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)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle
Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle