This Spring Break morning I fished with Central Texas Christian School athletic director Joe Oliver, his father (also named Joe Oliver), his son, Tom Oliver, and his grandson, seven-year-old Ben Pugh.  We set out in pursuit of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.

From left: Tom Oliver, Ben Pugh, Joe Oliver, and Grandpa Joe Oliver.  Can’t you just tell these guys get along real well?

I always look forward to getting a call from Joe asking about setting up a fishing date.  Joe is a godly man with a family he has every right to be proud of, a strong. long-lasting marriage, and he’s working in a position where he has the opportunity to influence kids for the Lord every day by encouraging them in their athletic pursuits.  He always brings family along fishing and they always genuinely enjoy one another’s company, even if they do get a bit competitive and kid one another (especially Izzy, whether or not he happens to be attending the trip!).

Today, we caught fish, but we had to work for all we caught.  We had some of the toughest conditions to hunt for white bass under — calm fog in the early morning, followed by calm, bright conditions after that fog cleared.

We fished shallow and deep, vertically and horizontally, and passively and aggressively and everything produced about the same, which just wasn’t a bunch of fish.

This was young Ben’s first trip out with me, and he did well.  He landed our first fish of the morning, learned to handle a spinning rod, and he even worked up the nerve to touch, hold, and release fish by the time our day had come to an end.

Our best action came while we still had some cloud cover, but after the fog had lifted.  We found some white bass pushing schooled shad around in shallow water and worked them over by casting blade baits into the fray when it was visible and by blind casting when action was not visible.  We landed the majority of our fish in this short window of time before it got bright and calm on us.

Once the skies cleared and the wind remained calm, our results went downhill; we got only 3 more fish from that point forward.

As they often do, as they departed, they left me with a Zero Coke as a bit of refreshment as I took on the chore of boat scrubdown and prep for the afternoon’s trip.

TALLY = 38 FISH, all caught and released

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:35a

End Time: 11:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 59-60F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm to light and variable at under 2mph

Sky Conditions: Fog until ~9:30, followed by clearing and calm conditions

Other: GT = 60

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1496 vertical jigging

**Area  979 vertical jigging

**Area 1535/363 downrigging

**Area  554/531 bladebaits

**Area 1538 vertical jigging

**Area 1530 vertical jigging

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This morning I fished with City of Temple Fire Chief Mitch Randles and his son, Kevin, a soon-to-graduate college student at Pittsburg State in Kansas, home this week on spring break.

From left: Chief Mitch Randles and his son, Kevin Randles, with a sampling of our catch of 61 white bass and 1 crappie.

Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, we had a heads-up that we’d likely be getting wet this morning as a Pacific low pressure system moved right over us last night and then cleared out by mid-morning. With an overnight low of 64F and a gentle rain and gentle breezes, these really posed no problem to fishing, so, we launched as planned at 7:30am and fished straight through to 12:30pm.

The low-light period was extended a good bit this morning thanks to thick cloud cover, but, as has happened on the past several trips on Stillhouse, the birds began to work before the (obscured) sunrise.We strictly vertical jigged today in water as shallow as 24 feet to as deep as 43 feet, slowly going deeper as conditions brightened and the winds stayed fairly calm.

The fish were a bit moody today, but bit for 4.5 of the 5 hours we stayed on them, weakening right at the end of the trip, and during a lull in the winds just as the clouds and rain cleared. By “moody” I mean this … we would spot some promising bird activity, get to it, spot fish near or on bottom on sonar, drop lines, catch fish right off the bat, and then they would quickly “cool off” and quit biting after we’d boated 5 or 6 fish. We encountered this 4-5 separate times over the time when the grey, rainy skies were transitioning to clear, calm conditions.

Once the clear skies were firmly in place and a bit of a westerly breeze kicked in, we found another patch of fish in ~43 feet of water and stuck with them for over an hour as they loosened up and cooperated very well.

As we got to talking, Mitch told me the account of how he and his family survived the tornado that struck Joplin, MO, several years ago. The whole family was in one vehicle returning from Kevin’s high school graduation exercises when the tornado warning went out. The family diverted to one of the city’s fire stations and weathered the storm there. When they went home, there was no home. They lost home, vehicles, personal effects – just about everything.

About the time Mitch was telling this story, I was getting hot in my raingear now that the sun was shining.  As I sat to listen to Mitch’s story and take off my rainpants, Kevin got a bite, hooked his fish and was reeling it in.  So, there I was with my rainpants down around my knees, too narrow to take off without pulling my boots off beforehand.  So, I kind of stood up and waddled quickly over to Kevin to land his fish and take the hook out as the guys both chuckled at me and suggested I try that again as it seemed to bring Kevin some luck.

By the time we wrapped up around 12:30, we’d boated exactly 61 white bass and 1 crappie.

TALLY = 62 FISH, all caught and released

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 59-60F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW2-6

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover and rain until 9:30, then clearing to 40% cloud cover on blue skies

Other: GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1531/1321

**Area  1535

**Area 1537

**Area  1536/1538

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This morning I fished with Dr. Ben Vacula and his 3 children, 11-year-old Madeline, 9-year-old Olivia, and 7-year-old Gabriel.

11-year-old Madeline Vacula.

9-year-old Olivia Vacula.

7-year-old Gabriel Vacula.

Ben is an anesthesiologist working for the Scott & White system out of Temple where he trains residents in this discipline, but today he was a non-fishing chaperone for his kids and a very helpful first mate.  This was Ben, Madeline, and Olivia’s second trip out with me, and Gabriel’s first.  Our first trip, taken during Spring Break on the 10th of March last year resulted in a catch of 11 fish on a very cold day with some very unseasonably cold water.  Today was the “polar” opposite (pun kind of intended).  We woke up to 64F thanks to thick overnight cloud cover spinning off a strong Pacific low pressure mass moving up from Mexico.  This continued the nice warming trend we’ve been experiencing and put the fish in a biting mood.

I had planned on using 2-3 different techniques today to account for the younger kids’ shorter attention spans, and, as fate would have it, we actually got to employ 4 different techniques:  downrigging, vertical jigging, casting blade baits, and flatline trolling.

We began the day under birds and actually missed 5 of our first 6 hooked fish on the downriggers in the first 30 minutes on the water as we worked out the kinks of how to and how not to reel in fish correctly.  Once we got settled in, we missed very few fish afterwards.  The aggressive downrigger bite, in which we could physically watch fish pull 3-8 feet up off the bottom to inspect the passing downrigger ball, lasted for exactly 2 hours.

After the birds and fish began to settle down, we moved to another area, found some tightly grouped, bottom-hugging fish, and vertically jigged for them successfully for about an hour when the novelty of that fairly technical tactic began to wear off.

To change things up and keep it interesting, we sought out some shallower, warmer water and flatline trolled a set of 4 crankbaits.  We wound up catching 3 fish on the crankbaits, but, as we idled along, observed white bass chasing shad to the surface and “breaking” the water.  This is the first time I’ve observed this aggressive behavior this season.

Seeing this, Ben worked with Gabriel, and I worked with Madeline and Olivia to do some quick spinning reel casting lessons and we fished  these active fish until each child caught at least one using this technique.

When all was said and done, we’d worked together to boat 41 fish.

TALLY = 41 FISH, all caught and released

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 55-56F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW2-6

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Other: GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1531/1496/1310 downrigging

**Area 363/948/1535 downrigging

**Area 1513 vertical jigging

**Area 405/684 flatline trolling and casting blades

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This morning I fished with Dr. Michael Szkrybalo of Austin on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir in pursuit of white bass.

After a nice weekend of warming weather putting surface temperatures at 53-54F, the fish were turned on today.

Michael is an emergency medicine doctor working for Scott & White.  He’s originally from northern New Jersey and received his medical training through the U.S. Army.  He is a combat veteran, having served in Somalia in the 1990’s.

The original plan was for Michael to bring his son, Colton, on what would have been their 3rd trip together with me while Colton was on his Spring Break from school this week.  That plan crashed and burned when Colton got sick over the weekend. So, when 7:30 rolled around, only Michael arrived and we made it a 2-man show for the morning.

The nearly 3 degree warmup we enjoyed this past weekend did wonders for the fishing.  The gulls worked for about two hours this morning while the winds blew, and we caught fish consistently during this time using blade baits in shallower water up to 15 feet, and slabs in deeper water, up to 28 feet.  Over the first 2+ hours we boated exactly 30 fish.

By around 10:15, our light WSW wind completely died for about 45 minutes.  It got very bright and very warm (given the clothes we had on for the 50F start of our trip), and the birds gave up and went to roost.  We struggled during this time, looking over 5-6 distinct areas and finding little to fish for.

Around 11:00, a light NW breeze kicked in and some high, thin white cloud cover.  To help buffer the effects of the less-than-ideal conditions now facing us, we headed for deeper water and, in the last 45 minutes or so, picked up another 11 fish from out of 43′ of water on slabs worked a bit more slowly.

TALLY = 39 FISH, all caught and released

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 50F

Water Surface Temp: 53-54F

Wind Speed & Direction: WSW6, slowly shifting to NW4-5 with a 45 minute period of calm in between from ~10:15 to 11:00

Sky Conditions: ~30% cloud cover on a fair blue sky

Other: GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1173/1500 cast Cicadas for 1 fish

**Area 1527 jigged slabs for 17 fish

**Area 332 fancast Cicadas for 12 fish

**Area 1169/1534 vertical jigged slabs for 11 fish

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This morning I fished with Robert and Sherri Goss of Katy, TX, on Belton Lake.

Fishing was tough today on Belton – cold water and clearing skies made for a difficult time on the water.

Robert and Sherri took a little break from his routine in the oil and gas industry and from her routine as a Katy Independent School District bus driver to do a little RV camping at Cedar Ridge Park on the Leon River arm of Belton Lake.

I have not been fishing Belton at all based on poor reports from fellow guides, but this couple was limited on their ability to travel locally, as their RV was the primary means of transportation, so, we fished Belton, and I actually picked them of from the marina in Cedar Creek.

I covered water from above the Moffatt sand flats to the Cowhouse out from BLORA and found no helpful bird activity whatsoever.

We persisted, however, and finally did find a few suspended fish amidst some suspended bait in the vicinity of Area 619/1369 in our final hour on the water.  I chose the Excalibur Swimmin’ Image crankbait to pull behind my downriggers at ~12-14 feet down.  Running a pair of these, we got 3 strikes and landed 2 fish, both hybrid stripers, and so we were saved from being “skunked”, but just barely.

Both Robert and Sherri and fellow Christ-followers, so we had a lot in common and our conversations over the course of the trip tended in that direction.  Robert is also an American history buff, so, that “military art” coursework that was forced upon me at West Point got placed on “active duty” for the morning, as well.

To avoid another disappointment, we compared notes at the end of the trip concerning when to expect solid fishing, and when the transitional times of year occur when fishing can be soft.

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 47F

Water Surface Temp: 51.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW8-11

Sky Conditions: Starting at 60% clouded and clearing to 20% clouded

Other: GT = 30

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 619/1369

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This morning I fished with Rodrick Rhoads and his 11 year old daughter, April, both of Georgetown, TX.

Rodrick and April Rhoads with the largest 4 of the 27 white bass we boated under cool, north wind conditions.

Rodrick first fished with me a few weeks ago with his son, Oliver, and, having done so, felt his other children would enjoy this as well.  The Rhoads have 5 children and, as I normally do concerning kids in 2nd grade or younger, suggested his younger ones hold off until the summer months when the fishing is less technical and offers more variety.

At age 11, April had no problem with the vertical jigging techniques we are currently using for attracting the white bass in the still-cold water.

This was the 3rd straight day with non-front related north winds. Such winds typically lead to just so-so fishing, and that is what we encountered today.  We had a slow first hour, some consistent action from 8:45 to around 10a, then, around the same time the birds stopped flying and feeding, the fish also stopped feeding.

In our last hour or so on the water we boated only 4 more fish.

I’m anticipating a solid week of Spring Break fishing ahead as we encounter a very slow warmup.  Currently, there are no overnight lows forecast to be lower than the current water surface temperature.

TALLY = 27 FISH, all caught and released

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:40a

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F

Water Surface Temp: 51.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light N. breeze at NNW4-6

Sky Conditions: Grey cloud cover for the duration of this trip

Other: GT=27

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1500-1501

**Area 1347-1179

**Area 1532

**Vicinity Area 1278

**Area 1306

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This morning I fished with Greg Fallon of Cincinnati, OH, and his father-in-law, Dave Bradley, of Georgetown, TX.

From left: Greg Fallon of Cincinnati, OH, and his father-in-law, Dave Bradley of Georgetown, TX, with the best 4 of our catch of 45 white bass this morning.

TALLY = 45 FISH, all caught and released

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 49.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm through the last hour, then turning NW2.

Sky Conditions: Heavy fog the entire trip.

Other: GT=40

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1347 vertical jigging with extended pause in 24-26′

**Area 1524/1533 vertical jigging with extended pause in 24-26′

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This past Sunday afternoon I conducted an on-the-water sonar session with Mr. Mitch Randles, the City of Temple Fire Chief, on Belton Lake.

A “Sonar Session” success story — Mitch saw fish on sonar, reacted to them properly, held the boat in position over the fish we’d spotted, and was rewarded for his efforts.

Mitch and his wife came out of retirement in Missouri to take the Fire Chief job and have been in Texas only since August of 2014.  Back in Missouri (or, as he pronounces it “Missoura”) Mitch fished for multiple species, mainly on Lake Stockton.

Mitch runs a Ranger bass boat equipped with a Lowrance Elite 7x HDI on the bow, a Lowrance Elite 7 HDI on the console, and a Lowrance HDS5 with Insight USA mapping also on the console.

We began by going screen by screen starting with his chartplotter screen, then onto his colored sonar screen, and ending with his downlooking StructureScan screen.  We tweaked all the setting on each page, making sure each was optimized for the clear water and rocky bottom on Belton.

On the chartplotter screen, we covered the use of waypoints and trails.  On the colored sonar screen, we tweaked sensitivity, colorline, ping speed, scroll speed, the color palette, and more, and on the StructureScan screen we adjusted the color palette and contrast.

Once all was set up well on each unit (none of the 3 were networked, so, we set up each unit individually), we set out in search of bottom features and fish in order to help Mitch see what fish and fish-holding structures looked like on a well-adjusted unit.  Fortunately, we found a large, suspended school of mixed white bass and hybrid stripers, thus allowing us not only to see these fish, but to watch our baits descend into them, and then watch the fish respond, become hooked, and watch excited schoolmates follow our hooked fish up to the surface.  We watched this play out exactly 21 times as we boated white bass and hybrid stripers steadily for about an hour and a half.

As we wrapped up, I left Mitch with a list of recommendations to take action on as time and budget allowed.  These action items included:

1. Checking his bow-mounted sonar’s transducer mounted to his trolling motor for levelness before each outing.

2. Taking the two console-mounted sonar units’ transducers out of the bilge area and mounting them externally in direct contact with the water for better performance.

3. Dedicating one console unit to mapping and waypoint collection to avoid having waypoints spread across several un-networked units.

4. Connecting the power leads for the bow-mounted unit to the starting battery to avoid interference.

5. Connecting the power leads for the console-mounted units to the trolling motor battery to avoid interference.

6. Using the console mounted HDS5 for colored sonar since it (alone) had color palette #13 available.

7. Using the console mounted Elite 7 HDI for a combination of mapping and down imaging since it has a wider screen than the HDS5.

We had a very productive 3 hours on the water resulting in a few fish caught as icing on the cake.  The more important thing is that Mitch now knows what is necessary to get the most out of the units he has paid good money for.

This morning I fished with Killeen youth pastor Jerry Worley and one of the many young men Jerry has discipled through the years, Daniel Kennedy.

Jerry Worley with a pair of white bass.  Over the course of the trip, we boated 5 largemouth — Jerry landed every one of them.

Daniel Kennedy with a pair of of white bass he worked up from the deep by using a slow, methodical jigging approach.

We got on it today, big time, thanks to nearly perfect white bass fishing conditions.  As we got on the water, it was clear, fairly still, cold, and, as soon as the sun rose, bright.  These are less than desireable conditions, however, change was in the air.  NOAA had forecast a lengthy wind shift from the west through the NW, and to the north for this morning and into the early afternoon, and they nailed it.

We got our first puff of WNW breeze at around 7:25am, and from then on it got increasingly windier (up to around 14mph) and cloudier, and the wind slowly made its way to north.

We literally caught fish the entire 6+ hours we were on the water, at a rate of one fish every 2.4 minutes.  This was one of the longest fish feeds I’ve observed in the 22 years I’ve fished Belton and Stillhouse.

Despite being willing to bite, the fish were still not willing to move very far nor very fast to do so, therefore, our technique was still very methodical, allowing plenty of time between jigging strokes.  Birds worked aggressively the entire morning, so, once one population of fish settled down, it was fairly easy to locate another population ready to feed.

We boated 157 white bass, 5 largemouth bass, and 1 channel catfish, all on 3/4 oz. white slabs.  We noted a number of fish dripping eggs and milt, indicating they are very near to spawning.

TALLY = 163 FISH, all caught and released

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:05a

End Time: 1:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 32.8F

Water Surface Temp: 50.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: W12, swinging through the west to the NNW and then due N gradually all morning

Sky Conditions: Entirely greyed over after our first 15 minutes on the water

Other: GT=40

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1531 – 20 Fish vertical jigging in 27′; low light bite prior to, at, and just past sunrise under ~12 gulls

**Area 1528 – 18 Fish vertical jigging in 25-28′; under grey skies and ~4 gulls

**Area 1532 – 47 Fish vertical jigging in 38-40′; under ~5 gulls

**Area 1530 – 29 Fish vertical jigging & deadsticking in 40-41′; under ~6ulls, 2 terns, 1 pelican

**Area 1529 – 49 Fish vertical jigging & deadsticking in 38-40′; under ~3 gulls

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)