Fished an evening half day “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Andy M. and his kids, Trent (8th Grade) and Molly (7th Grade), all of N. Austin. They’ve just moved to the area from the Cincinnati area and wanted to sample some late summer Texas fishing.

From L to R: Trent, Molly, and Andy. Trent is holding Molly’s fish as she was a bit timid about doing this at first — by trip’s end she was slingin’ ’em back in the water all by herself

Start Time: 2:35p

End Time: 7:45pm

Air Temp: 85F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~80.1F

Wind: Winds were barely moving from the NNW the entire trip at 2-4 mph.

Skies: Skies were finally clearing out as the stubborn low pressure system prevalent the last 9 days finally released its grip on the weather and the fishing. It was partly cloudy with a hazy appearance to the patches of clear sky.

We finally got a break on the weather this afternoon. On the heels of a very slow morning trip on Stillhouse, I moved our afternoon trip to Belton which did not experience a dramatic water rise with the heavy rains of last weekend.

This afternoon we found fish progressively shallower, with our first fish caught in 41-44 feet of water and with fish caught around sunset found in 16-18 feet of water.

As we began the day, We put ‘riggers down and searched out fish. We found gamefish with no bait (not a good scenario) in the vicinity of Area 474. We boated 4 white bass and 1 hybrid and lost another hybrid here, all in the first 45 minutes of fishing. Things looked promising given this action in the early hours of the afternoon.

We then searched a few other deepwater areas without success and then headed to Area 187 and to the NW of it. Right up on the highest part of this feature sonar revealed a nice congregation of fish. No sooner had I mentioned what I’d seen on sonar to the kids than a rod went active. We boated a nice hybrid, then continued trolling and picked up a nice white bass. Another pass and another hybrid / white bass combination. The next 40 minutes we continued to comb over the area and regularly picked up white bass ranging from 11 to 12.75 inches — just nice, steady fishing — just right for kids. After a total of 22 fish pulled off this area, we saw nothing more on sonar and moved on.

We relocated on a similar area (Area 150) and were fast to a hybrid and then a white bass as we made our initial approach. The sonar showed such good readings that I buoyed and set everyone up to vertical jig, but, but the time the jigs got down the fish had gone. We never got another fish by any means on this area.

Within 75 minutes of sunset, we were patrolling a NW to SE swath in the vicinity of Area 84 to 147 and were picking up good sonar returns from abundant suspended fish here in ~25-27 feet of water. We ran the downriggers about 2-3 feet off bottom right above the fishes’ heads and began to steadily catch fish. Although we twice saw briefly appearing schools of whites dimple the surface, the weather still wasn’t quite right for topwater to breakout. We stuck with our downrigging regimen and were rewarded with a total of 10 additional fish in this area by nightfall, including 3 hybrid (2 legal, 1 short) and 7 white bass, all of which went better than 12.5 inches.

TALLY = 39 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

Fished a morning half day trip with Gary Winters of Frisco, Texas, today. Gary’s step-daughter is to be married in Salado tomorrow. His very wise wife booked him with me to keep him out of her hair during all the pre-nuptial goings-on, and cleverly disguised the tactic as a “present”. Smart, smart lady that Mrs. Jane — or so says my wife!!

Gary’s best of the 19 we boated to today. This one went 3.75 pounds and came out of 25 feet of water.

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:15pm

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~78.6F

Wind: Winds were from the NNW the entire trip at about 8-10 .

This doggone low pressure just won’t let up and the fish are in a deep funk. We struggled a bit today in the face of a damp NNW wind that’s been around for 8 days now. The skies were heavily clouded to the point that I moved our start time back to 7:30 to have enough light to spot any bird, bait, or fish activity that might be there to observe. But, even with enough light, there was little to see.

We fished open water first as I was concerned the winds might pick up as they did yesterday. We hit Area 484 and came up with a largemouth and a white bass on downrigged Pets, but after that it got awful quiet.

We worked our way south from here and picked up another white bass at Area 041. These fish were just suspended in the middle of nowhere, not relating to bottom, to bait, or with many other fish.

