HOLY SMOKES (BBQ)!! — 74 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This past Wednesday morning I fished with another contingent of the Oliver family.  This go round, brothers Jack and Joe fished with me, joined by Jack’s sons, Eli, Isaac, and Asa.  Jack and his family are from Marble Falls.

As some of you know, I no longer fish on Thursday so I can dedicate that one day each week specifically to marriage maintenance.   Miss Rebecca and I actually call these “Marriage Maintenance Thursdays”.  Well, this week we’d planned to hit a few shops Rebecca wanted to go to in Marble Falls.  I was hoping to drop in at the old Thomas Bait location, now known as Waymore Bait and Tackle, right at FM1431 and Hwy. 281, as well as Rods, Barrels, and Strings, both in Marble Falls.

Anticipating that we’d be having lunch there, Rebecca chose a few places that looked good to her, and I then ran these by Jack and his boys.  The pick was Holy Smokes on Commerce St. in Marble Falls.  So, we went, we ate, and we enjoyed!!  We split a “Bubba Plate” which was a sampling of chicken, brisket, ribs, and 2 kinds of sausage, plus 3 sides, all for under $16.  It was great!  (Not Miller’s Smokehouse in Belton great, but very, very good, nonetheless).

Thanks, Jack!

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Eli Oliver with his dad, Jack with a pair of solid Lake Belton hybrid striped bass.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Brothers Eli and Isaac Oliver of Marble Falls with a pair of hybrid taken on live shad which struck just seconds apart.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Joe Oliver and his nephew, his brother Jack’s son, Asa Oliver.  Asa serves as a professional firefighter in the Hill Country near Lake Travis.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Hybrid Striped Bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:   29 May 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  We fished smallish live shad on tightlines in 48 to 62 feet of water and never brought our baits up more than 5 cranks off bottom.  Most locations took only 3 cranks before the baits were too high to get chased with regularity.  The first 2 hours were slower than the time from 9-11 am.  That slower first half also had dark skies with lighter winds.  The final hour from 11-Noon was fishless after the fish quit and the weather began getting squirrely with intermittent rain showers accompanied by wind gusts whenever the drops fell.  It was a solid morning of fishing after much environmental change has taken place in a fairly short period of time.

OBSERVATIONS:    1. We missed very few bites today whenever my anglers resisted the urge to lift their rod tips while using circle hooks, which tells me the fish were aggressively taking the baits, not just swiping at them. 2. Shad are still spawning. 3. I noted the significantly cooler water temperature on Belton vs. Stillhouse and suspect that all the water taken from down low in the water column at Lake Proctor has kept Belton from warming as quickly as Stillhouse (which is smaller and has no reservoir above it feeding water in).

TALLY: 74 fish caught and released, with ~46 legal hybrid in this mix of hybrid, short hybrid, white bass, and blue cat

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7a

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   75F

Elevation:   8.56 feet high with a 24-hour fall of 0.44 feet on a flow of 4646 cfs

Water Surface Temp:    76.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10-13 the entire morning

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies all morning  

GT = 25

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1944 – slow, steady pick of legal hybrid

**Area  B0091C – slow, steady pick of legal hybrid

**Area  vic B0151C – action-packed mixed bag angling for a full 2 hours with ~50% of the catch legal hybrid along with whites and blue cat.

 

 

Bob Maindelle

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

First SKIES Trip of the Season — 80 Fish

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This past Memorial Day Monday I fished the season’s first SKIESUnlimited trip with the Pak family.  U.S. Army Chaplain Richard Pak is pursuing an advanced degree at TAMUCT, thus, he and his family will be in the Fort Hood area through December when he graduates.  Mrs. Sara Pak and the couple’s daughters, Samantha (age 14)  and Addyson (almost 12), accompanied him in this assignment.

SKIESUnlimited stands for Schools of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration, and Skills.

