FALL FISHING BEGINS – 50 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday, 29 September, I fished with Pollyanna Casey of Belton in pursuit of white bass on Lake Belton.

Polly was introduced to fishing by an aunt in Arizona at age 11.  Equipped with an old Orvis bamboo flyrod and some mismatched flies and tackle, Polly slowly but surely figured things out.  More recently she’s become a part of a bass fishing club in Copperas Cove and has added spinning and casting gear to her arsenal.

Today was about getting out and doing a kind of fishing she’d never done before.  She told me in the still-dark parking lot before we got going, “If I can catch just one fish, I’ll be happy.”    We then got in the boat and proceeded to exceed those expectations…

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   Although it has been a while since I had one come aboard, one of the 50 fish Polly landed this morning was a “pygmy” hybrid striped bass.  This one launched off bottom in 46′ of water to chase this lure about 15 feet upwards as we watched the whole chase scene on Garmin LiveScope.
 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Tuesday morning, 29 September 2020

HOW WE FISHED: After sitting out a day yesterday due to a mild, dry cold front’s passage which had straight-line winds at 21-22 with gusts to 30 all day yesterday, I was pleased to see a NW wind was still forecast to be blowing today before post-frontal, calm, bright conditions settled in.  This typically means good fishing in the fall.

As I prepared the boat for Polly’s arrival, I checked the temperature profile down to 60 feet and found the thermocline has disappeared a bit earlier than normal.  This is a major development which very few anglers will recognize or respond to.  This opens the gates to fall fishing and fish that can locate just about anywhere in the water column and at any depth, thanks to complete oxygenation of the lake.  

We began covering water this morning by downrigging under low-light conditions and found active white bass in ~35 feet of water feeding throughout the lower half of the water column.  We worked these fish over trying to “make hay while the sun shines”, suspecting that, due to the cloudless skies, the fish would shut down once the direct sun hit the water for any length of time (and they did).  We landed 12 fish before moving on.

There was a bit of a lull between leaving this first population of fish and finding another willing school to fish for.  Our next run of success came in ~40 feet of water on a barren bottom with a gentle slope.  I spotted the white bass heavily congregated on the bottom, and carpeting the bottom for about 3 boat lengths as I idled over them.  We Spot-Locked on ’em, got the MAL Lures going to work for us and boated another 32 fish in about a 75 minute span — not on fire, but not having to pull teeth, either.

Once these fish shut down around 10AM, the wind was letting up and we moved into more classic post-frontal conditions.  In our final hour on the water, I looked over 4 distinct areas (all deep, given the clear, bright skies and nearly calm surface), finding fish at only one of them, and working to land our final 6 fish of the morning to top us off right at 50 fish for the morning

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released (1 hybrid, 2 freshwater drum, 47 white bass)

OBSERVATIONS:  Temperature profile indicating the thermocline is nearly dissipated…

0 feet 76.3

5 feet 76.4

10 feet 76.4

15 feet 76.4

20 feet 76.4

25 feet 76.4

30 feet 76.4

35 feet 76.4

40feet 76.4

45 feet 76.4

50 feet 76.6

55 feet 76.6

60 feet 76.4

65 feet 71.6
 
 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  6:45A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F

Elevation:  0.50′ high with a 0.24′ 24-hour drop and 1,670 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 76.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW breeze at 8 at sunrise, increasing thru 10 A to NNW13, then slacking off the NNW 6 by trip’s end.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous with 95% illumination

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 085 to 488 – low light downrigging for 12 fish

**Area B0078C – vertical MAL Lure work for 32 fish

**Area  B0043G – vertical MAL Lure work for 6 fish  

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

Parker the First-Time Fisherman — 34 Fish @ Stillhouse

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning, 26 September, I fished with father-and-son Paul and Parker Autry who drove in from near Georgetown, TX.

Parker just began Kindergarten at a private Christian school in the area, and Paul works for a company focused on providing construction software to aid in large, commercial construction efforts.

