6 GRANDKIDS, 2 MORNINGS, 222 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:     These past two mornings, July 30th and 31st, I fished with two different contingents of the Oliver clan.  Grandpa Joe Oliver contacted me as soon as his adult kids’ summer plans were solidified to let me know he’d like to take all six of his grandkids out fishing in two “shifts” during Summer 2019.

On Tuesday, Joe was joined by his adult son, Thomas Oliver of Temple (whose 14-month-old daughter I’m sure you’ll read about in a few years), and his adult daughter, Amber Pugh, of Academy, TX.  Amber’s three kids, Ben (12), Beau (5), and Addie (4) were the focus of our morning efforts.

On Wednesday, Joe, Uncle Thomas, and Thomas’ older brother, Corey, fresh in from Oregon, all saw to it that Corey’s three kids, Cullen (9), Presley (9), and Harper (7), got to spend some time on the water with their grandpa, as well.

 

PHOTO CAPTION DAY 1:  From left, back row: Joe Oliver, Amber Pugh, and Thomas Oliver. From left, front row: Amber’s 3 kids: Beau, Ben, and Addie Pugh.

 

PHOTO CAPTION DAY 2: From left, back row: Joe Oliver, Corey Oliver, and Thomas Oliver  From left, front row: Corey’s three kids, Cullen, Harper, and Presley Oliver.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species, focusing on white bass and sunfish

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  30 & 31 July 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:   

Both days laid out pretty much the same given the current, stable summer weather pattern.  We got out there early, caught white bass as they fed aggressively until the bright sun shut them down, then turned our sights on sunfish up shallow.

DAY 1: The early morning bite, involving white bass forcing young of the year shad to the surface, produced 24 fish before the fish sounded as the light level increased.  The adults cast small shad-imitators out into the fray and the kids retrieved the lures back through them.  Once the bite on top died, we began downrigging, picking up an additional 15 fish for a combined 39 white bass and hybrid stripers, with our largest fish going 19″, landed by Ben.  Once the white bass/hybrid action was clearly over, we headed up shallow and fished bait under slipfloats for about 90 minutes of non-stop sunfish action, adding 63 fish to our count, and setting the bar for “the cousins” at 102 fish to beat the following morning.  I’ll note here that every Oliver clan member is quite competitive with coaches and athletes running all through their ranks.  It was no surprise, then, that Amber texted her brother, Corey, letting him know that 102 fish was going to be hard to beat before we even got off the water.

DAY 2: This morning unfolded in much the same way that Tuesday morning did with a few helpful differences:  1) the kids were generally older, 2) the winds were a bit lighter, thus helping with spotting fish early, and 3) there were more numerous pods of fish feeding this morning.  Thus, by the time the whites and hybrids ended their low-light feeding, we’d landed a half-dozen more fish and in a shorter period of time that on the previous morning.  The kids (and adults) were constantly inquiring about the fish count throughout the morning.  We headed up shallow and began the quest for sunfish, and these rascals really cooperated this morning. When all was said and done, we’d boated exactly 75 sunfish (bluegill, longear, redear, green, and hybrids thereof).  At exactly 9:34 the adults agreed that the kids were done, and we headed back to the boat ramp before the sun made its presence felt to any greater degree.

 

TALLY:  222 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  N/A

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time Day 1:   6:35a

Start Time Day 2:   6:20a

End Time Day 1: 9:30a

End Time Day 2: 9:34a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start Day 1: 76F

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start Day 2: 74F

Elevation Day 1:  0.35′ high, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 69 CFS flow

Elevation Day 2:  0.32′ high, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 69 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp Day 1:  84.1

Water Surface Temp Day 2:  84.5

Wind Speed & Direction Day 1:  S8-10 at trip’s start, staying constant throughout

Wind Speed & Direction Day 2:  S5-6 at trip’s start, staying constant throughout

Sky Conditions Days 1 & 2:   <5% white clouds on a blue sky

GT =  30

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT DAY 1: 

 Wx SNAPSHOT DAY 2: 