SKIESUnlimited offers dozens of activities for military and Department of Defense kids of all ages, ranging from gymnastics to piano lessons, from academic tutoring to various forms of dance, and more.

To participate in such courses, children must first be registered with Child and Youth Services.  Registration is free and is accomplished by contacting Parent Central Services at 254-287-8029.  Once registered, parents may go online to enroll their children for the myriad courses available, including my own “Fishing 101”.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Sara (mom), Samantha (14), Addyson (11), and Rich Pak with a pair of the white bass the girls landed early on in our multi-species trip.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Samanatha Pak boating them 3-at-a-time!  We used a light, 3-armed umbrella rig to take white bass in shallow water under early morning low-light conditions.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass and sunfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:   27 May 2019, AM – Memorial Day

HOW WE FISHED:  As the Pak family arrived at boatside on Memorial Day Monday, I asked about the girls’ prior fishing experience.  They had both bottom-fished in saltwater for flounder off the Washington coast with their maternal grandfather, but not much else.  So, I tried to work in as many successful tactics as the season and the conditions would allow for so as to give them a well-rounded experience on the water.

This past Saturday I conducted a sonar training session for a Garmin LiveScope owner and spotted surface-feeding white bass gorging on shad over the span of at least 40 minutes or so.  I cruised by this area for our first stop of the morning and taught the girls how to cast with spinning gear.  They were equipped with paddle-tail grubs on 1/8 oz. jigheads and picked up the mechanics of casting very quickly.  Unfortunately, the fish never appeared on the surface for more than a few seconds at a time, so, they didn’t catch any fish via casting, but, at least we knew fish were in the vicinity, which led up to our second tactic … downrigging.

Using 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons, we ran twin ‘riggers and kept our baits about 2 feet above the level which most of the fish seen on sonar were holding at.  Success came quickly, as Samantha boated the first downrigger-caught fish of the season, and made it a TRIPLE at that!!!  That means she landed one fish on each of the 3 lures on the 3-armed umbrella rig, all at the same time.  We went on to land another half-dozen fish on the ‘riggers before the brightening skies drove the fish out of the shallows.

Next, we worked tailspinners vertically on spinning rods in 48 feet of water to catch 5 white bass very quickly.  We then moved to a mid-depth area and landed another four whites on the tailspinners before the fish got finicky.  I immediately switched over to downrigging to see if a horizontally presented bait would be preferred over a vertically presented bait.  We got one more white bass right away, making me think we might be on to something, but, after 20-30 more white bass seen on sonar refused to budge, we knew it was time to try something else.

Our final shot at the fish came in the form of fishing with a simple slip-float rig using worm as bait for sunfish up shallow in flooded terrestrial vegetation.  The girls watched me demonstrate what to do one time, and they were then off to the races.  Over the final hour of our trip, the sisters landed an amazing 61 sunfish (quite literally a fish per minute), including bluegill and green sunfish.  With the water temperature right at 80F, they just kept coming!

OBSERVATIONS:   Although we weren’t exclusively focused on white bass today, the white bass bite was softer again this morning as the weather went back to having some turbulence to it, with varying levels of light coming through the clouds, and varying wind velocities, including gusts up to 16+.

TALLY: 80 fish caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   74F

Elevation:   8.01 feet high with a 24-hour fall of 0.1 feet on a flow of 933 cfs

Water Surface Temp:    79.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE the entire morning, gusting from 10-17

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies all morning with “squinting brightness” from 8:15 on

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 110/540 – 9 fish on downriggers

**Area vic 1063 – 5 fish in a short-lived burst of action on our first several sets of drops with tailspinners

**Area vic SH0118C –  4 fish in a short-lived burst of action on our first several sets of drops with tailspinners; 1 on a downrigger

**Area SH0038C – 61 sunfish

 

Bob Maindelle

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

The Olivers’ Silver Lining – 51 Fish

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This past Wednesday morning I fished once again with a contingent of the Oliver family, including brothers Joe, Jamie, and Jack, along with one of Jack’s sons, Eli.  Due to limited access at Lake Belton offering no real options if high winds are a concern (which they were today), and with few other options to pursue, we focused on white bass on Stillhouse.