This whole fishing trip idea began back in late July when Paul’s wife, Morgan, got him a fishing trip gift certificate from her, Parker, and Parker’s little brother, Noble. 

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   Paul and Parker saved the best for last.  This 3.75 pound Stillhouse largemouth chased an MAL Lure about 8 feet off bottom in about 32 feet of water and the fight was on.  We broke out the landing net for this one to make sure it didn’t get away.

 

 

  PHOTO CAPTION #2:   Downrigging before the fog developed contributed these nice white bass to the tally.  

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED:  Saturday morning, 26 September 2020

HOW WE FISHED:  Well the weather threw us a curveball this morning … fog — a persistent fog.  As I arrived at the launch around 6:15A, everything was looking good.  The air was 64F, stars were shining, and (as you can see from the weather forecast pasted in below), we were due for some more southerly winds which began yesterday, and at a good velocity.

We got to the first area I intended to fish, got lines in the water, and, as it got brighter the fish began to respond.  We were on our third white bass of the morning — the first fish Parker had ever encountered — and a very dense fog began to develop.  The combination of humidity and temperature were such that we were now caught in a ground-level cloud. The fishing died where we were, and relocation to 3 other areas also did us no good. 

Whenever I have kids aboard I always bring my sunfish gear, and this morning was no exception.  So, while we waited for conditions to improve on the open water bite, we fished shallow, recently flooded cover for sunfish, and did well. Sunfishing requires hand and eyes be constantly engaged, so it is a good fit for elementary-aged kids.  Parker managed 18 sunfish — a combination of bluegill, greens, and longears — as we fished two areas prior to the fog lifting at around 9:30A.

I got back out into open water to search for white bass, finding a few more in our final hour via downriggers.   Just about the time young Parker was requiring lunch, we brought the ‘riggers in, snapped a few photos of our white bass, and then released them. 

As we released our fish, I noted an abundance of other fish showed on the bottom beneath the boat as our released fish swam downwards (as seen on sonar).  We quickly grabbed the spinning rods rigged with MAL Lures and, in seconds, were fast to a nice largemouth bass which would be our largest fish of the morning.

TALLY: 34 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Temperature profile indicating the thermocline is breaking down…

0 feet 77.6F
5 feet 77.6F
10 feet 77.3F
15 feet 77.1F
20 feet 77.1F
25 feet 77.1F
30 feet 77.0F
35 feet 76.8F
40 feet 76.6F
45 feet 75.6F
50 feet 73.9F
55 feet 71.5F
60 feet 67.4F
65 feet 62.9F
70 feet 61.2F

 

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  6:45A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation:  3.27′ high with a 0.01′ 24-hour drop and 1 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 75.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm during the foggy period through, 9:30A, then ramping up quickly to SSW13.

Sky Condition: Fog began to form around 7A and persisted until around 9:30A, giving way to 100% grey skies.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous with 74% illumination GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

   

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 039-1102 – downrigging for whites until fog developed and killed the bite

**Area Sh0043 and 239 – shallow sunfish

**Area vic 790 – downrigging/vertical MAL Lure work  

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

Fathers & Sons — 119 Fish @ Belton

WHO I FISHED WITH: This afternoon, Friday, 25 September, I returned to the water after a few days off due to foul weather early in the week, and a string of sonar training sessions thereafter.

I fished Belton for the first time in quite a while, mainly because I had two youngsters, ages 5 and 6, aboard, and the water level being closer to normal at Belton meant that sunfish would not be dispersed into flooded brush as is the case over on Stillhouse, which is 3+ feet high now.

I fished with Alberto Bursian and his 5-year-old son, Tiago, and with Alberto’s friend, Greg Crisp, and his son, 6-year-old Brigs.    