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS DAY 1:

**Area 133 to 1746- low light topwater action for whites and hybrid

**Area  B0104C – low light topwater action for whites and hybrid, followed by downrigging action after the increasing light drove the fish down

**Area 1583 – sunfish

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS DAY 2:

**Area B0132C- low light topwater action for whites and hybrid

**Area  715-1656 – low light topwater action for whites and hybrid, followed by downrigging action after the increasing light drove the fish down

**Area B0158C – sunfish in 4 secondary coves

 

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

Bryan Sanchez Lands 52 Fish on Lake Belton

WHO I FISHED WITH:     This morning, July 29th, I conducted the ninth SKIFF program trip of the 2019 season welcoming aboard Bryan Sanchez of Harker Heights.  Bryan is entering into his senior year at Harker Heights High School where he currently participate in the ROTC program.  After high school he plans to pursue either medicine or law enforcement through the military.

Bryan’s parents are both veterans; his mom a Reservist and his dad, Javier, was disabled following his second tour to Iraq in his eighth year of service in the U.S. Army.

This fishing trip 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 and other organizations they have partnered with.  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.  In mid-2019, SKIFF also began provide trips to dependents whose parents’ military-related disabilities prevent them from taking their own children 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: The Pantoja brothers, Mason (right) and Connor, each with a pair of white bass taken while we worked vertically with tailspinners.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  29 July 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:   This morning’s trip consisted of three segments.  First, we found fish forcing young of the year shad to the surface in the low light time just around sunrise.  We cast hardbaits imitating the size, shape and color of these small baitfish to the fish and retrieved our baits just under the surface for about 35 minutes of non-stop action.  The wind did us a bit of a favor in that it made it difficult to see the topwater feeding, thus allowing us to get on fish without other boats being drawn by the hard-to-see splashing.  Eventually 3 other boats came in, but the catching was nearly over by then.  We landed 30 fish during this time including 28 white bass and 2 hybrid striped bass.  The potential was there for more, by Bryan was new to casting spinning gear, so we had to work through that learning curve.

Next, we set our downriggers down to continue to fish in the same general area where we’d seen the topwater action occur, allowing us to pull 7 more fish before the early morning white bass bite shut down.  Our tally was now 37 fish,

We tried downrigging at one other area, coming up with 4 juvenile white bass and nothing more. Our tally bumped up to 41.

We stopped at one promising area holding bait and a few fish and worked slabs/tailspinners to no avail.

We wrapped up the trip fishing for sunfish up shallow in our last 50 minutes on the water, adding 11 fish of 4 species (redear, bluegill, longear, and green sunfish) to our take, ending the trip with 52 fish total.

TALLY:  52 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  N/A

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:20a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation:  0.38′ high, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 69 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   83.5

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE10 at trip’s start, evenly tapering up to SSE14 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:   40% cloud cover, evenly tapering down to 24% by trip’s end

GT =  0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  B0155C to 1924 to B0156C – low light topwater action, followed by downrigging action after the increasing light drove the fish down

**Area  B0157C to 099 – downrigging for what turned out to be juvenile whites

**Area  B0158C – 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

LIGHT WINDS, LIGHT BITE – 16 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:     This past Friday morning, July 26th, I fished with Leo Ramirez, Leo’s father (also named Leo), and a friend of the family, Chris Hastings.  The three men have fished on occasion in the past mainly as a break from the stress of work and life.

The elder Leo is a retired school teacher who now tutors kids in math; Leo once earned Texas Teacher of the Year honors at the 5A school level.  The younger Leo runs his own company now after a career in the tech industry.  Chris works in sales for Apple in Austin.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From the left: Leo, Leo, and Chris each with a pair of white bass which came during a short spurt of action toward the end of a very tough morning made difficult by light winds and bright skies.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED:  26 July 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  If you’ve followed my blogging, you’ll know I don’t sugar-coat my reports, pad my numbers, or post only when we’ve done well.  Today we had a very rough go of it as is often the case under low wind, bright sky conditions.

First, we started a bit later than I normally would (my bad; a failure to communicate).

Had the light winds we experienced been forecast, my choice would have been to either delay to the evening, or postpone.  As it was, we were due to have winds up to 6-8 mph by the time the low light period had passed by 8:30am (see below), but this just did not materialize. Instead, it stayed calm through 10am.

Everywhere I looked, we found much the same scenario — scattered gamefish and ample, very relaxed bait forming a 3-4 foot thick “blanket” at 30-34 feet deep.  No schools, or pods, or “wolfpacks” of gamefish, just loosely scattered individuals.  Also, we found no “balls” of bait forming together tightly because they felt threatened.

We downrigged extensively to cover water and to create our own breeze in the near-dead calm conditions.

Had the light winds we experienced been forecast, my choice would have been to either delay to the evening, or postpone.  As it was, we were due to have winds up to 6-8 mph by the time the low light period had passed by 8:30am (see below), but this just did not materialize. Instead, it stayed calm through 10am.

Around 10:30, in about 42 feet of water off the face of a shallower slope, we finally found some fish perked up and feeding up around 27-29 feet deep, just moments before the SE breeze finally began to kick in.

I knew this was “do or die” time, and did all I could to maximize the time our baits spent in the water as we ran twin 3-armed umbrella rigs on twin downriggers using Pet Spoons as the bait.

We took 15 white bass over a 45 minute span with 4 of these coming as doubles — both for Chris.  The action died nearly as quickly as it began, and the fish returned to the same lazy posture they’d been in most of the morning.

Over the course of the morning, as we downrigged and I saw loose concentrations of white bass holding in a definable area, we stopped and worked tailspinners vertically, but this did not produce a single fish for us all morning.

Beyond the white bass, we landed one smallish largemouth, also via downrigging.  By the 4.75 hour mark we called it a done deal with 16 fish landed.

Fortunately, the fellows enjoyed being outdoors, enjoyed one another’s company, and enjoyed the “boat-tech” I introduced them to.  Sometimes I have to remind myself that fishing is about more than a tally at the end of the day.

TALLY:  16 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Lake finally fell back to full pool for the first time after being over full pool since the major flooding last October.

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   7:00am

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation:  Lake at exactly full pool @ 622.00′ above sea level, a 24-hour 0.01 drop, 0 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   85.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:   Calm winds through 10:30 am, then a light breeze from the SE at under 5 mph.

Sky Conditions:   <10% white cloud cover on a blue sky

GT =  5

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area encompassed within 251-1228-1229-SH0124C – 15 white bass in a 45-minute span on downriggers set a 24-25 foot for fish holding slightly deeper

 

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

FREE FISHING TRIP FOR THE PANTOJA BROTHERS — 34 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:     This morning, July 24th, I conducted the eighth SKIFF program trip of the 2019 season as I welcomed aboard the sons of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Elias Pantoja, along with their mom, Natalie.

SSG Pantoja is separated from his family currently as he serves as a medic in South Korea.  He has been in the military for 13 years now.

The boys, Connor, age 9, and Mason, age 12, had been fishing a time or two before and did well on today’s trip.  Thanks to Mr. Dave Hill of the Austin Fly Fishers, at the conclusion of the trip, each young man went home with a SKIFF logo ball cap, a small tackle box, and a closed-face rod and reel.

This fishing trip 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 and other organizations they have partnered with.  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: The Pantoja brothers, Mason (right) and Connor, each with a pair of white bass taken while we worked vertically with tailspinners.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED:  24 July 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  As I’ve described many times here, it is important to keep kids successful and to introduce transitions to new things over the course of a half-day trip to keep the kids engaged the whole time.

To accomplish this today, a day in which an unusual mid-summer north wind was making things tougher than normal, we did a bit of downrigging, followed by some vertical jigging with tailspinners, followed by some shallow water sunfishing, and then we wrapped up with another round of downrigging.