Some recent health challenges with these brothers’ parents brought them all to the area at the same time for a bit, and they decided to put a silver lining on their cloud and take in a few hours’ fishing while they were all in the same locale.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Jamie, Joe, Jack and Eli Oliver with a few of the 51 white bass we tracked down today on what was a pretty tough go of it on Stillhouse.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:   22 May 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Once again, tailspinners were the go-to option this morning and they produced well when we found fish to present them to, but finding fish was pretty tricky.  The white bass have been difficult to predict. On numerous occasions I’ve worked to find fish and found them, only to go and look at 6 or 8 nearly identical areas only to find them devoid of fish.

Conditions have been far from stable, and that definitely has not helped things.  Flow from the dam has been on-again/off-again as the USACE juggles the situation on the Brazos River watershed.  Water levels have stayed somewhat constant at just over 8 feet above full pool.  The wind and weather has also been very dicey with heavy clouds, light rain, and winds rising to over 16 mph by the afternoon each day this week.  It has been hard to get traction and keep it.

Fishing was off again today.  We landed a total of 51 fish.  We did catch fish in two distinct areas, one right as we began our trip, and again in deeper, clearer water around 10:00 to 10:30am, but, in neither scenario were the fish really fired up.  In both locations we didn’t see the number of “fresh fish” circulating and patrolling actively through the area as has been the case in most of my Stillhouse white bass trips over the past several weeks since Belton shut down.  I noted also that the fish really didn’t stay actively, aggressively pursuing our baits up off the bottom for any real length of time even when we were catching them.  The real thing working in our favor was the Oliver’s four rods working (and mine working part-time) which kept up a constant commotion which interested the fish we found enough to provoke some feeding.

OBSERVATIONS:  

TALLY: 51 fish caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   76F

Elevation:   8.29 feet high with a 24-hour fall of .03 feet on a flow of 933cfs

Water Surface Temp:    80.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies all morning with varying light levels changing with cloud thickness.

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  116/540 – gave up 25 fish in our first 75 minutes

**Area  vic SH0117C – gave up 25 fish from 10-10:30a

**Area vic 1713 – picked up 1 fish and saw potential here, but the bite was over by this time

 

 

Bob Maindelle

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

MURKY SKIES, MURKY WATER, MEDIOCRE FISHING – 53 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This morning I fished with a crew of 4 fellows from various walks of life.  John Anderson, the one who organized the trip, retired from environmental compliance work for the McLane Company.  Next was James Mills who took John’s position when he retired.  Then there was Durwin Speidel, who managed the environmental, health, and safety program for Schlumberger before retiring.  Steve Sanders, a retired Killeen banker, rounded our crew.

Although all four men had fished before, none had fished the way we did today, using an electronics-intensive approach for deepwater white bass.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Steve Sanders, James Mills, John Anderson, and Durwin Speidel, each with a white bass taken in over 40 feet of water using tailspinners in conjunction with LiveScope technology by Garmin.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:   20 May 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  Once again, thanks to very dark skies through 8:40, the fishing, all of which is taking place in deep water, did not turn on until around 9:00 AM.  I theorize that the deep water is not well illuminated during the earlier morning hours, thus leading to a late-morning bite for going on 2 weeks now.  At 40-50 feet, with thick cloud cover obscuring the sun, and with flood water making the lake murky, it has got to be quite dark at such depths.

We found active fish at two separate locations this morning at which we landed the majority of our 53 fish. Even though we did enjoy success, the action today was relatively subdued.  The fish did not move about along the bottom with the frequency and intensity I saw last week.  When we did raise interested fish, not nearly as many chased their hooked schoolmates upwards, and the schools of fish we encountered moved off with only minor interest in the commotion we created with our lures, the thumper, and hooked fish being played back to the boat.

