2014 Fishing Reports

Demo Mode!! 22 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow, 08 March 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished with Michael G. and Jeff B.   Michael’s
girlfriend, Kim, originally booked this trip for herself and Michael,
but, her schedule was overcome by events, so, Jeff got the phone call every fisherman likes to get.
 

Mike holds one of our best two whites which taped 14 inches.

Finesse fishing vertically with a light slab was the ticket to today’s success.
 
Our spring is still running way behind normal.  For comparison’s sake, our water temperature on the surface for today’s trip was around 52F.  Last year at this time going into Spring Break our temperatures were at 56-57F.  That my not seem like a big difference or a big deal, but these cold-blooded fish are just very sluggish as their metabolism is slow and they are not yet feeding frequently or heavily.  Couple that with low flow in the Lampasas River, and there is not much current to draw fish upstream and concentrate them in the upper end of the reservoir.

Today we were successful fishing vertically with TNT180 slabs in 25-27 feet of water and slowly trolling flatlined crankbaits targeting fish holding at 10-15 feet down.  I used a spread of 4 crankbaits to cover 10, 11, 12, and 15 foot depths by adjusting line lengths and the type of crankbait selected.

Our best action was between the end of an early morning mist and some partial clearing before the winds turned northerly on the lead edge of the incoming cold front, from ~8:30 to 9:30.  At that time, the winds were from the SE at 5-6, the skies were 100% greyed over, and the ambient temperature was right around 56-57F.

We finished up today at around 11:40a, and for our efforts boated exactly 20 white bass and 2 largemouth bass.   4 of these fish came on the troll, and the balance came via vertical jigging.

Jeff contributed a GREAT fishing story today.  It seems he and his family went out to Granger Lake last year for a family outdoor day, which included some fishing from his pontoon boat.  Jeff asked a buddy to hook up the sonar unit while he tended to other things.  The friend did as he was asked and soon the party was off to set some trotlines for catfish.  Jeff had fished Granger before but never noted as many fish showing on his sonar unit on previous trips as he did on this particular day, so, he was feeling pretty good about his chances.  As they cruised along in about 30 feet of water, suddenly, they went aground, hitting a shallow stump.  After shaking off the surprise, they inspected everything confused at how they could have hit bottom with the sonar still reading about 30 feet.  The conclusion:  the sonar was still in demonstration mode as Jeff’s buddy had forgotten to hook up the transducer!!   Long story short, the day only got worse after that…

I’m an optimist by nature, so, I find that the good thing about this cold, long winter and the current struggle to put together more sizeable catches is that the best is yet to come!!


TALLY = 22 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp: 56F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 52F 
Wind: SE5-6, shifting suddenly to NNE 10-12 by 11:00am on lead edge of approaching cold front.
Skies: Light fog and drizzle giving was to damp, cool, grey conditions by 8:30am
Other Notes: GT28

Areas Fished with success:

**  Vertical jigging at 1347
** Flatline trolling in area bounded by 1345/1346/1348






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Dress warm, Go often, and Roll with the Punches, 27 Fish, Stillhouse, 27 Feb.

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I did some scouting on Stillhouse in advance of the big Spring Break week coming soon (10-14 March).


Slowly but surely the fishing is beginning to emerge from the deep freeze.

The good news is that the water has warmed, and the fish have begun to move up shallower.  In fact, I caught all my fish today between 22-28 feet and found the deeper haunts where the fish have laid low all winter devoid of fish and bait.  The bad news is that the water is still very cold and there is yet another winter storm on the way which will likely erase the gains we’ve had and perhaps even drop temperatures further.  But, such is Spring fishing — you have to dress warm, go often, and roll with the punches!

Today I boated fish steadily, finding them in small groups of 3-5 fish.  All fish came on a small 3/8 oz. TNT 180 slab and most came on an “easing” technique, with a few actually striking the lure while at rest while I was “slabbing”.

I boated 27 fish, including 25 white bass and 2 short largemouth.


TALLY = 27 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:45a
End Time: 12:30p
Air Temp: 64F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 53-54F 
Wind: SSW8-9
Skies: Fair skies
Other Notes: N/A

Areas Fished with success:

**  Fish spread well from Area 1056 to 052






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Sonar Seminar! — 25 Feb. 2014, Belton Lake, 15 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished with Jason W. of Round Rock, Texas.  Jason owns his own boat and fishes successfully quite often on both Lake Georgetown and Lake Buchanan, primarily with livebait.  His desire today was to understand “electronic sight fishing” and be able to replicate what he learned.

Downrigging
and vertical jigging provided mixed bag results today.  Jason shows a
nice Belton Lake crappie that fell for his tandem rig.  We also caught
largemouth, white bass, and hybrid stripers.

No, they are not giants, but they opened a whole new world of fishing to Jason today as he first saw these fish on sonar, made a presentation to them, and successfully hooked and landed them — that is electronic sight fishing!!


Jason initially contacted me about 2 weeks ago after perusing my website and seeing that I use a sonar-intensive approach to my angling.  As I considered today’s weather forecast on Sunday, we were to have balmy conditions and southerly winds on the tail end of a nice warming trend, and in advance of another cold snap,  What we got come “game day” today was a cold, damp fog with a NNW blow and very tough conditions.

The silver lining on this cloud was that those tough conditions made electronics all that much more necessary as fish were scattered and no birds were working, so, the only way to locate fish was to detect them with sonar.

We used downriggers for part of our time on the water and then switched over to vertical jigging and a modified jigging technique I refer to as “sniping”.

Each of the three tactics produced fish for Jason.  It’s one of those things you have to experience personally to understand — when you give something new a try, put effort and concentration into it and it finally “works”.  That happened for Jason today — TWICE!!   First, we were sniping for suspended fish and I’d shown him what to look for on sonar and how to react to fish that appeared.  After working his bait for a while in 32′ of water, a “blip” showed up on sonar at about 13 feet.  Jason adjusted his presentation as we’d practiced, held steady, felt the strike, set the hook, and all of a sudden was successful in using a technique that was totally new to him which opens up a whole spectrum of possibilities for his own fishing efforts. 

Not long after, a similar scenario played out as we jigged vertically near bottom for schooled white bass.

This trip did not produce the biggest fish or the most fish Jason has ever boated, but the lessons learned were invaluable.

TALLY = 15 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 8:15a
End Time: 2:00p
Air Temp: 56F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 53-54F 
Wind: NNW13 tapering to NNW9
Skies: Foggy to the point of forcing a delayed start, then
Other Notes: GT30

Areas Fished with success:

**  1335 – downrigging
**  1341/1340 – downrigging
**  1290/1012 vertical jigging
**  1342/1343 sniping






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Any time now … 14 Fish, Belton Lake, 22 Feb. 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished with perennial guests Jim and Shena S., a father and daughter team from the Austin area.



Downrigging and vertical jigging provided mixed bag results today.  Jim holds his best hybrid and best white bass.

Shena with her best hybrid and largest white bass.  We caught no fish until the wind came up to around 11 mph.


This
nice warm spell has certainly reversed the downward trend on our water
temperatures, and has even warmed the surface a good bit (we found
“spots” of 52F water here and there), but the waters beneath the surface
are still quite chilly and the fishing continued to reflect that.

For our efforts today we boated 14 fish including 3
hybrid striped bass and 11 white bass including fish in the 1 to 3 year
class.

Once again, the fish never really fed
well or long, and, despite the presence of lots of bait-eating birds,
very little bird action was to be found.  We had no action for the first 90 minutes and until the wind began to kick in at around 11mph.

There are some indications that things are beginning
to improve.  Yesterday on a scouting trip to Stillhouse, and again this
morning on Belton, I found the deep holes where these fish have been
hunkered down over the past 5-6 weeks now devoid of bait and gamefish
indicating that they are moving up shallower in the warming upper layers
of the lake water.  I also found bottom-oriented white bass on both
lakes in under 35 feet of water.  This is good!

Today we caught fish via two very different methods.
 We downrigged slowly and specifically targeted fish seen on sonar by
adjusting our downrigger ball depth to run where they were seen on sonar
(no “set it and forget it” as is done in the summer).  Storm ThinFins
did the best for us today.  This produced all of our hybrid and a few
white bass. Although we saw fish consistently suspended at both 21-25
feet and 32-25 feet, those shallower fish at 21-25 feet were the ones
doing the biting on the down riggers.

We also vertical jigged with small 3/8 oz. TNT180
slabs.  We were very methodical, keeping the lures positioned very
precisely near the fish, and pausing for long periods before jigging
again.  This produced only white bass for us.

I never want to be one to over-promise and
under-deliver, so, I tried to be very upfront about how this present
cold-water situation has impacted our fishery for the time being.  Like
most things in nature, Spring will most likely work on a bell-shaped
curve, starting slowly, peaking, and then tapering off.  I do believe,
based on what I saw today and on the forecast for next week with hardly
any time spent cooler than the low 50’s, that we are on the upswing of
the curve headed toward the typical peak in late March, barring anymore
extended cold or any flooding.

Stay tuned.  It’s going to happen any time now!


TALLY = 14 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 2:30p
Air Temp: 56F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 49.7-52.1F 
Wind: Light and variable at sunrise, tapering up to SSE11 by 9:30 and increasing to SSE16 by trip’s end
Skies: Fair skies with no cloud cover.
Other Notes: GT0

Areas Fished with success:

**  1335/1344 – downrigging
**  1341/1340 – downrigging
**  1339/1008 vertical jigging
**  1342 vertical jigging
**  1343 vertical jigging





Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Belton Hybrid Fishing, 15 Feb., 2 Limits from Cold Water

by Bob Maindelle

This
morning I fished with Jessica M. and her boyfriend, Jay S.  Both are medical professionals with the Scott and White system where Jay works as a heart doctor and Jessica works as a registered nurse.


Jessica scored first and scored often this morning, boating some nice hybrid striped bass on light spinning tackle using finesse presentations.

Jay chipped in as well with fish taken both on the downriggers and with a vertical presentation.

Jay is originally from Minnesota where people typically learn to fish before they learn to walk, so, true to form, he came into the trip with a good bit of previous experience in both fresh and salt water and across many different species.  Jessica was not as experienced, with just a few prior outings under her belt, and those mainly focused on pond-dwelling catfish in Kentucky.  Regardless, both were willing to be coached and did well using the techniques we employed.

The cold water continues to plague our fishing.  Until we break into the low 50’s, it’ll remain tough.  I was hopeful that this late-week warmup would help more than it did, but, with clear nights we lose nearly all the heat gained during the day and have no net gain on heating the water.  So, with still-cold water, things continued as they have been for several weeks with the fishing being slow, deep, methodical and the fish perking up only for short periods at a time.

Today we caught fish by two methods:  slowly downrigging at around 1.8 mph with crankbaits, and by working a tandem rig of my own design equipped with a slab and a stinger very passively around suspended fish.   Most of the gamefish we saw today were holding at 22-25 feet over water as deep as 45 feet.

I noted that the fish we caught and placed in the livewell for photos regurgitated quite a number of partially digested shad.  I suspect that even though their metabolism is quite slow, the bait is nearly motionless right now and these gamefish can essentially feed at will when the mood strikes given the massive quantities of bait that have schooled up tightly and sunk to the depths with this record cold water.

The birds (mainly terns now) did perk up and feed for a short 25 minute spell, but the fish beneath them were still pretty deep and lethargic and well-spread.  Of the 5-6 boats that converged on the bird action, I did not see a single one of them (ourselves included) pick up a single fish under these working birds.

We got off to a slow start this morning, not landing a single fish until 9:15.  Our last hour was the most productive — from 11a to Noon.  When all was said and done Jay and Jessica had boated 2 limits of keeper hybrid, one short hybrid, and 2 white bass – that’s a very respectable catch given the condition we faced.

TALLY = 13 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:40a
End Time: 12:10p
Air Temp: 35F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 46.1 – 48.2F 
Wind: W9 at sunrise, tapering to light and variable at 3-4, then turning SSE11-13 by 10:30a
Skies: Fair skies with 15% cloud cover.
Other Notes: GT35

Areas Fished with success:

**  1335/1336 – vertical jigging/sniping
**  1337/1338 – downrigging




Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Easily Entertained! — Belton Hybrid Fishing, 8 Feb. 2014, 13 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished with Todd S. of Temple, joined by his dad, Dave, and his brother, Brian, both from the San Francisco Bay Area in California.  There were a number of weekend activities all coordinated by Todd’s wife, Lindsey, in celebration of Todd’s 39th birthday including lunch on Friday, a half-day off from work after that lunch, the surprise visit of Dave and Brian, an all-guys campout at Cedar Ridge Park on Belton, this morning’s fishing trip, and more to come!  Way to go in pulling that all off, Lindsey!


Happy Birthday, Todd!  Todd (L), Dave (C), and Brian (R) each hoist 2 of the 13 fish we boated on this first day of the last 5 where temperatures got out of the 30’s.

“The Boys”, with massive icicles hanging off the cliffs near the Belton Lake waterfall shown in the background.  Yes, it was that cold.

As Lindsey and I texted back and forth trying to keep the trip “under wraps”, I let her know that the fishing was going to be tough, but her “window of opportunity” was limited by the flight plans, etc.   When I told her we’d do our best but that our best may not add up to a mess of fish, she assured me the 3 men were “easily entertained”, and, indeed, they all confessed as much!


Fishing continued to be tough today, and will remain tough until we get our water temps back into the low 50’s.  We worked through a fishless 3+ hours today and then it happened.  Just as the grey murk of the morning began to clear and the orb of the sun became visible through the thinning cloud cover, birds started working over top of a large, mobile school of hybrid striped bass as those hybrid pushed shad forward and upward.  Our fishing took place over 30-40 feet of water with the fish suspended from 10 to 25 feet down beneath the surface.

This was an ideal situation for downriggers given that there was little timber to contend with.  We put crankbaits behind the balls and put the balls down over the fish and let the ‘riggers work their magic.  I kept the boat speed super slow by putting down the trolling motor to increase drag and trimming the engine up to reduce thrust.  We crawled along at 1.65 mph and scored consistently.

I noted 3 other boats in the area that came in on top of us as we began boating fish.  They all idled until they saw fish on sonar or saw diving birds or both and then stopped to jig vertically.  As we boated fish regularly we observed only 2 fish caught by the other 3 boats combined.  These fish were not on bottom and were not stationary, thus the downriggers were simply THE way to go during this short window when these fish were ready to feed.

The aggressive action lasted only 30 minutes, but we stuck around and fished them as the action tapered off for about another hour and continued to score, but much less frequently.

The one time we did stop to try a vertical presentation we caught 3 white bass and 1 hybrid by reeling our baits up into the fish as they showed on sonar.  We quickly realized we needed to cover ground if we were going to be successful, so, we put the jigging rods away and continued downrigging.

TALLY = 13 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 12:40p
Air Temp: 34F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 45.5-47.0F 
Wind: SSE10 at sunrise, tapering to S7 by 12:30p
Skies: 100% grey and cloudy until 10:35am, then clearing quickly to fair skies with 20% clouds
Other Notes: GT20

Areas Fished with success:

**  1333-1334 (30T)




Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Liquid Ice Fishing! Stillhouse Fishing Report — 6 Fish, 01 Feb. 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This
morning I fished with Mr. Pete D. of Round Rock, TX.  Pete participated in the sonar use & interpretation seminar I presented at the Central Texas Boat Show in early January, and was eager to learn electronics on the water.



Sonar Certified!  Pete went from 0 to 60 on sonar interpretation skills today.


Pete phoned me Friday morning looking to fish this morning.  I was very up front in letting him know the fishing would be slow and would require a methodical approach in deep water using electronics.  He was game for that as his real interest was in learning to use sonar more effectively.

We fished for 5 solid hours, drew the interest of about 30 fish,  hooked 9, and landed 6.  Every fish came from at least 43 feet of water, and all on a small, 3/8 oz. white TNT 180 slab.

We found shad schooled up in deep water, located white bass in small groups near the shad, then I held the boat steady so Pete could fish perfectly vertically, keeping his presentation on sonar nearly 100% of the time.  As fish responded, we finessed them into striking using both a snap-jigging action and an “easing” tactic.

As Pete got accustomed to what he was viewing, I switched from the intuitive chart mode to the interpretation-intensive flasher mode to hone in on our presentation and the fishes’ reaction to it.  By the end of the trip, Pete was reacting well to whatever the fish threw our way.  There is always a steep learning curve, but Pete got through it quickly.

I repeatedly refer to this kind of fishing as “liquid ice fishing” as it is just like fishing through the ice for cold, slow fish as far as the vertical tactics, the finessing required, and the slow approach to things.

In 22 years on Stillhouse and Belton, this is by far the longest, coldest water temperature I’ve witnessed.  The water is only in the high 40’s and has been for the last 4 weeks.  The fish, being cold-blooded, are simply lethargic, deep, and tough to fish.  I did not say impossible to catch, just tough.  It takes persistence and realistic expectations of a reduced catch over results from water that is even just 4-5 degrees warmer.  It’ll come!

TALLY = 6 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 12:15p
Air Temp: 62F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 47F 
Wind: SSW12 at sunrise, tapering to calm by 9:15a and remaining calm
Skies: 100% grey and cloudy
Other Notes: GT0

Areas Fished with success:

**  1331 (0 B)
**  1319 (0 B)
**  1332 (0 B)




Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Deep & Slow, 25 Fish, Stillhouse, 31 Jan.

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I did some scouting on Stillhouse in advance of a trip tomorrow morning.


The fish are deep and slow, and so the tactics must also go deep and slow.

