Day: June 29, 2019

100 FISH MORNING ON STILLHOUSE FOR THE BOYD KIDS

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:    This morning I welcomed Mrs. Chelsea Boyd and two of her four children aboard — Christopher, age 9, and Serenity, age 7.  The children’s father, U.S. Army Sergeant Jordon Boyd, has served for 8 years as a mechanic.

As with many of the support roles in the military such as maintenance, food service, fueling, communications, etc., personnel in such roles tend to begin training exercises earlier than the majority of personnel they are providing support for, and then stay out in field training environments longer, all so that the services they provide may be provided from start to finish during such exercises.  SGT Boyd has been routinely away from his family due to such duty commitments while the kids have been on their summer break from school.

This 5th SKIFF trip of the 2019 season was provided to this military family at no charge.  S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun.  This program began in May of 2009.  It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers.  S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing.  I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 to 4 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round.

PHOTO CAPTION:   For a second day in a row we enjoyed winds with a westerly component and enough cloud cover to prevent the full force of the sun from shining on the water until late in the morning.  Christopher and Serenity landed 43 white bass like these, then another 57 sunfish in our final 45 minutes on the water, to finish up their free SKIFF trip with 100 fish even!

PHOTO CAPTION:  Stillhouse experienced a massive mayfly hatch overnight.  Shucked hulls from emerged flies littered the water’s surface over the entire lower 2/3rds of the reservoir. Mayflies, like the one shown above, hatch at night, mate, deposit eggs into the water, then die, to begin a year-long cycle which will repeat next summer.  Fish really key in on these as a food source.  Many white bass we caught this morning were full of these insects.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:  29 June 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: This trip broke down into 3 segments.  First, we downrigged successfully with our balls set at 30-35 feet over deeper water to catch the (primarily suspended) white bass.  As the morning moved along, I began to spot some fish moving horizontally toward shallower water until they intersected with bottom and collected in large, somewhat stationary groups.  For a short while I Spot-Locked over such an area and we worked tailspinners successfully (“Segment 2”) in a vertical fashion, however, this bothered Serenity’s wrist a bit, so, we returned to downrigging and continued catching white bass through 9:15a, at which time the bite shut down as the sun shone fully for the first time all morning under light-wind conditions.  We ended our downrigging and vertical work with 43 white bass landed.

Our last segment consisted of 45 minutes worth of sunfishing over shallow hydrilla.  The kids quickly got the hang of this and fished pretty much autonomously, adding a total of 57 sunfish to our tally.

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   The first widespread mayfly hatch took place overnight.  White bass regurgitated both mayflies and shad.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 0.65 feet high, 0.16′ 24-hour drop,  735 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp:    83.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW6-8 the entire trip

Sky Conditions:   Light grey cloud cover in the eastern sky served to block the full force of the sun through about 8:30a, then the sun rose above this cloud bank and the heat and light levels both rose quickly.

GT = 20

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area = downrigging and vertical jigging for a strong population of fish found within an area bounded by 1246-1969-1241-SH0048C  – 43 white bass in 2.75 hours

**Area 231 – sunfish up shallow – 57 fish in 45 minutes

 

 

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