WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, September 1st, I fished with first time guests spanning three generations. Eight-year-old Grace Floyd was joined by her father, Trevor, her paternal grandfather, Randall, and her maternal grandfather, Paul Mackley, for a special fishing trip on Stillhouse Hollow.
Randall flew in from northern California last night and, catch this, Paul took an Uber from San Antonio!
Grace’s grandfathers (and other family), converged on Temple, TX, to celebrate Grace’s forthcoming baptism, preceded by today’s holiday from school and a morning in the outdoors with the ‘men in her life’!
After two days off the water doing sonar training and thus avoiding the brunt of the environmental change brought on by Tuesday’s local, minor flooding, I chose Stillhouse for this trip for a number of reasons.
My next open date will be on the morning of September 14th.
Here is how the fishing went …
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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Randall Floyd, Grace Floyd, Paul Mackley, and Trevor Floyd.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 01 September 2022
HOW WE FISHED:
I chose Stillhouse for today’s trip because lately the only thing producing well for white bass on Lake Belton has been topwater action, and it is unreliable at best, and so much more so when the weather is turbulent. I felt it would be a bit of an “all or nothing” proposition if I’d chosen to go there. Then, add to that the necessity to cast somewhat accurately to do well on topwater fish, along with Grace’s limit casting experience, and I just wasn’t comfortable taking this crew there.
So, knowing Stillhouse’s bite would be technical but consistent and would offer the options to fish vertically, horizontally, and with downriggers (so as to offer Grace some variety, if need be), I made the call to go there.
Over the course of the morning, we found solid concentrations of fish in four distinct areas. At all four, we caught our fish early on by using a vertical “smoking” tactic with MAL Dense Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.
At two of those four areas we followed up the smoking with horizontal work using the sawtooth method. The presence of timber prevented this at the third location, and there were no fish showing out to our sides at the fourth.
The fishing was moderately paced but consistent throughout the morning — actually a bit better than I anticipated given the near lack of wind and what wind there was still drifting in from the NE, with abundant grey cloud cover preventing a brightening of the sky at the start of the trip.
As you can see from the “Areas Fished with Success” segment below, our most productive stop was our last, which coincided both with the greatest amount of wind we would experience all morning, along with some direct sunlight.
TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
Our tally of 78 fish consisted of 77 legal white bass and 1 legal largemouth bass.
TALLY: 78 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: In all, the 0.40′ rise due to locally heavy rains and minor flooding did not significantly impact the fishery on Stillhouse.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:05A
End Time: 11:35A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F
Elevation: 8.50 feet low, 0.02′ rise in last 24 hours, 2 CFS flow (0.40′ rise overall due to Tuesday flooding)
Water Surface Temp: 82.6F
Wind Speed & Direction: Light NE breeze under 3mph through 10:45, then NE5+
Sky Condition: Fully greyed skies until 10:45A
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 26% illumination.
GT = 50
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area SH0227G/SH0209G – 21 fish working MAL Dense vert. and horiz.
Area SH0229G – 16 fish working MAL Dense vert. only due to timber
Area SH0228G – 16 fish working MAL Dense vert. and horiz.
Area 1569/SH0062G – 25 fish MAL Dense vert. only (no fish seen to port or starboard)
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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