Today’s fishing took place entirely over 45 feet deep and although the fish bit consistently, the tactics required were very slow and deliberate.

I found the fish bunched up heavily today, but, despite the numbers of fish present, most were simply in suspended animation with just a low percentage of the overall population willing to feed.

I boated 25 fish, including 21 white bass, 1 just legal largemouth, 2 drum, and 1 crappie.  Every fish caught came on either a 3/8 or 3/4 oz. TNT 180 slab.


TALLY = 25 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 11:15a
Air Temp: 56F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 47F 
Wind: SSW8-9
Skies: Fair
Other Notes: 

Areas Fished with success:

** 1325 and 1327






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

From “Quid Pro Quo” to “Fish Too Slow”, 20 Jan. 2014, Belton Lake, 8 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

This
morning I fished with long-time guests John, Kelly, and Matthew M. of Temple.



From L to R: John, Matthew, and Kelly M of Temple teamed up to tackle a tough white bass bite on Belton this morning.


If you’ve read this blog any length of time, you know I try to “keep it real” by posting exact fish counts (kept with a manual tally counter on me at all times during a trip), never exaggerating lengths or weights, and by posting my results, including all the good and all the bad.

Today we had a below average result on a day with above average winter weather conditions.

This was particularly disappointing after coming off of a day with less than optimal weather conditions in which we had above average results this past Saturday.

The early morning breeze, thin cloud cover and southerly component to the wind, in addition to the 3-day warming trend had me hopeful.  And, indeed, we got right on top of active fish just at sunrise. But, after just an hour, and with 8 fish boated, the fish just shut down and that was the end of the action.

We never saw any actively feeding birds, and I observed a number of boats, some belonging to knowledgeable locals, moving constantly which tells me they were not finding fish, either.  It was just plain tough.

Fortunately, this family has fished with me through good, bad, and average, and knows we can’t knock the ball out of the park every time.

The fish we did catch were all caught on white, 3/4 oz. TNT 180 slabs fished in 42-47 feet of water.  A majority of the fish struck as we used an “easing” tactic to draw striikes.

TALLY = 8 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 12:10p
Air Temp: 51F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 49F 
Wind: SSE7 at sunrise, shifting and building to S14 by trip’s end
Skies: Clear
Other Notes: GT0

Areas Fished with success:

**  1324 (0 B)



Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Quid Pro Quo — 50 Fish, Belton Lake, 18 Jan. 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This
morning I fished with fellow guide Dean Stovall of Whitney’s Almost Everything Outdoors over on Lake Whitney.  He and I met last weekend at the Central Texas Boat Show and hit it off.  Long story short we did a little bartering this morning.  I fine-tuned Dean’s sonar, while he showed me a few techniques he employs which I’d never experimented with before.



Fellow guides Dean Stovall (Lakes Belton/Whitney) & Bob Maindelle (Lakes Belton/Stillhouse Hollow) teamed up today for a 50-fish catch-and-release outing on Belton.  Here, Dean holds a nice Belton hybrid striped bass he caught from a suspended school of fish which Bob had dialed in on sonar.  Both guides fish year ’round.  Dean can be reached at 254-721-3512; Bob can be reached at 254-368-7411.


The fishing this morning was fairly “technical”, but productive as we had the first returning south wind begin to push today after several days of northerly winds and high, clear skies.

We encountered some early, helpful bird activity beginning around 8:30a, and then birds worked sporadically over top of fairly lethargic, suspended fish in deep water thereafter.

We had our best success on white bass when the fish we found were bottom-oriented and fairly tightly grouped up.  After mid-morning, such action was hard to come by, so, instead, we focused on the tougher-to-catch but still accessible suspended fish.

On these suspended fish, we encountered them in 46-51 feet of water, and they appeared from 20 to 45 feet down, with only occasional fish actually appearing on bottom.  We hovered over top of these fish, spotted them on sonar, adjusted our presentation to be at their depth, and then finessed our baits to tempt them.

When all was said and done, we’d cooperated on putting together a string of exactly 50 fish, all caught and released, including 47 white bass, 2 hybrid striped bass, and 1 largemouth bass.

We enjoyed one another’s company and sharing our experiences in the fishing guide business.

TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 8:00a
End Time: 12:00p
Air Temp: 33F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 49F 
Wind: Calm for first 90 minutes, then a light breeze at 6-7 from the SSE, building and shifting to SSW14 by trip’s end
Skies: Clear
Other Notes: GT30

Areas Fished with success:
**  187 (15T)
**  1324 (20T, 2L)



Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas