August | 2022 | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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FROM FINLAND WITH LOVE – 34 FISH

August 25th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, August 25th, I fished with Kari and Sandra Terho who decided to include an overnight stay at a Salado bed and breakfast followed by a morning of fishing on Stillhouse Hollow in their vacation tour of the Texas Hill Country.

When I asked them what led them to decide to come fish with me, they let me know it was because of my approach to fishing with artificial lures which appealed to them. Previously, the Terhos had only fished with live bait.

Since I had visited Finland (and fished there) back in my early 20s, I got to compare notes on species and tactics Kari had employed there. Most of his fishing “back home” was done with live bait for a species known as lahna, which is called a bream in English. My fishing involved using light, inline spinners for perch, called ahven in Finnish.

My next open date will be on September 14th.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Kari and Sandra Terho with a nice pair of white bass taken early on MAL Dense Lures worked vertically. The final day of a slowly decreasing northerly blow ushered in bright skies and tough conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 25 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Kari and Sandra zoomed through a pretty steep learning curve this morning, having never used spinning gear before, and having never caught fish on artificial presentations before.

Given this, we spent a few minutes before leaving the launch site going over how to hold spinning gear, how to use that gear for vertical and horizontal tactics, and how to land fish once they are hooked.

We then set out in search of fish and found a bit of a cool reception today, the third day of N. winds following a recent mild cold front’s passage. The skies were bright and winds were light, making things a bit tougher than they might otherwise be.

If there was a constant today, it was that the fish were most interested when we first arrived and got our baits (MAL Dense Lures with chartreuse tails) down to the fish and began working them. The fish quickly lost interest, and so much more so as the morning moved on. We took very few fish today using the sawtooth method — the method which has produced most consistently over the past few weeks.

I suspect we’ll see a stronger bite return once the winds switch back out of the south.

After putting together a 30 fish catch by the 2.5 hour mark, Sandra was getting uncomfortably warm thanks to the bright conditions and light winds. I began downrigging so as to move the boat and create a bit of a breeze. We landed four more fish in the following thirty minutes, and then wrapped up about 30 minutes early before the heat really started to pour on.

Our tally of 34 fish consisted entirely of legal white bass up to those in the 3-year class.

TALLY: 34 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: What is forecast to be our third and final day of northerly winds following the passage of Monday’s mild cold front, made the fishing a bit tough. The skies were bright and the winds were light. I noted the fish demonstrated a tendency to suspend nearly motionless today, often ignoring vertical and horizontal presentations, including downrigging.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 8.86 feet low, 0.05′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 81.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE4 until ~9:45, then picking up to NNE7-8

Sky Condition: <10% white clouds on blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 3% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area SH0227G – caught 17 fish with vert. & horiz. MAL Dense work

Area SH0228G – caught 13 fish with vert MAL Dense work

Area SH0224G to 911 – downrigged at close of trip for 4 fsh

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

https://youtu.be/TDNohRfnYSA

Downrigging 101 (w/ Aggressive School Video!) – 50 Fish

August 23rd, 2022August 23rd, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, August 23rd, I fished with Mr. Lynn Barnett of Gatesville, TX.

Lynn and I first met when he brought me onboard to do a sonar training session earlier this year. As he began to follow my reports and see the success I have through the summer using downriggers, he asked me to help him to use his own downriggers better.

We agreed that having him come aboard my boat to see both my own downriggers, and the accessories I use along with them, would be the the best bet.

My next open date will be on September 14th.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! That what Lynn Barnett of Gatesville started this morning’s downrigging tutorial fishing trip off with.

VIDEO CAPTION: After finding aggressive white bass using downriggers and side-imaging, we got to the “center of mass” of the school we’d found quickly and worked MAL Dense Lures (white body/chartreuse tail) through them for quite a while. This is a 2-fish catch sequence is taken off Garmin LiveScope via the ActiveCaptain app.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 23 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Before Lynn’s trip, I’d mentally pieced together an “outline” of the points I wanted to be sure to explain and demonstrate to him. Those things included:

1. Where I mounted my downriggers and why I mounted them there.

2. The importance of using a heavy ball.

3. The release clip I’ve crafted just for white bass.

4. Adjusting sonar to see the downrigger balls and thermocline.

5. The mounting and use of a Retro-Ease Weight Retriever.

6. The construct of my 3-armed umbrella rigs.

7. The selection and use of the downrigging-specific rods and reels I use.

8. Setback distance for the lures used for white bass.

9. Methods for lowering the ball efficiently.

10. Methods for adjusting ball depth up or down after deployment.

11. Boat control considerations to prevent running over your line when a fish is hooked.

12. What interested vs. disinterested fish look like on sonar (DI and 2D).

13. Using downrigging as a search tool for congregations of active fish.

14. Maintaining ideal boat speed.

15. When to downrig vs. when to stop and work vertically and/or horizontally.

16. The “season” for downrigging.

As we worked through all of these things, we had twin downriggers running, each equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs. Our very first hookup of the morning was a triple — one white bass on each of the three lures on the umbrella rig.