Our initial shot at downrigging did not produce for us as the wind and the fish got a late start this morning.  By 7:30, we were working tailspinners in about 34 feet of water successfully.  The boys managed 7 fish in the boat and a few more lost due to some “rookie” mistakes which are all part of learning.  Once the population of fish we’d found turned off, we made another transition to sunfishing.

We headed up shallow into a combination of rocks, wood, and hydrilla to find our sunfish this morning, and, in about an hour’s time, more than quadrupled our catch, taking our tally up to 30 fish, including bluegill, longear, and green sunfish.

During our final half-hour on the water, we returned to the general vicinity where the white bass had cooperated on the tailspinners earlier, and more thoroughly combed over this area with downriggers equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs rigged up with small Pet Spoons.  The fish were present but far from enthusiastic.  Nonetheless, each brother landed two more fish each, their first on the downriggers, thus taking our final fish count to 34 fish landed.

The boys got to experience success with three different tactics and landed four different species of fish in doing so.

TALLY:  34 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  This was the second full day of mild, cold front conditions and a north wind.  As usual, these high-pressure conditions made it tougher than usual.

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.04 feet high, 0.03 foot 24-hour drop, 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp:   85.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NE3-4 at trip’s start, slowly tapering up to NE10 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:   Cloudless, high-pressure, post-frontal skies 

GT =  0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 878/062 for white bass via tailspinners from 7:30 to 8:30, then via downrigging from 10:00 to 10:30

**Area 189 – shallow sunfishing

 

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

Pre-Frontal Schedule Shuffle — 68 Fish @ Belton

WHO I FISHED WITH:     This past Monday evening I fished with Paul Cox and his 15-year-old son, David.  I normally don’t take evening trips during the summer as few folks enjoy the first 2 hours of heat before the last 2 hours of better fishing kicks in, but, I saw a wrinkle in the weather headed our way, and the timing of everything looked promising, so, on a last-minute kind of deal, I took this father-and-son pair out — and the effort paid off.

Paul is a dentist with a practice in Temple and David just got through his freshman year of high school where he enjoys running short-distance track.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Paul Cox looks on as David holds a nice 19″ Lake Belton hybrid striper taken from 32 feet of water on a tailspinner.

PHOTO CAPTION:   David Cox (left) and his dad, Paul, with a sampling of the 56 white bass we landed, in addition to 10 hybrid striper and two blue catfish.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  22 July 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED:   We began our trip downrigging with a pair of 3-armed umbrella rigs run at 28 feet for fish showing from 30-34 feet in a “band of life” on sonar.  This accounted for consistent action in the normally slowest part of the afternoon, from 4:15p to 6:30p.  During this time, we landed 22 fish, including 17 taken on the downriggers, and 5 taken on tailspinners after we located a small concentration of fish while downrigging, which we then stopped and worked vertically for.

Next, we got poured on in a rain event which lasted about 15 minutes as the wind shifted from SW through W to NW on the lead edge of a mid-summer cold front which was forecast to bring cooler, drier weather to us through early morning Friday.  Concerned about lightning, I beached us and we waited it out.  After about 1/2″ of rain and 2 claps of thunder, a rainbow came out, the skies cleared, the NW wind which had picked up to 13-14 idled back to NNW6, and we got back to fishing.

We downrigged once more for just 3 more fish and then turned our sights on finding better concentrations of fish to work vertically for after seeing sonar indicate that the passing weather spurred on fish and baitfish activity.

We found what we were after in about 32 feet of water.  In a matter of 20-25 minutes we took our tally from 25 fish up to 44 fish by working tailspinners vertically in conjunction with LiveScope and my thumper.

As a grey cloud bank in the west brought an early sunset and the light level dimmed prematurely, the fish moved shallower and up higher in the water column.  We found downrigging the best approach once again,  running baits at just 14′ over a deeper bottom.  We put a final 24 fish in the boat (including singles, doubles, and a triple) right up to dark at about 8:50pm.

 

TALLY:  68 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Despite a solid sunset feed, there was little topwater action thanks to both the wind going northerly, and the “tad too much” ripple the N wind put on the water at that critical time around sunset.