Next we headed to Area 120 / 142 and were relieved to find some bait here, but found primarily smallish fish relating to that bait. We initially rigged up with downriggers and quickly put 2 fish in the boat and saw what looked to be solid bottom-hugging fish here in 25-27 feet of water. We hovered over these fish with the trolling motor and worked blade baits over them both vertically and horizontally, picking up 2 fish, both of which went ~12 inches and would be the largest white bass we’d take all day. We continued working blade for a few more minutes without success, so we then rigged back up with the downriggers and worked a broader area in this same locale, picking up 9 more fish, including 8 small white bass and the best fish of the trip, a nice largemouth going 3.75 pounds.

After this area played out, we headed to Area 243 and closed out the trip by boating a keeper white, as short largemouth and an average crappie in quick succession, all solo and suspended at mid-depths over 45+ feet of water.

Gary and I spoke in advance of the trip and his goal was to learn a few new techniques for the day he gets his boat lake-ready and takes on nearby Lake Lewisville and Ray Hubbard. By trip’s end he was comfortable rigging the downrigger independently, as well as reading a modern flasher, vertical jigging, and horizontally working a blade bait. To him, the fish were icing on the cake. To me, I guess I just like lots of icing!

TALLY = 19 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

I fished a 1/2 day morning trip with James F. of Killeen. James is a U.S. Army retired Vietnam veteran. He’d just returned from a family getaway down at Padre Island where a charter trip he’d book turned up fruitless, so he was counting on breaking his streak of bad luck with me today.

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 11:15pm

Air Temp: 67F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~77.6F

Wind: Winds were steady from the NW at ~15 at sunrise (obscured) and slowly crept up to 22+ by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were heavily clouded the entire trip.

Environmental note: The strong low pressure that brought this past weekend’s rains has returned. This upper level low is keeping the winds and clouds firmly in place and is negatively impacting the fishing.

Bottom line: the fishing was tough today. We worked for every fish we caught and had a difficult time finding active bait and gamefish. Low pressure and the northerly winds brought with it always make for a tough time and today was no exception.

We contacted fish at Area 205 by way of downriggers. Fish appeared in a very scattered fashion (actually nearly randomly) with a bit of consistency at the 27-29 foot band. We ran Pets down among them and came up with a largemouth and 2 whites here before the sonar essentially went clean with no fish showing at all.

We moved over to Area 458 and found just a few fish holding tight to the bottom on the steep E. facing slope here. I ran the downrigger balls across the face of the slope in 23-24 feet and we came up with 2 more largemouth and a single drum.

By now we’d fished most of the protected water typically holding fish in this season and, with the wind creeping up past 20mph, decided to leave the lower lake at this point.

We headed to Area 120. There were swells and whitecaps here, but, if you really looked hard, you could see fair sized schools of white bass working the surface. These schools would number 20-50 fish in size, with most fish being just yearlings. We ran 1 downrigger down and 1 flatline out, both with Pets tied on and were immediately hooked up on both lines, both with small white bass.

We continued to see fish working in the churned water and quickly broke out the topwater lures. We put 32 fish in the boat in about 45 minutes’ time before they sounded for good. During that time, we caught fish on the Cork Rig and subsurface bladebaits. When no fish were visible on top, we used the bladebaits to vertical jig and continued catching fish from off bottom, including some more sizeable 11-12 inch fish.

By 11:15, the wind was at a peak around 22+ mph, the fish were done on the surface, and our vertical presentations targeting bottom-oriented fish were no longer producing. We called it a day at that point thankful that some “llth hour” topwater spiced up what was looking to be a tough day otherwise.

TALLY = 38 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

I fished a 1/2 day morning trip with Lance R. of Pfluegerville today. Lance’s stated objectives were 1) to have me review his tackle selections so he could better understand when and where to use the right tackle, 2) help him learn to effectively use his new downriggers and relate what he is seeing on the sonar to what he needs to do with downrigger so far as depth and trolling speeds are concerned, and 3) to learn about the lake and where to look for fish now and into the fall and winter. We accomplished all of these objective’s by trip’s end.

