Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Conditions:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:40a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start

Water Temp: 84.0 F

Wind: Light puffs from the S at dawn, increasing to S at 11 by trip’s end

Skies: High-pressure induced clear blue skies, very bright

Fished a half-day morning trip with David K. of Cedar Park. As I waited for his arrival I noted strong minnow feeding action on topwater as they sipped on a hatch of small insects that blanketed the surface.

After greetings, some basic instructions, and checking out his casting abilities, we headed out after some topwater action.

We slowly motored up on the NW quarter of Area 555 and spotted 2 schools of surface feeding white bass. We worked the kinks out on one of these schools by getting down casting distances, the importance of leading the schools when casting, how exactly to work the presentation, etc. Although we didn’t capitalize on this school, we did have one brief hookup, but were very ready for the next opportunity.

We didn’t have to wait long, within 10 minutes of our arrival, the surface was alive with both schools of whites and largemouth feeding on very small (~3/4 inch) shad. The activity ramped up, peaked, and then died to nothing by 7:45a. By that time David had landed 39 fish, all on the cork rig.

Next we headed to Area 191 and saw some very light topwater feeding by smallish largemouth. It was hard to tell whether this deeper water action was just getting going or tapering off, so we remained in the area as David kept casting at any boils we noticed, and I kept scanning near and far for signs of activity. We managed 3 largemouth here. Within 10 minutes or so, we noted heavy surface feeding beginning in the vicinity of Area 26 (to the NE of it) and stayed on top of these very aggressively feeding fish for over two hours. During this time we caught and released 67 largemouth bass. I was surprised given the quantity and size of the bait here (about 1 ¼ inches) that we didn’t catch a single white bass, smallmouth, or spotted bass. At around 9:55a this action died to nothing and we began to search deepwater haunts for white bass.

In about 40 minutes of searching with sonar and probing with slabs, Areas 57, 58, 59, and 171 all yielded nothing.

We made a final stop at Area 186 and the sonar lit up as I searched the breakline here.

We dropped slabs down deep here and immediately hooked up a double of white bass. We stayed on these fish for about 40 minutes catching mainly white bass, with a few drum and even fewer largemouth mixed in. We tallied 20 fish here and called it a very good day by the time these fish began to slack off.

TALLY = 129 FISH, all caught and released, except one drum that didn’t make it

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 from 8am to Noon with the families of the 3/82 Field Artillery Battalion

Conditions:

Start Time: 8:00a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp: 78 at trip’s start, climbing into the mid 90’s by the afternoon

Water Temp: 83.5F

Wind: SSE at 10 at the beginning of the event, building to 25+ by the afternoon

Skies: Bright and clear

The focus today was on making kids successful at catching fish and teaching them a bit about fishing along the way. I had the honor of meeting and teaching 15 different children today – every one of them caught multiple fish, and 3 of them caught the first fish of their lives!!

Many of the kids were quite young, and I fished with them from the shoreline or from various floating structures, older elementary-aged kids I took with me on the boat to add to the experience.

I rigged up 3 ten foot bream poles with super-sensitive floats and #14 hooks. We baited up with bits of earthworm beneath a tiny splitshot and caught fish everywhere we spotted bedding and suspended sunfish. This included inside and outside the floating BLORA fishing pier, the area around the courtesy dock located nearest the floating pier, and along the banks of the BLORA military marina.

By the time the event concluded, the kids had managed to catch 82 fish including bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, and longear sunfish.

The Battalion Executive Officer presented me with a very nice framed certificate a battalion coin. Thanks, guys!!

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: 5:30p

End Time: 8:40p

Air Temp: 93F at trip’s start

Water Temp: 79.2 F

Wind: S at 15 to 18, tapering to S at 12 at sunset, then again increasing to 15+

Skies: 50% white cloud cover the entire trip.

Fished a “stay in touch” trip this evening to stay on top of shad and gamefish locations on Stillhouse.

Found fish at all but one of 6 locations I fished.

First stop came along the NW to SE oriented breakline from the 26 foot flat downward at Area 142. There were small, scattered pods of shad hanging off the slope here, and gamefish holding in one’s, two’s and three’s on bottom – not the best scenario, but I decided to give it a try anyway since it was a little early for the fish to be really turned on. I dropped a ½ oz slab down and managed 3 whites; all coming on an easing technique. I saw no evidence that the intensity level here was going to change, so I moved on.

Next stop was made between Areas 145 and 148. Although a very well defined breakline exists here at the edge of the 30 foot flat, the fish were located a few yards beyond that and were grouped up on the 24-26 foot knob. Caught 20 fish in no time, first by lift-dropping, then by easing. Decided to search for other active fish at other locations while the feeding window was open, and left these fish biting.

Moved to Area 131 in 28-30 feet and saw suspended white bass in one’s and two’s on sonar, with occasional small pods of fish tight to the bottom on sonar. Went ahead and stopped here and gave it a try. Fish were acting reluctantly toward the ½ oz. slab, so I downsized to ¼ oz. This seemed to do the trick – I proceeded to catch 14 fish here, nearly all of them smoked out of suspended schools – on the bait. By 7:00p the action had died here so I moved on.

Moved to Area 161 and saw little but surface sipping gar here, and a lack of bait. Spent about 5 minutes with a line in the water and moved on.

Next to last stop came halfway between Area 34 and Area 149 in 25-26 feet. A healthy school of bottom oriented fish was clearly evident on sonar. I knew as soon as I dropped the slab down that this was going to be good … the fish rose up off the bottom to meet the slab indicating they were in overdrive and ready to hit. I caught 20 fish here in less than 15 minutes, including two 3 pound largemouth, and three 15.5 inch white bass. Twice, as I reeled in smaller white bass, large black bass were tailing them, and once, as I reeled in one of the large whites, two equally large whites accompanied it to the surface. Again, I caught 20 and left these fish while they were still biting in order to check out one final area.

Right at about 10 minutes before sunset I arrived offshore from Area 159 and immediately spotted the surface feeding whites I had hoped to find there. The schools were well-spread and didn’t stay up on top very long, but, I managed 4 whites and a small largemouth out of the action, and then called it a night.

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: 6:00a

End Time: 12:20p

Air Temp: 77F pre-dawn climbing to 91 by day’s end

Water Temp: 78.4F

Wind: S at 15 pre-dawn, building to 19 by trip’s end, and occasionally gusting to 25+ in the mid afternoon for the 4th day in a row.

Skies: 80-100% grey cloud cover the entire trip; light drizzle to light rain intermittently falling from 10a to Noon. This weather was due to the breakdown of a high pressure system and the arrival of low pressure.

Fished a half-day Kids Fish, Too! trip with a grandpa (Dick D.) and his two grandsons, Richard and Ryan of Plano. We met at dockside at 6:00a, went over the boat rules, did some basic casting instruction and, lo and behold, Ryan comes up with the first fish of the day, a redear sunfish, during the practice session!! And with that, we were off to the first spot of the day.

We first stopped at Area 173 and, due to the winds and the boys’ limited casting experience, fished from an anchored position with the boys casting from the portside quartering across and down-wind with shad-imitating in-line spinners and with blade baits. Action was slow (I theorize due to the low pressure moving in) with virtually no topwater at all, save a single pod of white bass seen blitzing shad for about 3 minutes at 7:30a. We managed a single largemouth (a nice 3 pound fish) and a single white bass at this first stop.

We gave the shallows between Area 177 and the shoreline a try, but nothing was happening there.

We moved on and searched for some sunfish action and did well at Area 189 finding all manner of sunfish in all manner of sizes here. We used simple bobber and hook rigs with worms to tempt these scrappy fighters into biting, releasing the largest specimens and keeping a few juveniles to use as live bait for largemouth a little later in the trip. We put 35 sunfish in the boat including a nice 7.5 inch bluegill and a 4 7/8 inch longear sunfish which qualified as the new Jr. Angler lake record for this species (caught by Richard).

From here we headed to Area 70 and Area 222 and executed two drifts to the NW on the SE breeze in 35-38 feet and in 12-16 feet respectively. We managed 2 strikes and 1 landed fish (a 3.75 pound largemouth landed by Ryan) on the second, shallower drift. This action wasn’t as fast and furious as the boys attention span required, so we moved on.

We searched Area 176 with sonar and found a few scattered whites here on bottom. We vertical jigged briefly and picked up two whites, but the winds were getting heavier and things were a bit too difficult trying to coach two novices at slabbing and hold the boat in place, etc. so we moved to a more sheltered location.

We hit Area 145 (about 30 yards to the NNW of it) and started slabbing after sonar showed an abundance of scattered gamefish and shad suspended just off the bottom over this entire area. The fish were very sluggish at first during the time the skies were overcast, grey, and drizzling. Once the drizzle ended, and the skies brightened a bit, the fish really turned on. We caught 49 fish at this location in about an hour’s time. Most were healthy white bass coming in right at 11.5 inches, with some smaller, and some larger, with none exceeding 13″. We also put 2 crappie, a small largemouth, and 2 drum in the boat. The last fish of the day hit Richard’s slab as he was working it lift-drop style. I watched the rod tip as the fish struck and knew it was a hard hit. He set the hook and then commenced battling a 7.00 pound channel cat for the next 2 ½ minutes and successfully brought it to net. This qualified as the Jr. Angler record for that species for Stillhouse, pending processing of paperwork by TPWD. We decided to call it quits on that good note and headed back to the dock with a boatload of happy fishermen.

TALLY = 89 FISH, all but 5 sunfish (used for bait) were 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: 6:00a

End Time: 11:20a

Air Temp: 73F pre-dawn climbing to 92 by day’s end

Water Temp: 78.9F

Wind: S at 20 pre-dawn, building to 25 by trips end, and occasionally gusting to 35+ for the 3rd day in a row.

Skies: 80-100% grey cloud cover the entire trip

Fished a half-day Kids Fish, Too! trip with a dad (Brad) and three 4th Grade boys, Fritz, Eddie, and Reilly from Killeen. We met at dockside at 5:45am, went over the boat rules, did some basic casting instruction and we were off to the first spot of the day. None of these four guests had much fishing experience or luck on previous trips, and Reilly had never caught a fish before in his life.

We first stopped at Area 173 and, due to the very high winds, fished from an anchored position with the boys all casting (very well) from the portside quartering across and down-wind with shad-imitating in-line spinners and with blade baits. Action was moderate but steady right from the start with a mix of small largemouth and white bass which bordered within ½ inch either way of the 10 inch mark. We boated a total of 16 fish before the surface activity erupted.

Sunrise was obscured with nearly 100% cloud cover, and so the topwater got off to a later start, as well. At exactly 7:27a, I spotted the first school (although they could have started earlier and not have been detected on the heavy waves) of whites working the surface. We adjusted our boat position to get near them and again anchored. The boys caught fish after fish for about 45 minutes straight. After about 8:30a, the action began to slowly taper off as the clouds thinned and the skies brightened. By the time this shallow bite ended at around 10a, the boys had taken the tally up to 63 fish.

At this point we searched deeper water looking for schooled, deep fish which we could catch by vertical jigging with slabs. We got blown off Area 177. We attempted Areas 176 and 186 and found very sluggish, bottom oriented fish here. We managed one small white and one small crappie, but then moved on.

We hit Area 145 (about 30 yards to the NNW of it) and first started off slabbing with one small white going for that presentation. Sonar continued to show an abundance of scattered gamefish suspended just off the bottom over this entire area. So, we hooked up the downriggers and proceeded to downrig with Pet Spoons over this area in an elipse. The fish were very sluggish and all of the 3 fish we caught here on the downrigger came as we trolled into the wind with the spoons barely making headway. We landed 1 small bass, 1 small crappie, and one 11 inch white bass this way bringing our trip total to 69 fish.

With the winds building and the fishing really taking a nose-dive, we decided we’d quit while we were ahead and while all the boys were happy.

TALLY = 69 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: 6:00a

End Time: 8:05a

Air Temp: 71F pre-dawn climbing to 92 by day’s end

Water Temp: 78.6F

Wind: S at 15 pre-dawn, building to 18 by trips end, and occasionally gusting to 28+ for later in the day (the first in a string of 3 very windy, dry days).

Skies: 10-20% white cloud cover the entire trip

Fished a quick morning scouting trip after having spent more time on Belton Lake than on Stillhouse lately. I headed first to Area 173 to see if the topwater action there was holding up, and it was! The first school of white bass mixed with small black bass broke the surface at 6:15 (actually unusually early) and fed for only about 20-25 minutes. Within 10 minutes after sunrise, they were done. Both species continued to remain in the area, and continued feeding, but not on the surface. I caught 34 fish with a popping cork and streamer up through 7:10. After that, all that remained active was juvenile black bass in shallow water.

I moved on over to between Area 177 and the shoreline and found a mix of whites and black feeding aggressively here. I continued fishing with the popping cork rig and managed another 10 fish here before they, too began to taper off.

I moved out to the breakline at Area 177, found fish holding on it, and slabbed up 3 large drum and four 11 to 12 inch white bass, all on a lift-drop technique. Once I established that a congregation of fish was there, I moved on.

I hit Areas 176 and 186 with sonar only and found what I guessed to be scattered small whites on and within 3 feet of bottom on the breakline over the entire length of the feature. Made a mental note of that and moved on.

Quickly hit the expanse between Area 135 and 148 and found much the same appearing on sonar as I say at 176/186. I dropped a slab down and immediately came up with a keeper schoolie white bass. Satisfied that I could put clients on fish for two trips later in the week, I packed up and headed home.

TALLY = 52 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

MAY 2008 SUMMARY

30 MAY = 51 FISH

27 MAY = 70 FISH

26 MAY = 84 FISH

24 MAY = 62 FISH

22 MAY (PM Trip) = 91 FISH

22 MAY (AM Trip) = 90 FISH

20 MAY = 69 FISH

19 MAY = 29 FISH

17 MAY = 80 FISH

15 MAY = 151 FISH

13 MAY = 43 FISH

12 MAY = 51 FISH

09 MAY (PM TRIP)= 124 FISH

09 MAY (AM TRIP)= 60 FISH

03 MAY = 71 FISH

02 MAY = 104 FISH

TOTAL CATCH FOR MAY 2008 = 1,230 FISH

AVERAGE CATCH PER TRIP = 76.8 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

Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half-day morning trip with Keith W. of Belton and Lance B. of Pflugerville.

Conditions:

Start Time: 6:10a

End Time: 1:50p

Air Temp: 69F pre-dawn climbing to 89 by trip’s end

Water Temp: 78.4F

Wind: SSE at 12-15

Skies: Bright and partly cloudy

We began the day with a tank full of shad intended for hybrid fishing later in the morning and headed out to look for surface feeding white bass prior to sunrise. What had been a fairly consistent bite never materialized this morning despite decent conditions. While hovering in the vicinity of Area 178 we did pick up a single white off bottom on a slab and a smallmouth on a topwater hardbait.

After this we spot-hopped adding 4 more fish to the tally here and there until finally getting into a fair concentration of fish between Areas 154 & 155. Here we caught a mix of white bass and short hybrids all on slabs. The fish here seemed to be patrolling back and forth along the 28-32 foot breakline. Always before schools of fish appeared, schools of shad preceded them. We used primarily a smoking retrieve to boat 13 fish in this locale.

We did a little more spot hopping and struck out a 2 areas before locating fish once again in Area 188. We found a mix of largemouth bass and decent white bass in this area, as well as a stray channel cat. Most were suspended but rather inactive given that positioning in the water column. We used a smoking technique to catch as many as we could until they began to ignore that presentation, and then switched over to live shad and continued to catch fish up until around 11:15a. We rolled the dice and decided to leave fish to find (hopefully) bigger fish in the form of hybrids, and departed this area with the tally standing at 46 fish.

We tried Areas 151 and 152 and the general vicinity around them for hybrid but didn’t see much in the way of bait or fish here and departed. We made our final stop in the vicinity of Areas 98 to 187 and finally did get into a few hybrid tight to bottom in 41-45 feet of water. We caught a total of 5 fish, 3 of which were keepers with the largest going 4.5 pounds.

After a brief lesson on downrigging at Lance’s request, we wrapped up the day. The tally stood at 51 fish, and every last one of those was worked for. Kind of a tough but rewarding day.

TALLY= 51 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

Fished just 2 1/4 hours this morning to see if the topwater bite of Memorial Day was solid or just an anomaly.

Trip conditions:

Trip duration: 6:00a to 8:15a

Air temp: 72F at launch time

Water surface temp: 80.1F

Wind: SSE at 11-13

Skies: Low, thick clouds for the duration of the trip, dissipating by 9:30a

Fished only one area this morning and did well. Again located fish in rather shallow water between Areas 555 and 38. At exactly 6:35a the whites began to feed on top in small packs throughout this area. Schools of black bass also joined in a few minutes later and the action was very fast and furious until 7:15. Due to the heavy chop on the water, a subsurface presentation did much better than a topwater presentation, with 62 fish landed on a blade bait by the time the action left the surface. I stayed until 8:15 and added 8 short largemouth to the tally on a popping cork before leaving for good. The popping cork was used as the bass were a little closer to shore than the whites, and thus were in a bit of a lee from the wind as compared to the whites located out in more open water.

TALLY = 70 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

Fished just 3 1/2 hours this Memorial Day morning to get in some catching before the recreational crowd whipped the surface to a froth.

Trip conditions:

Trip duration: 6:00a to 9:30a

Air temp: 71F at launch time

Water surface temp: 79.5F

Wind: SE at 13 and slowly tapering up to SE at 17 by noon.

Skies: Partly cloudy conditions the entire trip; fairly humid

Fished only two areas this morning and did well at both. First stop came in rather shallow water between Areas 555 and 38. At exactly 6:24a the whites began to feed on top in small packs throughout this area. Schools of black bass also joined in a few minutes later and the action was very fast and furious for about 50 minutes. Due to the heavy chop on the water, a subsurface presentation did much better than a topwater presentation, with 55 fish landed on a blade bait by the time the action died at exactly 7:11am. I stayed in the area until about 8:15 and added 10 mostly short largemouth to the tally before leaving for good.

After this action died, I headed to Area 177 and fished the top of the breakline there and managed a mixed bag of 19 fish over the next hour and fifteen minutes. These fish all came on a ¼ oz. slab fished lift-drop style and were moderately active. The catch here consisted of 4 solid drum, all right at the 2 pound mark, 6 keeper largemouth, 1 sunfish, and 9 white bass of mixed sizes. By 9:30 this action slowed to a crawl as the skies brightened and the boat traffic began to increase. Called it quits at that point with 84 fish landed. I patrolled to the east along the breakline and found fish and shad showing for about 80 yards. Some bass fisherman were working up shallower but in the vicinity and I didn’t want to crowd them, so I just left those fish alone.

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