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  4:15p

End Time:  8:50p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 97F

Elevation:  0.52 high, 0.03 24-hour drop, 0 flow

Water Surface Temp:   90.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:   SW through 5:45p, then a shift thru W to NNW13 accompanied by a rainstorm, then clearing skies and a wind drop to NNW6-8

Sky Conditions:   Clear skies through 5:45p, then 100% grey clouds ushering in a rainstorm, then clearing skies to 40% cloud coverage.

GT = 25

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1079 – B0103C – downrigging early for small fish

**Area  vic 2055 – downrigging leading to LiveScope work with tailspinners

**Area B0132C – LiveScope work with tailspinners for 24 fish

**Area B0154C through 793 – downrigging circuit with baits set around 14′ as fish moved into 20-25′ water and up in the water column.

 

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 PRINCIPAL STOPPED BY — 70 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:    After a week off of the water to volunteer at my church’s Vacation Bible School, I ran a sonar training session yesterday and then was back at it this past Saturday in pursuit of summertime fish.  I welcomed aboard the Lopez family of Salado, TX.  Mr. Adrian Lopez called me looking for some help in “putting it all together” when it came to fishing.  He fished as a kid and now has a 16-foot boat, but success has been hard to come by and he desired to understand some options for helping his kids connect with fish.

We agreed that a “Kids Fish, Too!” package, focused mainly on the kids’ success, would be appropriate, and that as the morning unfolded, I’d do my best to explain why we were doing what we were doing to help him take more than a random approach his next time out.

Adrian is a principal in the Temple Independent School District.  His wife, Laura, is an assistant principal in that same district; and their kids, 15-year-old Isaiah and 9-year-old Adalia, are both students and athletes, with soccer as their primary interest.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Adalia and Isaiah Lopez with a pair of white bass the siblings took while working tailspinners vertically in 30-40 feet of water during their “Kids Fish, Too!” kids-focused fishing trip this morning.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:  20 July 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  My plan was to downrig early, then to fish tailspinners vertically in deep water, and finish up with fishing sunfish up shallow.

The downrigging was, surprisingly, a bust this morning.  This almost never happens in the summer unless we get a wind shift to the north, which was not the case today.  I noted that there was a lot of relaxed bait blanketing the bottom in the areas I searched for white bass while downrigging indicating the shad were not threatened.  So, either the fish weren’t there, or they were so turned off the bait sensed no threat.  I gave it a full hour on the downriggers, putting the balls down at 4 distinct locations with only one suspended school of white bass showing any response over that entire time (and we didn’t pull a fish from that school).

The vertical fishing began around 8am and produced right through 9:30am.  We found fish between 30-40 feet, albeit initially the sonar readings were quite sparse.  We groomed the bite by sitting in one place, on Spot-Lock, using the thumper and working our tailspinners to draw in and keep fish under the boat.  Fish came through steadily in schools ranging from a dozen fish to up over a hundred fish, but none of them stayed put very long.  We wound up making three “short hops” in this vicinity and picking up fish each time we hopped.  Between our second and third hop, I put the downriggers down as I was seeing fish routinely suspended about 3 feet off bottom and they were grouped together in small packs.  We picked up a double (Isaiah) and a single (Adalia), but went back to vertical work with tailspinners as the kids found that more engaging.

We wound up catching 23 white bass and 1 drum by the time we concluded this effort to head up shallow to sunfish.  We left these white bass still biting.

We wrapped up the trip making 2 stops in one area in under 10 feet of water fishing livebait under slipfloats around rock and hydrilla to target green, bluegill, and longear sunfish.  As I explained to Adrian, this is a fast-paced form of fishing which does not require much time or money and which kids, even teens, really tend to take a liking to.  We wound up landing a total of 46 sunfish, during which time Adalia earned the nickname “Sunfish Queen”.  She had a keen eye, kept it on the float, and reacted instantly when those sunfish even breathed on her bait — and she put a hurt on them!