We went on to take additional singles and doubles, as well.

At one point, the density of fish showing both below us and out to our deeper, port side, was such that I pointed out to Lynn that we would do better to stop and work MAL Dense Lures as the time and effort it would take to rig up, catch one or two, reel them in, turn the boat around, line up on the fish, etc. would be much greater than simply sitting in their presence and catching them.

We caught fish very steadily, first vertically, then, once the vertical bite soured, we took them horizontally with the sawtooth method. Once the sawtooth method failed to produce and side-imaging showed the fish were thinning out, we resumed downrigging, this time with Lynn setting everything up and adjusting ball depth on the fly.

By 9:30AM Lynn had seen all he’d come to see and landed exactly 50 white bass doing it. We headed back in, dropped him off so he could get back to the shop in Gatesville, while I headed back out and took advantage of the cloud cover and cooler temperatures to do some scouting.

Our tally of 50 fish consisted of 49 legal white bass, and 1 short.

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The mild cold front which caused the record-setting 9+ inches of rain in the DFW area on Sunday and Monday and which dropped 1/2″ of rain here yesterday continued to cause a mild NW breeze at 6-7 mph with abundant grey cloud cover.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 9:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 8.59 feet low, 0.01′ rise in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW6-7

Sky Condition: 95-100% grey clouds

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 13% illumination.

GT = 4

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area SH0213G – 39 fish found by d’rig, then caught with vert. & horiz. MAL Dense work

Area 874/876 – final 11 fish taken by downrigging only on multiple passes thru this area

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

FISH WERE IN SCHOOLS; KIDS WEREN’T — 69 FISH

August 15th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, August 15th, I fished with returning guest Dave K. and his three kids, Savannah (10) and twins Cole and Caden (7).

Dave first started fishing with me when Savannah was about 5 years old and the boys were too young to come.

Although our local school districts all went back in session for the 2022/2023 school year today, Dave and the gang traveled in from outside the area. His kids start back on Wednesday.

Whenever all anglers participating are under the age of 17, and adults are not also fishing, such trips are eligible for my “Kids Fish, Too!” rates. These trips normally go a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4+ hours for adult trips, and, they start at $195 for up to two kids. I don’t know of too many guided trips out there for that price point anymore — it is my way of trying to make guided fishing affordable for families and get kids engaged in the outdoors.

My next open date will be on August 30th.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Caden, Dave, Savannah, and Cole with a few of the 29 quality white bass we took by downrigging after the kids wore out the sunfish up in shallow water the hour before.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 15 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

With three kids aboard, we kept it sweet and simple this morning. Dave came with the mindset of being there to help me help the kids be successful, and that made a huge difference.

When the kids stepped aboard I had three 11 to 12′ bream rods ready to rock with slipfloats and live bait ready for dunking. Savannah is an old hand at the sunfish catching by now, so, I put her working independently on the starboard side of the boat working a line of hydrilla, while Dave and I worked with the twins to do likewise on the port side.

Thanks to some cloud cover, the fish stayed shallow for an extended period of time, thus allowing us to catch more than we would have otherwise on a bright, cloudless morning.

When the novelty wore off the sunfishing about an hour in, the kids had landed a total of 40 sunfish, including bluegill, longears, and redears.

It was now time to transition to fishing for white bass. I was glad the sunfish held up for a long while because, up to this point (around 8:15A) it had been windless. Now, a light SE breeze was blowing just enough to ripple the surface.

As we made our way to where I thought the fish might be this morning, I saw multiple schools of white bass churning the surface along the way. One area, in particular, had multiple, small schools working over a 75 yard area. I stopped and put downriggers down and kept a sharp eye on 2D, DI, and SI sonar as we worked the area. There was bait present, but not an abundance of gamefish, so, we moved on after landing just one white bass.