Lance with 1 of his 37 fish caught on today’s instructional trip in tough, north-wind conditions

Start Time: 7:10am

End Time: 12:20pm

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~79.5F

Wind: Winds were steady from the NW at ~10-12 at sunrise (obscured) and slowly crept up to 17-18 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were heavily clouded the entire trip.

Environmental note: Due to heavy rains from a slow moving low pressure system present over the last 3 days dropping 10-13 inches of rain locally, Stillhouse has risen nearly 3 feet over the past 4 days.

As we got on the water, we didn’t immediately begin fishing, but rather, I tried to get a feel for where Lance stood in his ability to interpret sonar and rig up a downrigger. With those things understood we then headed out hunting for fish and also looking for opportunities for Lance to learn “on the job”.

We first looked in the vicinity of Areas 70-71 (a deep water breakline). We graphed fish consistently at 33-35 feet. I strung out the first rigger and had Lance do the second. We trolled for a while covering about 80 yards of the breakline and only managed 2 juvenile white bass on the Pet / Licker combo (one fish on each lure at the same time — a tandem). Since these fish were small, I assumed the rest of the fish we were graphing here would also be smallish. This, plus the heavy winds, would make it difficult for us to interpret a strike at these depths, so we moved on.

Our second stop came in the vicinity of Area 196. We again found suspended schools of white bass here, but this time with a bit of bait mixed in. These fish were not relating to the bottom nor the nearby breakline, thus, they were very scattered. We picked up 3 fish here but I just didn’t feel like things were going to come together, so we moved yet again. I was glad to find fish willing to strike given the northern component to the wind and the great environmental changes the lake just underwent.

Our third and final stop came to the west of Areas 484 and 485. We got lucky in that we happened upon fish on the channel shoulder at the very point where we began our search. This has the potential to be a much more lengthy process, having to cover a lot of ground with sonar before finding fish and bait in the same area. We immediately found fish on sonar at 28-30 feet, with most fish hugging pretty close to bottom. We got twin riggers down and put 9 fish in the boat in no time flat including white bass, black bass, and a small drum.

After about a half hour of steady action, I mentioned to Lance that if he wanted to learn a bit about combining the use of electronics in a vertical jigging scenario, we would likely be successful based on the posture of the fish, but that’d we’d need to get right on it as the fish wouldn’t stay jazzed for long today. He was anxious to try this, so, we buoyed some active fish, hovered over them and worked them over with blades. We put a mixed bag of 19 fish in the boat, all on vertical presentations including a 70/30 mix of whites to blacks, as well as a single crappie. We did attempt a horizontal presentation on a number of occasions but didn’t land a single fish or get a single strike that way today.

By around 11:00a the fish began to slack off. We went back to downrigging and polished things off with 4 more white bass, all around 11-12 inches. All but one of our white bass came on the #12 and #13 Pets today. Only one fish struck the Licker.

By noon, we’d seen the best of it and, with skies darkening a bit and the winds nearing a peak of ~18mph, we called it a day and headed back to the dock where Lance got one final lesson on making and using the Cork Rig.

This wasn’t the most productive trip I’ve ever run, but I was very satisfied that, while facing tough wind speeds and direction on top of some great environmental changes (~3 feet of new water in 3 days) we were still able to put together a respectable catch.

TALLY = 37 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

Didn’t have enough time for a guided trip this day (I’m blogging 2 days after the trip) due to travel plans taking me to Rockwall, TX, but I did head out on this morning on my lonesome to stay on top of things and take a crack at some topwater action if I could find it.

A GRAPH OF OUR ELEVATION RISE ON STILLHOUSE DUE TO RAINS FROM THIS WEEKEND’S LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 11:20am

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.4F

Wind: Winds were from the SSE at ~7-8 following a calm sunrise.

Skies: Skies were mostly cloudy at sunrise; a light fog came in for about 45 minutes, but then cleared giving way to increasing cloudiness which would turn to rain, which would in turn be the leading edge of a persistent low pressure system which would dump 9-15 inches of rain on the local area through Sunday, Sep. 13th.

I was on the water just a few minutes prior to sunrise and quickly checked out Area 056. There was some light topwater caused by juvenile largemouth and white bass, but nothing much more substantial. I landed the only larger fish I saw break water after quietly looking over this area for a few minutes — a 13.75″ largemouth — on a Cork Rig.

Next, I throttled up to a moderate cruising speed and closely looked as I drove, studying the surface for topwater action, but seeing noting beyond random “static”.

I gave Area 70 to 71 a few passes with the downrigger and came up with 2 solid white bass. As I watched sonar, I saw a fair cluster of fish right on the breakline here in 32-34 feet, on bottom. With the fog about to settle in, I buoyed these fish and decided to hunker down as I waited for the fog to lift. I got a few fish to respond, but didn’t hook or land any with a slab.

As the fog cleared about 35 minutes later, I headed to Area 484. I wound up spending the rest of the trip here as there was ample bait, white bass on bottom and in fairly regularly appearing schools at mid-depth, and, every once in a while when the sun broke through the increasing clouds or at least warmed and brightened the area, schools of largemouth would bust shad on topwater. These are now schools, not just little wolfpacks, which marks a significant change in the season and dictates some different tactics.

For the whites, a smoked slab in silver or white did well early, then a blade was all they’d touch after they got picky. For the largemouth, long, immediate, accurate casts are still the rule using the Cork Rig with a matching forage imitator.

The “routine” was to cast to breaking fish when they presented themselves, and vertically work the slabs and blades when they didn’t.

Following this simple formula here made for a productive morning trip with 78 fish boated by the time I had to wrap it up to head north.

TALLY = 78 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

I fished a morning half day S.K.I.F.F. trip (#8) today with Brycen Schmidt, a Harker Heights Kindergartener, and son of Captain and Mrs. Steven Schmidt. CPT Schmidt is an Army aviator deployed to Iraq with 2/227 Aviation Regiment. Miss Grace Lewis, a 3rd grade young lady I know through my church, also participated in this outing. This and all S.K.I.F.F. trips are sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers. S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun and is a program available to the families of deployed soldiers wherein their children can participate in an all-expenses-paid, professionally guided fishing trip of about 4 hours in duration.

Brycen S. with a nice schoolie bass he played and landed all by himself.

Grace L. with a big bass and a bigger smile.

During this trip we had two very memorable moments. First, Brycen caught the first fish of his life (he’s 5); it was a black-tail shiner. Then Grace caught a record-setting green sunfish. In all, the kids caught a mixed bag of 45 fish. I continued fishing after this trip, accounting for the balance of the tally today.

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 1:50pm

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.4F

Wind: Winds were from the NW at trip’s start, swinging through N, then NE, then E, then going slack, and picking up from the SE by trip’s end.

Skies: Fair through 11:30, then darkening and becoming overcast through 1:30, then clearing.

To make things easy on the two moms, we met at the Harker Heights High School parking lot and caravanned to the launch site from there. Grace’s mom went along on the trip, whereas Brycen wanted to take his trip on his own.

By 7:15, Grace, her mom, Nam, Brycen, and I cast off from the dock and our adventure had begun.

Our first stop for these young rookies was at Area 189. There is a sizeable colony of sunfish here including bluegill, longear, and green sunfish, as well as the occasional juvenile bass or shiner.

We baited up with bream poles and worms. I showed the kids how to roll cast to get the line out a distance from the boat, and they picked up on that technique pretty quickly. We fished for a full hour and a half here and the area produced very consistently between snacking and untangling lines. It was at this area that both kids caught their notable catches. We boated a total of 19 fish here before moving on.

By 9:15 or so this area had played out, so we moved to a similar area (Area 231)that was even more protected from the wind. The kids were now well-practiced at setting the hook once the float submerged, and with the decreased wind making the floats easy to “read”, the fish didn’t have a chance. In 30 minutes at this area the kids literally doubled their catch to 38 fish before I suggested that we go after some larger fish with the balance of our time remaining.

By 10:00 we were graphing white bass on sonar over 27-32 feet of water between Areas 196 and 240. The fish were holding in a horizontal band at 24-26 feet and there was scattered bait in the area.

