2019 Fishing Reports | Fishing Report

5-PART HARMONY – 103 FISH @ BELTON

September 23rd, 2019September 24th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, September 23rd, I fished with first-time clients Cory Delz and Travis Caraway. Both fellows work at Georgetown-based construction firm Embree Group. Cory has followed my blog entries for quite some time and, with his curiosity piqued about successful summertime downrigging in particular, decided to give me a call and experience things firsthand. Thanks to cooperative weather conditions, it was a great day to “show-and-tell” a number of different tactics on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Cory Delz (left) and Travis Caraway with a few of the mixed bag of 103 fish landed on Lake Belton this morning. Included in our catch were white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, and blue catfish.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 23 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: We put together a 5-part trip this morning. Part 1 was sight casting to surface feeding white bass and hybrid stripers. Pets spoons did the trick for the ~30 minutes of action. The run of fish we landed was the best in overall size/quality of the trip.

Part 2 – we sight cast to schooling largemouth popping small shad under bright conditions after the sustained topwater bite ended. Smallest Pet Spoons were preferred although these fish were very stubborn regardless of what was thrown.

Part 3 – we downrigged in the vicinity of routinely surfacing “popcorn” white bass with balls set at both 15′ and 30′. Added ~20 fish to the count with multiple doubles and triples.

Part 4 – we downrigged to find fish I could demonstrate the Garmin LiveScope with and were fortunate to quickly find what we were after. We sat atop a single school of whites and boated 50+ fish before they tapered off.

Part 5 – spent the last few minutes Cory and Travis could stay using punchbait for bluecat chummed up with range cubes. Landed 8 and missed a bunch more as the fellows went through the hooksetting learning curve right at first.

TALLY: 103 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 1.12 feet low, 0.05′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 82.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-11 all morning

Sky Conditions: 40% grey cloud cover in the eastern sky at sunrise, then dissipating to 20% thereafter

GT = 40

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 793 to 1788 to 1746 – 21 fish to start the morning with a low-light topwater feed (6 short hybrid, 15 white bass)

**Area vic 1918 – spotty largemouth bass topwater action

**Area B0175C to B0176C – downrigging with balls at 15′ and 30′ in the vicinity of routinely surface-feeding whites which stayed up only briefly under bright conditions

**Area 163 to B0129C – found fish with downriggers; exploited what we found using LiveScope and tailspinners – 50+ aggressive fish landed here

**Area 993/1940 – finished up here on chummed bluecat on punchbait with the time we had left – 8 landed, as least as many missed bites; left them biting.

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

FREE FISHING FOR SOLDIERS’ KIDS – TRIP #22 WITH THE GUYER BOYS

September 21st, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, September 21st, I fished with Mrs. Danielle Guyer and her two boys, Aiden and Declan. The boys’ dad, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Keegan Guyer, is an all-source intelligence officer in the U.S. Army. He has served for 17 years, has been away from his family for long spells on multiple occasions, and is currently deployed with the Third Armored Corps (III Corps). Danielle is a permanent substitute teacher working on getting credentials as a full-time teacher. The Guyers are originally from Michigan.

This fishing trip was provided to this military family at no charge. S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. This program began in May of 2009. It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with. S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing. In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents’ military-related disabilities prevent them from taking their own children fishing. I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 to 4 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round.

This morning’s trip was the 22nd SKIFF trip of the 2019 season.

PHOTO CAPTION: With grey skies and southerly winds, the white bass cooperated and then some on top water this morning feeding aggressively on shad. That’s Declan on the left and Aiden on the right. The boys’ dad is currently deployed with III Corps.

PHOTO CAPTION: After the clouds dissipated a bit and the skies got bright, the white bass bite died down, so, we turned our sights on blue catfish. The boys landed 11 keeper blues in short order as we chummed ’em in and caught ’em on no-stink punchbaits.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: 21 September 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED: This morning’s efforts broke down into 3 distinct parts. First, under low light conditions, enhanced by cloud cover and winds just-shy of whitecapping, we caught white bass on topwater casting spoons which matched the forage which looked to be around 2-inches long now. When these fish quit the surface, they did it very suddenly, but the fish were still present, only they were suspended. So, we got right on them with downriggers, moving progressively deeper until the fish reached 32′. When they got to this depth, although we could see them clearly on sonar in distinct, tight schools, they would not rise even a few few after the downrigged baits as they had only minutes before in shallower water. That closed “Part 1”. We picked up white bass, hybrid, largemouth and smallmouth.

Part 2 involved chumming in bluecat and fishing for them with punchbaits. I’ve been doing this successfully with swiveled trolling sinkers used as weights, but that requires a fast hookset which I didn’t feel the boys were going to get the hang of, so, instead, I came rigged with deep slipfloat rigging. This allowed the boys to catch 11 blue cat with numerous “practice swings” on missed fish as they were working through the learning curve.

Part 3 involved mid-morning downrigging over deep water for suspended schools of white bass in our last 30 minutes on the water. This also worked well, producing, among other things, a “double” and the trip’s only “triple” — one fish on each of the 3 baits on the 3-armed umbrella rig.

TALLY: 42 fish caught and released, including 3 hybrid stripers, 1 largemouth, 1 smallmouth, 11 blue catfish, and 26 white bass

OBSERVATIONS: Although we have not yet had any significant cold fronts, the gradually shortening days, abundant cloud cover this week, and less intense heat has brought water temperatures down from the summer peak. 84.6 on the surface before sunrise today. The up-sized Pet Spoons outperformed the smaller Pets this morning very evidently, to the point that I changed everything to #13’s in mid-bite.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:10am

End Time: 10:45am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 1.07 low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-13 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 80% cloud cover with very light sprinkles at sunrise; drying, brightening and clearing to 60% cloud cover by trip’s end

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0132C through 1802 – low light topwater and downrigging activity thereafter

**Area vic 1918 – sparse post-sunrise topwater action pointed the way to continued downrigging

**Area vic 993 – chummed bluecats on punchbaits

**Area 1579 to 1581 – suspended white bass on downriggers

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

36 FISH HAUL FOR HAZEL GIBSON — S.K.I.F.F. TRIP #21

September 17th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday evening I conducted the 2019 season’s 21st S.K.I.F.F. trip. Joining me was 5-year-old Hazel Gibson and her mom, Jennifer Gibson. Back on August 17th, I fished with Hazel’s two siblings, 8-year-old Riley Gibson and 10-year-old Vince Gibson. Due to the age difference, I thought pairing Hazel’s siblings with one other young man their age would work best, in addition to providing a shorter, less technically demanding trip just for Hazel.

Hazel’s father, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (E-6) Alan Gibson, has served for 12 years and is currently serving as a scout in a Ft. Hood cavalry unit. SSG Gibson recently received orders sending him to Afghanistan.

PHOTO CAPTION: 5-year-old Hazel Gibson, daughter of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (E-6) Alan Gibson and Mrs. Jennifer Gibson of Harker Heights, with two of the 35 fish she landed during a free S.K.I.F.F. outing on Stillhouse Hollow.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Sunfish and white bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: 16 September 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED: I tried to keep it simple tonight while making sure we had fish coming over the side of the boat routinely. We began by sunfishing with a bream pole up in shallow water for the first half of our adventure, resulting in a catch of 30 sunfish, including bluegill, longears, and redears.

When Hazel’s interest in sunfishing dropped off, we headed out to deep water and used downriggers in two distinct areas to catch another 5 white bass and a single largemouth bass.

TALLY: 36 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The winds reversed 180 degrees over the course of the day today. At sunrise, we had westerly winds around 12mph which swung around to ENE by the start of this evening’s trip as a less than tropical storm-strengthed disturbance in the Gulf moves closer to the Texas coast and is due to impact our weather through mid-day Friday.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 5:15pm

End Time: 7:45pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 93F

Elevation: 0.81 low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 87F

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE9-11 with weather and wind becoming increasingly influenced by an organized low pressure system spinning in the Gulf.

Sky Conditions: 40% cloud cover

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0134C – 30 sunfish

**Area vic 1150 – 3 white bass and 1 largemouth downrigging with balls set at 20′

**Area vic SH0133C – 2 quality white bass downrigging with balls set at 28′

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

WINDS FROM THE WEST, FISH BITE BEST – 64 FISH @ BELTON

September 16th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, September 16th, I fished with first-time client Dwight Stone of Georgetown, TX. Dwight recently retired from operating a string of Sonic restaurants and intends to get back to his fishing roots in his retirement. The purpose of this morning’s trip was two-fold; first, we went to catch fish, and second, Dwight wanted to see Lowrance, Humminbird, and Garmin sonar products in use in real-world applications so he could choose wisely when rigging up his Ranger bass boat. We accomplished both of those objectives this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: Dwight Stone with the one and only hybrid striped bass we landed this morning. It came as a “double” on a three-armed umbrella rig. Hooked right along side the hybrid was a 2-year class white bass. I thought it unusual that the fish looked lean in the belly given the tremendous amount of bait in the area.

PHOTO CAPTION: Dwight Stone with a pair of white bass. We caught fish just about everywhere we looked this morning. I believe this past weekend’s poor conditions (bright, hot, calm), followed by this morning’s favorable conditions (west wind) combined to get fish in a feeding mood.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 16 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: I wanted to give Dwight a solid overview of Belton’s fishery, so, we downrigged for white bass in 4 separate locations, we vertical jigged with tailspinners, and we fished for suspended blue catfish, all while covering a good bit of water so Dwight could see the various segments of the lake.

The low-light, shallow (<18′) bite was on, giving up 2-year class white bass on the downriggers at our first stop. We then encountered smaller white bass caught on downriggers set at 22′ at our second stop and therefore moved on. At our third stop we found a mix of young-of-the-year white bass and 2-year class fish, plus a bonus hybrid all caught via downrigging with balls set at 26-28 feet. In order to leave time to gun for bluecat, we left these fish biting and headed elsewhere for catfish.

The blues were easy once a density of suspended fish were found on sonar. I got range cubes down to consolidate the fish, then followed up with punchbait on trebles to seal the deal. We fished at 34 feet over a 40 foot bottom for these fish, all of which ran 13-16 inches — lots of fun on light spinning gear.

We closed out the trip right at 10:30 with one final round of downrigging which gave up two sets of triples (all three lures on the 3-armed umbrella rig caught fish), as well as a few singles.

Right at 10:30 I got Dwight back to shore per his request to honor his exercise class commitment he made to his wife.

TALLY: 64 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No prolonged topwater action today. I thought it just might happen, but, the wind was a bit stiff (to the point of lightly whitecapping) and it did not materialize. The westerly wind definitely had fish in a feeding mode today. If we found them, they bit!

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time: 10:35am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.86 feet low, 0.2′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 82.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: W10-12 through 7:50, then scaling back to W5-6 for remainder of trip

Sky Conditions: 20% cloud cover in the eastern sky at sunrise, then dissipating to nil

GT = 5

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1802 to 813 low light downrigging for whites

**Area B0174C center of mass for downrigging for whites (attempted vertical work twice; fish not interested)

**Area vic 993 – range cube/punchbait blue cats

**Area 1291 center of mass for downrigging for whites

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

IN A WORD: TOUGH – A 10-FISH SATURDAY ON STILLHOUSE

September 15th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning I fished Stillhouse with Jason Earles of Temple. Jason received a gift certificate from his in-laws this past Christmas and wanted to redeem it this weekend. As we spoke by phone I laid out the pros and cons of fishing Belton and Stillhouse on a weekend, and the reduced traffic on Stillhouse appealed to us both.

Jason works for McLane’s in Temple, grew up in the Houston area and hasn’t done as much fishing as he’d like to since job and family responsibilities have come along. Despite the slow fishing, Jason commented a number of time about how nice it was to be outside of an office environment and in the relative quiet of Stillhouse’s 6,500 acres.

PHOTO CAPTION: Those are definitely NOT fishy sky or wind conditions!! Fishing was tough today, but, we persisted and pulled a few healthy white bass regardless of the weather. That’s Jason Earles with a pair of 2.5 year old fish.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: 14 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: With bright skies and calm winds, there was zero natural sign to leverage on — no birds, no bait working, and only gar sipping on the surface here and there. We did a lot of downrigging to cover water, and I kept at least one ball near the bottom hoping to pull up fish laying belly-to-bottom that we could then hover atop of and jig for. We therefore alternated between downrigging and working tailspinners assisted by LiveScope.

Between 9:30 and 10:30 am, over a patch of water perhaps 2.5 acres in size, we found repeated incidents of small (young of the year) white bass feeding on shad they trapped at the surface. I worked over this area intensively, hoping to find larger fish nearer the bottom in this locale (and did see 2 such schools on sonar), but ultimately caught only small fish here.

Between 10:30 and 11:15 I returned to one area where I’d seen larger white bass showing on sonar earlier in the morning, but which refused to go for our vertical presentations. When we got to this area, fish were still present, and we picked up 2 solid white bass on downriggers while witnessing more “belly-to-bottom” fish rise 6-12 feet off bottom to investigate the downrigger ball. I changed over quickly to working tailspinners to try to excite a school of fish and draw other fish beneath the boat, but the fish were not having it. We pulled only one fish on the tailspinners here and wrapped up at 11:15 with 10 fish landed.

Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to the change of seasons. The idea of grey skies, wind, and not sweating through my clothes by 8:30 am seems almost foreign at this point!

TALLY: 10 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: N/A

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.77 low, 0.0′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 0% cloud cover

GT = 20

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1708 thru SH0133C thru 645 – a few quality fish here at ~35′

**Area 1146 – topwater action by Y.O.T.Y. whites

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

CAN WE ASK MY DAD FOR MORE TIME? — 64 FISH @ BELTON

September 13th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday the 13th of September, I fished with Mr. Max Lopez of Harker Heights, his college-aged son, Max, and young Max’s cousin, 13-year-old Eli Lopez, of Killeen.

If the name looks or sounds familiar, that’s because Max came out with me just ten days ago on September 3rd during which I gave him a “fishing overview” of Stillhouse Hollow, and went over some boating fundamentals, given that he is a new, first-time boat owner. Based on his fishing experience that day, Max wanted his son and nephew to experience what he had just experienced

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, father and son Max Lopez and Max Lopez, and Eli Lopez, the elder Max’s nephew, with three of the 64 fish we landed this morning.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass, sunfish, and blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: 13 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: My aim today was to give the boys a “broad brush” introduction to different types of fishing for different species of fish in Lake Belton, after doing likewise for their dad/uncle over on Stillhouse about a week and a half ago.

Over our time on the water this morning we successfully downrigged for white bass, worked tailspinners vertically for white bass, fished up shallow for sunfish under slipfloats, and used punchbait to fish for chummed-up blue catfish (the topic of this coming Sunday’s Killeen Daily Herald article).

In all, my crew landed 64 fish (not counting quite a few that dropped off right at the boat while we worked through a learning curve on leaving some line between the rod tip and the hooked fish while working tailspinners).

I was gratified to note that, as the trip began, the boys were talking about video games, modern-day electronics, and features of their smart-phones; by the time the trip came to a close, both boys were silent and focused on their rod tips with a death grip on their spinning rods, anxiously awaiting the next “thump” of a bluecat striking their bait. Then, when Eli’s dad phoned us to check in to see if we were headed back yet, Eli lobbied for “just a little more time” to fish!

TALLY: 64 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.79 low, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable the entire trip

Sky Conditions:0% cloud cover through 9:00am, then 20% cloud white clouds on blue sky thereafter

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0154C through 1792 – low light downrigging

**Area B0172C – center of mass for downrigging white bass, plus 3 short-hops here for tailspinner white bass

**Area B0168C and 184 – sunfish

**Area B0173C – blue catfish

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

I’M A FAST LEARNER, BUT … — 70 FISH @ BELTON

September 10th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday the 10th of September, I fished with the Hodo cousins, Chris and Mike, and their girlfriends, Samantha Husk and Bretne Aloisioh. Mike and Samanatha came down from the Columbus, Ohio area, while Chris and Bretne are from near Lorena, Texas. Both fellows are truck drivers, with Mike doing moves for Wheaton, and Chris on a more localized delivery route which keeps him closer to home.

The couples fished Lake Belton once before during some cold weather and managed to land one fish while fairly randomly trolling, but, they decided to give it another try and we did well today, boating 70 fish.

Funny story: As I explained why we were doing what we were doing as we downrigged, I let everyone know to try to stop reeling in their fish with about 4 feet of line separating the rod tip from the hooked fish. This makes it easier to unhook the fish and also prevents tangling of the leaders on the 3-armed umbrella rigs. For whatever reason, Samantha (who was genuinely excited about each fish she caught — which is a good thing) reeled her fish in all the way up to the rod tip about 5 out of every 6 times. I tried to tactfully remind her to do otherwise, while Chris, Mike, and Bretne just flat out made fun of her about doing this. The very first time Samantha got it right, I tried to provide some positive reinforcement, letting her know she was getting the hang of it. In reply she said, “You know, I really am a fast learner, but, I’m also a fast forgetter!”.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Mike Hodo, Samantha Husk, Bretne Aloisioh, and Chris Hodo with a few of the 70 fish we boated in right at 4 hours on Lake Belton under typical late-summer conditions.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: 10 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: After one of the slowest first hours I’ve had on the water in quite a while (thanks to heavy grey cloud cover obscuring the sunrise and keeping it abnormally dark until around 8:20), things began to improve as the skies lightened up and the SSE wind continued to blow and ripple the water.

After a so-so round of downrigging which resulted in the catch of 2 blue catfish and a few small white bass we moved to what would be the 6th area over which I ran sonar checking for fish. I liked what I saw and decided to give this area a try with downriggers first in order to cover some water, get our baits exposed to a lot of fish, and gauge those fishes’ activity level. We wound up with 3 fish right off the bat on our very first pass and wound up staying in this vicinity for a full 2 hours.

During this time we downrigged for the multiple, moderately sized schools of white bass we saw moving about on sonar, each numbering around 50-80 fish per school. When I found larger schools, they tended to be more stationary, thus allowing me enough time to set up on top of them and give vertical work a try. If everyone on board did not have the prior experience both with fishing in general, and specifically in using spinning gear, I may not have tried the vertical work, but, I felt confident all 4 of my anglers could do all they needed to do for us to take advantage of the scenario. This turned out well. We “Spot-Locked” three separate times and everyone caught multiple fish on each stop at a pace better than the downrigging. When the school moved on, we returned to downrigging until another good, immobile school appeared on sonar, and so on.

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40am

End Time: 11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.79 low, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 entire trip

Sky Conditions: Full grey cloud coverage at sunrise, slowly and gradually clearing to 50% white clouds on a blue sky by trip’s end

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1814 to 1936 – downrigging circuit yielding small whites and catfish

**Area B0170C and B0171C – vertical jigging with a few short hops at each location, and downrigging on and between these areas – 2 full hours of successful fishing here

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

NAMES WITHHELD TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT – 70 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

September 7th, 2019September 11th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Saturday morning, 07 Sept., I fished with a family (returning guests) from the N. Austin area who preferred not to be identified, nor have their photos appear on social media. So as to create a “placeholder” and include this catch in my annual records, I’m entering this summary of our efforts.

I fished with a father and his two kids, aged 4 and 7. This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip in which only the kids fished.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Sunfish and white bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: 07 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: With two youngsters onboard, we headed up shallow for some “instant gratification” sunfishing right from the get-go. This worked out well as we landed sunfish at each of the areas at which we stopped, amassing a catch of 41 fish, including all manner of sunfish and a few largemouth bass.

When I saw the novelty wearing off concerning the sunfishing, we made a move to open water to target white bass (and have snacks!). The white bass were pretty cooperative once the wind began to ripple the water, at around 8:45am. We strictly downrigged for these freshwater pelagics, and wound up adding another 24 fish to our count including 0, 1, and 2-year class fish coming as singles and doubles on the Pet Spoons rigged up on 3-armed umbrella rigs.

The kids lasted until around 10:30, by which time they had landed a mixed bag of 65 fish. I dropped them off and then headed back out to an area where, using a spotting scope, I saw terns working (which, by the way, have been in short supply on Stillhouse this summer).

These birds led me to a nice concentration of fish on a moderately sloped patch of bottom in about 35 feet of water. As I arrived, there were individual fish popping shad occasionally (definitely NOT an aggressive topwater feed, but enough action to cause me to want to investigate further). I went to work, solo now, with LiveScope and ferreted out a few nice schools of bottom-oriented white bass patrolling in this area. I landed five in short order on my own version of tailspinners and then stopped fishing after confirming this was a worthwhile area. I continued combing over this area with sonar, finding at least 3 other similar schools of white bass of approximately 70-100 fish each.

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Terns led me to fish today; these normally helpful birds have been scarce on Stillhouse this summer due, I suspect, to a lack of topwater action and therefore a lack of dead/crippled shad near the surface for them to feed on routinely.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40am

End Time: 10:30am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.79 low, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 86.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5 beginning around 8:45a; calm prior to that

Sky Conditions: No cloud cover on a blue sky.

GT = 30

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0131C, SH0132C, and back of 1874 for 41 sunfish

**Area SH0134C was center of mass for late morning downrigging effort yielding 24 white bass

**Area SH0133C – a new area revealed by light tern action and light topwater action; landed 5 fish and stopped, but graphed several hundred fish in 4 distinct schools.

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

SUNFISH FEST WITH THE CRUZ CREW – 87 FISH

September 4th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, September 4th, I fished with the Cruz family of Fort Hood. Joining me were Dakottah (16), Makenzie (13), Makayla (11), and Gavin (7). Their dad, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Jose Cruz has been away at a 10-week drill sergeant training course at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. After a brief stop back at Fort Hood, the family will be facing a move to San Antonio where SSG Cruz has been assigned as a drill instructor at the Advanced Individual Training (AIT) course there. SSG Cruz has served in the military as a medic for 13 years. The kids’ mom, Katy, knew of the S.K.I.F.F. program and set this up for the kids shortly after the start of public school since she home-schools her children and my calendar is much more open at this time of year.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Dakottah, Gavin, Makayla, and Makenzie Cruz, each with a sampling of the sunfish we focused on on this third consecutive day of bright, dry, hot, cloudless weather accompanied by little or no wind.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Sunfish and white bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: 04 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: It was hard to get excited about the prospect of fishing for white bass today. After a 3-day run of briliiant sunshine, near-calm winds, and a northeast breeze when the wind did blow lightly, the white bass have really locked down. With 4 kids spread over a 9 year span, it was going to be difficult to keep everyone engaged with the long waits between fish that I was seeing in the cards were we to pursue white bass, so, I opted to focus on sunfish this morning and treat the whites as icing on the cake toward the end of the trip.

This turned out well. We visited 3 distinct areas in pursuit of sunfish and landed exactly 81 fish using live bait and slip floats up in shallow water, including bluegill, green, longear, and redear sunfish, as well as a few largemouth bass.

Based on observations yesterday morning, I timed our efforts at closing the trip out by downrigging to take place from 9:40 to 10:15 am, which was the short ‘window’ of time I observed white bass feeding briefly and somewhat sporadically over deep, open water at that time. This also turned out well, as it allowed each of the kids to take one turn on the downrigging equipment, accounting for a half-dozen white bass. By the time the last of the kids brought their white bass in, young Gavin was just about done, and we called it a good morning right at the 3.5 hour mark with exactly 87 fish landed for our efforts.

TALLY: 87 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Continued high pressure conditions limited what already minimal topwater action has been taking place this summer on Stillhouse.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time: 10:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.61 low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm the entire trip, with an occasional NE ripple that would immediately dissipate

Sky Conditions: 20% clouds forming after 10 AM

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0127C (east fork) – 7 short hops for a variety of sunfish and a few small largemouth bass

**Area SH0130C – a variety of sunfish

**Area SH0129 – a variety of sunfish

**Area 1146 – downrigging for white bass in open water

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)