In 35-42 feet of water I found a very strong congregation of white bass holding in the lower third of the water column, clearly in a feeding posture. We got twin downriggers working, each with a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with #12 Pet Spoons. In the 75 minutes which followed, we landed singles, doubles, and triple for a total of 28 additional white bass.

By the time the last few fish came aboard, the kids were handing the rod over to their dad to do the final few winds of the reel to land the fish because they had just about worn out.

At our 69th fish, Dave gave me the “let’s pack it up” signal and we headed back to the dock with fish caught, memories made, deer sighted, snacks eaten, stories told, and school on the near horizon.

Our tally of 69 fish consisted of 29 white bass and a mixed bag of 40 sunfish.

TALLY: 69 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The atmosphere was more humid and cloudy today, with SE winds. This was caused by the passage of a tropical depression which passed between San Antonio and the border with Mexico overnight.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 9:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 8.37 feet low, 0.06′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for the first hour, then a slight ripple from the SE began

Sky Condition: ~75% light grey clouds

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 185% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 334 – 40 sunfish

Area vic SH0124 – 28 white bass downrigging

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

3 MEN, 4 HOURS, 100 FISH

August 12th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, August 12th, I fished with Mike “Alamo” Hall, Jim Colwell, and Hyde Hanley. The three have been friends for many years. When I asked what initially brought them together, the consensus was that their shared interest in motorcycles was the catalyst.

I first met Mike when a mutual friend, Stiles Parker, brought him out for a bit of corporate entertainment. Mike and Jim later took an on-the-water sonar training course with me. This morning, Mike brought his buds out to celebrate his 49th birthday.

My next open date will be on August 30th.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mike “Alamo” Hall, Hyde Hanley, and Jim Colwell with a portion of their 100-fish catch, most of which came on MAL Dense Lures fished horizontally using a sawtooth retrieve.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jim took our single largest fish of the trip. This 4.75 pound largemouth struck Jim’s MAL Dense as he worked it from bottom upwards using a “sawtooth” tactic in ~47 feet of water. This was one of three legal largemouth bass we caught and released.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 12 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

There were some significant hurdles to clear this morning. First, we had calm winds, second, we had a full moon, and third, we had cloudless, post-frontal skies following Wednesday’s mild cold front which push to and through Central Texas.

Our first hour was pretty quiet. I covered a lot of ground, found a lot of bait, but the gamefish were tough to come by.

The surface of the lake was like glass all morning, so, when a fish splashed, it could be seen, literally, a mile away — further with a spotting scope. Once the little “schoolie” largemouth began to pop shad on the surface here, there, and everywhere, things began to happen. Those largemouth were like a visible barometer of what was going on under the surface, as well.

Once we found fish around 8AM, we never had to go more than about 300 yards one way or another to stay in them.

We started out fishing MAL Dense Lures vertically thanks to the thick school of fish I’d come upon which stayed right beneath our boat for a while. Everyone caught a few, but, as has increasingly been the case, the fish fairly quickly turned off to this tactic. While Hyde continued to work vertically for fish he could see on the Garmin LiveScope, I had Jim and Mike casting out horizontally toward the deeper, starboard side of the boat as I could see, literally, hundreds of fish slowly patrolling over the gently sloping bottom up to 100+ feet in that direction.

We sat in that location, and one other near it, and put 76 fish in the boat. The vertical approach accounted for perhaps 1 fish for every 6 that were caught horizontally.

With about an hour left in the trip, I offered that we could change over and do some downrigging so the three men, who had at the start of the trip let me know that learning how to catch fish was more important than actually catching them, could be exposed to one additional facet of summertime white bass fishing. We ran two downriggers, each with 1 umbrella rig. Three #12 Pet Spoons were attached by fluorocarbon leaders to each umbrella rig.

In that final hour, we took another 24 fish and, right at the 4-hour mark, notched our 100th fish for the morning and wrapped it up as it was getting uncomfortably hot.

Our 100 fish tally included 97 white bass, all of legal size, as well as 3 legal largemouth, with the largest going 4.75 pounds.

The smoking tactic we used is demonstrated here (skip to 2:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The white bass’ preference for horizontal movement over vertical movement was quite clear this morning, for the second day in a row. I suspect “thermal squeeze” is the root cause, keeping the fish confined to the cooler water just above the thermocline. I suspect they are reluctant to rise up into increasingly warm water nearer the surface.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 8.23 feet low, 0.06′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning

Sky Condition: No cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area SH0063G/911 – 9 fish – MAL Dense smoked

Area vic 910 – 28 fish – MAL Dense sawtooth

Area vic 912 (w/2 short hops) – 39 fish – MAL Dense sawtooth

Area vic SH0222G – 24 fish – downrigging

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

SAWTOOTH METHOD COMING ON STRONG – 52 FISH

August 11th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, August 11th, I fished with sisters Brilynn (age 11) and Kate (age 10) Fults of Liberty Hill, Texas. The young ladies were joined by their dad, Brandon Fults, and family friend, Russel Martin, who did not fish but were there to help me help the girls be successful.

Whenever all anglers participating are under the age of 17, and adults are not also fishing, such trips are eligible for my “Kids Fish, Too!” rates. These trips normally go 3.5 hours versus 4+ hours for adult trips, and, they start at $195 for up to two kids. I don’t know of too many guided trips out there for that price point anymore — it is my way of trying to make guided fishing available to families and get kids engaged in the outdoors.

My next open date will be on August 23rd.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Brandon and Kate Fults, Russel Martin, and Brilynn Fults with two quality white bass the girls hooked and landed as they worked MAL Dense Lures horizontally along a clean bottom using a sawtooth tactic on spinning rods with light braid to enhance the lures’ sink rates.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 11 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

At exactly 3:15pm yesterday, a cold front pushed far enough south into Central Texas to bring clouds, wind, a rapid temperature drop, and just a few drops of rain. By nightfall, the weather had calmed. This morning, a very light north breeze and some cloud cover was in place, thus putting a huge question mark over what this weather had done to the fishery.

Fortunately, Brilynn and Kate are both athletes, competing in softball, and therefore were both well-coordinated and accustomed to coaching. They both very quickly got the hang of smoking vertically and using the sawtooth method horizontally, so, their learning curve was short.

I mentioned in my past several reports that the white bass interest in horizontal tactics over vertical tactics was becoming apparent. Today’s results really cemented that in place. Of the 52 fish the girls landed, only about 10% came vertically, with the sawtooth method and downrigging taking the lion’s share of our fish.

Our best bite came from ~7:40-8:50 in an area which had a slow slope and averaged ~45 feet in depth. As we sat in one location with calm winds and the trolling motor on Spot-Lock, we were never facing in the same direction for very long as we got pushed by every little boat wake and puff of wind which came by. As our position shifted, I kept a close eye on side-imaging and could see fish around us in every direction. Where a few could be seen, many more existed (as not every fish out there is going to show on sonar, especially if they are very tight to the bottom).

As the girls cast out and worked their MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) back to the boat, the fish responded well during this span of time. Roughly half of our fish were taken during this bite.

As those fish disbanded, we retooled and got setup for downrigging with twin downriggers, each equipped with a 3-armed umbrella rig towing three #12 Pet Spoons. The downrigging produced well as we encountered mobile schools of suspended white bass routinely. The girls landed singles, doubles, and triples, but, we never did find any additional congregations of fish as large as that first one which produced so well for us up until ~8:50A.

Even though we did not encounter large collections of fish, we found a few groups large enough to stop atop of and work over. We typically picked up a fish or two or three and then had to move on.

We never had any consistent wind to even ripple the surface for more than a few minutes at a time all morning. To land 52 whites on a calm summer morning following a cold front was far more than I anticipated and a tribute to the girls’ abilities and persistence.

Our 52 fish tally included only white bass, three of which were short. Although we hooked two largemouth and got them near the boat, they both “spit the hook” as they jumped and shook their heads.

The smoking tactic we used is demonstrated here (skip to 2:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 52 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The white bass’ preference for horizontal movement over vertical movement was quite clear this morning. I suspect “thermal squeeze” is the root cause, keeping the fish confined to the cooler water just above the thermocline. I suspect they are reluctant to rise up into increasingly warm water nearer the surface.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 8.17 feet low, 0.04′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm to near calm all morning

Sky Condition: 10% white cloud cover on a blue sky.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic SH0209G – best area of the morning w/ ~70 min. bite on sawtoothed Dense Lures

Area 872 to 864 – steady downrigging action on Pet Spoon/umbrella leading to some sawtooth/smoking work

Area SH0208G to SH0221G – – steady downrigging action on Pet Spoon/umbrella

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

WHEN DUTY CALLS, DAUGHTERS FISH! — 60 FISH

August 10th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, August 10th, I conducted the tenth Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip of the 2022 season.

I welcomed aboard the Froschauer family including Abby (mom), and her daughters, 9-year-old Molly, and 8-year-old Rose.

The girls’ father, U.S. Army Master Sergeant (E-8) Paul Froschauer, has been serving for 19 1/2 years. He is a part of the Army’s Armor Branch and was recently deployed to Germany.

ABOUT SKIFF: 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. SKIFF trips are also provided, free of charge, to Gold Star families who have lost their service member while he or she was on active duty. In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents are bona fide disabled veterans. I coordinate and conduct these ~3.5-hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

My next open date for a free SKIFF trip for qualifying families will be on August 23rd.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Rose Froschauer holds a “triple” she landed on a 3-armed umbrella rig while we were downrigging at mid-morning as her sister, Molly, looks on.

PHOTO CAPTION: Molly landed our big fish of the trip. This healthy largemouth bass was fought to boatside by Molly and successfully netted by my summer intern, Andy Li.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 10 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Only time will tell if this is the weather system which breaks the back of our hot, dry summer, but a mild cold front which pushed into north Texas overnight is forecast to bring cooler temperatures and some rain later today. In advance of that weather, we had light winds and abundant cloud cover this morning which kept the temperatures bearable by diminishing the direct sun’s rays.

With two young ladies aboard, both with limited prior experience, and only one (Rose) with a burning desire to fish, I thought it best to go for some ‘instant gratification’ fishing right off the bat. Hence, along with my ‘first mate’ Andy Li who joined me as a summer intern, we prepared bream rods to enable the girls to catch sunfish from out of the hydrilla matted around the shoreline.

Our first stop yielded exactly 30 sunfish, including bluegill, longears, and greens, before the girls expressed a readiness for a little something different.

We retooled and got setup for downrigging with twin downriggers, each equipped with a 3-armed umbrella rig towing three #12 Pet Spoons. The downrigging produced well as we encountered mobile schools of suspended white bass routinely. The girls landed two triples, and numerous doubles and singles as we thoroughly worked areas where sonar revealed ample collections of bait (young-of-the-year threadfin shad).

After downrigging for a while, we happened upon what would be the single greatest concentration of fish we would encounter all morning. Fortunately, this large school of fish was holding on the bottom and less mobile than the suspended fish we’d encountered up to this point. I stopped the boat and we worked MAL Dense Lures both vertically and horizontally to pick up about a dozen additional white bass.

Molly was our first to wear out, and Rose wasn’t far behind. Picking up on this, I offered that we could conclude our trip, or we could go back to doing one of the techniques we’d done previously (sunfishing or downrigging). At first it was a 50/50 split decision for downrigging and sunfishing, but, after some deliberation amongst themselves, the girls chose sunfishing for their final effort of the morning. Each landed one more sunfish for a final total of 60 fish, and we called it a great morning before the Texas sun broke through the morning clouds.

Our 60 fish tally included 32 sunfish, 2 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, and 24 white bass (no shorts)

The smoking tactic we used is demonstrated here (skip to 2:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 60 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Slowly but surely the white bass are beginning to show a definite preference for horizontal retrieves over vertical retrieves. I suspect “thermal squeeze” is the root cause, keeping the fish confined to the cooler water just above the thermocline. I suspect they are reluctant to rise up into increasingly warm water nearer the surface.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 8.13 feet low, 0.06′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW5-7 all morning

Sky Condition: 80% white cloud cover on a blue sky.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 96% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 334 – 30 sunfish on slipfloats & bait

Area vic SH0209G – downrigging for a mixed bag of white, drum, and largemouth

Area vic 889 – MAL Dense worked vert. and horiz. for white bass

Area 334 – 2 sunfish on slipfloats & bait

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

HAVE GRANDKIDS; WILL FISH — 82 FISH

August 9th, 2022August 9th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, August 9th, I fished with long-time client Steve Niemeier who rarely steps aboard without at least one grandchild in tow. As we recollected today, we figured we’d shared at least 13 years’ worth of trips together, beginning with his grandson, Caleb, who began fishing with me at age 4, and will graduate high school at the end of the upcoming school year.

Today, Steve brought along two other grandsons, Oliver (age 10) and Henry (age 13), along with their dad, Andrew. Andrew and family were down for just shy of a week’s visit from the suburbs of Chicago.

My next open date will be on August 23rd.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Henry, Steve, Oliver, and Andrew Niemeier with the results of the one and only “quadruple” we landed today when everyone landed a fish at the same time on the MAL Dense Lures. With the water being so hot and the fish so deep, they simply will not survive more than ~2 minutes in the livewell, so, I don’t hold fish for photos from June until after turnover.

PHOTO CAPTION: Henry took the big fish prize for the morning. This 4.25-pound largemouth hit Henry’s MAL Dense Lure worked vertically. It chased the lure up off bottom in 42 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 09 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

About the only change in variables today versus Monday was wind — we had at least a 6-8 mph wind right up until ~10:15 this morning and encountered biting fish as a result. Now, mind you, it is still summertime and the fish were far from “on fire”, but most every time I saw a fair number of fish congregated together on sonar and stopped on them, we caught at least a few.

One very common element the past 10 days or so has been for these fish we find to get really fired up as we make our initial 5-10 drops of the MAL Lure, but the “simmer down” very quickly thereafter. Anticipating this now, I adjusted my approach and simply stopped fishing and moved once this decline in interest kicked in. This meant we moved a lot today. Sometimes, it meant simply moving a few boat-lengths with the trolling motor only; other times we packed up and ran.

Our best “window” came between 9:30 and 10:20 during which time my four anglers landed 45 of their 83 fish, all in one location, and just before the wind died right about 10:30.

Once the wind died, the bite died with it, allowing us only 9 more fish at our final 2 areas fished.

Fishing the MAL Dense with chartreuse tail has been hard to beat, although I’ve found that when we’re on flatter bottom terrain and the side-imaging shows fish to the port or starboard, the fish seem more likely to strike on a sawtooth method than with a vertical presentation. Several times we fished vertically until that initial display of interest ran its course, then switched over to fishing horizontally, thus allowing us to catch fish even after the vertical presentations quit producing.

The smoking tactic we used is demonstrated here (skip to 2:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 82 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Temperature profile as measured with a Fish Hawk TD:

0 feet 85.9F
5 feet 86.8F
10 feet 86.8F
15 feet 86.8F
20 feet 86.5F
25 feet 85.1F
30 feet 84.8F
35 feet 84.8F
40 feet 78.9F
45 feet 73.3F
50 feet 67.9F
55 feet 63.9F
60 feet 61.4F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 8.06 feet low, 0.06′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: S6-8 for 3.25 hours, then going slack for balance of trip

Sky Condition: Cloudless, pale blue skies

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 90% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area SH0207G – MAL Dense Lures smoked for 8 fish

Area SH0218G – MAL Dense Lures smoked for 2 fish

Area SH0209G – MAL Dense Lures smoked for 3 fish

Area SH0124CG – MAL Dense Lures smoked for 15 fish (w/2 short hops)

Area 889/867 – MAL Dense Lures smoked for 45 fish

Area SH0219G – MAL Dense Lures smoked for 9 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THE BOYS’ CLUB – 53 FISH

August 8th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, August 8th, I fished with three young men, all age 11. This trip was in celebration of Lawson Phillips’ birthday. For this event he invited along his buddies Blaine Johnson and Harrison Fryar. Lawson’s dad, Will, came along as a non-fishing chaperone to help me help the boys be successful.

My next open date will be on August 23rd.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Harrison Fryar, Blaine Johnson, Mr. Will Phillips, and Lawson Phillips, with a portion of the boys’ 53 fish catch made as they celebrated Lawson’s 11th birthday with him.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 08 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Once again, our efforts early on were hindered by a lack of wind. We had nearly calm conditions through 9A, then the wind puffed on and off for another hour, finally becoming steady at ~6-8mph thereafter.

The fishing was tough under those calm conditions. We had no trouble finding fish, and the fish we found would even consolidate under the boat pretty well, but, we saw time and time again on Garmin LiveScope how they just sat idly by as we worked out baits, or, at best, just chased half-heartedly.

So, after picking up about 14 fish in our first hour, I utilized the downriggers for the first time in quite a while so as to cover ground and get multiple baits (3 baits on each of two rods, for a total of 6 baits) in front of more fish than we could by sitting still.

The downrigging definitely did the trick, allowing catches of singles, multiple doubles, and even one triple. It also allowed me to scrutinize side-imaging while having lines in the water. On several occasions, I spotted sizeable groups of fish which we Spot-Locked on and fished vertically for successfully.

