Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

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.

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.

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)

AS THE WEATHER AND SEASON ALLOWED – 27 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

September 3rd, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 03 September, I fished with Max Lopez of Harker Heights, TX. Max is a U.S. Army veteran who recently obtained his credentials to repair heating,ventilation, and air conditioning equipment via his GI Bill by going back to college later in life. Max now works as a partner with Sonrise Services in the local area as well as with Memorial Baptist Church as their one-man maintenance department. Max now has all of my business for both my own home and my rental properties.

Max was blessed to receive a used boat as a gift from someone and is now endeavoring to learn about boating and fishing. This morning’s trip was intended to help Max grasp some fundamentals about both fishing and boat handling to help him enjoy his gift a bit more going forward.

When Max arrived ready to fish this morning, he had only caught 1 fish in his entire life.

PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Army vet Max Lopez with a pair of husky Stillhouse Hollow white bass. We took these fish from suspended schools of fish chasing bait in the upper half of the water column with our baits run at 19 feet deep. Max, who had only landed one other fish in his entire life before this morning’s trip, rounded out the day with 27 fish landed.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: 03 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Given Max’s “rookie” status, I tried to introduce him to as many tactics as the weather and season would allow for this morning, while answering a non-stop stream of good questions that he posed to me.

Over our 4+ hours on the water, we downrigged, we jugfished, and we fished for shallow sunfish using slip-floats on bream poles.

Despite experiencing the polar opposite of good fishing weather (it was bright and windless), we managed 27 fish, including a few 2-year class white bass.

OBSERVATIONS: There was a very definite uptick in action from 9:40 to 10:30 this morning. During this time, and over the half-mile stretch of lake we could witness, there was at least one or two small schools of white bass working over young of the year shad on the surface. This gave us a starting point for downrigging which we exploited to the best of our ability.

TALLY: 27 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: .59 feet low, .02 foot 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning

Sky Conditions: 0% cloud cover

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1472 – so-so action on downriggers

**Area 231 – sunfishing

**Area 1995 thru to 1528 – fast downrigging action in the vicinity of white bass feeding routinely on topwater

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)

BRIGHT SKIES, CALM WINDS, & SLIM PICKINS – 23 FISH @ BELTON

September 2nd, 2019September 2nd, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Labor Day 2019 (Sept. 2nd), I fished with the Hunt family, originally from Montana. Joining me were Ryan and his wife, Stepanie, as well as Ryan’s brother, Jason, and Ryan and Jason’s dad, Don, who still lives in Montana and came down for a visit, including some fishing and dove hunting.

Ryan’s last duty station was here at Fort Hood. After separating from the military he went to work with First Command, a financial planning organization that works closely with military members. Stephanie is a veterinarian in Copperas Cove, Jason is an active duty Army aviator stationed at Fort Hood, and Don is an electrician back in Montana. The whole family graduated from the Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho.

The family bid on a gift certificate I had donated to the Killeen Church of the Nazarene for a youth fundraiser back in the spring and decided to redeem it this weekend.

PHOTO CAPTION: The Hunt crew: From left: Ryan, Stephanie, Jason, and Don, each with one of the 19 white bass we landed today.

PHOTO CAPTiON: Jason landed this 11th hour Lake Belton smallmouth bass that weighed just a few hundreths less than 3.00 pounds. It came up off of a 26′ bottom for a bait worked down at 21′ deep.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: 02 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: This was a tough day — we had clear skies and light winds following a wrinkle in the weather which shifted winds to the north and east both yesterday and today, partially influenced by Hurricane Dorian which sits off of Florida’s east coast by 105 miles as of this writing.

There was no topwater bite this morning, and precious few fish found subsurface in several of the areas which have produced low-light topwater action of late. We downrigged successfully in three areas and threw in some jugfishing (which I planned ahead for after seeing the tough weather forecast), as well.

Many of the white bass we caught today were smallish — it seems these small fish will feed even when the larger ones are put off by weather. I’ve noted this many times in the past.

In getting rigged up for the trip last night, I switched all of my downrigging rigs back to #12 Pet Spoons from #13’s, knowing that a smaller, “finesse” bait would get hit when a flashier, gaudier lure might not. I feel like this put a few extra fish in the boat today, as we picked up 2 sets of triples and 1 set of doubles.

Our jugfishing went okay given that the calm winds made for little drift and little water covered. On 20 jugs we had 6 pulldowns and put 2 bluecat in the boat (the third blue in the tally actually came on the downrigger).

We were all sweating through our clothes by 10am, and stayed until 11am, boating a grand total of 24 fish on the morning.

The “first fish” award today went to Don, who landed a small white bass right at 6:30am as we were practice casting by the boat ramp in anticipation of topwater action around sunrise. Biggest fish award today went to Jason with a “personal best” smallmouth bass.

OBSERVATIONS: There were actually fewer boats out this morning on a holiday Monday than on a typical summertime Saturday. The calm winds from a NNE direction and bright sun really turned the fish off this morning.

TALLY: 23 fish caught and released (19 white bass, 3 blue catfish, 1 smallmouth bass)

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.52 feet low with a 24-hour fall of 0.03 feet on a flow of 34 cfs

Water Surface Temp: 84.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning

Sky Conditions: <10% cloud cover most of the morning w/ white clouds on a blue sky

GT = 40

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1746 – low light downrigging for a few white bass

**Area 993 – downrigging for a few white bass and 1 bluecat

**Area 1579 – downrigging for a few white bass and 1 smallmouth

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)

PINK PRACTICE – 32 FISH WITH THE WILSONS

August 31st, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, August 31st, I fished with Doug and Cindy Wilson of Smithville, TX. The Wilsons plan to participate in next Saturday’s (07 September) “Pink Fishing” tournament held out of Cedar Ridge Park on Lake Belton as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness.

Cindy contacted me about two months in advance, hoping to do some pre-fishing and to get to learn the lake before heading out on Belton (in the dark) on the morning of the tournament. I was very up front with them about not guiding for largemouth or smallmouth bass and thought I’d talked them out of fishing with me, but, they decided chasing white bass would be fun so long as we could do a little looking around at potential bass-holding cover at some point in the morning. So, this morning, we accomplished both of those things.

PHOTO CAPTION: Doug and Cindy Wilson came out with me, caught the best of the low-light bite for white bass, then did some scouting in advance of next Saturday’s “Pink Fishing” breast cancer awareness fund raiser.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: 31 August 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: As I met the Wilsons, they were very open about their lack of familiarity with spinning gear. Fortunately, they showed up early, thus allowing us to do some practice casting before the fish began doing their thing. As I approached the area I had in mind to begin at today, I could see gamefish poised to feed on sonar, as well as ample bait for them to feed upon.

As we waited to see if fish would “go topwater”, I introduced the Wilsons to downrigging — which they’d never done before. We scored 6 white bass (including a triple landed by Cindy) before a light topwater bite began at exactly 7:07 am. This topwater was different from that which we’ve been observing up to this point in the summer in that the fish did not seem as tightly schooled and were less organized. Previously, fish could be seen clearly grouped together, clearly pursuing shad in a definite direction (think of troops on an open battlefield advancing abreast of one another), and in great numbers of fish per school (perhaps 400-600 fish per school with multiple schools working at any given time). This morning the fish seemed to be working independently of one another with wide gaps between surface boils and with no directionality to their pursuit.

Given the Wilson’s were new to spinning gear, I selected weighted slabs instead of the lighter Pet Spoons I’ve been throwing lately, and the fish responded well to these. After only 17 minutes on top, the fish sounded for good around 7:25. After that, we continued downrigging successfully through 8:40a while observing boats opting to stay put and jig vertically catch nil. 3-armed umbrella rigs armed with Pet Spoons did the trick on the ‘riggers fished progressively deeper as sonar revealed the post-topwater action moving down in the water column and away from the shore.