Tailspinners performed well, and, thanks to this crew following my suggestions to a “T” for minimizing lost fish, we had very few fish hooked which did not make it aboard to be included in our tally.

OBSERVATIONS: After fishing these lakes for 27 years, I suppose I have developed a “sixth sense” for what kind of activity level the fish will likely display, based on water and weather conditions.  That sense told me today’s results would be diminished.  When I try to pin down what gave me that feeling, I believe the gusty wind conditions that existed prior to sunrise, and the very dark cloud cover combined to keep me from getting excited about our prospects once the sun rose this morning.   Gusty pre-dawn winds never seem to bode well, and, on morning trips, anytime the sun’s intensity is insufficient to cause me to squint due to very heavy cloudiness, I feel our chances of doing real well are reduced.  This “gut feeling” turned out right on this morning.  Yes, we caught fish, but the bite was soft as compared to last week’s results with very little other than the current weather having changed over the weekend.

TALLY: 53 fish caught and released – including 69 white bass and 1 freshwater drum

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   76F

Elevation:  8.14 feet high with a 0.02′ 24-hour drop and a 914 cfs flow from the dam.

Water Surface Temp:   80.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:   S12-14 and gusty

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies all morning with varying light levels changing with cloud thickness.  A light, spitting rain through 9AM.

GT = 65

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0116C

**Area SH0117C

 

 

Bob Maindelle

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

70 FISH, AND THEN THE RAIN CAME

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This morning I fished with Dr. Jim Wood of McGregor, and Harker Heights native Sky Sparks.  These men got to know each other through the wound care medical practice which Jim just retired from, located in Harker Heights.  Jim has fished with me on a number of occasions previously, and Sky made it out with me once before on a hybrid striped bass trip to Belton last year.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Sky Sparks and Dr. Jim Wood with a few of the 70 fish we landed this morning as storms bore down on us from out west.  We got a full 4+ hours in, thanks to good forecasting by NOAA and KWTX (TV channel 10) and my trusty MyRadar Pro weather radar app as a backup.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:   18 May 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Once again, fishing today was a one-trick pony.  The only fish I am currently finding on Stillhouse are deep, well-congregated schools of white bass in 35-45 feet of water.  These fish have been very “moody”, turning on and turning off again fairly regularly.  These fish have shown a definite fondness for the tailspinners my clients and I have been using ever since the waters on Belton and Stillhouse have become murky due to flooding. Using a “smoking” tactic, as we normally would with slabs, produced several hundred white bass for my clients this week alone.

On the trips I conducted Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and today, the last 2 hours has definitely outproduced the first two hours with 8:30 to 9:00am seeming to be the turning point.

OBSERVATIONS:  1) Proactively avoiding a hookset and doing a crankbait-style “swing-landing” of the fish into the boat both prevent a lot of lost fish on these heavy baits fished on a “short leash” of braided line. 2) No evidence of spawning shad this morning.  3) Upper third of reservoir has distinct murky brown tinge due to wind stirring up silt.

TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

0 feet = 78.1F

5 feet = 77.9F

10 feet =  77.4F

15 feet =   76.4F

20 feet = 75.6F

25 feet = 73.3F

30 feet = 71.2F

35 feet = 70.3F

40 feet = 70F

45 feet = 69.6F

50  feet = 68.4F

55 feet = 66.6F

65 feet = 62.8F

70 feet = 61.5F

75 feet = 60.1F

 

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released – including 69 white bass and 1 freshwater drum

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   72F

Elevation:  7.84 feet high with a 0.01′ 24-hour drop and a 1,789cfs flow from the dam.

Water Surface Temp:   77.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:   S11-13

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies all morning with varying light levels changing with cloud thickness.  A light, spitting rain on occasion before severe thunderstorms moved in later in the day, around 2:10pm.

GT = 90

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic SH0113C – 11 fish through 9 a.m. with a number of misses as we sharpened our technique

**Area SH0114C – longest, strongest bite of the a.m. with over 50 fish taken off this area.

**Area SH0115C – a final 7 fish landed here as the bite was waning — lots of potential here; worth a future look

 

 

Bob Maindelle

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

FISH TOUR 2019 – 118 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:   CLIENTS REQUESTED ANONYMITY …

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION: N/A

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:   17 May 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  The fishing was really straight-forward, simple, and one-dimensional today.  We found fish on sonar, dropped tailspinners and retrieved them, thus creating enough commotion, along with the thumper’s assistance, to draw fish in and keep them coming by until a full-on feed could be ignited directly beneath the boat, enhanced with light chumming.  A minimalistic hookset with braided line definitely helped the strike-to-land ratio, as did keeping an ample amount of line between the fish and rod tip as the fish reached the water’s surface.

OBSERVATIONS:   The last half of our trip was more productive than the first half, thanks to grey skies and stronger winds from 9 AM on.  The same “fresh fish” notes I made on my previous 2 reports still stood today.  Zero evidence of shad spawning.  I noted the first young of the year shad today up in the top 2 feet of the water column. Water more discolored today in the upper 1/3 of the lake due to stiff S. wind yesterday and overnight churning the flood’s silt back up.

TALLY: 118 fish caught and released – including 114 white bass and 4 freshwater drum

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   72F

Elevation:  7.84 feet high with a 0.01′ 24-hour drop and a 1,789cfs flow from the dam.

Water Surface Temp:   74.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:   S10-13

Sky Conditions:   Light grey skies all morning

GT = 55

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area triangulated within 158 / 067 / SH0100C – four short hops

 

 

Bob Maindelle

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

STILLHOUSE PRODUCES WELL ONCE AGAIN – 82 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This morning I fished with Mr. Randy Williamson, his wife, Holly, and their friend, Phillip Fagan, all from out in Coryell County, TX, near Topsey.  The Williamsons and Fagans all initially became friends through a small group ministry at their church. They initially met elsewhere, then moved their meetings to the Fagans’ home, and now routinely continue to meet together, typically on Fridays.

Randy bought a gift certificate for a trip about a year ago and, despite our plans to use that certificate toward a hybrid striped bass trip on Lake Belton, we diverted to Stillhouse to fish for white bass now that flooding has shaken things up at Belton and made ramp access unpredictable.

 

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Phillip Fagan, Holly Williamson, and Randy Williamson, each with a 3-year class white bass taken during our first stop this morning, and caught with tailspinners.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:   14 May 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Up until a light rain began at 10:40 on the lead edge of a storm cell moving in from the SW, this morning was nearly “cookie cutter” as compared with the morning prior.  I did run uplake initially and was pleased to see that the water had cleared substantially, however, bait and fish were scarce, so we dropped back to even clearer, deeper water.

Inside our first hour on the water we found some shallow fish on a patch of bottom not covered with hydrilla in about 26-28 feet.  Right now, with the lake ~8 feet high, the hydrilla is generally found out to the 33-34-foot mark, and is therefore growing on a lot of terrain white bass would normally be found on.  These fish fed well for about 40 minutes and allowed everyone to work the kinks out of their tailspinner techniques.  Some of the things we had to remain vigilant about were hooksetting, playing the fish to avoid having a “green” fish right up on the surface still fighting crazily, and leaving a sufficient amount of line between the rod tip and the fish once the fish was lifted from the water.  Doing each of these things well and consistently meant more hooked fish being landed.

Our last two stops came within a stone’s throw of one another, and our single best frenzy encountered came just prior to a storm system moving in from the SW.  We caught fish at a steady pace all morning, ending up with 82 fish, including 79 white bass and 3 freshwater drum.

OBSERVATIONS:  Once again, “fresh fish” was the operative word today. Over and over again we saw that when a new bunch of fish came under the boat, we could count on at least 2 if not all of our 4 rods hooking a fish.  However, once these first few fish were caught, and if the school stuck around long enough to provide follow-on opportunities, those “remnant” fish were much, much harder to fool.  We would then anxiously await the appearance of more “fresh fish” which hadn’t yet seen our baits to appear on LiveScope, knowing these would be much easier to fool.

TALLY: 82 fish caught and released – including 79 white bass and 3 freshwater drum

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   63F

Elevation:  7.84 feet high with a 0.01′ 24-hour drop and a 1,789cfs flow from the dam.

Water Surface Temp:   71.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:   Light and variable at 0-4SSE

Sky Conditions:   Clear, bright skies for the first hour, followed by high, thin white clouds for the next two hours, and closing with grey, thicker cloud cover and an approaching thunderstorm right at the 4-hour mark

GT = 15

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 110 – solid action for ~40 minutes in 26′ for 38 fish at our first stop

**Area SH0112C – added 6 more fish to the tally here

**Area  067/SH0110C a solid, 40 minute white bass bite on tailspinners in 38′

**Area SH0113C – a final hour-plus white bass bite on tailspinners; bite ended as foul weather moved in from the SW with light rain, thunder, and lightning

 

 

Bob Maindelle

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

WOUNDED WARRIORS PREVAIL DESPITE FLOODING – 81 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This morning I fished with Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) members Shawn Poole, Tywan Cannon, and Mike Clark on Stillhouse Hollow in pursuit of white bass.

More than 52,000 servicemen and women have been physically injured in recent military conflicts. 500,000 are living with invisible wounds from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder. 320,000 experience debilitating brain trauma.  WWP helps these men and women.

This was the third WWP trip I’ve run this season, and this adventure was made up of an all-Army crew.  Shawn is a former tanker, Tywan was in aviation operations, and Mike was a combat engineer.

This was the very first WWP outreach event which Tywan and Shawn ever participated in.  Due to Mike’s lengthy stay at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio recovering from his injuries, including 39 surgeries, he was able to participate in a number of WWP events previously while there.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Wounded Warriors Mike Clark, Tywan Cannon, and Shawn Poole, each with a pair of Stillhouse Hollow white bass we caught fishing tailspinners vertically under flooded conditions (7.85 feet high and rising).  This was the Wounded Warrior Project’s third outing thus far in the 2019 season.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:   13 May 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED:  This trip was originally intended to be a hybrid striped bass trip on Lake Belton in what is normally the peak of the hybrid striper season.  However, enduring rains have caused Belton to rise and the Brazos River to flood.  With an inflow of water at around 3,200 cubic feet per second coming down from Lake Proctor (which is 12 feet high), and little to no flow coming out of Belton’s dam (to prevent further downstream flooding), Belton has simply been accumulating water at around .7 to .8 feet per day for nearly a week, thus forcing closure of most boat ramps and making questionable the status of any ramps still remaining open.

So, I did some scouting on Stillhouse after church yesterday and pinned down the location of several populations of white bass and we changed the location and focus of our trip to fishing for white bass on Stillhouse.

We enjoyed steady action in our last 3 hours on the water with slow action in our first hour, thanks to flat calm winds and bright sun.

100% of our fish were taken on my experimental tailspinners in around 46 feet of water. We used Garmin LiveScope technology extensively today to time our presentations with the arrival of “fresh” schools of white bass patrolling beneath the boat and get the lures where they needed to be, when they needed to be there.

As I gain experience in coaching anglers to use tailspinners successfully with the spinning gear I have set up for this application, I am finding that a powerful hookset is counter-productive, typically resulting in ripping the bait away from the fish before the hook is well-set.  Once everyone began to simply reel steadily even when a bite was detected, we began landing a much higher percentage of the fish that struck.

