September | 2019 | Fishing Report

NAMES WITHHELD TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT – 70 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

September 7th, 2019September 11th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Saturday morning, 07 Sept., I fished with a family (returning guests) from the N. Austin area who preferred not to be identified, nor have their photos appear on social media. So as to create a “placeholder” and include this catch in my annual records, I’m entering this summary of our efforts.

I fished with a father and his two kids, aged 4 and 7. This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip in which only the kids fished.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Sunfish and white bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: 07 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: With two youngsters onboard, we headed up shallow for some “instant gratification” sunfishing right from the get-go. This worked out well as we landed sunfish at each of the areas at which we stopped, amassing a catch of 41 fish, including all manner of sunfish and a few largemouth bass.

When I saw the novelty wearing off concerning the sunfishing, we made a move to open water to target white bass (and have snacks!). The white bass were pretty cooperative once the wind began to ripple the water, at around 8:45am. We strictly downrigged for these freshwater pelagics, and wound up adding another 24 fish to our count including 0, 1, and 2-year class fish coming as singles and doubles on the Pet Spoons rigged up on 3-armed umbrella rigs.

The kids lasted until around 10:30, by which time they had landed a mixed bag of 65 fish. I dropped them off and then headed back out to an area where, using a spotting scope, I saw terns working (which, by the way, have been in short supply on Stillhouse this summer).

These birds led me to a nice concentration of fish on a moderately sloped patch of bottom in about 35 feet of water. As I arrived, there were individual fish popping shad occasionally (definitely NOT an aggressive topwater feed, but enough action to cause me to want to investigate further). I went to work, solo now, with LiveScope and ferreted out a few nice schools of bottom-oriented white bass patrolling in this area. I landed five in short order on my own version of tailspinners and then stopped fishing after confirming this was a worthwhile area. I continued combing over this area with sonar, finding at least 3 other similar schools of white bass of approximately 70-100 fish each.

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Terns led me to fish today; these normally helpful birds have been scarce on Stillhouse this summer due, I suspect, to a lack of topwater action and therefore a lack of dead/crippled shad near the surface for them to feed on routinely.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40am

End Time: 10:30am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.79 low, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 86.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5 beginning around 8:45a; calm prior to that

Sky Conditions: No cloud cover on a blue sky.

GT = 30

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0131C, SH0132C, and back of 1874 for 41 sunfish

**Area SH0134C was center of mass for late morning downrigging effort yielding 24 white bass

**Area SH0133C – a new area revealed by light tern action and light topwater action; landed 5 fish and stopped, but graphed several hundred fish in 4 distinct schools.

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)

SUNFISH FEST WITH THE CRUZ CREW – 87 FISH

September 4th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, September 4th, I fished with the Cruz family of Fort Hood. Joining me were Dakottah (16), Makenzie (13), Makayla (11), and Gavin (7). Their dad, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Jose Cruz has been away at a 10-week drill sergeant training course at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. After a brief stop back at Fort Hood, the family will be facing a move to San Antonio where SSG Cruz has been assigned as a drill instructor at the Advanced Individual Training (AIT) course there. SSG Cruz has served in the military as a medic for 13 years. The kids’ mom, Katy, knew of the S.K.I.F.F. program and set this up for the kids shortly after the start of public school since she home-schools her children and my calendar is much more open at this time of year.

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 providing 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: From left, Dakottah, Gavin, Makayla, and Makenzie Cruz, each with a sampling of the sunfish we focused on on this third consecutive day of bright, dry, hot, cloudless weather accompanied by little or no wind.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Sunfish and white bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: 04 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: It was hard to get excited about the prospect of fishing for white bass today. After a 3-day run of briliiant sunshine, near-calm winds, and a northeast breeze when the wind did blow lightly, the white bass have really locked down. With 4 kids spread over a 9 year span, it was going to be difficult to keep everyone engaged with the long waits between fish that I was seeing in the cards were we to pursue white bass, so, I opted to focus on sunfish this morning and treat the whites as icing on the cake toward the end of the trip.

This turned out well. We visited 3 distinct areas in pursuit of sunfish and landed exactly 81 fish using live bait and slip floats up in shallow water, including bluegill, green, longear, and redear sunfish, as well as a few largemouth bass.

Based on observations yesterday morning, I timed our efforts at closing the trip out by downrigging to take place from 9:40 to 10:15 am, which was the short ‘window’ of time I observed white bass feeding briefly and somewhat sporadically over deep, open water at that time. This also turned out well, as it allowed each of the kids to take one turn on the downrigging equipment, accounting for a half-dozen white bass. By the time the last of the kids brought their white bass in, young Gavin was just about done, and we called it a good morning right at the 3.5 hour mark with exactly 87 fish landed for our efforts.

TALLY: 87 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Continued high pressure conditions limited what already minimal topwater action has been taking place this summer on Stillhouse.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time: 10:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.61 low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm the entire trip, with an occasional NE ripple that would immediately dissipate

Sky Conditions: 20% clouds forming after 10 AM

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0127C (east fork) – 7 short hops for a variety of sunfish and a few small largemouth bass

**Area SH0130C – a variety of sunfish

**Area SH0129 – a variety of sunfish

**Area 1146 – downrigging for white bass in open water

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)

AS THE WEATHER AND SEASON ALLOWED – 27 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

September 3rd, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 03 September, I fished with Max Lopez of Harker Heights, TX. Max is a U.S. Army veteran who recently obtained his credentials to repair heating,ventilation, and air conditioning equipment via his GI Bill by going back to college later in life. Max now works as a partner with Sonrise Services in the local area as well as with Memorial Baptist Church as their one-man maintenance department. Max now has all of my business for both my own home and my rental properties.

Max was blessed to receive a used boat as a gift from someone and is now endeavoring to learn about boating and fishing. This morning’s trip was intended to help Max grasp some fundamentals about both fishing and boat handling to help him enjoy his gift a bit more going forward.

When Max arrived ready to fish this morning, he had only caught 1 fish in his entire life.

PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Army vet Max Lopez with a pair of husky Stillhouse Hollow white bass. We took these fish from suspended schools of fish chasing bait in the upper half of the water column with our baits run at 19 feet deep. Max, who had only landed one other fish in his entire life before this morning’s trip, rounded out the day with 27 fish landed.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: 03 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Given Max’s “rookie” status, I tried to introduce him to as many tactics as the weather and season would allow for this morning, while answering a non-stop stream of good questions that he posed to me.

Over our 4+ hours on the water, we downrigged, we jugfished, and we fished for shallow sunfish using slip-floats on bream poles.

Despite experiencing the polar opposite of good fishing weather (it was bright and windless), we managed 27 fish, including a few 2-year class white bass.

OBSERVATIONS: There was a very definite uptick in action from 9:40 to 10:30 this morning. During this time, and over the half-mile stretch of lake we could witness, there was at least one or two small schools of white bass working over young of the year shad on the surface. This gave us a starting point for downrigging which we exploited to the best of our ability.

TALLY: 27 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: .59 feet low, .02 foot 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning

Sky Conditions: 0% cloud cover

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1472 – so-so action on downriggers

**Area 231 – sunfishing

**Area 1995 thru to 1528 – fast downrigging action in the vicinity of white bass feeding routinely on topwater

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)

BRIGHT SKIES, CALM WINDS, & SLIM PICKINS – 23 FISH @ BELTON

September 2nd, 2019September 2nd, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Labor Day 2019 (Sept. 2nd), I fished with the Hunt family, originally from Montana. Joining me were Ryan and his wife, Stepanie, as well as Ryan’s brother, Jason, and Ryan and Jason’s dad, Don, who still lives in Montana and came down for a visit, including some fishing and dove hunting.

Ryan’s last duty station was here at Fort Hood. After separating from the military he went to work with First Command, a financial planning organization that works closely with military members. Stephanie is a veterinarian in Copperas Cove, Jason is an active duty Army aviator stationed at Fort Hood, and Don is an electrician back in Montana. The whole family graduated from the Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho.

The family bid on a gift certificate I had donated to the Killeen Church of the Nazarene for a youth fundraiser back in the spring and decided to redeem it this weekend.

PHOTO CAPTION: The Hunt crew: From left: Ryan, Stephanie, Jason, and Don, each with one of the 19 white bass we landed today.

PHOTO CAPTiON: Jason landed this 11th hour Lake Belton smallmouth bass that weighed just a few hundreths less than 3.00 pounds. It came up off of a 26′ bottom for a bait worked down at 21′ deep.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: 02 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: This was a tough day — we had clear skies and light winds following a wrinkle in the weather which shifted winds to the north and east both yesterday and today, partially influenced by Hurricane Dorian which sits off of Florida’s east coast by 105 miles as of this writing.

There was no topwater bite this morning, and precious few fish found subsurface in several of the areas which have produced low-light topwater action of late. We downrigged successfully in three areas and threw in some jugfishing (which I planned ahead for after seeing the tough weather forecast), as well.

Many of the white bass we caught today were smallish — it seems these small fish will feed even when the larger ones are put off by weather. I’ve noted this many times in the past.

In getting rigged up for the trip last night, I switched all of my downrigging rigs back to #12 Pet Spoons from #13’s, knowing that a smaller, “finesse” bait would get hit when a flashier, gaudier lure might not. I feel like this put a few extra fish in the boat today, as we picked up 2 sets of triples and 1 set of doubles.

Our jugfishing went okay given that the calm winds made for little drift and little water covered. On 20 jugs we had 6 pulldowns and put 2 bluecat in the boat (the third blue in the tally actually came on the downrigger).

We were all sweating through our clothes by 10am, and stayed until 11am, boating a grand total of 24 fish on the morning.

The “first fish” award today went to Don, who landed a small white bass right at 6:30am as we were practice casting by the boat ramp in anticipation of topwater action around sunrise. Biggest fish award today went to Jason with a “personal best” smallmouth bass.

OBSERVATIONS: There were actually fewer boats out this morning on a holiday Monday than on a typical summertime Saturday. The calm winds from a NNE direction and bright sun really turned the fish off this morning.

TALLY: 23 fish caught and released (19 white bass, 3 blue catfish, 1 smallmouth bass)

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.52 feet low with a 24-hour fall of 0.03 feet on a flow of 34 cfs

Water Surface Temp: 84.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning

Sky Conditions: <10% cloud cover most of the morning w/ white clouds on a blue sky

GT = 40

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1746 – low light downrigging for a few white bass

**Area 993 – downrigging for a few white bass and 1 bluecat

**Area 1579 – downrigging for a few white bass and 1 smallmouth

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)