Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Fishin’ With His Grandpa Mike — 38 Fish @ Stillhouse

March 24th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning I welcomed U.S. Army retiree Mike Fagan and his grandson, Nathan Houston (age 11) aboard for a morning of white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow. Mike’s mom, Dee Heffernan presented this trip to Mike as a gift back before Christmas 2018.

Mike served both as a trainer and as a mechanic while in the military and now is working in a second career as a hydraulic lift mechanic for Altec aerial devices commonly seen in use on cable TV and phone company vehicles. Nathan is a student in the Florence Independent School District and is playing center field and pitching for his baseball team.

The two have fished together regularly, so, Nathan was more advanced than most 11-year-olds when it came to casting, retrieving, playing fish, etc., which certainly helped today.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: 11-year-old Nathan Houston and his grandfather “Papa” Mike Fagan with a few of the 38 fish we landed on a grey, breezy early spring day on Stillhouse Hollow. The fish on the far left of the photo went over 14″.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: 23 March 2019

HOW WE FISHED: We spent most of our first 2.5 hours in water shallower than 22 feet mixing it up between slabs fished vertically and bladebaits cast horizontally with the slabs producing better than the blades. Our last 2.5 hours were spent over deeper, 34′ water in a segment of river channel working bottom-oriented and suspended fish with slabs assisted by Garmin LiveScope. Bottom-oriented fish were definitely easier to tempt than were suspenders today. Helpful bird action existed most of the first 5-hours following sunrise.

OBSERVATIONS: Fishing bounced back a bit today over yesterday’s tough situation. Fish fed moderately and steadily throughout the morning, helped by the low light extended by cloud cover. The most notable observation today was the speed at which I saw suspended fish moving in that there was a noticeable uptick, which I’m sure relates to the water temperature climbing to its highest thus far this season. Despite these fish moving quickly, I also noted that these suspended fish were much more difficult to tempt than fish coming in on bottom, and were also more difficult to tempt than slower suspended fish have been in the past few weeks when temperatures were lower.

TALLY: 38 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 0.19 feet high with a 0.10 foot 24-hour drop

Water Surface Temp: 61.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-13 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover with just the lightest bit of drizzle on 2 brief occasions

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic SH0092C – first stop under low-light and with minor bird action for active whites in 18′

**Area SH0104C – 2 short hops for shallow, active fish in ~20′

**Area SH0101C – a few fish down in this gut

**Area SH0105C – last 2 hours of fishing came in 5 short hops in this area over the channel for both bottom-oriented fish and moving, suspended fish

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE — 18 FISH @ BELTON

March 23rd, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday afternoon I fished with returning guest Steve Stewart of Georgetown, TX. Steve brought two buddies, Jerry Weathers and Jimmy Helm, with him. The three men have been friends since boyhood, all originally coming to know one another through the church they attended as boys and still attend to this day. All are “actively retired”, either still engaged in the work they once did full time, and/or engaged in other pursuits requiring effort and energy.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jimmy Helm, Steve Stewart, and Jerry Weathers, each with a Lake Belton freshwater drum on this evening that did not give up either quantity or quality of white bass for us.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 22 March 2019

HOW WE FISHED: Thanks to yet another morning which was forecast to be calm, clear, bright, and cool (and, in hindsight, was exactly that), I checked if all three men might be able to make an afternoon trip instead, as we were to have better winds, higher temperatures, and more cloud cover, all of which typically improve the fishing.

We did see those favorable conditions develop, but the bite was very slow this afternoon. Despite the presence of gulls and terns, we never once saw an instance of them flocking over a patch of water to feed on gamefish-driven bait. We also never found (on sonar) more than just a handful of fish at any given area. The fish we did find typically did bite, but, once we landed 2 or 3, the gig was up and we had to move to keep our strings stretched.

In the end, we landed bigger and better drum than we did white bass or hybrid, so, to commemorate the trip, we took a photo with what we had on hand — I think they call that improvising.

Interestingly enough, I compared notes with a fellow guide who fished Decker Lake today. He reported just a single bite while fishing from before sunrise to after 2pm there. He had reached out to others in his network who reported slow fishing on Buchanan yesterday, as well. Then, as I stopped at a local gas station to top off after the trip, I spoke with a fellow angler who had been fishing in the Lampasas River for spawning white bass. He said the most anyone caught of there was 6 or 8 fish. He had also touched base with some buddies, one of which had fished Texoma and the other Lake Whitney. They, too, told him the fishing was poor.

I don’t know what accounted for this. I suppose if we understood fish as well as we wished, we’d have exploited them to the brink of extinction by now, so, a little uncertainty is probably a good thing now and then!?!

OBSERVATIONS:

TALLY: 18 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:15p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 69F

Elevation: 0.34 feet high with a 0.06 foot 24-hour drop

Water Surface Temp: 60.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE11-13 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 60-70% grey cloud cover

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0007

**Area B09145C

**Area 1856

**Area vic B0106C

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

LEARNING, AND UN-LEARNING — 53 FISH

March 20th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 20 March, I fished with Mr. Tommy Maedgen of Troy, TX. Tommy retired from life as a “shop” teacher in the Temple Independent School District where he taught woodworking, metalworking, small engine repair, and more. Tommy’s wife, Sylvia, was to join us today, but duty (in the form of Master Gardener responsibilities) called, and she was not able to make this outing.

PHOTO CAPTION: Tommy Maedgen of Troy, TX, with two fistfuls of chunky Stillhouse white bass taken from out of 36 feet of water as the wind rose and cloud cover moved in.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: 20 March 2019

HOW WE FISHED: This morning’s trip divided neatly into two parts. The first part was a slow, shallow water bite from sunrise until around 9:30a, during which time we had little wind and little cloud cover. During this time we threw bladebaits in under 17 feet of water to scattered white bass up feeding on shallow flats where life is getting more and more abundant with the lengthening days and (slowly) warming water. We landed a total of 18 fish using 1/2 oz. opaque Cicada bladebaits. This included 1, 2, and 3 year class white bass, and 3 drum.

Part 2 of our morning began around 9:30a when a light WNW breeze began to ripple the surface and some patchy white and grey cloud cover began to move in from the WSW. During this time a “slug” of mature, migrating white bass moved upstream in a segment of the Lampasas River channel. These fish were all tight to the bottom but were able to be “teased” up off the bottom using an “easing” tactic in combination with the Hazy Eye Slab/Stinger combination (white, 3/8 oz.). Tommy and I stood (and later sat) shoulder-to-shoulder with our eyes glued to the Garmin GPSMAP1242xsv Touch which was displaying the information fed to it by the LiveScope transducer I have transom-mounted to view down the starboard side of my center console. As we viewed the screen together, I coached him on what it would take to consistently fool fish into biting. As a long-time largemouth angler, Tommy not only had to learn some new tricks, but he also had to unlearn some old ones, especially in the area of aggressive hooksetting. In the end, he was consistently fooling, hooking, and landing solid white bass. His enthusiastic parting words were, “Thank you, Bob, I really learned a lot today!”.

OBSERVATIONS: Lots of observations today: 1) I spotted sunfish in the shallows for the first time since they vacated last fall. 2) During the period of calm prior to 9:30am there was more “action” on the surface of the lake today, indicating life is shifting upward and shoreward. 3) I witnessed multiple instances of pods of white bass chasing our bladebaits both when schoolmates were hooked and when the lure was coming back without a hooked fish. 4) Several of the white bass we landed were oozing milt or eggs. 5) Based on credible reports, we ought to have both pre-spawn and post-spawn white bass in the lake any time now.

TALLY: 53 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time: 11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F

Elevation: 0.42 feet high with a 0.15 foot 24-hour drop

Water Surface Temp: 59.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NW9 at trip’s start, tapering to NE1-3 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: 70% thin grey clouds which burnt off by 10am

GT = 30

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic SH099C, vic SH0091C, vic SH0100C, and vic SH0101C — shallow blade bait action

**Area SH0102C and SH0103C – vertical work for deep fish in conjunction with LiveScope

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

WHILE BEATING THE BUSHES FOR FISH, WE FOUND THIS …

March 19th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday morning I fished with James and Will Schnitker. James has been a part of the radiology department at Scott & White for over 30 years. His son, Will, came home from college up in Wichita Falls for Spring Break, and the two spent a part of that together in the outdoors with me in pursuit of fish on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Yep, just when we thought we anglers were safe from all the political shenanigans, “they” sent out the black helicopters to spy on us! We spotted this unusual sight on the small island just across the Leon River channel from Morgan’s Point Marina. Hmmmm…

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 18 March 2019

HOW WE FISHED: The tough fishing which has persisted since last Wednesday continued on today, along with the cold temperatures resulting from clear overnight skies. Add in a wind with a northerly component, and precious little of it, and there is a recipe for a tough morning of fishing.