OBSERVATIONS:  “Fresh fish” was the operative word today. Over and over again we saw that when a new bunch of fish (which we nicknamed fresh fish) came under the boat, we could count on at least 2 if not all of our 4 rods hooking a fish.  However, once these first few fish were caught, and if the school stuck around long enough to provide follow-on opportunities, those “remnant” fish were much, much harder to fool.  We would then anxiously await the appearance of more “fresh fish” which hadn’t yet seen our baits to appear on LiveScope, knowing these would be much easier to fool.

TALLY: 81 fish caught and released – including 80 white bass and 1 freshwater drum

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   68F

Elevation:  7.85 feet high with a 0.43′ 24-hour rise and zero flow from the dam.

Water Surface Temp:   70.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:   Light and variable at 0-4NE

Sky Conditions:   Clear, bright skies all morning.

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  SH0109C, SH0110C, and SH0111C, with one “short hop” at SH0111C – white bass on tailspinners

 

 

Bob Maindelle

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

CREDIBLE AND AUDIT-PROOF – 104 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Thursday morning I fished with long-time client Jerry Morgan of Morgan’s Point Resort.  Jerry brought with him his friend Robert Stovall and Robert’s adult son, Scott Stovall, both of Waco.  Jerry is a retired educator, and both Robert and Scott’s focus is in corporate accounting.

After a slow start, multiple cooperative schools of white bass allowed us to take our fish count into the 50’s, then 60’s, then 70’s, and all the up to 100 fish.  The accountants in the party indicated this number would be subject to scrutiny in a written report such as this one, and so we kept fishing until we hit upon a number which they agreed would be credible, and which would not cut too badly into Scott’s plans for lunch at a local restaurant!

Robert paid me a very nice compliment at trip’s end, letting me know he really enjoyed the action we experienced and was glad we changed gears to focus on the white bass, and that he learned a lot from me.  Jerry, too, let me know he wanted to try again, even though his preference would have been for more hybrid action today.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Jerry Morgan of Morgan’s Point Resort hosted the Stovall’s on Lake Belton this morning.  Crazy changes in the weather put the hybrid in a funk, but we enjoyed a very aggressive white bass feed later in the morning.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Scott Stovall with a Lake Belton hybrid striped bass taken on live shad from out of nearly 60 feet of water (with ~7′ of that being above our normal full pool thanks to an overabundance of rain this spring).

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  This trip was split between chasing hybrid striped bass with live bait in the first half, and chasing white bass with artificial bait in the second half.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:   09 May 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED:   I missed a day of fishing yesterday, 08 May, due to stormy weather from before sunrise until after 2pm.  This system dropped more rain on us and east of us, which caused the Brazos River to flood and thus forced the Corps of Engineers to shut down the release of water at the dam.  This, in turn caused the water to rise 0.81 feet overnight.  Add to that a blanket of fog until sunrise, then flat calm and bright, sunny conditions until 8:20 AM, and this morning’s early bite was non-existent, as was any signs of a shad spawn.

We landed only 8 fish, including 3 of our trip’s 4 legal hybrid during this time, as well as 3 blue cat and 2 white bass, all on live shad in deep water.  Around 8:20, a sudden change in the weather brought a NW breeze at ~8mph and ominously dark clouds, which later thinned, but never cleared.  As the morning progressed, the wind continued to shift slowly northward.

We spent another hour in deep water, but only got bluecat to cooperate, and therefore left to pursue white bass instead.

The white bass bite later in the morning under breezier, partially cloudy conditions was solid.

We found fish in 24-26′ and did three “short hops” along this contour to stick with them, each time exciting the fish into biting and keeping them turned on for 20-2=30 minutes at a time.

Long story short, those cooperative white bass bit long and hard, allowing us to take our tally up to 104 fish, with most caught in the last 90 minutes on the water.

The majority of these fish were 2 and 3-year white bass, with a few 1-year whites and short hybrid in the mix.  The experimental tailspinners I’ve been mentioning caught 100% of these fish in more turbid water.