TALLY:  70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   Here is a very interesting year-to-year comparison of water temperature at depth.  Something about this, I suspect, correlates to the lack of topwater action on Stillhouse thus far … at 60 feet deep, the water is a full 13 degrees warmer than it was around this time last year, and there is no distinct thermal break.

Water temperature at depth on 2-Aug-18 Water temperature at depth on 20-Jul-19
0 feet 86.5° 0 feet 84.5
5 feet 86.5° 5 feet 85.9
10 feet 86.5° 10 feet 86.2
15 feet 86.5° 15 feet 86.2
20 feet 86.5° 20 feet 86.2
25 feet 86.5° 25 feet 86.2
30 feet 85° 30 feet 86.2
35 feet 80.3° 35 feet 85.6
40 feet 74.3° 40 feet 83.1
45 feet 68.4° 45 feet 81.2
50 feet 65.1° 50 feet 79.1
55 feet 62.8° 55 feet 77.8
60 feet 61.1° 60 feet 74.8

 

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:35a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation:  0.07 feet high, 0.03′ fall, flow is 1 cfs

Water Surface Temp:   84.5

Wind Speed & Direction:  S6 building to S12 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:   ~25% white cloud cover

GT = 5

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 062 – vertical work with tailspinners in 30-40 feet (3 short hops) for 23 whites and a drum

**Area 231 (2 hops) for 46 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

A Persistent North Wind — 73 Fish @ Stillhouse

WHO I FISHED WITH:    This morning I fished with siblings Aron Stano and Alicia Richardson in pursuit of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.  Aron captains private yachts in Florida for a living and Alicia is an art teacher at Belton High School.  Aron came in for his fourth visit to Texas a few days ago and his brother-in-law, Alicia’s husband, Robert, set this fishing trip up for the two of them.

I really enjoyed comparing notes on both foreign and domestic fishing venues with Aron; he’s convinced me to take a hard look at South Africa as both a fresh and salt water fishing destination.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Aron Stano of Florida, and his sister, Alicia Richardson of Belton, Texas, with four fistfuls of fish taken under tough north wind conditions this morning on Stillhouse Hollow.  A combination of downrigging early and vertical work late accounted for our 73 fish take.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:  13 July 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  We faced our third straight day of north winds with another in store tomorrow before the wind is due to come back out of the south around mid-day on Monday.  This really has put a damper on the early morning downrigging bite in that the number of suspended fish which are the ones most easily targeted have been few and far between. Further, a majority of the fish in those suspended groups we found, and even some fish which pulled up off bottom and inspected the downrigger balls, did not pursue and take the trailing baits.  We put 10 fish in the boat via downrigging before I called what little “low light” bite we got over and we switched over to vertical jigging.

This turned out a bit better than I expected in that we stopped only one time at the very first deep-water location at which I spotted some scattered white bass along with shad.  We worked for a bit before getting our first bite, but once it came, we enjoyed schools of fish routinely coming in under the boat, nearly every one of which would give up at least one fish per angler, sometimes two, before first growing disinterested and then finally dispersing.  This is in contrast with typical behavior experienced under southerly wind conditions where the fish typically come in to the baits and then linger for quite some time, all the white remaining able to be caught.  Regardless, we wound up boating another 63 fish, including 1, 2, and 3-year class fish, every last one of which came on my prototype tailspinners.

TALLY:  73 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   One more day of north wind is currently forecast.  Zero topwater action spotted this morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  0.33 feet high, 0.01′ fall, flow is 200 cfs

Water Surface Temp:   86.8

Wind Speed & Direction:  NE8 beginning right at sunrise and slowly tapering up to NE13

Sky Conditions:   ~25% white cloud cover

GT = 45

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas vic 481 and vic 258 each gave up a few fish on a tough, low-light downrigger bite impacted negatively by the N. wind

**Area 062-878 – 63 white bass on tailspinners in 38′

 

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

Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) – 7th Trip of the Season

WHO I FISHED WITH:    This morning I fished the seventh S.K.I.F.F. program trip of the 2019 season. Joining me were Alicia Wegmann (18), Jayden Lamay (11), and Giovanni Lemay (10).  Michelle and Alicia lost Alicia’s father, Sergeant Robert Wegmann Jr. in 2008. Sergeant Wegmann received a Purple Heart after being wounded overseas when a roadside bomb exploded. Sergeant Wegmann and his battle buddy would both lose their lives as a result of this incident.

Alicia really impressed me with her focus and goals.  Having earned an Associate’s Degree prior to graduating from high school a few weeks ago, she now has her sights set on an accounting degree from Texas A&M University Central Texas.  She grasps new things very quickly and is very articulate.  I know she’ll do well.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Alicia Wegmann, Giovanni Lamay, and Jaden Lamay on the seasons’ seventh SKIFF program trip.  The kids landed 56 fish this morning.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:  12 July 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: With north wind conditions still mixing things up this morning, we tried three different things to both keep it interesting and keep the fish coming over the side.  We did some downrigging early on when I figured the fish would be most active, suspended, and willing to chase.  From there, we transitioned to sunfishing up shallow, and ended with an unsuccessful round of vertical jigging with tailspinners.  Unfortunately the wind tapered down as the morning moved on instead of increasing as it normally does, so the fishing slowed earlier than normal.  When all was said and done we’d landed a total of 56 fish including 13 white bass, 1 channel catfish, and 42 sunfish.

TALLY: 56 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   One more day of north wind is currently forecast.  Zero topwater action spotted this morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  0.33 feet high, 0.06′ rise, flow is 1 cfs

Water Surface Temp:   85.5

Wind Speed & Direction:  NE10 beginning right at sunrise and slowly tapering down to NE6

Sky Conditions:   ~25% white cloud cover

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  vic 1242-1239 downrigging

**Area  vic SH0058C – 1976 downrigging

**Area  1416 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 BUFFALO HUNTER FROM MONTANA – 48 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:    This morning I fished with Dan Gretch and his 16-year-old son, Blayne, of Helena, Montana.  The Gretch family had always wanted to do a little vacationing in Texas and this was the summer they made it happen.  Along the way they got to take in Austin, some local fishing while staying in the Temple area, and from here will head to Arlington for a Ranger ballgame before flying back home.  Dan is a professor at Carroll College, a private Catholic college with a student body of just over 1,400 in the capitol city of Helena.  Blayne is working his way through public high school while holding down a job at Murdoch’s Ranch and Home Supply where he loads a lot of feed for the cattle, sheep, and pig farmers in the region.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:    16-year-old Blayne Gretch of Helena, MT, took this 33-inch monster of a smallmouth buffalo on light spinning gear intended for the white bass we were targeting.  We all watched the fish rocket upwards in pursuit of the 1-ounce tailspinner while viewing LiveScope.  The fish was cleanly hooked in the upper left lip, measured, and released.  We estimated 30-35 pounds.

PHOTO CAPTION:    From left: Dan Gretch with a Stillhouse largemouth bass, and his son, Blayne, with a Stillhouse white bass.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:  11 July 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:   Summertime wrinkles in the weather really make me nervous.  Things began getting tough yesterday when the winds went flat calm most of the day in advance of a cold front’s arrival overnight.  When we first got on the water this morning and I began running downriggers, it was quickly evident that, as I anticipated, we were going to have to work for each fish we caught under today’s north-wind conditons.  The fish would have nothing to do with a quick, horizontal presentation via the downriggers.  So, after covering what I felt was our best terrain in that key low-light period and coming up with only one fish while seeing very few others, we moved and went vertical.

I keyed on spotting just handfuls of loosely schooled fish holding together in the lower third of the water column to choose where to focus our efforts.  I tried to choose the “center of mass” of any collections of fish I found on side-by-side down imaging and colored sonar on the Lowrance Carbon, and then used the iPilot Link function of the Humminbird Solix to lock on top of that center of mass.  I then relied on Garmin LiveScope to keep the area scanned in real-time as we worked tailspinners vertically.  The action slowly improved as the light level increased in the 35-52-foot waters we were fishing.

The white bass that came through came through in groups of 30-50 fish and were typically moving quickly, allowing at most just 1-2 fish per angler before they moved on. Fortunately, these schools appeared frequently enough to keep the catching steady and engaging.  Over the next few hours we put 1 largemouth, 1 drum, 1 smallmouth buffalo, and 45 white bass in the boat including mainly 2-year class fish.  The fishing definitely moved deeper as the skies got brighter and hour got later.

TALLY: 48 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:    At least 2 more days of north winds are currently forecast

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:10a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  0.22 feet high, 0.05′ rise, flow is just 1CFS

Water Surface Temp:   85.5

Wind Speed & Direction:  We experienced a 180 degree reversal of the winds beginning last night around 10p with the arrival of a mild cold front which moved in from the NNW.  This morning the winds came up quickly to 10mph by dawn, then peaked at NNW13 by 9am, then backed off NNW11 for the remainder of the trip.

Sky Conditions:   About 70 minutes of 100%  grey clouds in the eastern sky, then clearing to 40% coverage thereafter

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  SH0123C

**Area  vic SH0120C

**Area  SH0122C

**Area  vic 878

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

SAVED BY THE SUNFISH — 56 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:    This morning I fished with a man and his two sons.  Due to the father’s connection to the Department of Homeland Security, he requested that names and photos not be used in this report.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:    This illustration of a bluegill sunfish was found in The Outdoorsman’s Freshwater Fishing Guide of Southern California.  Sunfish like this, as well as green sunfish, and longear sunfish provided a ready supply of action when bright skies and calm winds shut the white bass bite down early today.

Bluegill

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species (white bass and sunfish)

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:  10 July 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  This morning got off to a pretty routine, solid start.  A light SSW breeze had begun to ripple the surface, the sun was rising and was unobscured by clouds, so there was a sudden brightening of the skies which spurred the fish on to begin feeding.  Sonar showed ample fish both suspended off bottom and on bottom.  We set our downrigger balls around 30 feet deep and went right to work.  The boys, ages 8 and 10, missed their first 3 fish due to some rookie mistakes which we worked through, and then wound up converting the next 6 consecutive strikes into landed fish.  Then it happened …

The wind quit just as a thin layer of patchy grey clouds obscured the sun and it was like someone turned off the power.  We found no more white bass anywhere in the vicinity where, literally, minutes before there were hundreds. It was one of the most dramatic mood swings I’ve seen fish make and there was no obvious environmental trigger to  accompany it (no front arrival, no barometric pressure swing, etc.).

We tried downrigging in 2 more areas, adding just one more white bass to the count and had a number of situations where I found suspended white bass in solid numbers and with downriggers well-positioned, only to have our presentation totally ignored (i.e. no fish even budging upwards toward the baits, much less chasing, etc.).

After a longer fishless stretch than I like younger kids to endure, we made a break up shallow to fish for sunfish.  The boys enjoyed this on their trip with me last August, and enjoyed sunfishing again today.  This time, I retained a few to use for livebait hoping to drum up a few largemouth after the novelty wore off the panfishing.

When that time came, we did a bit more looking for white with the ‘riggers but again found none.  By now, the sun was blazing and it was breathless out there.  There was no sign of life at all — no fish jumping, no bait at the surface — just nothing.  We hung baits over several grassy high spots, but after 3 stops had nothing to show for it and called it a day right around 11 am with 56 fish landed — a morning certainly saved by the sunfish!

TALLY: 56 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:    Still no summer schooling action on topwater to speak of by largemouth or white bass.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation:  0.22 feet high, 0.05′ rise, flow is just 1CFS

Water Surface Temp:   84.7

Wind Speed & Direction: Light breeze under SSW2 entire trip.

Sky Conditions:   An unobscured sunrise was covered by a thin layer of clouds from 7:30 to 8:30, afterwhich the clouds dissipated allowing the full force of the sun to shine on a near-windless surface.

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas 1241-SH0048C-SH0045C – center of mass for limited, early downrigging success

**Area SH0043C – 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