James, Will, and I boated a total of 27 fish this morning by grinding it out on bottom and vertical jigging. Although we used Garmin LiveScope, it did not help in putting extra suspended fish in the boat as there were simply no fish suspending this morning. Everything we caught came off bottom and very few fish moved in from around us. We essentially caught just the few fish I first spotted on sonar when we first stopped at a location, then had to keep moving as no additional fish were drawn to the commotion of schoolmates being reeled in.

OBSERVATIONS: The tough bite continued today. No bird action, chilly north winds, clearing and calming conditions all led to very tough fishing once again today (and since last Wednesday when the temperatures dropped sharply.

TALLY: 27 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 41F

Elevation: 1.1 feet high with a 0.15 foot 24-hour drop

Water Surface Temp: 56.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NW9 at trip’s start, tapering to NE1-3 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: 70% thin grey clouds which burnt off by 10am

GT = 50

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0110

**Area B0144

**Area B0116

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

A GLIMMER OF HYBRID HOPE — 55 FISH @ BELTON

March 18th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday I fished with Michael and Tanya Baird of China Spring, TX, their sons, Preston Rieger and Keegan Baird, and Preston’s girlfriend, Meagan Davis.

As fate would have it, Michael works at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Inland Fisheries office in Waco, which is the office which has responsibility for the majority of our Central Texas reservoirs, including Belton and Stillhouse. Michael has been an instrumental part of the team which does the sampling, stocking, monitoring, etc. on our lakes for several years now. His wife, Tanya, works for a property management company. Preston is an E-4 in the U.S. Army where he works on diesel-powered equipment out of Ft. Stewart, GA, Meagan is in college working toward becoming a teacher, and Keegan is working his way through elementary school.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Meagan Davis, Michael Baird, Tanya Baird, Keegan Baird, and Preston Rieger, each with a “keeper” hybrid of 18+ inches which fell for my small, 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slab/Stinger combination this past Saturday on Lake Belton.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday evening, 16 March 2019

HOW WE FISHED: All of our action on this trip took place in the last two of the four hours we fished. It was during this time that the brilliant sun which shone from 3:15 to 5:15p was muted by cloud cover moving from SW to NE. This thin, grey layer cut the light levels which got fish moving and feeding and invigorated the birds to begin flying, thus giving away the position of the fish we were after.

We first started catching fish via snap-jigging for fish that were tight to bottom and reluctant to move far or fast to feed. Slowly, I began to notice fish moving up in the water column. I got the LiveScope turned on and mimicked the screen of my GPSMAP 1242xsv Touch on a second screen (a 12.9″ iPad) so everyone had a view of what was going on beneath the boat. As the birds turned on, we moved to the action and were treated to steady catching from about 6:15p to 7:30p.

One one occasion, as we were catching white bass from 25 feet deep down to bottom over a 40-foot bottom, a group of signatures came in on the LiveScope up around 17′ deep. These were larger, darker targets and were moving with a purpose — much more quickly than the white bass which were just milling around.

These turned out to be hybrid stripers. We hooked up with 5 at a time, and wound up catching a total of 7 before the pack moved on and we returned to catching white bass. It was nothing short of a miracle that a boatload of 5 people using light spinning gear landed 5 of 5 hybrid without tangling in other lines, the outboard, or the trolling motor, but, everyone listened to the coaching I tried to provide and it went really smoothly.

Honestly, we were in a good area at a great time and got these fish. There really was no trend to find, and I had little confidence even after seeing how and when these fish came in to the boat that I could continue putting clients on hybrid this early on. My “opening day” for hybrid this year will be Tuesday, 09 April, and that may even be a bit too optimistic. We’ll see. Bottom line: I’m glad we caught these hybrid, but I think we are still a good ways away from seeing these fish turn on to live bait and go gangbusters.

After the “hybrid hustle” we finished out the trip gunning for additional white bass feeding in the lower 1/2 of the water column in ~32 feet of water under a second flock of birds we spotted.

Every fish we caught today came on the Hazy Eye Slab/Stinger combination.