I had the kids participate in preparing to downrig for these fish by stripping out our fishing lines to the correct distance behind the boat. Before long we had 2 lines on 2 ‘riggers working their magic. By 11:00 we had boated two 13-inch largemouth, a freshwater drum, and 4 white bass. The kids did really well at playing and landing these fish and didn’t miss a single opportunity by losing a fish to horsing or jumping. By 11:00 the winds had turned E. and the bite was softening, as it often does when blowing from that direction.

By 11:15 we were to meet Brycen’s mom back at the ramp, so we concluded our trip for the kids at this point, took the required photos for Grace’s lake record and for Brycen’s first fish award and said our goodbyes.

Afterwards, I wanted to experiment with a new dual-rod holder for one of my downriggers which would allow me to fish 2 lines on one ‘rigger. The experiment went so-so, but, while I was idling over open water to do all of this, the winds went slack, we got some good overcast conditions, and some topwater action began to ramp up. After landing 2 largemouth and a white bass on the downriggers and looking over the baitfish situation with sonar as I did, I hung around a little while to see if the topwater was really going to turn on … and it did.

From 12:10 to 1:50 and from Area 056 to Area 425, there was rarely a time when I did not have one or more fish popping up within casting distance. Most were short white bass, with some short largemouth mixed in. Short or not, I love catching fish on topwater and commenced to do just that taking 2 more largemouth and 28 more white bass on a Cork Rig before the skies began to brighten and the wind began again out of the SE.

I called it day at that point.

TALLY = 78 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

I fished a morning half day S.K.I.F.F. trip (#7) today with Khayman and Jayden Koop, the children of Jeremy and Hillary Koop of Killeen. Mr. Koop is deployed to Iraq with the 89th Military Police Brigade. This and all S.K.I.F.F. trips are sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers. S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun and is a program available to the families of deployed soldiers wherein their children can participate in an all-expenses-paid, professionally guided fishing trip of about 4 hours in duration.

During this trip we had two very memorable moments. First, Jayden caught the first fish of her life (she’s 7); it was a bluegill sunfish. Then Khayman caught a record-breaking bluegill sunfish on flyfishing gear, doubling the weight of the former record. In all, we caught a mixed bag of 31 fish.

Khayman’s pending lake record bluegill taken with fly gear

Is that enthusiasm, or what?!?

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30am

Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~83.3F

Wind: Winds were from the SW the entire trip ranging from 6-11 mph.

Skies: Fair the entire trip

Mrs. Koop was right on time at 7:00am dockside, just a few minutes before sunrise. I covered all the safety basics and then, since neither child had much fishing experience, we started our day off fishing for sunfish to get some basics down and to allow for some immediate success and confidence-building. We had our best success at Area 189 on the mix of wood, rocks and aquatic vegetation found there. At this location, we boated 18 sunfish including 17 bluegill and 1 longear. Khayman took 3 of these by flyrod, and the siblings split the rest equally on bream poles baited with worm under a float. One of Khayman’s fish on the flyrod went 0.25 pounds and 5 1/8 inches beating out the current Jr. Angler fly rod record of 0.13 pounds.

After that positive experience, we searched some similar areas (195, 513, 514, and 515) but found only this year’s hatched fish in those areas with no adults or older juveniles evident.

By now it was around 9:00am and the sun had risen and brightened sufficiently to get the deep bite going. We headed over to the stretch of water between Area 460 and 196 and began sweeping with sonar to find some schools of white bass to downrig for. The wind was at its peak for the morning now, around 11mph, and just producing some whitecaps, so topwater was very difficult to see. We did find fish in this area, all at 28-31 feet. We got a combination of lure sizes down on 2 ‘riggers including a single #13 Pet on one and a #12 Pet / Licker combo on another. Khayman really took to the downriggers well and was rigging everything himself after only 2-3 tries. In less than an hour’s time, we boated a nice mixed bag of 7 fish including 2 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 4 white bass. Around 10:35 I spotted some topwater action in the vicinity of Area 485. We checked it out, but I didn’t find the action frequent enough or dense enough to put the kids on it, so, we took our act on the road and downrigged once again at Area 056 just out from the 25’ contour. We found fish a bit shallower here in 25-27 feet and ran the same spread in front of these fish. We put 6 more fish in the boat here including 1 largemouth and 5 whites, one of which went 14 1/8 inches. By now our winds were tapering off, the atmosphere heating up, and mom was returning to the boat ramp for the kids, so we wrapped it up, got back to the dock, took all of the required measurements and photos for Khayman’s new flyrod record and parted ways.

The Austin Fly Fishers have been kind enough to provide me with “goody” bags for each of the SKIFF participants including a laminated fish ID card, a fish ID book, a learn-to-flyfish book, a SKIFF t-shirt, and more. The kids really enjoyed receiving this as they departed.

If you follow this blog and know of a family with kids where mom or dad is deployed or if mom or dad died on active duty, please pass along my information so I can get them on the water.

TALLY = 31 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

Today’s trip was a bit out of the ordinary. Mr. Tom Behrens of Texas Fish and Game magazine contacted me a while back and asked if I’d be interested in providing a guided trip for their monthly Trophy Quest contest where a subscriber is randomly chosen to go on a guided fishing trip, complete with free lodging and meals. I agreed to the arrangement. Today was the agreed upon date for that Trophy Quest trip. Here’s how things played out:

Wayne and Richard double-teamed a double limit of hybrid today on deep-trolled Pet Spoons

This month’s Trophy Quest winner was Wayne Vaclavik of Missouri City, Texas. Wayne was guided by central Texas fishing guide Bob Maindelle, owner of Holding the Line Guide Service, based in Salado, Texas. Bob contacted Wayne well in advance of the trip to determine his preference for species and techniques, as well as to gauge Wayne’s ability level so he could best meet his guest’s expectations. On Monday, August 31st, Wayne and his brother, Richard, met Bob at Belton Lake. The trip came 3 days after the season’s first cool front had passed, shifting winds to the NE at 6-9mph, and dropping the overnight temperature to 69 F, with a surface temperature at about 85 F. Skies were fair. Wayne chose this lake over Stillhouse Hollow, as it offered the brothers a shot at hybrid striped bass — a fish they’d never caught before, as well as a chance to use downriggers — a technique they’d never tried before. By 6:45am the trio was hunting fish over a deepwater breakline using sonar. By 6:55am the first of 40 fish came over the gunnels — this one was a white bass, followed by another shortly afterwards. Although only about 11 inches in length, these two fish allowed the brothers to experience what a strike looks like using downriggers, and exactly how to properly respond and play fish hooked on this gear.

As the sun rose, this early action dried up and the trio was off again in search of fish. They searched over 30-40 feet of water off a steep point. Bob marked a lot of bait on sonar and plugged in a waypoint on GPS which would allow them to return later and see if gamefish had located the bait. Next it was off to a similar point, this one with timber — nothing showed on sonar. Next, up the Leon River arm they went. As the sun shone on the water, the spray of aggressively feeding white bass, hybrid stripers, and largemouth could be seen for over 1/2 mile away. Bob sped to the action while arming the brothers with Cicada blade baits rigged on spinning gear. Bob motored as close as he dared without spooking the fish and then covered the rest of the distance with his trolling motor. The brothers fired casts into the fray, kept the baits moving fast and up high in the water column and were immediately rewarded. 25 minutes later, after this short, intense feed was done, the boys had landed an additional 13 white bass and 3 school-sized largemouth.

Next, they headed further up the Leon River arm and again searched with sonar, this time locating gamefish suspending in a horizontal band from 27 to 33 feet deep over 35 to 40 feet of water. The downriggers were once again employed, but multiple passes gave up only 2 whites and a few missed fish. Bob marked the most dense concentration of fish with a buoy and stood off a cast’s length so the three of them could work Cicada blade baits horizontally through the fish. This resulted in the first hybrid of the day, a just-legal 3 pounder, as well as a freshwater drum. This area then shut down.

Next, it was off to a deepwater hump. No sooner did the boat come off plane than the sonar lit up with fish which would turn out to be a mix of hybrid striper and white bass in a horizontal band at 33-35 feet over 37-45 feet of water. Again, downriggers were the ticket. Two ‘riggers went down here with Pet spoons trailing rigged up on Lamiglas downrigging rods. As with the previous area, the fish here were a bit stubborn, but after a few passes, the team got them figured out and wound up putting 8 keeper hybrid up to 5 1/4 pounds in the boat, as well as 5 white bass and 1 freshwater drum. After about an hour spent on this area, it went quiet.

The team made a final move back to that waypoint Bob had marked earlier in the morning when he sighted bait with no gamefish yet showing. Upon arrival they hooked up on a hybrid, then another, then two more white bass. By 12:10pm things had gone quiet and the boys knew they’d seen the best of it. They called it a day at that point and headed for the ramp. The day’s tally stood at exactly 40 fish, including 10 legal hybrid stripers, 3 largemouth bass, 2 drum and 25 white bass. As is Bob’s policy on all fishing trips, all fish were released in good condition to grow larger and be caught again.

Gear Details:

Downrigging:

Downriggers: Cannon Sport-Troll manual downriggers

Rods: Lamiglas CG70DR downrigging rod

Reels: Ambassadeur 4600C3

Line: Berkeley Big Game, 15 pound test clear mono

Lure: Pet Spoons, #12 & #13

Bladebaits:

Rod: Lamiglas XPS703 spinning rod

Reel: Pflueger Medalist spinning reel, model #7035

Line: Berkeley Big Game, 10 pound test Solar Collector green mono

Lure: Reefrunner’s Cicada, 3/8 oz. and ½ oz.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

I post a monthly summary of results so those looking to plan a trip in advance can have a feel for where the fishing typically has been for that particular month in years past. Note that the cooler months (when bookings often fall off) can offer some of the most productive fishing of the year.

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

Fished a morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with a family of four from Georgetown. Trey and Ann are the parents of Brandon (11) and Jonathan (4). Trey and I spoke before the trip and his concern was to keep the boys busy so they’d have a positive experience. With this in mind, I opted for Stillhouse and we split the trip between sunfish and white bass fishing.

From L to R – Jonathan, Ann, Brandon, and Trey. Be sure to notice little Jonathan’s sunfish proudly displayed in the lower left corner.

Brandon with a 1.25 pound largemouth which went for the largest of our offerings, a Lunker Licker in silver and chartreuse.

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:00am

Air Temp: 71F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~84.5F

Wind: Winds were from the NNW the entire trip at about 7-9 mph.

We started the trip off with bream poles in hand baited up with dilly worms for sunfish. We hit Area 510 and put 2 blacktail shiners and a sunfish in the boat, but this stop was mainly to work the kinks out and get the boys used to the equipment and the approach so they could capitalize on the better fishing at the next spot we’d hit.

Our next stop for sunfish was Area 203. I had Brandon on the front deck with me and he was operating independently by now. Trey had Jonathan on the back deck and assisted him. We went through 17 fish in about 30 minutes. Our catch included several bluegill sunfish, several longear sunfish, one green sunfish, 2 blacktail shiners, and one juvenile largemouth bass. As the sun got brighter the fish got sluggish and I knew it was time to move on.

By now the sun had brightened things up and the wind was steady from the NNW at ~9. Things were really looking good. We headed directly to Area 041. As we idled in, I look for signs. There was a single tern working in the area, but the presence of surface feeding largemouth (scant in number, but still there) let me know there was bait to be found here. We searched with sonar for a few hundred yards and noted all the life was in the 25-29 foot range. We put downriggers down and were immediately onto fish. We put 3 pairs of white bass in the boat as the boys took turns on the rods and I then knew these fish were turned on. Just then it was apparent that we had to take a little unexpected potty break for little Jonathan’s sake. I was concerned about breaking the momentum of these biting fish, but, we were blessed … the fish stayed right where they were and stayed biting. We returned as quickly as we could and got right back into the swing of things. In the patch of water bounded by Areas 041, 460, and 196, we worked up 34 fish through about 10:40, when the fishing began to slack off. Our catch out of this area included 2 drum, 4 largemouth bass (all right at 13.75 to 14.50 inches) and 28 white bass going 10.75 to 13.75 inches. By 11:00 the bite was just about done and so were the boys. We called it a day at that point with 54 fish boated on a nice, dry, cooler than average late August Saturday morning.

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