The last of ~5 such episodes of this landed us on the morning’s best bite. From ~10:15 to 11:15, as the wind blew as hard and consistently as it would all morning, we took our fish count from 39 up to a final tally of 53 using MAL Dense Lures both vertically and horizontally.

I never stop a trip “by the clock” and so we wound up fishing a little longer than normal as I hated to stop in the middle of a cooperative bite, especially after we’d really had to work for ’em in the first half of the morning.

The final tally today was 53 fish, all of which were white bass, with only 1 short fish (under 10″) in our catch.

The smoking tactic we used is demonstrated here (skip to 2:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 53 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Light early morning winds made for a much less aggressive early morning bite today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 7.99 feet low, 0.05′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: S0-3 for the first 3 hours, slowly ramping up to S6-8 beginning around 9A

Sky Condition: Cloudless, pale blue skies

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 82% illumination.

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 863 – MAL Dense Lures smoked

Area vic SH0124C – Downrigging leading to working MAL Dense Lures smoked

Area 875 to 933 – Downrigging

Area 871 – MAL Dense Lures smoked

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

A MULTI-GENERATIONAL, MULTI-PURPOSE, MULTI-SPECIES KIND OF FISHING TRIP — 38 FISH

August 4th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, August 4th, I fished with “Papa” Joe Oliver, his son, Thomas, Thomas’ wife, Ashley, and Thomas and Ashley’s daughter, Sawyer, age 4.

This was the last of three trips focused on Joe’s grandchildren for the summer of 2022. Although we all knew Sawyer would not stay interested for an overly long period of time, Joe wanted to treat her like all of the other grandkids and start this summer tradition with her, as well.

So, we had three generations aboard. The primary goal was to help Sawyer and Ashley catch a few fish before Thomas and Ashley took Sawyer back to shore, then, the secondary goal was to put some fish in the boat for Joe, as he remained behind until his departure about 3.5 hours after we had begun.

My next open date will be on August 23rd.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Sawyer Oliver, age 4, was the priority this morning. After “helping” reel in 5 white bass, we went in pursuit of sunfish up shallow. She landed this mature sunfish “all by herself”! That’s her daddy, Thomas, in the background.

PHOTO CAPTION: After Thomas departed with wife and child, Papa Joe Oliver and I stayed on a while longer to hunt up some fish which would have been a bit too technical for a 4-year-old. While catching white bass from deep water, Joe came across this smallmouth. We also had two largemouth mixed in with our white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 04 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

As we got going, we encountered the lightest early morning wind conditions of the entire week. This was not helpful.

The white bass we pursued at the start of the trip were in low gear and pretty unwilling to chase after our baits at each of the three stops we made. We managed 5 white bass under nearly calm conditions before we sensed Sawyer was getting a bit fidgety.

As I’d invited him to do, Thomas suggested we make a break to head up shallow and do some sunfishing for the sake of variety to reignite Sawyer’s interest. She did great and handily put 9 sunfish in the boat, including redears, bluegill, and longears, all on a bream pole using bait under a slipfloat.

As we watched the interest in sunfishing wane, Thomas and I agreed that I’d look for white bass between our current location and the boat ramp, stopping to fish if I found anything great. If not, he was good ending their trip while Sawyer was still having a good time. Well, I didn’t see much, and we dropped Thomas and family off, then headed back out with just Joe aboard.

We did manage to find some fish in right at 50 feet of water and they were spread over a ~70 yard area and pretty unwilling to consolidate under the boat. So, we fish until the fish density beneath us (as shown on LiveScope) got thin, then “jogged” to the next best concentration and so on. We did this three times and added a final 24 fish (incl. whites, largemouth, and one smallmouth) to the tally before wrapping up a bit early, around 10:30, so Joe could tend to family and business.

The final tally today was 38 fish, which included 1 smallmouth bass, 2 largemouth bass, 9 sunfish, and 26 white bass.

The smoking tactic we used is demonstrated here (skip to 2:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 38 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Light early morning winds made for a much less aggressive early morning bite today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:55A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 7.76 feet low, 0.02′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: S1-4 for the first two hours, quickly ramping up to S10-12 beginning around 9A

Sky Condition: Cloudless, pale blue skies

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 40% illumination.

GT = 110

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 864 – smoking MAL Dense Lures for 5 fish

Area 1416 for 9 sunfish

Area SH0217G – smoking MAL Dense Lures for 12 fish

Area SH0218G – smoking MAL Dense Lures for 12 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com