OBSERVATIONS:

TALLY: 55 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:15p

End Time: 7:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 1.31 feet high with a 0.02 foot 24-hour drop

Water Surface Temp: 57.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NE3 at trip’s start, picking up to NE6-8 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Nearly cloudless blue skies through 5:15p, then a bank of high, thin, grey clouds moved in from the SW to NE and aided our efforts

GT = 90

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0141C

**Area B0131C / B0133C

**Area B0142C to B0143C

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

POST-FRONTAL FISHING WITH THE PENNINGTONS — 32 FISH

March 17th, 2019March 17th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning I fished with returning guest Brian Pennington of Harker Heights, and his adult sons Eric and Alex. Brian has been working at the Operational Test Command (OTC) at West Fort Hood for many years testing military equipment before turning it over to our troops to use. Following his graduation from Texas A&M in College Station, Eric went to work for the A&M library at that campus, and Alex is in pursuit of his bachelor degree at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Alex, Brian, and Eric Pennington with some fat, healthy Stillhouse Hollow white bass taken under tough, post-frontal conditions characterized by clear skies, light winds, and low temperatures.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 16 March 2019

HOW WE FISHED: As I wrapped up my evening trip at Lake Belton the night before this trip, the NOAA weather forecast painted a pretty grim picture of bright, cold, calm conditions. Seeing this, I phoned the Pennington’s, explained what I saw and how such conditions typically negatively impact the fishing, and gave them the option of cancelling, rescheduling, or going forward with the trip as planned. With his boys now being out on their own, coordinating time together is difficult, so, Brian chose to press on with our plans.

We were fortunate in that the weather that was forecast did not actually come to fruition until about 75 minutes before our planned wrap-up time of 11:30. During that final portion of the trip, the fishing tapered to zero and just finding fish to fish for was challenging.

During the first part of the trip, however, we were blessed to have some unexpected grey cloud cover. This allowed for a light morning feed. We found fish with the help of birds for about the first 2 hours, then relied on sonar for our fish-finding after the bird action died off.

The white bass I’m finding in shallower water very much seem to be in small packs of 3-8 fish each, not in larger schools which allow you to sit in one place and catch with steady regularity. Thus, we used the “jog” function on the Minn Kota Ulterra quite extensively today, catching a few, then moving a few boat-lengths to access “new” water, catching a few more, and so on.

We used Cicada blade baits for the majority of our catching today, although the fish are still sluggish and we got a lot of short strikes and missed fish thanks to a lack of aggressive pursuit of these lures. Never did we have a hooked fish come to the boat accompanied by schoolmates, which is common when fish are more aggressive in warmer water.

OBSERVATIONS: Most bird action was focused on dead/wounded bluegill, not yet on shad.

TALLY: 32 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 44F

Elevation: 0.46 feet high with a .05 foot 24-hour rise

Water Surface Temp: 56.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NE3 at trip’s start, picking up to NE6-8 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Light grey skies due to overrunning moisture coming from the SSW right at sunrise gave us about 2.5 hours of cloud cover, which then cleared about the time the birds quit and the fishing got progressively tougher.

GT = 50

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0099C – snap-jigging and blades

**Area 730/SH0089C – blades until the birds quit

**Area vic 052 – snap-jigging as the skies cleared and the bite died

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

DEAD FISH (GRILL) – 55 FISH WITH THE WELCH CLAN

March 17th, 2019March 17th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday afternoon I welcomed aboard Josh and Steve Welch and their mom, Carol Welch. Josh makes his living in the land development/building field here in Central Texas, Steve is pursuing credentials in the field of computer science from TSTC in Waco, and Carol, among other things, works on keeping her boys in line.

No sooner had the trip started than a 4-hour long debate over where to go eat dinner ensued. There was no style of food, price point, or locale which didn’t get consideration. In the end, proximity beat out all other variables, and my wind-chilled, hungry fishing friends headed to the Dead Fish Grill directly.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Josh, Carol, and Steve Welch with a nice Lake Belton largemouth bass which was holding in some isolated cover we got near as we vertically jigged for white bass.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday evening, 15 March

HOW WE FISHED: Thanks to continued cool weather and persistent northerly winds, the fishing is still not where it could be by this point in the season. We were fortunate to have manageable wind velocity from the NE, and, best of all, some grey cloud cover for the majority of the trip.

We used vertical tactics the entire trip, scoring on both snap-jigging when the fish were bottom-oriented, and on slow smoking when the fish were suspended (and typically accompanied by bird action above). Whenever we encountered suspended fish we put the Garmin LiveScope into action and were therefore able to be precise in our presentations to individual fish.

As has become the norm, a significant portion of our catch consisted of freshwater drum, but the majority of our catch of 55 fish was still made up of white bass. We also managed 2 largemouth bass. All fish were taken on my Hazy Eye Slab/Stinger combination.

OBSERVATIONS: Starting to see threadfin shad in great numbers in the upper 15′ of the water column.

TALLY: 55 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:15p

End Time: 7:25p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 1.34 feet high, with a 0.09 foot rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 58F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NNE13 at trip’s start, tapering to NNE6

Sky Conditions: Grey skies due to overrunning moisture coming from the SSW in the face of a NNE wind

GT = 10

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0110C

**Area B0007C

**Area B0131C

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THE “DRUM MAJORS” FROM HOUSTON — 34 FISH WITH THE CRIDERS

March 15th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This third day of Spring Break fishing I welcomed aboard the Crider family from Houston. James Crider’s mom (from Austin) treated him to this trip for his birthday. Accompanying him this afternoon was his wife, Lisa, and their three kids, Avery (14), Olivia (11), and Jacob (9).

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: The “drum majors” – Olivia, Avery, Jacob, James, and Lisa. As very high pressure built in following the passage of two cold fronts in rapid succession, freshwater drum seemed much more amenable to biting than did any other species. Of the 34 fish landed on this trip, about half were drum, with white bass, largemouth, and blue cat filling out the balance.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday evening, 14 March

HOW WE FISHED: This afternoon’s trip was a shorter one in that we stopped at 6:25 instead of 7:30 due to a prior commitment the Crider’s had. I was concerned about our efforts after having a really tough trip on Stillhouse this morning. I found fish at only one of the several places I searched for them, and wound up fishing that area twice. The area was in 46 feet of water on a gentle roll down into deeper water. The fish were all very tight to the bottom and heavily congregated and included a lot of freshwater drum and small white bass. In fact, we probably landed as many non-white bass species (drum, largemouth, bluecat) as we did white bass this afternoon.

After this area stopped producing by around 5pm, I went and quickly checked a number of areas with sonar, finding very scant results. After letting the area described above rest for a bit, we returned and continued catching fish, although the fish were not as aggressive on this second visit.

All but one fish was taken via snap-jigging on the 3/8 oz., white Hazy Eye Slab/Stinger. The one exception was a small white bass taken on an easing tactic.

OBSERVATIONS: High pressure and high winds following a double cold front was more than the fish were willing to deal with; we had a very tough morning.

TALLY: 34 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:15p

End Time: 6:25p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 1.19 feet high, with a 0.27 foot rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 58F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NNW16 at trip’s start, tapering to NNW12

Sky Conditions: Bright “blue bird”, nearly cloudless skies

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0070C (fished this area twice with about an hour in between after it stopped producing on our first visit).

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

3 GENERATIONS OF HANLONS – 13 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

March 15th, 2019March 15th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This third day of Spring Break fishing I welcomed aboard Stephen Hanlon, his adult son, Tavish Hanlon, and Tavish’s nine-year-old son, Conner Hanlon.

Steve is retired from the Veterans’ Administration, Tavish is a driver for Mission Foods, and Jacob is an aspiring marine biologist.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Conner, Tavish, and Steve Hanlon — 3 generations aboard for Spring Break 2019.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, 14 March

HOW WE FISHED: If you follow my reports, you know I “call ’em like I see ’em” without sugarcoating or fluff. Today we had a very tough time with very limited results. With the passage of 2 cold fronts in under 24 hours, the fish just called a time out and were hard to find, although we did catch fish when we found them.

I never hesitate to postpone a trip if I feel our chances of catching fish are going to be greatly diminished by weather. Although the forecast for this morning was accurate, looking back I overestimated the potential for the morning due to the limited temperature drop that we were to experience. The high winds and high pressure definitely trumped the mild cool down, and the fish just turned off.

Our go-to tactic was snap-jigging with small slabs, although before the wind came up and while the light level was still low, we were able to pick up two white bass and a single largemouth in under 17 feet of water by casting Cicada bladebaits.

OBSERVATIONS: High pressure and high winds following a double cold front was more than the fish were willing to deal with; we had a very tough morning.

TALLY: 13 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:50am

End Time: 12:15pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 0.19 feet high, with a 0.09 foot rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 57.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NNW16-18

Sky Conditions: Bright “blue bird”, nearly cloudless skies

GT = 50

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 106/1167 – low light slabbing

**Area SH0075C – blades

**Area SH0085C – 570 – deep slabbing

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com