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   This “bottom-hugging” scenario in warm water just screams for a vertical method using the MAL Lure.  Fish were blanketing the bottom over a ~40 yard stretch and were ready to feed.  Each one of those blue, oval-shaped dots holding just off bottom is a white bass.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2:  Alberto and Tiago Bursian, left, and Greg and Brigs Crisp.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Friday afternoon, 25 September 2020

HOW WE FISHED: Thanks to a returning southerly wind, the fishing was pretty easy this afternoon.  We got on our first bunch of fish just minutes after launching at 4P, and stayed on them for a full 2.5 hours.  We alternated between vertical work with white MAL Lures and chartreuse MAL Lures and horizontal work with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.  The vertical bite was better earlier on, then faded.  The MAL’s definitely took better fish.  Many of the fish we took on the downriggers were smallish.  By the time 6:30P rolled around, we’d boated 84 fish and the bite was waning in this general location.

We moved on and changed up our approach in order to target sunfish up in shallow water.  In about 30 minutes’ time we put 26 sunfish in the boat using live bait under floats in under 4 feet of water.  Our catch consisted of bluegill, green, redear, and longear sunfish.

From 7PM to 7:40PM we took one last shot at the white bass.  I’d hoped to find another bottom-hugging school which would be susceptible to vertical tactics, as the boys, despite their young age, were doing well with the retrieve cadence needed to provoke fish to bite, thanks to hands-on coaching and encouragement by their fathers.

We did pick up a final 9 white bass, but all via downrigging.  We wrapped up right at 7:45 with exactly 119 fish boated.

TALLY: 119 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  4:00P

End Time: 7:45P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 84F

Elevation:  0.64′ high with a 0.03′ 24-hour rise and 17 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 79.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE6-7 Sky Condition: Blue skies with <5% white, high cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous with 66% illumination

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1024 for early white bass both vertically and horizontally, 84 fish

**Area 185 – 26 shallow sunfish

**Area 1921 – a final 9 low-light white bass on downriggers

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

SCOUTING PAYS OFF — 73 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, September 17th, 2020, I fished with Robert Hughes from near Lubbock, TX, accompanied by his grandson, Nathan Elliott, who lives in Gatesville and works in Harker Heights.

Robert, age 74, retired from the janitorial supply business, and Nathan is a professional firefighter employed by the City of Harker Heights, working out of the firehouse on FM3481, near Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir. Nathan coordinated this trip for his grandparents as part of their 57th wedding anniversary during which they drove down to see him.   

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  Nathan Elliott and his grandfather, 74-year-old Robert Hughes, shared a day on the water in pursuit of white bass.  Downrigging with Pet Spoons and vertical work with MAL Lures put 73 fish in the boat today.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

HOW WE FISHED:  After getting off a plane inbound from Alaska in the wee hours on Wednesday morning, I slept briefly, then got right out on the water to scout in advance of this trip, as I’d not fished locally since Labor Day Monday and there had been a lot of environmental change since that time (6′ elevation increase, a cold front, and atypical, extended periods of NE winds).  

I opted to invest my scouting efforts on Stillhouse for several reasons: 1) the Corps is releasing water from Lake Belton (a negative factor), 2) the release rate at Lake Belton led me to believe the gates would shut soon, thus introducing another negative variable to an already tough scenario, 3) I got below average reports from those fishing both Belton and Stillhouse while I was away, and 4) my 30+ years of record-keeping indicate that, in a tough scenario, Stillhouse typically outperforms Belton.

The scouting went well.  My goal was to catch 3 fish at a given area and then move on to check additional areas, and, in so doing, I found 4 fish-holding areas which we could fish today.

When all was said and done, we put this morning’s trip together on just 2 of those 4 scouted areas.  Today’s conditions were a bit better than during my scouting efforts yesterday, in that we had both a steady, manageable wind (vs. calm yesterday), and light cloud cover (vs. clear skies yesterday).

We met up at 6:45A, had lines in the water around 7:05A, caught fish via downrigging for 2 solid hours before the suspended, scattered schools of white bass we were targeting dispersed. We landed 33 fish during this time using Pet Spoons on 3-armed umbrella rigs.

