudless, bright skies and a lack of breeze. All of the fish we caught were taken either out of suspended schools of fish over deep water which responded to thumping, or came from smaller packs of a handful of fish per pack up in shallower water towards sunset. We used a slower cadence for smoking with slabs the entire trip.

OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird action this evening thanks to near-calm winds and bright skies.

Thermal profile:

0 feet 57.5

5 feet 57.5

10 feet 57.6

15 feet 57.6

20 feet 57.6

25 feet 57.6

30 feet 57.6

35 feet 57.6

40 feet 57.6

45 feet 57.6

50 feet 57.6

55 feet 57.2

TALLY: 28 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:00 pm

End Time: 5:25pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp: 58.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: <NNE 5

Sky Conditions: No cloud cover all day today

Water Level: 11.77 feet high and falling by about 0.14 feet daily

GT = 25

#whitebass #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0062C – deep, suspended fish worked up with thumping early

**Area vic 054 – shallower, small pods of fish which were on a light, low-light feed as sunset approached.

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Operational Fishing Command — 102 Fish with Tom & Brian Pennington

November 22nd, 2018November 23rd, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, November 20th, I fished with Brian Pennington of Harker Heights, and his father, Tom Pennington, of Copperas Cove. Brian is a retired US Army Ordnance officer now working at Operational Test Command (OTC) on Fort Hood. Tom, also a veteran, retired from the aerospace industry in Arizona and moved to Cove a few years ago. Both fellows fish occasionally via kayak.

Brian Pennington (left) of Harker Heights, teamed up with his dad, Tom Pennington of Copperas Cove for a 102 fish morning on Stillhouse this past Tuesday.

Brian capped off the trip with our largest fish of the morning just a few minutes before the fish turned off for the morning and we headed back in. This is a freshwater drum (nicknamed “gasper gou”). Drum are in the croaker family and are related to saltwater redfish, black drum, and the Atlantic croaker.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, November 20, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: The fish started off sluggish this morning until the NNE wind finally began to blow from a definitive direction (after puffing from SW and W prior to that). During this slow time we deadsticked with Gulp! on jigheads, then, as the action heated up, we ramped up to slow-smoking, then faster smoking. When the action tapered back off we used a snap-jigging tactic for bottom-oriented fish as. We landed 94 white bass in the 1, 2, and 3 year-classes, and 7 drum, including a 4.25 pounder.

OBSERVATIONS: Things are definitely picking back up “post-flood”. We had a few gulls arrive with last week’s cold front (although they are very much focused on loons and not so much on fish), the water flow is at 1,186 cfs and looks like it will be that way for a while given that we’re still 11.77 feet high. This was my most productive trip since the flooding began around 16 October. We did locate fish with the aid of birds this morning, although it was thin and required a trained eye.

TALLY: 102 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45 am

End Time: 11:30am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 36F

Water Surface Temp: 58.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: <NNE 5

Sky Conditions: No cloud cover all day today

Water Level: 11.77 feet high and falling by about 0.14 feet daily

GT = 50

GT = 90

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1060/154 – lethargic fish early, taken on jig and Gulp! after numerous slab refusals

**Area vic 1683 and then SH0064C – 1.5 hours of peak action

**Area vic 771 – last 30 minutes, deep bottom/suspended fish spiked briefly then quit

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

STILL CAUGHT MORE THAN WE WOULD HAVE BY SITTING AT THE HOUSE — 25 Fish

November 13th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday afternoon I fished our only locally available option — Stillhouse Hollow — with Mr. Rick Snelgrooes of Georgetown, TX, accompanied by his son, Sean, and Rick’s father-in-law, Steve Rohner, visiting from southern California. Rick also brought his neighbor and fishing buddy, Rick Curwick, a transplant from Minnesota, and Sean brought a buddy of his own, Garrison Clopton.

With so much environmental change occurring over such a short period of time, the normally excellent fishing (often on par with or even better than fishing during the spring warmup in March and April) simply hasn’t materialized, and, I don’t know if it will this season. Not only did our lakes rise nearly 15 feet in a matter of hours, but the temperature fell from the high 70’s to the mid-60’s. Additionally, there is quite a flow of accumulated flood water being released from both Belton and Stillhouse now. Belton’s flow is nearly 4,000 cfs, and Stillhouse’s flow is nearly 2,000 cfs. Adding insult to injury, our most severe cold front just passed through on Thursday, dropping temperatures into the 40’s all day Saturday, and another reinforcing cold front moved in overnight from Sunday into Monday, dropping temperatures through the day Monday down to 32F by Tuesday morning. We just can’t seem to get any traction with any manner of stability in the weather.

From the left: Garrison Clopton, Rick Curwick, Steve Rohner, Rick Snelgrooes, and Sean Snelgrooes. Working slabs vertically and at a moderate speed was the key on today’s tough trip.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday afternoon, November 10, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: Since I had fresh “intel” from the morning trip, I tried to capitalize on locating and fishing for the fish I’d already found in the morning, hoping to spend more time with lines in the water than the morning trip afforded as we did a lot of sonar searching during that trip.

The two locations that gave up the fish we caught this afternoon were in the same general vicinities as the fish we caught in the morning. Additionally, in the limited additional searching I did with sonar this afternoon, I did not find any additional concentrations of fish.

The first group of fish we fished for was in 51 feet of water and was holding tightly to the bottom. When I first sighted them on sonar, I guessed the school to be about 50-60 fish in number. These fish fired up pretty quickly, stayed interested for about a 25 minute span, then shut down. I moved around in this same vicinity, routinely graphing smaller pods of fish (10-25 in number), but couldn’t get more than a fish or two from out of these. The middle two hours of this 4-hour trip were slow.

As dark approached, I returned to shallower water where the light would still penetrate closer to the shallower bottom. Here we found suspended fish clearly drawn to and consolidated by the thumper. We put our last few fish in the boat via a slow smoking tactic bringing the baits up into the bottom of the upper third of the water column where sonar indicated these suspended fish to be holding a majority of the time.

OBSERVATIONS: Saw a number of loons, cormorants, and gulls have arrived with the most recent cold front. What little bird activity I observed was fueled by loons driving bait or bringing bait to the surface with gulls responding overhead. I observed no fish-related bird activity. Belton Lake is now 11.54 feet high and falling about 0.26 feet per day. Stillhouse is 12.7 feet high and falling by about 0.14 feet daily.

TALLY: 25 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50 am

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Water Surface Temp: 64.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE 10 at trip’s start, slowly tapering down to NNE3-4 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover with occasional sprinkles in the first hour

Water Level: 12.7 feet high and falling by about 0.14 feet daily

GT = 90

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 484 – smoking for more heavily schooled bottom-hugging white bass in the first hour of the trip (1:45 – 2:45p)

**Area 054 – smoking for suspended white bass just prior to sunset (~5:00 – 5:30p)

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Still Shook Up — 30 Fish @ Stillhouse (AM Trip)

November 12th, 2018November 12th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning I fished our only locally available option — Stillhouse Hollow — with co-workers Ray Elliot and Drew Kelm of CSA Construction, as well as Drew’s wife, Jessie, and Ray’s nephew, Bobby. Drew is part of the crew constructing the new drinking water treatment plant adjacent to the Kempner Water Supply Corp. plant on Stillhouse. All but Bobby came out with me once before around this same time in early November last year when our conditions were much more conducive to catching a nice bunch of fish.

With so much environmental change occurring over such a short period of time the normally excellent fishing (often on par with or even better than fishing during the spring warmup in March and April) simply hasn’t materialized, and, I don’t know if it will this season. Not only did our lakes rise nearly 15 feet in a matter of hours, but the temperature fell from the high 70’s to the mid-60’s. Additionally, there is quite a flow of accumulated flood water being released from both Belton and Stillhouse now. Belton’s flow is nearly 4,000 cfs, and Stillhouse’s flow is nearly 2,000 cfs. Adding insult to injury, our most severe cold front just passed through on Thursday, dropping temperatures into the 40’s all day Saturday, and another reinforcing cold front moved in overnight (Sunday into Monday). We just can’t seem to get any traction with any manner of stability in the weather.

From the left, that’s Drew, Jessie, Ray (who brought his own lawnchair and the best in “red dirt” music, complete with portable, waterproof speakers), and Bobby.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, November 10, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: I covered A LOT of water with sonar, primarily looking for bait, assuming gamefish would not be too far away. We found fish in 2 distinct areas, one on the main basin and one in the upper third of the reservoir. The fish we caught from the first area were caught via a smoking tactic using 3/8 oz. white Hazy Eye slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks attached. These fish were suspended when I first found them on sonar, and they responded well to thumping, consolidating under the boat at 20-25 feet deep over a deeper bottom. A moderate “smoking” retrieve did the trick for these fish, although many fish passed on the presentation, as well.

The second distinct population of fish we found were in about 52 feet of water on the lake’s main basin. These fish were also in an area with an abundance of bait, however, these fish presented on sonar as tightly bunched schools holding on or within 3-4 feet of the bottom. These fish were much more aggressive — as soon as we got Spot Locked over top of them using the Ulterra and got our slabs down to them, they immediately responded to a smoking tactic with a moderate retrieve. However, as is often the case on “cold front fish”, the feeding spree was short-lived. Although the fish were still present in good numbers, they just turned off and only occasionally could one then be duped into taking a slab.

We wound up with exactly 30 fish today. I was thankful that all aboard had a good bit of prior fishing experience so they could understand that we faced an uphill battle today with the variety of environmental factors working against us.

TALLY: 30 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50 am

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Water Surface Temp: 64.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE 10 at trip’s start, slowly tapering down to NNE3-4 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover with occasional sprinkles in the first hour

Water Level: 12.7 feet high and falling by about 0.14 feet daily

GT = 90

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 054 – smoking for suspended white bass

**Area vic 644-1239 – smoking for more heavily schooled bottom-hugging white bass

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com