Fished a half-day morning “Kids Fish, Too!” trip this morning with repeat customers Dr. David B., and his 7 and 10 year old sons, Jay and Jack.

Jack, Jay, and David with some of the largemouth taken topside during their sunrise feeding spree

From L to R: The downrigger ball (horizontal blue/red line) tracks into a thick, suspended school of white bass, and then over a bottom-hugging school of bait with white bass hovering over top of the bait and pinning the bait to bottom. This shows but a cross-section of a school of fish consisting of several hundred individuals which we fish over for about an hour.

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~84.3F

Wind: Winds were SE at 5-6 at sunrise, transitioning and increasing to SSW at 14+ by trip’s end.

Skies: Fair skies all day.

We started today’s trip on the dock with some review on casting with closed face reels since the boys’ last trip back in June. The topwater schooling bass we were soon to search for are much more finicky now and are requiring smaller baits versus the Spooks and Sammys used previously. The boys looked good after a few throws, so we headed out as the sun was about to rise to chase fish.

Just minutes after sunrise the largemouth began to work in schools on the surface chasing shad in the vicinity of Area 061. They stayed active for 75 minutes, quickly tapering off around 8:15am. During this spree, the boys landed 13 largemouth of which 5 were of legal length. 2 other fish were lost on the shake at boatside.

After the largemouth sounded, we searched out deep water white bass. The first two areas we searched, Area 217 and vicinity and Area 481 and vicinity yielded little, although Area 211 held a bunch of bait.

On our third look we contacted fish and bait at Area 485. These fish were suspended, and our downrigging approach was very appropriate for taking these fish. We made pass after pass over these fish, and they bit for about an hour solid. We boated 35 fish here, mainly white bass, with a few largemouth thrown in, and including 2 sets of tandems on the Pet / Licker combo for Jack. When things really got hot, little Jay commented, “I could do this until midnight!”. By 10:45, these fish were slacking off pretty good.

I returned to the bait I’d found at Area 217 to see if gamefish had found them yet, but zeroed after ~10 minutes with lines in.

We wrapped up our trip just to the SE of Area 258. The groups of fish in here were both bottom hugging and suspended. The best action came when the downrigger balls scraped bottom on the little knob here and then came clear on the deep side. Just as the lures were about to come over the drop, the fish would strike them reliably. We took the count up over 50 and then called it a good day. The boys even got to steer the boat a little on our way back in.

TALLY = 51 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

Fished a half-day morning trip this morning with Bill (grand-dad), Ricky (dad), and young Tanner.

L to R: Ricky, Tanner, and Bill with a mixed bag of fish taken both on topwater and via downrigger

Ricky with one of several tandem hookups we caught on the Pet / Licker combo. Look closely and you’ll see the line connecting the lures still in the fishes’ mouths

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~83-84F

Wind: Winds were SW at 7 at sunrise.

Skies: We had with some thin grey clouds which cleared by 8:45am. The full moon shone as it set for the first hour of today’s trip.



As we began our day prior to sunrise, I coached Tanner a bit at dockside on the use of a spinning reel. He got the hang of it in about 7 casts, so I game my little safety talk as we motored out of the no-wake zone, and it was off to hunt the fish.

As the sun cleared the low morning clouds, largemouth bass began to feed in schools on the surface between Area 222 and 061 and to the south. We got right on them and stayed on them for just over an hour until they quit around 8:20am. The key to success was quick, accurate casts and a retrieve that kept the lure up in the surface film which the fish were visually oriented to. Bill and Ricky did well in this scenario, but Tanner struggled a bit, so, after the topwater, we rigged up with downriggers so he could catch up a little. We boated 19 largemouth by the time the topwater action died, with several more getting away on the jump.

We then began downrigging. We started off at between Area 222 and 460. Bait was thick on sonar here and the gamefish (white bass and largemouth) were right in the mix with them. We put 12 fish in the boat over the next 30 minutes and slowly saw the bait and the gamefish dissipate.

Next it was on to an expanse of water in the vicinity of Area 205. Here, we found fish very active on and near bottom in 22-24 feet. As the bottom is fairly here, I ran the balls quite close to bottom. Over the next hour plus we boated 16 fish here including 3 tandem catches on the Pet / Licker combo. Most fish were white bass striking the Pet. At one point, when I saw a heavy school of whites right on bottom, I buoyed, backed off, and tried to coach Tanner to catch a few on bladebait. That kind of backfired as I caught 3 fish (2 whites and a drum) while he zeroed … back to downrigging. We left this area once the bait and gamefish thinned out with exactly 50 fish landed.

We looked over Area 452 and Area 197 with sonar and found little.

We wound up the trip at Area 458 after seeing some good sonar returns showing gamefish (without bait nearby) holding tight to the bottom. I got Bill and Ricky up on the casting deck to my left and right and we worked these fish over with bladebaits landing our final 8 fish in about 2 minutes, which included 2 largemouth and 6 whites from out of 24-28 feet.

TALLY = 58 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

Fished a half-day morning trip today on Stillhouse with 2 young men, Caleb Visser of Harker Heights, and Joseph Henry of Killeen. This was the fifth SKIFF Program trip that I’ve run. SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. SKIFF trips are funded by donations both given by and collected by the members of the Austin Fly Fishers. AFF has commissioned me to take the children of soldiers deployed in harm’s way and the children of soldiers killed while on active duty on guided fishing trips. The boys’ dads, Phil Visser and Lionel Henry, are currently serving our country in Iraq and Kuwait.

Caleb with a pair of whites caught at the same time on his tandem rig — a Pet / Licker combo

Joseph with a chunky largemouth that jumped 3 times before we landed it

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 10:55a

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~84.3F

Wind: Winds were light from the SSW at around 4 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were bright and clear the entire morning.

After meeting both boys and their moms at dockside, we put snacks onboard, covered some safety items and headed out to the fishing grounds.

Both boys had fished before and were good listeners. We scouted for some signs of topwater, but the near calm conditions rarely allow for that to happen. When no topwater action became apparent, we deployed the downriggers amidst bait and white bass showing strong on sonar in the vicinity of Area 444. We caught fish continuously through 9:40am when things began to weaken a bit. During this time we landed 34 fish including 8 fish taken on tandem rigs which each consisted of a white bass/largemouth bass combination — I’ve never seen that happen so many times in such a short span of time.

The entire time we downrigged fish would sporadically break the surface, but not in numbers sufficient to convince me to change tactics. Besides, the boys were having a great time using the downriggers and were “double-teaming” the fish. When one rod went off, one boy would fight the fish while the other reeled up the downrigger ball. Once I unhooked the fish, the one who caught it would pay his line back out and reset the rig, all so we could maximize the time spent with lures in the water. The boys really got into working the fish like that.

After 9:40a, we moved on to check a few other areas. As we covered ground from Area 056 to Area 176 we picked up a 2 largemouth, 1 white bass, and 1 drum. After failing to find much bait in this area, we moved on just to the NE of Areas 145 and 148 where we finished off the trip with 2 more largemouth and 3 more white bass.

I let the boys steer the boat a bit on the way back to the dock. As Joseph was at the wheel, I saw him yawn. I asked him if driving the boat was boring. He said, “No, I just didn’t sleep good last night ’cause I was so excited about the trip.”. I’ve been that boy’s shoes!!

I normally insist that we release all fish caught, but today I made an exception. Caleb took home a single fish so as to work towards a Boy Scout badge for catching and cleaning a fish.

TALLY = 43 FISH, all caught and released (except the white bass needed for the Boy Scout requirement!)

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 1/2 day morning trip on Stillhouse today with Wills Point ISD Superintendant Mr. Joe O. and his 79 year old dad, Billy Joe O. — both really decent men who have both devoted their lives to teaching and coaching others.

Joe (L) and Billy (R) work on one of several downrigging doubles today

Billy holds a colorful longnose gar

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:53a

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~83-84F

Wind: Winds were NE at 7 at trip’s start, slowly coming E, then SE by trip’s end following some turbulent weather the previous day, and in advance of strong thunderstorms later this day.

Skies: Skies were mostly cloudy due to a high moderate layer of clouds that began to clear by around 11am.



As we began our day prior to sunrise, I checked a few areas to see what kind of bait concentrations were present so as to hit those areas later in the morning following any topwater action we might find.

I found solid bait in the vicinity of Area 444 and just made a mental note of that. With it still being a bit too dark to expect topwater, I showed the fellows the basics of downrigging so when we switched over to that technique later in the trip, the learning curve would be lessened. We put 2 juvenile whites in the boat as we were learning.

Next, with sunrise and skies brightening, we looked for topwater and, thank the Lord, drove right to some strong action — in fact the strongest I’ve seen since late June. I attribute this to both the weather and the fact that the surface temp. has dropped a bit from its high of 88-89. Between Area 222 and Area 468 we cast spoons at the surface feeding fish we found from about 7:10 to exactly 9:23 and caught 29 fish during that time. The key was quick, accurate casts followed by a brisk retrieve. Of these fish, 27 were largemouth and 2 were white bass.

After the action died here, I hoped we could find more surface action continuing over some deeper water near Area 333. We scooted over there and did find widespread surface action. The fish seemed more easily duped here, but we only were casting now and then due to how spread out the fish were. We added 5 largemouth to our tally here and called it quits on the topwater for the day.

By 10am we were set up with downriggers in the vicinity of Area 217. There was a lot of bait here, but it was spread like a blanket and not balled up, indicating a lack of predators in the area. We did catch a longnose gar with some pretty colors, but not much else. So, we moved on and downrigged from Area 481 to Area 444 and contacted fish at Area 484 to Area 444, right where that bait appeared pre-dawn. We worked these fish over pretty good and managed exactly 25 more fish here before the bright sun and calming wind put an end to the show. Of these 25 fish, 4 were black bass, 2 were drum, and the rest were keeper whites up to 13.5″. On 3 occasions we had both rods working at the same time, and on 2 occasions Mr. Billy had on a double on his tandem rig (a Licker/Pet combo).

TALLY = 62 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

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.

I was scheduled to fish a 1/2 day morning trip on Stillhouse today with Mr. Barry C. and his 13 year old son, Hunter, of Desoto, KS. I picked them up at the Holiday Inn in Salado and we headed to the boat ramp pre-dawn, but the weather did us in. No sooner did I get the boat launched than the wind turned NW at 20+, the skies darkened and the temperature dropped. A mild thunderstorm with lightning and rain persisted through 9am and by then we agreed to postpone and try for the afternoon, but plans just didn’t work out.

The weather did clear by 1:30pm, but the boys had to head back to Kansas. Not one to be “all dressed up with nowhere to go” I just went on and fished by my lonesome.

This was actually the first time I’ve been out in over a week. I took some down time to invest in our church’s Vacation Bible School and put the boat in the shop for some scheduled maintenance at the same time.

Start Time: 2:30p

End Time: 8:30p

Air Temp: 94F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~ 84F

Wind: Winds were calm with a slight W. ripple until around 4:30, then the skies darkened and a NW wind came in with rain threatening. After that threat passed, the cool front filled in behind with NE breeze and cooling, drying air.



As I got on the water, the sky and air just had that right “feel” for topwater largemouth activity to be present somewhere. I did a good bit of running and looking with optics and finally found some strong topwater in the vicinity of Area 333. I found schooling largemouth chasing shad from 1.24 up to 3.75 inches in length here, and they were really chasing hard. Due to the grey skies, the fish were pretty easily fooled and over the next 2 hours I landed 31 fish, all on the Cork Rig, and, the best thing — never saw or heard another boat for 2 solid hours!! As they say, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

By 4:30 this action began to taper. Not 20 minutes after the last fish broke water did the NW wind began to blow in another little disturbance that threatened rain. Leary, I headed back a little closer to the boat ramp and did some more looking. I found a few small bass and some schools of juvenile whites working the surface between Area 75 and Area 135 and picked up 3 more fish here.