We next looked at an area I scouted yesterday (but found nothing present at that time); I did this because the wind was blowing into the area leading me to believe it could have turned on overnight.  It did not.

So, we moved on to a third area I scouted with good results yesterday.  We found fish very active there from 9:20 until around 10:20.   Sonar was quite active with both balled up shad and gamefish as I idled around, so, we began to put downriggers down.  No sooner did Nathan get his set to depth then it went off.  When I saw the aggression level of these fish, I directed Robert to unrig his downrigger, and to send an MAL Lure plummeting for the bottom instead.

Long story short, we sat on a large, moderately aggressive school of white bass for a full hour and pulled another 43 fish without moving the boat, all on chartreuse MAL Lures.  I like the chartreuse whenever there is cloud cover, whereas the white and chartreuse fish equally well under clear, sunny skies.  

Fortunately, both fellows quickly got the hang of timing their presentation of the MAL Lure to the passing of the fish beneath the boat via the use of Garmin LiveScope, doing this just as you would “lead” a bird when shooting a shotgun.  The rest was history.

By 10:20, the wind was quickly coming out of the fishes’ sails, and, after spending our final 15 minutes downrigging and failing to add even a single fish to the tally, we called it a good day and headed back to the dock.

TALLY: 73 fish caught and released (71 white bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 1 largemouth bass)

OBSERVATIONS:   No water has been released from Stillhouse since the recent rains, thus allowing 6+ feet of new water to accumulate, whereas Belton had a flow of 1,645 cfs  this morning and was slowly falling as a result.  During the day (Thursday, 17 Sep.), the COE reduced the flow from Belton to 51 CFS — yet another negative factor I’m glad we avoided).  

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  6:40A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  3.14′ high, +0.02′ 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow (up over 6 feet after ~4.50″ began fell on Wednesday – Friday, 02-03 Sep., followed by another 1.25″ on 10 Sep.)

Water Surface Temp:  81.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE11 all morning

Sky Condition: 80-90% grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: New moon today

GT =35

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1133 to 482 –  downrigging with Pet Spoons on 3-armed umbrella rigs for 33 fish in 2+ hours.

**Area vic SH0033G –  MAL Lures worked vertically in 35′ to the shallow side of this area for 40 fish in ~ 1 hour

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

LABOR DAY 2020 WITH THE REED BOYS – 54 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, September 7th, 2020, I fished with retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant Bryan Reed and his 3 sons — Evan (age 12), Colin (age 10), and Carson (age 8).

After retiring from the military police, Bryan trained and hired on with Edward Jones and hopes to open his own office after spending some time at the office in Killeen, TX.

The boys, who came out with me on a SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip 2 years ago, all go to school in the Killeen Independent School District, and are involved in karate.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:    The Reed boys in 2020, from left, Colin, Evan, Carson, and Bryan.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2:    The Reed boys in 2018, from left, Carson, Colin, and Evan.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was a bit laborious on this Labor Day Monday.   Thankfully, due to flooding and the fact that public school cranks back up again tomorrow, the crowds were fairly light, in fact, lighter than on a “normal” summer weekend.

We went nearly an hour working to get our first bite, and, even when it came it wasn’t like the floodgates opened and we kept right on catching them from that point on.  The fish were just in a negative mood until about 8AM, then things started happening right up until around 10:15.  

Around 8AM, we began to see larger schools of white bass forming (10-15 fish vs. 3-5 fish earlier on).  The shad began to ball up and suspend versus blanketing the bottom earlier on.  Nearby largemouth began to surface feed versus no surface action earlier on. And, best of all, a little resident flock of terns began to point out the most active pods of fish spread over quite an expanse of open water.

We alternated between downrigging and vertical MAL Lure work to keep fish coming in the boat.  Although the fish were feeding, it was not an aggressive, hard feed.  Only a few times did I find fish in a posture where I felt the MAL Lures would shine, and, when we worked them, the fish only stayed interested briefly, thus necessitating that we return to horizontal work with the downriggers.

By the time the bite in the vicinity of Area 062 began to taper off around 9AM, we’d gone from a tally of 1 to a tally of 38.

We moved on as the action was waning, but before it completely shut down in hopes of finding another population of fish which started their feeding cycle a bit later.  

We were able to relocate fish, this time in the vicinity of Area 453.  We downrigged to find these fish and caught a few on the downriggers, but really made money by using MAL Lures for suspended fish holding in a vertical band from 24-29 feet deep over a deeper bottom.

Once the fish quit the MAL Lure bite, they were about done altogether.  We only landed 2 more thereafter in ~25 more minutes of downrigging effort covering quite a  span of water.

To summarize, we fished a full four hours with the span from 8AM to 10:15 producing all of the fish.  We downrigged about 70% of our time today, with the balance consisting of MAL Lure vertical work.

TALLY: 54 fish caught and released (52 white bass and 2 largemouth bass)

OBSERVATIONS:   A low intensity feed took place today from 8:00 – 10:15A.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  6:40A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation:  1.22′ high, +0.20′ 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow (up 4.18 feet after ~4.50″ began fell on Wednesday – Friday, 02-03 Sep.)

Water Surface Temp:  81.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW11 at sunrise, decreasing to SW7 by 8AM, and leveling off there

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous with 84% illumination 

GT =25

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 062 – downrigging and vertical MAL Lure work for 38 white bass by 9A

**Area vic453 – downrigging and vertical MAL Lure work for 16 white bass from 9A to 11A (with only 2 fish after 10:25)

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

SOLID RESULTS DESPITE THE FLOODING — 55 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, September 5th, 2020, I fished with Killeen native Keith Carroll and his 5-year-old son, Andrew.

Keith, an Ellison High School graduate, now lives with his wife in Cedar Park, TX, where he makes his living as a graphic artist working in the clothing industry with a firm based in San Marcos, TX.

Since many of you who follow my blog/Facebook page are local, I’ll mention that Keith’s mom, Barbara Carroll was a foreign language and TAG program teacher at Ellison H.S. ‘back in the day’.

Although Andrew has been fishing before, he’d never been on a boat before, but, it seemed no big deal for him as we cruised around 30 mph toward our first fishing area as we awaited sunrise.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  Keith Carroll and his 5-year-old son wound up with 55 fish this morning on a day I thought would have been tougher than it was thanks to 3.5+ feet of flood water coming into this ~6.400 acre reservoir. WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

HOW WE FISHED:  I really was not sure exactly what to expect today.  We had a number of negative factors working against us, namely the NE wind, and 3.5 feet of new water brought in by 3 days of rain which dropped about 3.5 to 5.5 inches throughout the Leon and Lampasas River watersheds.

So, we just got out there and fished!  We looked for natural signs of fish activity and we used sonar and wound up piecing together a pretty solid trip. The fish definitely got more active in the last 2 hours than they were in the first two hours.  The first two hours of the trip saw cloud-darkened skies and lighter winds, whereas the winds picked up (although still from the ENE) and the skies brightened to “squinting intensity” in the last two hours. We alternated between fishing for white bass and sunfish as Andrew’s interest level and attention span dictated. 

As we fished for white bass, we encountered 3 instances where the fish were sufficiently congregated to allow for vertical work with the MAL Lure, otherwise, we had to downrig for them.

The sunfishing definitely got easier with all of the flooded vegetation now standing in the 1/2 foot of floodwater versus trying to access them in the matted hydrilla which existed while the lake was nearly 3′ low earlier in the week.  We went after ’em with lightweight floats, small hooks, small splitshot, and small baits presented with a bream pole.

In our first round of white bass fishing, we landed 13 white bass and 1 largemouth.  During our first round of sunfishing, we landed 13 sunfish.  We switched back over to white bass and landed another 22 white bass, then finished up fishing shallow for sunfish, putting a final 6 bluegill in the boat.

TALLY: 55 fish caught and released (35 white bass, 19 sunfish, 1 largemouth bass)

OBSERVATIONS:   Fishing was not nearly as negatively impacted as I suspected it might be with 3.51 feet of fresh floodwater coming in over a 3-day period.

Temperature Profile:

0 feet 82.6F

5 feet 83.3F

10 feet 83.6F

15 feet 83.6F

20 feet 83.6F

25 feet 83.6F

30 feet 83.1F

35 feet 80.9F

40 feet 77.4F

45 feet 75.7F

50 feet 74.8F

55 feet 73.9F

60 feet 65.5F

65 feet 61.9F

 

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  6:40A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation:  0.55′ high, +1.18′ 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow (up 3.51 feet after ~4.50″ began fell on Wednesday – Friday)

Water Surface Temp:  81.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE6 at obscured sunrise, increasing to ENE9 by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous with 90% illumination (full moon +2 days )

GT = 0

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  N/A  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1395-041 – early downrigging for whites

**Area 914-1102 – early downrigging for whites with 1 round of MAL Lures worked vertically

**Area Sh0121C – sunfish

**Area 671-1447 – late downrigging for whites with 2 rounds of MAL Lures worked vertically

**Area 189 – 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

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HAIL TO THE CHIEF — 70 FISH CPR’d @ STILLHOUSE; MAL LURE GETS A WORKOUT

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, September 1st, I fished with first-time guest Chuck Kimble, the Chief of Police for the City of Killeen. Chief Kimble celebrated his third anniversary in that position today.

Aside from Chuck’s current status as a public servant, he is also a U.S. Army veteran, as is his wife. The Kimbles came to Central Texas a few years ago from Fayetteville, NC, just outside the gates of Ft. Bragg.

Chuck recently bought a pre-owned Bayliner and is slowly getting into fishing as time allows, so, he came not only to catch fish, but to learn new approaches to catching fish this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   Chuck Kimble with some mature white bass we took in deep water on MAL Lures.  Chartreuse did the trick today under 100% grey cloud cover.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

HOW WE FISHED:  Today the weather “wrinkled” on us a bit versus the “cookie-cutter” weather we’ve enjoyed since the passage of last week’s hurricane-influenced weather.  The winds were up early and strong this morning, and we dealt with 100% grey cloud cover all morning, as well.

The fish were still generally in the same pattern, but the topwater feeding activity was much reduced today as the winds and cloud cover made the surface more difficult for gamefish to pin bait against. Generally, we downrigged from 6:50 until about 8:00, then found white bass heavily schooled both on bottom and suspended and worked MAL Lures through them until around 9:20. 

We then moved to an area I’d not fished yet this summer and alternated between downrigging and using MAL Lures to close out the trip with exactly 70 white bass landed.

The use of Garmin LiveScope in downward mode absolutely helped put more fish in the boat as we were able to very precisely time the rise of our lures through horizontally moving schools of white bass.  We were also able to track the rise and fall of our lures 100% of the time, thus allowing us to continue retrieving when we saw we were getting followed, and, on the other hand, stop a retrieve short and allow it to return to bottom once we saw no fish expressed interest.

TALLY: 70 white bass caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   About 20 terns were helpful in finding active fish between 8:00 and 9:15.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  6:25A

End Time: 10:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 82F

Elevation:  2.95′ low, -0.06′ 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  83.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: S12 prior to sunrise, slowly increasing to SSW 15 by 9:15, then gusting higher thereafter.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous with 99% illumination (full moon -1)

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 853 – low light downrigging

**Area 062 to 071 – MAL Lures worked vertically for bottom-hugging and suspended fish

**Area vic 912/1133 – MAL Lures worked vertically for bottom-hugging and suspended fish

**Area 1222 to 668  – alternated between MAL Lure vertical work and downrigging horizontal work

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec