WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning, January 29th, I fished with bass fishing buddies Josh Brown and Sam Yeomans, both from the Austin area.
The two met through a bass fishing social media site and began fishing together about a year ago.
Sam is contemplating the purchase of a bass boat, and his search was going to bring him to this area as he kicked tires and spoke with folks at our various dealerships. He and Josh figured why not get in a little fishing while they were at it, so, they gave me a call and we booked the trip.
I explained that Belton typically offers more, but smaller fish, whereas Stillhouse typically produces fewer, but larger fish. Hearing this, the two opted for Stillhouse.
Here is how the fishing went …
______________
My next few openings will be on Feb. 7th, 8th, and 9th. Weekday mornings are always best.
PHOTO CAPTION: Josh Brown took this 5.00 pound Stillhouse largemouth out of 32 feet of water on a 5/8 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.
PHOTO CAPTION: Sam Yeomans took this 14″ white bass on a 5/8 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab. We landed over a dozen white bass which exceeded 14″ on this cold, clear morning.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 29 January 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
It was cold and clear this morning, with a 30F air temp. before sunrise. The one positive weather feature we had was a southwesterly breeze which was blowing enough to help the fishing prior to sunrise, and which kept blowing until around 9:45AM.
Our fishing was 100% vertical with white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs fished with a slow-smoking tactic. As simple as that sounds, the fellows’ strong bass fishing backgrounds made them prone to want to get fancier than need-be with their retrieves, but they were able to work through that, make their retrieves more “plain-Jane” pretty quickly, and put fish in the boat, occasionally aided by Garmin LiveScope.
We witnessed three distinct flocks of gulls working this morning, but none of them had fish just busting at the seams to feed on shad. Overall, the fishing was average during out first two hours, then really dropped off around 9:45 AM after the southwest breeze scaled back to just a ripple.
Our final catch totaled 27 fish landed, including 1 largemouth bass, and 26 white bass up to 14 7/8 inches.
Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 27 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: We were treated to the sight of a golden eagle (the first I’ve ever seen in Texas), hunting coots. Over a span of ~3 minutes, the large raptor made 4 unsuccessful dives at the small waterfowl. Each time the eagle got close approaching from downwind, the coots would dive underwater for a few seconds until the eagle had passed upwind.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:10A
End Time: 11:10A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 30F
Elevation: 2.72 feet low, 0.02 fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 52.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: SW10 at sunrise, scaling back to SW5 at 9:45A
Sky Condition: Bluebird skies
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 10% illumination.
GT = 125
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas 0267 (13 fish), Area 0092 (3 fish), Area 0147 (3 fish), Area 0279 (8 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 #mepps