Once the skies began to clear following the disturbance, I headed back for some downrigging which accounted for the balance of the fish caught this trip — mainly white bass at 11 to 11.75 inches.

I contacted fish and bait at Area 217 and again at Area 471 to Area 459. I didn’t fish either area hard as I planned to bring tomorrow’s guests to these areas. At Area 459, at around 7:15 to 7:40p, I hit into a school of active, bottom hugging fish and pulled 8 nice whites out of that congregation with a blade worked lift-drop style.

TALLY = 59 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 short evening trip on Belton with both my mom, Charlotte, and my brother, Andy, visiting from Kentucky.

Andy M. landed his first hybrid ever on this post-frontal Lake Belton evening trip.

Start Time: 5:30p

End Time: 8:55p

Air Temp: 93F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85-86F

Wind: Winds were NE at 8-11 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies had cleared following the passing of a mild cold front earlier today.

Given we were facing post-frontal conditions with bright skies, I anticipated the fish would be sluggish, and, indeed we found a lot more fish than we did active fish. Fish that, based on their posture, I would normally expect to strike often did not react at all to our presentations. I went with a downrigging approach so as to get some baits in front of a lot of fish hoping to trigger a few. We enjoyed some initial success putting a total of 17 fish in the boat in the first 70 minutes. This included 1 small largemouth, 2 short hybrids (including the first hybrid Andy had ever landed), and 14 white bass of all sizes. By 6:45p things had gone quiet. The best producing areas were from Area 483 and to the NE and from Area 181 north, out over the deep trough.

We moved on and checked a few areas without seeing much notable on sonar. At Area 478 I graphed a school of white bass in about 31 feet relating to a sloped bottom. We hovered and jigged over these fish and pulled 1 white bass, 1 drum, and missed a largemouth.

By 7:30, things were pretty quiet. I’ve seen oftentimes in the summer when a late afternoon bite is on, and then dies, that a good sunset feed often ensues. I was hoping we’d see this, but wondered if the NE wind and frontal situation was going to mess this up.

We pressed on, looking with sonar in the vicinity of Area 147 and found, around 8:00p, fish beginning to school up, rise up in the water column, and move slowly shallower. These fish first appeared over 31 feet, and gradually moved up as shallow as 11 feet by sunset. I just kept an eye on sonar and once the fish got shallower than 15-17 feet, we put up the downriggers and began fancasting blades and connecting regularly. We boated 5 fish in quick succession on the ‘riggers here. Just after sunset we witnessed some very light topwater over a 120 yard span with fish averaging 11 inches out of this school. We boated exactly 20 more fish in the last 15 minutes of the day — an exciting end to a trip that was a bit slow in the wake of a mild change of weather.

TALLY = 44 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 half-day morning trip today on Stillhouse with Jeff Oliver (of Oliver Brothers’ Transmission fame), Jeff’s adult son, also named Jeff, and grandson, Dylan.

Jeff, Jeff, and Dylan worked the rods hard for 41 fish today in advance of a mid-summer cold front.

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:35a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.7-86.2.1F

Wind: Winds were calm until 9:00am when they went NE at 8 for just 20-30 minutes, then tapered off to flat calm by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were grey this morning with the approach of a mild cold front. By 10:45 skies had begun to clear.

We started this morning’s trip off looking for a little low light topwater action. The flat calm conditions and breakdown of our lengthy high pressure system pretty much reduced our chances to slim on this, but, we gave it about 30 minutes beyond sunrise before going to Plan B. During this time I got to work with Dylan to familiarize him with closed-faced casting gear, where and when to cast, how fast to reel in, etc. We made a total of 8-10 casts at single fish popping up here and there between Area 479 and 032, but there was no sustained feed on top.

Next, we got all three fellows trained up on how the downrigging equipment works and how to set it up properly. We ran a Pet on the port side and a Pet / Licker combo on the starboard. We found fair quantities of fish strung in a north – south orientation from Area 481 to Area 471. There was not near as much bait here as there was Thursday. The fish were once again sandwiched between 22 and 26 feet, and were most prevalent over 27 to 35 feet. There simply hasn’t been a lot of fish hanging off the deep side of any breaklines lately. We downrigged for a good while, boating a total of 26 fish including 2 largemouth, a drum, and 23 white, with 3 of the whites going 14.5 to 15 inches. At 9:30, I spotted a tight congregation of fish in a confined area in 25-26 feet of water. These fish were on bottom with bait in their midst on Area 482.

This scenario was just perfect for casting blades and using a lift-drop retrieve. I threw out a buoy and backed off a good cast’s length after showing the boys how to work the blade. In short order the 2 Jeff’s caught 6 fish, Dylan got one, and I got 2. Grandpa Jeff actually caught 2 fish on the same lure at the same time — one on the front hook and one on the back. After ~20 minutes these fish settled down and we returned to downrigging with 35 fish bagged thus far.

We stayed tight to this same area with the downriggers running and immediately came up with two white bass and then a double on the Pet / Licker combo (one largemouth, one white bass) and then picked up two more whites on the solo Pet. By this time Grandpa noticed that Dylan had that “had all the fun an 8 year old can have at one time” look and suggested we call it a real good morning at that point.

We took a few photos, neaten up the boat and had a safe, dry ride back to the dock

TALLY = 41 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 half-day morning trip today on Stillhouse with Ron N. of Round Rock and his 13 year old son, Spencer. This trip was in honor of Spencer’s 13th birthday, but we had a secondary purpose which was to get the two fellows where they could use a downrigger on their own so as to transfer what they learned on their trip to their own boat and on their “home” lakes of Georgetown and Granger.

Sonar screen shot showing tightly schooled, suspended white bass relating to bait with our downrigger ball (horizontal blue line) headed for paydirt

These white bass were so jazzed and aggressive they followed the 10 pound downrigger ball up halfway to the surface thinking they were going to miss a meal!!

Downrigging student Ron N. and birthday boy Spencer N. show 3 of a mixed bag of 49 fish taken under high pressure conditions today.

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.7F

Wind: Winds were SSW the entire time at around 8-9 mph.

Skies: Skies were clear and blue under the influence of strong, continued high pressure that has made for some very stable fishing conditions.

We started this morning’s trip with some casting lessons for Spencer so he could use spinning gear to target any topwater fish we might encounter. Then it was off looking for a little topwater action in the chop of the nice SSW breeze. We found multiple schools of small largemouth bass feeding on topwater on and around Area 479. Ron was very quick and accurate with his casts and very quickly put 3 just-short bass in the boat. Spencer was going through a learning curve with the spinning gear in a pretty demanding situation and never did come up with a fish off topwater, but he was casting smoothly and with good distance by the time we changed tactics.

By around 8:00 or 8:15am it was clear that topwater was going to be short-lived, so we began to focus on downrigging. As Ron really wanted to learn how to do this, I spent extra time explaining in detail what we were doing and why we were doing it. I also tied in observations made on sonar as the downrigger and sonar unit are really an inseparable combination.

We began to pickup some good baitfish readings on sonar in a triangular area defined by Areas 480, 481, and 209. We put ‘riggers down and literally had a fish on in less than a minute. The fish were sandwiched at ~25-26 feet and a well-placed bait got bit just about every time. We had a solo Pet on one rod and a Pet / Licker combo on the other. We caught fish for an hour solid and had landed a total of 33 fish when I noted some bottom-hugging fish relating to bait in 25-28 feet at Area 481. We backed off downwind and fired blades into the fish picking up 4 whites and a black in short order. Once the fish dissipated, we got back in contact with the suspended fish by downrigging once again.

By 10am, this area went soft. We moved to Area 217 and the game was back on, albeit with less intensity. There was a lot of bait here, but the fish weren’t as thick or as active. We put 3 largemouth and a drum in the boat, taking our tally up to 43 fish and decided we’d try one more spot to see if we could break the official family record of 45 fish caught in one trip long ago by Grandpa Leo.

We headed to Area 458 and found a very small, but active, bunch of fish right at 25-26 feet on bottom. We kept our downrigger balls set at 23 and 24 to just skim over these fish without creating a silt plume. We picked up a drum on our first pass (fish #44). We picked up a largemouth on our next pass (fish #45 – now tied for the family record!). The go-ahead fish actually turned into a double as both Ron and Spencer brought in white bass (#’s 46 & 47). With the record broken, we sat on our laurels as we policed up the boat (with baits still in the water) and, just before calling it a day, picked up two more white bass to close out the trip on a great note.

By trip’s end, all I was doing was steering the boat and keeping our downrigger balls from striking bottom. Ron and Spencer were doing the rest as they really picked up on the whole concept of downrigging to the point that they were confident they could do it by themselves — Mission Accomplished!!

TALLY = 49 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 half-day morning trip today on Stillhouse with 3 siblings, Brandon, Maddisen, and Kayleigh, all of Killeen. This was the fourth SKIFF Program trip that I’ve run. SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. SKIFF trips are funded by donations both given by and collected by the members of the Austin Fly Fishers. AFF has commissioned me to take the children of soldiers deployed in harm’s way and the children of soldiers killed while on active duty on guided fishing trips. The children’s dad, SGT Ron S. is currently serving in Baghdad with the 1st Cavalry Division on his 3rd tour in that country.

(L to R) Kayleigh, Brandon, and Maddisen proudly display their catch

Kayleigh with our largest white bass of the trip – 14 7/8 inches

Maddisen with our largest black bass of the trip 1.75 pounds

Start Time: 6:55a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.1F

Wind: Winds were just right from the SSW at around 8 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were bright and clear the entire morning.

As we started off this trip, little Miss Kayleigh arrived convinced she was not going to catch a fish. I assured her that the sooner she walked from mom’s minivan to the courtesy dock the sooner she’d catch a fish. In fact, I told her she would catch a fish in less than 6 minutes if she’d give it a try. Not being a real patient little girl, this appealed to her. Making good on my promise, we marched to the dock, I put bream rod (already baited) in hand — in went her bobber, down went her bobber, and up came her first fish of the day, about 4.7 minutes after leaving mom’s minivan.

And so it went today, we enjoyed catching sunfish around cover near Area 239 and tallied 14 of those before we set out for open water in pursuit of some larger quarry.

We used a few of the sunfish we’d caught as live bait hoping to hook into some largemouth, and got 2 hits but both of those didn’t result in a catch.

After 2 unsuccessful drifts across Area 222, it was time to break out the downriggers and go to work on the resident white bass population. I showed Brandon, a soon-to-be 10th grader how to work the downriggers and he was a great asset in helping me keep lures in the water for all 3 kids. We had down a Pet Spoon and a Pet / Licker combination for all of 50 seconds when the first white bass hit on the combo. From that point on we caught fish non-stop for the remainder of our trip and tallied a catch of 41 fish on the day. The best action came from between Areas 468 and 070, with lesser but still consistent action coming from between Areas 217 and 460. The open water fishing gave up 2 largemouth, the largest going 1.75 pounds, 2 drum, and 23 white bass up to 14 7/8 inches. It was interesting to note that although only 2 of the fish caught today struck the Lunker Licker spoon, a majority of the fish we took on the downriggers struck the Pet Spoon that trailed that Lunker Licker. That’s something I now intend to experiment with a bit more.

By around 10:30 the girls (Kindergarten and 2nd grade) had just about played out (as had the snacks!) so we brought in the gear, headed for a sheltered area and took some nice photos out of the wind. The kids were very proud to do “show and tell” for their mom and had her come down to the boat to peer into the livewell at the several largest fish we’d caught before we released them.

I want to let you know, Brandon, that your a good young man with a selfless heart … you gave up a number of opportunities to catch fish yourself so your little sisters could have that experience, and you helped me and them the entire time. Thank you for that!

TALLY = 41 FISH, all caught and released (except the sunfish we used as bait)

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