This is one of 5 reports for a 5 day vacation trip made to Canyon Lake, TX from M-F, 11-15 August, 2008.

WEEK’S SUMMARY:

To summarize the weather, Monday was heavily overcast and unseasonably comfortable up until around 11:00am when the thick blanket of clouds burned off. By that evening the temperatures had climbed back to mid-August norms with partly cloudy skies and hot, humid conditions.

On Tuesday, we woke to rain and occasional lightning right up until around 2pm. The skies then cleared out and again, by that evening the temperatures had climbed back to mid-August norms with partly cloudy skies and hot, humid conditions.

Wednesday and Thursday were photocopies of one another, with fair skies, unobscured sunrise and sunset, and hot, nearly windless conditions during the day with temps in the high nineties.

Friday was much like Monday with heavily overcast skies and unseasonably comfortable up until around 11:00am when the thick blanket of clouds burned off. By that evening the temperatures had climbed back to mid-August norms with partly cloudy skies and hot, humid conditions and a light SE breeze with thunderheads building in the SE.

In reviewing the entire week, morning success far exceeded evening success, and Areas 230 and 224 were by far the most productive during that morning time.

MONDAY’S REPORT:

Monday’s trip was spent in two distinct areas. The first half of the trip, to around 10am was spent in a very successful pursuit of white bass. I found fish up shallow in ~20-22 feet of water as soon as the light conditions were just right at Area 219, and up as shallow as 16 feet deep to the SW within 80 yards of this area. 3 large schools of white bass briefly broke and worked the surface after small shad, about 1 inch long. This schooling was so unpredictable that stuck with the sure bet of smoking through bottom oriented fish seen on sonar. After the light level increased and until exactly 9:09am, light surface feeding continued over 42-50 feet of water along a line from NE to SW of Area 230. These white bass were mixed with occasional largemouth, and were feeding near the surface, but not on it. I took several whites on a fly rod, including the pending lake record. Once the surface action died, I saw heavy schools of suspended white bass at 32 to 36 feet deep, and so worked a ½ oz. Cicada over these in a smoking fashion, and racked up the fish. I departed this area with 72 fish caught.

I headed to Cove 237 and caught 10 sunfish to attempt tightlining for stripers, and then headed to the vicinity of Areas 221/224 to search for stripers.

Most stripers were found in heavy suspended schools adjacent to the old river channel in 60-72 feet of water, over 100+ feet of water. These fish simply did not respond to my downrigger tactics with Pet Spoons, Lunker Lickers, Sassy Shad, or Wildeyes. I finally just left these fish alone and looked for more white bass around noon time.

I located a sluggish school of whites at Area 226 and picked up 3 whites and a small striper here on a smoked ¼ oz. silver Rattle Snakie. We then broke for lunch.

I returned in the evening and again focused on stripers, this time with a vertical jigging approach. I caught 4 nice stripers from 3-6 pounds each on both a white and chartreuse TNT 180 ¾ oz. slab, as well as on the black and silver version of that slab. The trick was to locate fish on the console sonar while idling through the area, then to stop and hover the boat with the trolling motor while keeping the fish on the bowmount sonar. I dialed the sonar’s flasher dial into the 30-70 foot range by setting the upper and lower depth limits, and then smoked the slab from beneath the fish right through them and watched for a response. This action only lasted about 45 minutes, then the stripers, still present, refused to respond any longer.

I noted the 2 largest stripers showed ruptured blood vessels on their face and around their anal vent. 1 was difficult to revive. The smaller fish did not seem to have any problem with the trip up out of deep water.

I headed to Area 220 and managed 2 nice largemouth with live sunfish on a tightline rig.

TALLY TODAY: 92 FISH, all gamefish 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: 1:15p

Air Temp: 76F

Water Temp: 84.3

Wind: Dead calm at trip’s start, with a steady SSW breeze of about 11 mph

Skies: Skies were mostly clear under the influence of increasing high pressure following the passage of Tropical Storm Edouard.

I fished a half day Kids Fish, Too! trip this morning with little Robbie D. of Harker Heights. Robbie’s dad is in Iraq and his mom works hard at the VA, so we spared him a little day care time today by going out in God’s creation.

Since Robbie just turned 6, I gave him some fundamental casting lessons using a closed face reel while at dockside. He caught on pretty well and we headed out after the big ones.

Our first stop was in the Area 204, 205, 206 region, and, right at the crack of dawn, good schools of white bass began pushing shad to the surface.

Robbie and I fished over these aggressively feeding schools until 8:34a, when the last school disappeared. Over this time, Robbie managed 32 fish all by himself on a Tiny Torpedo.

We hung around this area a while longer hoping for some minor resurgence on top, but none was to be had. We did managed a 12″ white bass and a ¾ pound drum on a minnow-rigged tightline as we just hovered in the area.

After figuring the fish weren’t going to rise to the surface any longer, we headed to Area 209 and took a hard look at sonar as we downrigged with Lunker Lickers. These lures did their job fluttering down at 25-30 feet and allowed us to tag another 10 fish in short order, including a nice 3.5 pound largemouth, and a 15.75 inch white bass.

As we downrigged, I glassed over the surface and soon picked up on some topwater feeding by pods of largemouth between Areas 32 and 217. Robbie and I headed over to the action and, with a combination of topwater presentations when the fish were showing, and vertical jigging when they were not, managed to finish off the day with an even 50 fish after boating 4 blacks and 2 whites here.

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: 6:45a

End Time: 10:00a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start, up to 101F by day’s end. This would be the 11th straight day of 100+ degree highs, only to be broken by Tropical Storm Edouard’s passage.

Water Temp: 86.5F

Wind: Light from the SE at 6-8.

Skies: Low, scattered morning grey clouds at about 20%, then clearing to fair for the rest of the day.

T

I fished a ½ day Kids Fish, Too! trip with Christy T. (mom), big brother Egan T., and little brother Justin T. of Harker Heights.

As we began our trip, we started off downrigging between Areas 207 and 208. Sonar showed occasional gamefish mostly solo but occasionally in pods, but a lack of bait over the entire area. After two unsuccessful passes we left here just as the sun had risen.

What took place next turned this into just a perfect kids’ fishing trip. As we motored into the vicinity of Areas 204, 205, and 206, multiple large schools of white bass began breaking the surface pursuing shad. 5 year old Justin had never really cast before, and Egan was just starting to learn. To keep everyone catching fish, I put Egan in the clear to my right on the front deck with a closed face reel and a cork righ, and Justin on my left. Egan got the hang of things quickly, and was catching fish on his own in no time. I went ahead and cast a baitcaster with a cork rig for Justin so he could concentrate on retrieving through the active fish.

We used this teamwork approach the (rather rare) two and a half hours that the fish stayed on top, and wound up putting 50 fish in the boat, most right at the 10 ½ inch mark with little variation in size either way.

We took occasional drink and snack breaks and shake-out-the-sore-wrist breaks, and by 9:38am, when the last topwater feeding school had disappeared from the surface, mom and boys had had a wonderful trip with many good photos taken and were ready to head home, clean up, cool off, and send nearly real-time photos back to dad in Iraq so he could see their prizes. Great trip, kids!! Great kids, Christy!!

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

Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half-day evening trip today with Dan and Hilary P. of Castro Valley, California. Both were above-average anglers with some multi-species experience, but with a heavy concentration on black bass.

Conditions:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time: 9:00p

Air Temp: 95F at trip’s start, warming to 102F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 86.5F

Wind: SE at 7 by sunrise, increasing to 12-14 by afternoon, and tapering back to 10 by sunset and thereafter.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright all day under the influence of building high pressure.

After dropping off my guests from this morning’s trip, I freshened up, ate lunch, and headed back out on the water to do a little pre-trip scouting hoping to find a few additional concentrations of bait and gamefish for my afternoon guests.

While on this scouting run, from approx. 1:45p to 2:45p there was a heavy topwater feed by multiple large schools of white bass over open water bounded by Area 212 to the E and Area 213 to the W. After schools sounded, sonar revealed them traveling at or shallower than 22-24 feet over much deeper water. The forage size was ~1.25 inches in length. I managed 38 fish in less than an hour’s time. A small flock of ~8 Artic terns (2 white, 6 grey) helped keep track of surfacing schools at a distance when close by schools disappeared. As fate would have it, by about 3pm the action had died, just prior to the arrival of my clients.

After I picked up my guests we headed back out to the Area 212 location and searched with sonar, but the feasting fish were gone. We scored 1 quick white bass on a downrigger and that was it.

Realizing we were now going to have to grind it out waiting for the fish activity level to pick up again, we went to slabbing around Area 155. I explained both lift-dropping and smoking, and we managed 6 fish here at our first stop, but without seeing any schooled fish or any aggressive fish.

We headed to Area 214 and encountered some really positive sonar returns from loosely congregated white bass and abundant small, tightly grouped pods of shad. This demanded a downrigging approach, which paid off handsomely, and got us the majority of the fish we were to catch this trip with a total of 24 fish coming over the side at this location on twin Lunker Lickers.

After we had run the balls and cables through the fish for a number of passes, they dispersed, and we again went hunting. We looked hard at Areas 212 to 213, but the wind was up at its peak and the fish and birds just weren’t there.

We again vertical jigged at Area 216 and picked up 3 dink white bass and 1 drum by lift dropping off bottom in 22 feet of water

We headed over to Area 210 and found fish beginning to push bait toward shore here, but they were very reluctant to hit. We did downrig for one white bass here. When the sun disappeared behind the horizon here and no topwater appeared, we made a final run to Area 147 / Area 27 in hopes of finding some low-light topwater there. We gambled right and did find abundant fish, including some on topwater, but the fish were very reluctant to strike despite clouding sonar from 17 to 12 feet deep along the slow taper here. Hilary had the right touch on a slowly, steadily retrieved blade bait, and managed 3 good whites before the action died. Dan got one additional white on topwater with a popping cork rig.

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 half-day morning trip today with Casey (dad) and 14 year old Ryan R. (son) of Cy-Fair, Texas. Ryan was quite an accomplished angler already having a bit of experience in the Junior Bassmaster organization. He was accustomed to fishing cover-laden lakes of east Texas, so Belton’s relative lack of cover and the fact that we pursued primarily white bass and hybrids gave him some welcome exposure to new techniques and species.

Conditions:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 12:20p

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start, warming to 102F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 85.5F to 86.5F

Wind: SE at 7 by sunrise, increasing to 12-14 by afternoon, and tapering back to 10 by sunset and thereafter.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright all day under the influence of building high pressure.

After getting acquainted at dockside, we set out keeping a close eye on the surface for early morning schooling activity, but that just wasn’t in the cards this day.

While waiting on the sunrise and the hope that it might bring topwater activity with it, we slabbed in 25-32 feet of water over a hard bottom in the vicinity of Area 155 and managed a mixed bag of 14 fish in about an hour’s time including white bass, hybrid stripers, 1 largemouth bass, and 1 drum. As the sun rose, this area quieted down.

We moved into Area 210 and noted sporadic individual gamefish topwater feeding without seeing any schooling activity. We blindcast with Spook Jr.’s while waiting on blowups, and then cast to the blowups when they occurred. We managed 2 largemouth on topwater here and moved along after about a half-hour.

We headed to Area 215 and spotted our first school of white bass on topwater as we motored there. These fish were smallish, and only stayed up briefly, but they gave us a clue to capitalize on. We remained in Area 215 for about 40 minutes casting to white bass and largemouth feeding on top and managed 4 more fish. As my guests worked the top, I kept a sharp eye on sonar. After a while a trend began to emerge wherein gamefish were suspending at 21-23 feet deep under or among thick schools of shad. The fish were also tending to move offshore a bit at a time.

Seeing this, we went with a downrigging approach and really began to put fish in the boat for over an hour straight. All but one fish (a hybrid) were average, healthy 13 inch white bass with occasional fish larger and smaller. We downrigged the contour of the shoreline just trying to keep bait and or gamefish on the sonar constantly and did very well at this. After many passes, the fish began to disperse.

Casey and Ryan had to join the rest of the family for a checkout of their accommodations in Salado, so around 11:45 we made one final stop at Area 155. This yielded 8 more fish (6 whites, 1 crappie, 1 hybrid) for us, all coming on a smoking approach through bottom-oriented, schooled fish. By 12:30 we were headed to the dock.

TALLY= 46 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

JULY 2008 SUMMARY

31 JULY 2008 = 47 FISH

28 JULY 2008 = 84 FISH

17 JULY 2008 (PM) = 24 FISH

17 JULY 2008 (AM) = 79 FISH

14 JULY 2008 = 54 FISH

10 JULY 2008 = 48 FISH

07 JULY 2008 = 52 FISH

05 JULY 2008 = 76 FISH

03 JULY 2008 = 37 FISH

TOTAL CATCH FOR JULY 2008 = 501 FISH

AVERAGE CATCH PER TRIP = 55.6 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

Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a full-day trip on Belton today with Brandon H. of Ft. Hood, and his dad and younger brother, both of Vincennes, Indiana. I fished with these fellows for the morning trip only, and then continued fishing in the afternoon to get a feel for how the evening bite was doing since I hadn’t been on Belton in the evening for a while.

Conditions:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 9:00p

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start, warming to 102F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 83.5F to 86.5F

Wind: SSE at 7 by sunrise, increasing to 12-14 by afternoon, and tapering back to 10 by sunset and thereafter.

Skies: Fair skies all day with the slow breakdown of strong high pressure.

No sooner did I get all 3 men on board and cover safety issues and the plan for the day, then I started glassing the surface and saw a school of hybrids feeding in the vicinity of Area 009. We shot over there but the fish sounded by the time we got close and, to my surprise, we couldn’t graph any bait anywhere near that action. So, we tackled up with the downriggers and trolled a lazy pattern from Area 009 to Area 024 watching sonar and the surface the entire time, but seeing little.

We than headed over to Area 153, but again, little was showing on sonar, and, after a few trial casts with a blade bait, we headed elsewhere.

We pulled up on Area 174 and found schooled fish here at ~25 feet deep on the slope. I buoyed these fish and we proceeded to slab and smoke putting 14 fish in the boat including whites, largemouth, and drum. After about 40 minutes this played out.

We headed to Area 210 and, from a distance with the light just right, could see light surface activity in the area. We slowly motored in started off fishing topwater by throwing at boils. We landed several largemouth with the largest weighing in at 3.75 pounds; we landed 2 smallmouth with the largest going 3 pounds, and we landed several 13-14 inch white bass. Once this topwater completely died, we continued to see gamefish and bait on sonar, so we geared up with downriggers and went to town catching white bass after white bass until around 12:30pm, when the action began to taper off. The blue and silver Lunker Licker and the chartreuse and silver Lunker Licker did the best of the several baits we tried, as they imitated the 3-4 inch shad which seemed most prevalent in the area. At one point, from 12:00 to 12:30, the whites were so consistently located in one area that we stopped downrigging and began smoking for them. We landed 4 whites, a drum and a largemouth that way. We wrapped up the morning trip with exactly 50 fish caught and released.

Spent a little while between morning and evening trips with Keith W. of Belton. We were chatting at the ramp and spotted some topwater and just couldn’t leave it alone. We spotted 5 different schools of whites, but they stayed up for just seconds and couldn’t be approached. We netted some bait in preparation for the evening trip and I headed out.

In the afternoon, I started the search in the vicinity of Area 192; we identified suspended schools of white bass holding in a narrow band at 23 to 26 feet deep over a deeper bottom. This begged for a downrigging approach and that’s what we when with. We started with the same twin Lunker Licker setup that had done well in the morning. The fishing was pretty simple once we found the fish. After boating 14 whites, I headed out with the fish still biting here to look for additional productive areas.

From 5:15 to 7:30 was a very slow time with only 2 largemouth and a channel cat coming on a blade bait I was throwing as a search bait for white bass. I tightlined live bait in the vicinity of Area 171 and to the SE toward the cove on the S. shore, but nothing even got a look.

Finally, things started happening near sundown. We headed to the vicinity of Area 171 and began fishing in 26 feet of water after seeing a small school of whites hanging just off bottom on the slope here. We slowly moved shallower as the light faded, finding fish for a few minutes at each step along the way: 26 feet, 22 fett, 14 feet, and finally in 8 feet of water. When all was said and done, we added 17 fish to the tally at this area.

TALLY= 84 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: 4:45p

End Time: 9:00p

Air Temp: 94F

Water Temp: 87.5F

Wind: Humid, ESE at 14.

Skies: Skies were fair by 10am and stayed fair the rest of the day.

I fished a ½ day evening trip with lady anglers Suzi E. of Salado and Charlotte M. of Crescent Springs, KY. Suzi had never been freshwater fishing before whereas Charlotte was quite experienced, so the trip really turned into a mutually agreed upon introduction to freshwater fishing for Suzi. After the safety and gear discussion at dockside, we got down to business, and Suzi really picked up quickly on the whole concept of downrigging, as well as on the operation of the gear.

After doing everything for Suzi to get our first fish, a 12 inch white bass, in the boat, Suzi expressed a definite preference for the do-it-yourself approach versus the valet-style approach. So, from fish number 2 through fish number 24, Suzi did it all from rigging the line to dropping the ball, to adjusting the rod tension, fighting the fish, retrieving the ball, etc.

I explained from the onset that because she would have a learning curve to get through, she wouldn’t be able to keep lines in the water to the extent we could if I were rigging the lures, and that would result in fewer fish than we had the potential to catch, but she was just fine with that, and so was I.

So, we read sonar, downrigged Pet Spoons and Lunker Lickers over deepwater Areas 207 and 208 early, and over at Area 209 later on in the evening, and stayed in consistent action on 2 and 3 year old white bass going 11-13 inches.

As sunset fell, the deepwater fishing died down, and we tried a single shallow drift off a point with bait to no avail and so ended the trip with the 24 fish Suzi managed to downrig, including 3 largemouth up to 3.75 pounds, and a single white bass at 14.5″.

TALLY = 24 FISH; all gamefish 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: 6:30a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 76F

Water Temp: 85.5F

Wind: Humid, light and variable at sunrise, then a light SE breeze building to and topping off at 8 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were mostly clear with 20% cloud cover; skies went fair by 10am and stayed fair the rest of the day.

I fished a ½ day morning trip with lady angler Charlotte M. of Crescent Springs, KY. She’s been down this way several times and has taken a liking to topwater fishing for anything that will hit on topwater.

Planning trips around topwater always gives me a little knot in my stomach because it is so unpredictable. A change in pressure, too much light, too much wind, etc., etc. can put the fish off, but, we persisted and were rewarded.

We got on the water before sunup and found the lake slick-calm and with an unobscured sunrise. This literally allow topwater action to be spotted from over a mile away when you look at the water correctly with or without glassing. We spotted pods of white bass and largemouth sipping ¾ inch shad fry over open water (60-70 feet deep) and up onto an adjacent deep flat tapering up from 45 to 25 feet over quite a span of water (essentially a circle with Area 56 at the 12 o’clock position and Area 186 at the 6 o’clock position).

Accurate, but not necessarily long, casts were required – this always seems the case on Stillhouse with windless conditions. The casts needed to get to the fish quickly after they initially broke water or they’d be gone.

In 2 hours of fishing we managed 27 fish. These fish were NOT schooling; they were feeding on top in small wolfpacks of a few fish per pack.

By 8:30 or so the action had died off. We went elsewhere looking strickly for largemouth feeding on top, but saw little. We agreed the topwater bite was over, and hoped to begin hunting congregated white bass with sonar to attempt to slab over them.

The wind was flat calm, and I just knew the deepwater bite wouldn’t turn on until the wind got going. So, we put on our polarized glasses and I introduced Charlotte to flyrodding for sunfish with a 2 weight. We had fun and put 20 sunfish of 3 different species (bluegill, longear, and green) in the boat in no time. Then the wind kicked in and we knew it was time to get back to the sonar and start looking deep.

We didn’t have to look long … after looking over 3 areas under light wind conditions, a nice SE breeze began to blow around 8-10mph and the very first spot we checked out under the now breezy conditions held a good bunch of fish. Area 202 sits in 25 feet of water with water up to 35 feet deep very nearby. The fish on sonar were up on top of this topography indicating willingness to feed. It took a few tugs on the slabs to get the fish going, but once they turned on, they stayed turned on and hitting steadily for 2 hours. While we slabbed near the bottom, yearling black bass were popping shad on top, especially from 9:45 to 10:30. In all, we managed 31 more fish here. We caught most of our fish with a smoking retrieve on ¼ oz. slabs including 3 crappie, 2 blacks, and 26 white bass, all 12-13 inches.

By around 10:50 the action really started to wane. We stayed in this same general location, and I continued to graph fish, but the shad began to blanket out instead of balling up, indicating the gamefish were letting up. We dropped a downrigger in to try to finish up the day with an even 80 fish, and hooked a yearling largemouth on a Pet Spoon, but he jumped off, so we settled for 79 fish for the trip.

TALLY = 79 FISH; all gamefish 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: 6:30a

End Time: 10:20a

Air Temp: 73F

Water Temp: 83.5F

Wind: Humid, light and variable at sunrise, then a light SW breeze slowly turning through the W and to the WNW by trip’s end in advance of a mild cold front that came through in the afternoon.

Skies: Skies were mostly clear with 20% cloud cover, increasing to 60% by trip’s end.

I fished a ½ day morning Kids Fish, Too! trip with Leonel T. (dad), his son, Justin, and family friend, CJ. The boys were both 5 years old and had never been fishing before, but were very willing to give it a try!

Due to the boys’ age and level of experience, I went with a low-tech approach that would keep them reeling in fish without a whole lot of manual dexterity required. We downrigged very successfully for the first 2 ½ hours of the trip in the vicinity of Area landing a total of 20 fish split equally between the two boys. The fish consisted mainly of 2-4 year old white bass, with 3 drum and 4 largemouth thrown in for good measure. The largest of this mess of fish was a big bug-eyed black bass weighing in at exactly 6.00 pounds (see photo in Gallery on this date). All of these fish were taken on twin downriggers rigged with a Pet Spoon and a Lunker Licker.

By about 9:00, the novelty of downrigging had worn off, and so we left the fish biting in order to pursue sunfish. We headed to Area and found abundant bedding sunfish, rigged up with sensitive quill bobbers and it was all Leonel and I could do to keep hooks baited, lines untangled, and take fish off the hook. The boys cooked through 34 fish in about an hour’s time, taking our tally up to 54 fish boated for the day. By this time, the air was still due to a pause in the breeze prior to a wind shift in advance of a cold front’s arrival. The heat and humidity were suddenly very noticeable. Dad gave me the high-sign that the boys had had enough, and we headed back to the dock with 3 very happy campers on board.

We made a quick stop at Area 199 to see if we could pick up one last fish, and, although the fish were there, suspended at 27-31 feet atop the ridge, none struck our single Pet Spoon presentation.

TALLY = 54 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