OBSERVATIONS: I was off the water this week on a recon to Juarez in advance of a mid-October mission trip to build a home for a family there. When I returned, I checked in with Bill P. who shared that the fishing was miserable this past week. He had 3 outings from first light to around 9am with no fish to show for his efforts, and reported no topwater to speak of. Although we did catch fish today, once the low-light bite was over, there were slim pickings thereafter. There was little cloud cover and light winds, plus weekend traffic today. Got checked by TPWD — no issues.

TALLY: 32 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 0.47 feet low with a 24-hour fall of 0.04 feet on a flow of 34 cfs

Water Surface Temp: 82.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE4 all morning

Sky Conditions: 20% cloud cover most of the morning w/ white clouds on a blue sky

GT = 35

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 793 to 1019 – brief topwater, ~20 minutes’ worth

**Area 1933 and ~ 400 feet both E and W of this point and along the same contour – downrigging with Pet Spoons on 3-armed umbrella rig

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)

FT. HOOD CHILD LANDS 1ST FISH ON SKIES PROGRAM TRIP – 50 FISH

August 24th, 2019August 24th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, August 24th, I fished a SKIESUnlimited trip with the Pratts family. “Izzy” Pratts is an active duty U.S. Army Warrant Officer currently assigned to Fort Hood. Her husband, Isham Pratts, is a veteran who served six years in the U.S. Army as an enlisted man working in an information technology specialty, the field in which he now continues to work as a civilian. The Pratts brought their son, almost-5-year-old Maximus aboard for his first fishing trip ever … and it was a good one! Maximum is preparing to be a big brother … a little sister is due in September!!

SKIESUnlimited stands for Schools of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration, and Skills.

SKIESUnlimited offers dozens of activities for military and Department of Defense kids of all ages, ranging from gymnastics to piano lessons, from academic tutoring to various forms of dance, and more.

To participate in such courses, children must first be registered with Child and Youth Services. Registration is free and is accomplished by contacting Parent Central Services at 254-287-8029. Once registered, parents may go online to enroll their children for the myriad courses available, including my own “Fishing 101”.

PHOTO CAPTION: Maximus Pratts and his dad, Isham Pratts, with Max’s largest sunfish of the trip — an old, adult bluegill. Judging by the white and orange trip at the tail, it had to have a green sunfish in its lineage a generation or two ago, as well.

PHOTO CAPTION: Maximus’ first fish, a 5″ bluegill sunfish. This fish qualified Maximum for a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department “First Fish Award”!!

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass and sunfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: 24 August 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: As I explained the morning’s gameplan to Izzy and Isham, I let them know that Max would very likely become bored with success given his age. We all laughed together when, about 20 minutes and 5 fish into the trip Max announced, “I’m tired of sunfishing.” Having worked with kids for years now, we employed some “tricks of the trade” to keep Max’s interest level up by inserting some intentional transitions into our trip and adding as much variety as the fish, season, weather, and his manual dexterity would allow.

As it turned out, Max was in good spirits and enthused about fishing as we ended the trip right around the 3.5 hour mark.

We fished for sunfish at the beginning and end of the trip, with a bit of time spent downrigging for white bass in the middle. The white bass we found were in small, suspended schools and took the smallest size Pet Spoons rigged on a 3-armed umbrella rig fished at 23′ over a deeper bottom. The sunfish were all in shallow cover and went for livebait fished under a slipfloat rig.

OBSERVATIONS: Despite a near-calm surface and grey cloud cover — ideal conditions for seeing topwater action — there was little topwater action to be seen; this is in stark contrast with Lake Belton which was buzzing with topwater action all week this week for well into the mid-morning hours. This has been a real departure from the norm on Stillhouse this season.

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.42 feet low with a 24-hour fall of 0.2 feet on a flow of 1 cfs

Water Surface Temp: 87.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: S2-3 at trip’s start, increasing suddenly to S7 around 9:15

Sky Conditions: 100% grey skies all morning with “squinting brightness”

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 420 – sunfish

**Area west fork of SH0127C – sunfish

**Area 716 to SH0033C – downrigging for white bass

**Area 1572 – sunfish

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)

ELIZABETH FISHER – AN AMERICAN HERITAGE GIRL — 80 FISH

August 23rd, 2019August 23rd, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, August 23rd, I conducted the 2019 season’s 19th SKIFF trip as I welcomed aboard Elizabeth Fisher of Killeen. Elizabeth is involved with a scouting organization called American Heritage Girls. Her parents approached me about helping her fulfill the requirements for her merit badge in fishing, and I agreed. Elizabeth’s father, Dale, is a disabled veteran who served 6 years in the U.S. Army’s Field Artillery branch working on 155-millimeter howitzers and 8-inch guns. Elizabeth is home-schooled by her mom, Becky Fisher, and is 12 years old.

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’ have military-related disabilities. 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.

PHOTO CAPTION: Elizabeth Fisher with a Lake Belton blue catfish — one of two in a row that hit our downrigged baits moving at 2.6 mph and which were suspended right along with schooled white bass about 23′ below the surface.

PHOTO CAPTION: Elizabeth Fisher with a pair of white bass we landed on silver spoons — the white bass was one of eight different species of fish she landed this morning.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 23 August 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: I prepared for this trip by reading, numerous times, through the requirements Elizabeth had to meet to obtain her merit badge. Among others, these included:

Learning how to use a flyrod.
Explaining the necessary equipment aboard the boat.
Catching fish by still-fishing, trolling, and spin-casting.
Conducting a full, guided trip for Elizabeth.

We began our morning casting spinning gear equipped with small, shad-imitating spoons up shallow to white bass gorging themselves on shad during both the low-light time around sunrise, and then beyond that. Thankfully, some grey cloud cover dimmed down the direct sun’s light and allowed us an extended time catching these fish.

Once this action died, we moved on to downrigging and landed singles, doubles, and triples of white bass, as well as two blue catfish on the downriggers set at 23 feet fished over a deeper bottom for suspended fish feeding upwards on bait.

We closed out the trip fishing up shallow in quiet, protected waters for sunfish using bait under a float.

Over the course of this trip, Elizabeth managed to land several dozen white bass, a smallmouth bass, 2 blue catfish, bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, longear sunfish, longear/green sunfish hybrids, and spottail shiners — 8 species for a young lady who had never stepped foot on a boat before, and who was very new to casting with spinning gear.

TALLY: 80 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Five consecutive days of continuous topwater action beginning at first light and extending to at least 8:30+ continued today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:35am

End Time: 10:35am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.29 low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE 9 until 8:30am, then easing back to S4 for the rest of the trip

Sky Conditions: 30% grey cloud coverage in the eastern sky which hindered a sudden sunrise brightening of the skies, then about 30% white clouds on a blue sky thereafter.

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1646 to the bank – low-light and post-sunrise topwater white bass

**Area 365 – center of mass of successful downrigging circuit

**Area B0169C – late morning sunfishing

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)

PEACE FOR MOM, PESCADO FOR DRAKE – 73 FISH

August 22nd, 2019August 23rd, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, August 22nd, I fished with 12-year-old Drake Adams of Killeen, TX, on the 2019 season’s 18th SKIFF trip. Drake was accompanied by his mom, Tina Rodriguez, who is a veteran. Drake’s dad, U.S. Army Sergeant First Class (E-7) Richard Rodriguez is currently assigned to South Korea. He is an Apache helicopter mechanic with 18 years in the military.

PHOTO CAPTION: Drake Adams, accompanied by his mom, Tina Rodriguez, landed 73 fish on Lake Belton this morning during the 2019 season’s 18th SKIFF trip provided free of charge to military kids separated from their parents due to their parents’ military duty.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 22 August 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: I knew going into this trip from my prior phone conversation with Drake’s mom, that he was a very capable angler, having pursued multiple warm-water species successfully both with his grandfather back in South Carolina, and on his own. So, I planned a full morning in which I could show Drake a number of the tactics useful for consistently boating fish in a Texas summer. During our time on the water we sight-cast to white bass using spoons, we downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs, we fished vertically with slabs, aided by Garmin LiveScope technology, and we cast and retrieved bladebaits horizontally in a lift-drop fashion. Every one of these tactics produced fish today, with sight-casting the most effective when fish showed on top in the first two hours, and downrigging most effective when the fish went deeper in the last 2 hours. Along the way I tried to explain why we did what we did, and introduce Drake to much of the electronic technology I’ve come to rely upon.

Drake’s mom, Tina, who sat quietly by observing and taking photos told me at the end of the trip that this was the best day she’d experienced in this central Texas area since arriving in November of last year. She said, “This was the nicest, greatest, most peaceful day I’ve had here.” She was very complimentary of the SKIFF program and the “behind the scenes” people at AFF and elsewhere who come together to make this happen.

TALLY: 73 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Four consecutive days of continuous topwater action beginning at first light and extending to at least 8:30+ continued today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15am

End Time: 10:35am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.25 low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: S4-8 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 10% clouds forming after 8 AM

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1418 to the bank – low light topwater white bass

**Area 1646 to the bank – post-sunrise topwater white bass

**Area B0128C – center of mass of successful downrigging circuit (with some blade work and vertical work thrown in)

**Area 1947 – downrigging as the morning bite was winding down from 9:50 to 10:30

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)

FIRST FISH, FIRST BOATRIDE — 40 FISH WITH THE AGLEES FROM TOGO

August 21st, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, August 21st, I conducted the 2019 season’s 17th S.K.I.F.F. program trip. Joining me was Mr. Kossivi Aglee, his 5-year-old daughter, Haniel, and Haniel’s little 11-month-old sister, Nancy, came along for the ride, as well.

Haniel’s mom, U.S. Army Specialist (E4) Abra Alokpa is currently on a rotation to South Korea where she serves in a supply unit. These rotations typically last about 9 months. Kossivi and Abra are originally from Togo, Africa. Abra became a U.S. citizen back in 2015 and enlisted in the military. Kossivi is a student, studying welding at Central Texas College in Killeen. He will take his citizenship exam in March 2020.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Kossivi Aglee, his 11-month-old daughter, Nancy, and our angler-of-the-day, Haniel Aglee, with a beautifully colored adult bluegill sunfish.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Kossivi, Nancy, and Haniel with our largest fish of the trip — some cooperative white bass which fell for our downrigged presentations out in open water with downrigger balls set at 23 feet.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Sunfish & white bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: 21 August 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: With a 5-year-old guest who had never been on a boat and who had never caught a fish before, I chose to keep it very simple this morning. We fished in shallow water with bait and slipfloats for sunfish for a mess of smaller fish (35, including bluegill, longear, and redear sunfish, a largemouth bass, and a smallmouth bass). When the heat cranked up and the interest level declined, we had snacks and went downrigging, landing our final five fish of the trip — all white bass taken on 3-armed umbrella rigs with balls set at 23′ over a deeper bottom and using Pet Spoons on the umbrella rigs.

TALLY: 40 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Here was the temperature profile I measured:

0 feet 86.5

5 feet 87.5

10 feet 87.8

15 feet 87.8

20 feet 87.8

25 feet 87.8

30 feet 87.8

35 feet 87.2

40 feet 84.8

45 feet 81.9

50 feet 79.6

55 feet 77.4

60 feet 75.3

65 feet 73.1

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50am

End Time: 10:30am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Elevation: 0.31 low, 0.01′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW3-4 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, unhazed blue sky.

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 422 – sunfish (2 hops)

**Area SH0127c- sunfish

**Area 716 – center of mass for downrigging at late morning for 5 white bass at 23′ over a deeper bottom

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)