Stillhouse Fishing Report by Stillhouse Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day morning trip today with father Dave B. Sr. of Missouri and son Dave B. Jr. of Waco.

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 1:15pm

Air Temp: 65F at trip’s start, warming to 76F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 74-75F

Wind: A promising SW breeze blew pre-dawn at about 8, but then, by sunrise slacked off to near calm. From then on, the breeze only puffed lightly from the SSW and never got up and sustained.

Skies: Skies were bright all day. The sun was brilliant in the morning, then toned down a bit in the afternoon due to fair skies caused by increasing humidity.

This was a tough trip today. Dave Jr. and Dave Sr. desired to fly fish. I suspected our best, and perhaps only, shot at fish on the fly was going to be around sunrise for whites, and, possibly, for schooling largemouth thereafter. So, we posted ourselves between Areas 206 and 232 and kept a sharp lookout for fish and birds. Some very light activity occurred with just 2-3 fish wolfpacks popping shad on top, and a single large school of whites showing just briefly. Within 20 minutes after sunset even this ended, and things went downhill. For the next 40 minutes nothing happened on top at all.

Fearing that the period of the morning feed was going to slip away on us as we sat and wait for diminishing chances at fish on the fly, we changed over to conventional tackle, an, over the course of the next hour managed to put a mixed bag of 8 largemouth and white bass in the boat by downrigging in 37-42 feet. Over this time, we saw occasional wolfpacks of largemouth feeding sporadically over open water, but nothing solid or sustained enough to attempt even with conventional gear.

With mid-day approaching and the wind still very light from the SW, we checked multiple other areas, but never found active fish.

We ended the trip around 1:15p and had to settle with just that handful of fish caught mid-morning on the downrigging gear. We enjoyed one another’s company at lunch at the Stillhouse Marina where we shared some fly tying techniques and where Dave Jr. showed me his first handmade bamboo fly rod. Great company and an enjoyable pair to be with, but the fish just didn’t cooperate today.

TALLY = 8 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day afternoon trip with father and son Scott and Spencer L. of Temple.

Conditions:

Start Time: 3:00p

End Time: 7:20p

Air Temp: 65F at day’s start, warming to 76F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 74-75F

Wind: A promising SW breeze blew pre-dawn at about 8, but then, by sunrise slacked off to near calm. From then on, the breeze only puffed lightly from the SSW and never got up and sustained until after noon. In the afternoon, we enjoyed a consistent S breeze at 8-9 mph, and the fish responded positively.

Skies: Skies were bright all day. The sun was brilliant in the morning, then toned down a bit in the afternoon due to fair skies caused by increasing humidity.

On the heels of a tough morning trip, thing perked up nicely this afternoon. We caught fish from start to finish, with the peak of the action coming at 4:00p to 5:00p. We fished only two areas today and found abundant gamefish and bait at both locations on sonar.

Our first stop came at Area 295. As we arrived, I put the downriggers down so we could fish and study sonar at the same time. We marked fish consistently at both breaklines at about 34 feet and at about 39 feet. Most bait appeared at the deeper break. We put on twin Pets and caught both whites and hybrids on nearly every pass. This indicated the fish were in an aggressive mood, and so we stopped over the deeper break where the bait was located and jigged and smoked slabs over these fish, and then fished our slabs in a lift-drop style (similar to a blade bait). Fish came from a 180 degree arc from E, thru N, to W of this area. These fish slowly played out by about 5:45p, so we made a move after putting 54 fish in the boat here.

Our second and final stop came at Area 171. We found white bass and hybrids here at 17-19 feet upon arrival by downrigging and put our two largest fish of the trip in the boat by this means, a 4.75 pound hybrid, and a 4.00 pound hybrid, as well as 11 smaller fish. As dusk came, the fish moved a bit shallower and got a bit more active so we changed over to throwing blade baits and picked up 8 more whites, and 2 more small hybrids this way. We headed in around 7:20p.

TALLY = 77 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a full day trip today with father Bill H. of Belfalls and son David H. of Temple.