OBSERVATIONS:   

TALLY: 104 fish caught and released – including 4 legal hybrid

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:40a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   68F

Elevation:  6.56 feet high with a 0.51′ 24-hour rise and a flow of 2064cfs

Water Surface Temp:   70.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:   mph

Sky Conditions:   Grey skies all morning, starting off thick and steadily tapering out until the sun finally broke through in patches by around 11:15am

GT = 70

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  v1298 – scant hybrid and bluecat on live shad

**Area  B0075 – scant hybrid and bluecat on live shad

**Area  B0115C – 3 “short hops” for plentiful, active, 2-3 year class white bass on tailspinners

 

Bob Maindelle

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

LARGEST HYBRID OF THE SEASON – 71 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Tuesday morning I fished with returning guests Steve Stewart, Jerry Weathers and Jimmy Helm.  The three men have been friends since boyhood, all originally coming to know one another through the church they attended as boys and still attend to this day.  All are “actively retired”, either still engaged in the work they once did full time, and/or engaged in other pursuits requiring their effort and energy.

PHOTO CAPTION: This past Tuesday morning, Steve Stewart of Georgetown landed the season’s largest hybrid to date to come over the gunwale.  This healthy, well-proportioned fish weighed exactly 6.50 pounds on a certified scale.  Nice job, Steve!

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Jimmy Helm with a 5.50 pound hybrid — this fish tied for 3rd largest hybrid of the season behind a 5.75 pound fish landed the week before last.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Jerry Weathers with a 4-pound class hybrid that took a “jumbo” threadfin shad which measured over 5.00″.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  This trip was split between chasing hybrid striped bass with live bait in the first half, and chasing white bass with artificial bait in the second half.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:   07 May 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED:  As has been the case for most trips over the past 3+ weeks now, the strong early morning hybrid bite has really nosedived around 9:30am, with rare instances of seeing multiple fish in schools excitedly tear through baits after that point in the morning.  Seeing this trend over and over has allowed me to offer my guests the opportunity of catching hybrid early, then gunning for other species with lighter tackle using artificial baits later in the morning.

Of course, for the “hard core” who only want big hybrid, we’ll continue to press hard after them, but, for those who prefer action, this is a nice alternative.

Today, we pursued hybrid through 9:30, landing exactly 13 legal fish including the season’s single largest hybrid to date, a 6.50 pound fish landed by Steve Stewart.

When the hybrid action wound down, we then pursued white bass in more turbid waters.  My experimentation with tailspinners versus slabs in the turbid water was a huge success on Monday evening, so, these were our “go-to” baits in the same areas this morning.  We got into two separate groups of active white bass.  The first was in ~26 feet of water, thus, we fished the tailspinners vertically for these fish which were tightly grouped by using a smoking tactic.  The second group of white bass was in only 15-17 feet of water and seemed reluctant to hang under the boat as fish in this shallow of water often do.  Therefore, we backed off of these fish and cast horizontally to them using a lift-drop tactic and caught fish steadily right up until 11:40 when the skies brightened, the sun’s heat could be felt suddenly more intensely, and the fish shut down.

OBSERVATIONS:  SHAD025 was loaded down with spawners this morning allowing for “one and done” netting of high quality, large, colorful spawning shad.  24-26′ was the magic number for white bass this morning.  Everywhere I searched with sonar had at least a few white bass in this depth range.

TALLY: 71 fish caught and released – including 13 legal hybrid

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:40a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:   68F

Elevation:  6.56 feet high with a 0.51′ 24-hour rise and a flow of 2064cfs

Water Surface Temp:   70.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:   mph

Sky Conditions:   Grey skies all morning, starting off thick and steadily tapering out until the sun finally broke through in patches by around 11:15am

GT = 55

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area v2059 and B0151C – 23 fish incl. 13 legal hybrid by 9:30a

**Area vB0115C – vertical tailspinners for aggressive white bass at 24-26′

**Area v1634 – horizontal tailspinners for aggressive white bass in under 20′

 

Bob Maindelle

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