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 7:20p

Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start, warming to only 68F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 74-75F

Wind: NNW at 15+ by sunrise, increasing to 18 by midmorning, and tapering back to 10 by sunset and thereafter.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey all day with a very light sprinkle falling pre-dawn. There was dampness in the air all day. The sun was visible only during the last few minutes of sunset.

Although we managed 82 fish today, these numbers don’t tell the whole story. We fished hard all day spending a lot of time searching with sonar often not finding anything, or, finding fish but finding them very sluggish or totally inactive even to a live shad presentation. Most of our fish came in 2 short spurts of activity on this day where cold air poured in with damp skies following yesterday’s front passage.

Areas where we enjoyed success included:

Area 147 – we caught a single white bass here by downrigging prior to (obscured) sunrise and saw strong sonar returns here at the high side of the breakline, but caught nothing further either downrigging or slabbing.

Area 151 – we caught a single jumbo crappie and a single blue cat here in 40 to 50 feet. We saw strong sonar returns as well as abundant shad here, but didn’t enjoy the success that we anticipated.

Area 169 – we caught a single white bass here via downrigging, but saw little on sonar to keep up in the area

North of Area 188 – in the deep basin here we saw abundant shad and suspended gamefish relating to them in the 31-37 foot range over the 42+ foot bottom. After downrigging unsuccessfully, we took a couple drifts through this area with live shad and picked up a single white and another jumbo crappie.

Area 294 – around 11am, we ran sonar here and saw promising returns tight to bottom, but a lack of bait. We put our live shad and drifted them near bottom and almost immediately picked up 3 white bass and a short hybrid. I buoyed this area, continued drifting, and then returned to the buoy afterwards. On the drift, we picked up 2 more whites, then returned to the buoy and enjoyed about 90 minutes of solid activity using smoked slabs picking up 61 more fish including white bass of all sizes, and 3 more short hybrids. When action died around 12:30p, it died hard and stayed very sluggish until near sunset.

The only area that produced in the afternoon was in and around Area 171. We picked up a few hybrid and whites on live shad fished in conjunction with sonar over the course of the afternoon, and then found lively action post-sunset in shallower water throwing blade baits. All told, we pulled 16 fish off of this area over the span of the afternoon.

TALLY = 82 FISH, all caught and released.

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start, warming to the mid 80’s by day’s end

Water Temp: 75F

Wind: Winds were steady from the ESE at ~7 prior to sunrise, and steadily increased to 11mph by 9:30 and then stayed there the rest of the trip

Skies: Skies were heavily overcast and leaden grey through 10:30am, and then began to brighten and clear to partly cloudy by day’s end.

Fished a half day morning trip today. My first job was to net shad in advance of a Belton hybrid trip on Thursday. Shad were pretty accommodating – managed 70 in 14 throws ranging from 2 1/8 up to 5 ½ inches, all gizzards, all around Area 262. I then focused on fishing by 7:50am.

Quickly fished a couple of areas looking for active fish given that the wind had a heavy easterly component and I suspected that might really dampen the bite. Tried Area 292, 293, SE of 114 and at around 12-14 feet off 999 without so much as a swipe, then headed elsewhere

As I arrived at the expanse of water between Areas 290 and 291, a topwater feed was just getting underway. Whites ranging from 7 to 12 inches were tearing up 1.25 inch long shad throughout the water column in 6 to 12 feet of water. The Cork Rig accounted for 90% of the catch, and a white blade did the trick for the remainder during brief lulls in the topwater action, and then again after it died off. The fishing was strong from 9:15 to 10:20, and then sustained at a slower pace until about 10:50a.

TALLY = 58 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time: 12:20p

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start, climbing to 87F for the day’s high

Water Temp: 75-76F

Wind: An increasingly humid ESE wind prevailed today, starting pre-dawn at 8mph, building to 12+ with higher gusts by 11a.

Skies: Were fair at dawn, with a bank of grey clouds creeping in slowly from the west. By 30 minutes after sunrise, the bank of clouds obscured the sun for over an hour, then began to break up, and the skies went partly cloudy.

I fished a solo trip today primarily to see if the Areas 160 and/or Area 209 action was going to hold up, and, if so, experiment with a few presentations to tempt the largemouth once the sun was up and they got more selective. Unfortunately, I never got the chance as there was zero topwater today – not uncommon for a day with an east wind.

As I sat closely watching the surface at Area 209, I was able to jig up 4 largemouth and a drum on a slab, but these fish were tight to bottom and were very sluggish.

I spent more time looking at sonar today than fishing, searching the lower basin area for baitfish, and found very little there.

I then searched the major breakline at Area 261, and finally located bait and gamefish consistently in 37 to 42 feet. As I began jigging over these fish, they were very sluggish, but did have a spike in activity from 10:30 to 11:30, and then went sluggish once again. I tied up a tandem rig with both a blade bait and a slab as the anchor and a Hazy Eye Shad as the teaser. This produced 5 doubles over the course of the slow period. I caught a 30/70 mix of largemouth/white bass here. All of the whites were healthy, solid fish going 11-14.5 inches, and all but one of the largemouth were short. The one keeper largemouth went 5.25 pounds. All told, 45 fish came off this area.

Around 12:30 things slowed to a crawl as the day heated up and the winds began to slacken.

TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:10p

Air Temp: 64F at trip’s start, warming to the mid 80’s by day’s end

Water Temp: 75F

Wind: Winds were steady from the SSE at ~7 prior to sunrise, and steadily increased to 10mph by 9:30 and then stayed there the rest of the trip

Skies: Skies were fair with high, thin clouds. The air was dry.

Fished a half day morning trip today with Chuck and Matthew S of Cedar Park, and son-in-law, Edmond, from central New Jersey.

We began the trip downrigging 19-24 feet deep out from Areas 160 & 205. We picked up only 1 white bass as we were waiting for sunrise. There was a disappointing lack of shad in the entire area.

As first light came, I was hoping for the heavy topwater feeding at and all around Area 160 to Area 205 but, by the time the sun had risen and 15 minutes or so had passed by, no topwater was apparent here, so we moved looking for topwater while the window of opportunity was still open. While waiting for things to develop, the trio put 3 small bass in the boat.

We were fortunate and did find topwater action at and around Area 209, generally about 80 yards to the north and about 120 yards to the south, and over 23-35 feet of water. The action was heaviest at the onset, slowly tapering off, but never completely ending until almost 11:15a. At first there was a 50/50 mix of white bass and black bass, but as the high thin cloud layer burned off and the sun brightened, the whites tapered out and only the largemouth remained feeding on top. Shad ~2.5 inches in length were seen skipping out of the water ahead of the gamefish. We caught fish on top on a combination of Cork Rigs, Tear Drop Rigs, and with clear Spooks, with the Cork Rig doing best, then the Spooks, then the Tear Drops. When things slowed down and the fish were only popping up here and there briefly, we downrigged with larger Pet Spoons. We kept the topwater rigs ready to go and the guys did well quickly switching over from one method to the other as the fish dictated. This whole scenario yielded 52 fish.

By 11:15, the topwater went quiet, and we vertical jigged for a bit, picking up 5 more largemouth, and a white bass over 36 feet just to the SE of Area 209. The last fish of the day came around 11:45a as we downrigged up a largemouth and a drum between Areas 41 and 196.

TALLY = 62 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 8:00a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start, only warming to 76 due to heavy cloud cover and rain.

Water Temp: 74 to 75F

Wind: Winds were steady from the SE at 7-9 the entire trip

Skies: Skies were heavy grey the entire trip. Rain fell lightly from the start of the trip through about 8:30a. Light mist occurred from time to time over the entirety of the trip.

Fished a half day morning trip today and found fish at 3 distinct locations.

As first light came, heavy topwater feeding began at and all around Area 160 to Area 205. At any given time 5-6 large schools (with perhaps one hundred fish per school) could be seen pushing shad to and across the surface. When rain fell heavily, the fish sounded; when the rain let up to a mist or stopped, the fish reappeared and fed with vigor. These fish responded well to a Cork Rig presentation. I landed 33 fish through 9:10a. The fish definitely migrated from shallow to deep (WNW to ESE) as the morning progressed.

Once the topwater was over, I downrigged in the same general vicinity and into deeper water to the SE hoping to encounter these large schools of white bass on sonar in order to slab them, but they proved to be elusive. Over the next 35 minutes or so, I managed only 4 more white bass and 2 largemouth on dual downriggers, with no large schools showing on electronics.

Next, I moved from 20-30 foot waters out to 30-40 foot waters. At Area 258 I encountered abundant gamefish stacked at 36-41 feet just back from the greatest slope in this area. I stayed on fish here, both largemouth and white bass, for nearly two hours, landing a total of 19 fish, including a 4.5 pound largemouth, several 3 pound largemouth, and several white bass in excess of 15 inches. At no time did the fish become really aggressive, and the fish came one at a time. Silver slabs, white slabs, and a ¾ oz. blade used in combination, all accounted for equal numbers of fish.

Near trip’s end, I visited another similar feature in the 40 foot range, Area 249, and found the top of the feature devoid of fish, but did consistently mark gamefish on the channel side of the feature, and bait on the side of the feature opposite the channel. I just spent a few minutes here and quickly boated 2 short largemouth, with sonar revealing more of the same both on bottom and suspend in the bottom 1/3 of the water column.

TALLY = 58 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

Stillhouse Fishing Report by Stillhouse Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day morning trip today with Casey (dad), and Ryan and Tyler S. (sons) from the Cypress Fair, TX, area.

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 1:45pm

Air Temp: 60F at trip’s start, warming to 79F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 77F

Wind: A light S breeze was blowing before sunrise, and steadily increased to 16-17 by trip’s end.

Skies: Fair all day.

As we began our day, we fancast and sightcast for schooling white bass at Area for about 15 minute prior to sunrise, and for about 45 minutes afterwards. We managed 16 fish all on white blade baits during this time, although the action was much reduced over what it had been up to this point over the past 2 weeks.

Following this action, and given that Ryan, who has fished with me before, had a preference for downrigging, we headed downlake and downrigged successfully in and around Area 56 for 20 more fish through around 11am.

As we downrigged, we encountered a consistent congregation of fish in and around Area 126. We stopped over these fish and slabbed for 4 quick white bass, but with the conditions getting a bit too rough for slabbing on the 17+ mph wind, we anchored and fished live shad for the remaining 45 minutes of the trip during which time we picked up 5 more fish including 2 largemouth, 1 drum, and 2 white bass.

TALLY = 45 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

01 OCTOBER 2008

10/04/08 9:04 PM

Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 58F at trip’s start, climbing to 88F for the day’s high

Water Temp: 74.6 to 76.6F

Wind: The slightest of NE breezes blew for about 20 minutes following sunrise, and then the surface went flat calm for the remainder of the day.

Skies: Were bright, high, and cloudless

I fished a solo trip today primarily to see if the Area 114 white bass action was going to hold up, hoping that this Saturday’s clients would be able to cash in on this action.

October got off to a difficult start today with windless, high pressure conditions. I began the morning to the SE of Area 114, and then worked generally to the west to the vicinity of Area 113. As they did Monday and Tuesday this week, the white bass continued to herd shad to the surface beginning around sunrise, and for 70 minutes afterwards. I left this area at 8:40a, with 19 fish in the boat, all 10-12 inches, and all caught on bladebaits. Fish didn’t seem interested in the Cork Rig whatsoever.

The flat calm conditions made it apparent that little was happening on the surface as I cruised the lake.

I finally encountered a bit of topwater action by small packs of whites and of blacks over the open water above the channel in 50-70 feet, to the SE of Areas 243 and 186. Using the Cork Rig, I managed 7 more fish in the next 3 hours and, with little hope that a wind would develop, ended the trip at that point.

TALLY = 26 FISH, all caught and released

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing

The following is a roll up of this month’s efforts:

29 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 74

27 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 22

25 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 126

20 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 89

18 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 96

15 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 41

11 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 84

08 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 74

04 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 83

01 SEPTEMBER 2008 = 39

TOTAL CATCH FOR SEPTEMBER 2008 = 728 FISH

AVERAGE CATCH PER TRIP = 72.8 FISH

Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing