Fishing Report

 

WHO I FISHED WITH:  The Calzado kids — Gregory (11), Gionni (10), and Ciana (7), whose father, US Army Staff Sergeant Gregory Calzado who was recently assigned to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.  This was a SKIFF trip provided to this family at no charge thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers.

 

 

From left: Gregory, Cici, and Gionni Calzado with a sampling of the 52 fish they landed on a balmy mid-October Texas morning.

Gionni Calzado with his largest fish of the trip — a 3 year class white bass taken on a Pet Spoon.

Ciana (Cici) Calzado with her largest fish of the trip — a 3 year class white bass taken on the downriggers.

Gregory Calzado with one of several largemouth bass we landed as a by-catch as we targeted white bass.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 14 October

HOW WE FISHED:   Primarily via downrigging, with occasional pauses over top of bottom-oriented white bass to work tailspinners for them vertically.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:  “Homefront” spouses with a husband or wife away from home on military duty (not just deployments) are welcomed to call me at 254.368.7411 to arrange for free 4-hour outing for your children.  Homefront parents are always welcome to attend, but are equally welcome to take some downtime from their own children and leave them in my care for this time on the water.  This is all made possible through the sponsorship and work of the Austin Fly Fishers and the supportive allies they have developed along the way.

TALLY: 52 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  76.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S3-7

Sky Conditions:  ~60% grey cloud cover tapering off to 40% light grey cover by the end of  the trip

Water Level: 1.36 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1150 – 20 fish on tailspinners fished vertically

**Area vic 2021 – 22 fish on downriggers

 

 

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

 

 

WHO I FISHED WITH: DK and his 5-year-old daughter, SK, preferred to be unnamed and have no photos shown on the internet due to privacy concerns.  Therefore, I’m only posting this on my blog for future reference on the locations at which I found fish under these conditions at this time of year.

 

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, 12 October

HOW WE FISHED:  Fishing was tough this morning under bright, calm, high pressure conditions.  We were supposed to have a SE wind at ~10 replace the calm high pressure, but that did not materialize until later in the trip.  We picked up 19 mostly small white bass on downriggers in our first 90 minutes, then gave vertical work a try using tailspinner for about another hour, with scant results (6 more white bass).  We finished up using slipfloats for the last 45 minutes and added 18 fish to our tally to end on a engaging note for my young client.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 

TALLY: 43 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Water Surface Temp: 76.9

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable, under 3mph

Sky Conditions:  <10% white cloud cover the entire trip

Water Level: 1.33 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1987-1179 downrigging for 19 fish

**Area  2022 – vertical tail spinners for 6 white bass

**Area 203 for 18 sunfish

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: US Army Major Theresa Marie Long and her two children, Joshua (age 4) and Abigail (age 8).  Theresa is a field surgeon assigned to Darnall Army Medical Center on Ft. Hood.  Her husband, Lieutentant Colonel Jeff Long, is the commander of the 2/149 General Support Aviation Battalion currently serving in Southwest Asia.  This was the 22nd free SKIFF program trip of the 2017 season the Austin Fly Fishers have provided to our military community.

Abigail Long with a “triple”!  She landed 3 fish at a time as we downrigged a slow tapering point just prior to sunset.  She was obviously a little unsure about holding these fish any closer for a photo!

4-year-old Josh Long and his mom, Major Theresa Marie Long, with one of the better white bass they teamed up to catch on tailspinners early in our trip.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday evening, 11 October

HOW WE FISHED:  Since this was an after work/after school trip, we had a shorter-than-normal time to get on the water, find fish, show the kids what to do, and put fish in the boat.  Fortunately, the first 2 hours of daylight and the last 2 hours of daylight tend to be the most productive of the day anyway, and today was no exception.  We drove about 200 yards from the boat ramp, graphed active white bass on a breakline in about 34 feet of water and put exactly 20 fish in the boat in just over an hour (with plenty of missed fish and fish that flipped off at boatside, to boot) using tailspinners fished vertically.  When this school simmered down, we moved another 300 yards and fished a point with a moderate taper using downriggers after sonar revealed fish pushing higher in the water column to take advantage of the greater amount of light there as sunset approached.  We put another 22 fish in the boat as we caught singles, doubles, and even a triple for Abigail, all using Pet Spoons on 3-armed umbrella rigs.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:  “Homefront” spouses with a husband or wife away from home on military duty (not just deployments) are welcomed to call me at 254.368.7411 to arrange for free 4-hour outing for your children.  Homefront parents are always welcome to attend, but are equally welcome to take some downtime from their own children and leave them in my care for this time on the water.  This is all made possible through the sponsorship and work of the Austin Fly Fishers and the supportive allies they have developed along the way.

TALLY: 64 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 5:00p

End Time: 7:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp: 78.4

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable, under 3mph

Sky Conditions:  <10% white cloud cover the entire trip

Water Level: 1.33 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1150 – 20 fish on tailspinners fished vertically

**Area vic 2021 – 22 fish on downriggers

 

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Andy Maindelle from north Austin, and Devon, a 17-year-old young man that Andy and his wife, Amy, are providing foster care for.

The ominous northwestern sky as we came off the water in advance of a cold front that swept into Texas on Monday evening. As it got dark, this cloud mass lit up with lightning on a continuous basis.

From left: Andy Maindelle and his foster son, Devon, age 17.  Devon had had pretty limited exposure to the outdoors until recently and did really well fishing vertically for the white bass we boated tonight, primarily using tailspinners.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday evening, 09 October (Columbus Day)

HOW WE FISHED:  The first two hours were very slow with just a handful of fish picked up on downriggers.  Things started to coalesce around 4:45p when I found a widespread, suspended school of white bass working shad around mid-depth over a 40′ flat.  We put a dozen fish in the boat before they dissipated.  We moved on and did well in the final 2 hours of the evening finding well-grouped, bottom-hugging white bass in two distinct areas quite willing to strike tailspinners worked vertically, especially on the first several drops after arriving at a new location (as we “spot hopped” with the Jog function of the Ulterra once I found fish in a general location).

OBSERVATIONS:  As has been the case for most of the summer, white bass were sure to be found wherever largemouth were working bait on the surface in open water. 

TALLY: 64 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:00p

End Time: 7:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 83F

Water Surface Temp:

Wind Speed & Direction:  WSW11 at trip’s start, then tapering down to WSW6 by dusk

Sky Conditions:  <10% white cloud cover the entire trip

Water Level: 1.22 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 074-2384 -downrigging over a widespread, suspended school of white bass working shad around mid-depth over a 40′ flat.

**Area 520-630, then 139-697 – spot hopping as topwater largemouth pointed the way to white bass below; using tailspinners

**Area 2021 – a “last light” bite in ~33′ using tailspinners

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: 16 year old Keyshawn Price and 13 year old Christijan Steven — brothers from Killeen, TX.  Their trip was “scholarshipped” by their next door neighbor, Marcy Brown, who thinks very highly of these two young men.

Thanks to a little disturbance in the weather which brought a light NW breeze and cloud cover, observing the surface for fish feeding on topwater lead to great sub-surface results this afternoon — 90 fish in all.

After doing well at vertical jigging, Keyshawn gave sight-casting to topwater feeding largemouth a try.  In doing so, he landed our largest fish of the trip.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday evening, 07 October

HOW WE FISHED:
The fish were really cranked up this afternoon, thanks to a mild weather disturbance and some grey, overcast skies.  Topwater action was abundant and widespread, and pointed the way to even better sub-surface action.  We immediately got onto, and stayed on, heavily congregated white bass in 47 feet.  Each time the fishing got slow, I took a couple serpentine passes into gradually shallower water and found them (four times) just as heavily congregated.  We only stopped using tailspinners to fish vertically because the boys’ wrists were getting sore, so, we cast the bladebaits and fished them lift-drop style, then closed out the evening downrigging both where we had fished all afternoon, and at one additional location for the last 25 minutes of light.

OBSERVATIONS:  Second consecutive day witnessing migrating white pelicans; flock of migrating teal are now commonplace.

TALLY: 90 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  83

Water Surface Temp:  79.4

Wind Speed & Direction:  NW3-5

Sky Conditions:  20% white cloud cover at sunrise, increasing to under 30% by trip’s end

Water Level: 1.22 feet low

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2019, then progressively shallower to to a line from 1882 through 664 – vertical work

**Area vic 088 through 1439 downrigging in the last 25 minutes of daylight

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Californian-turned-Texan Eric Balders now living in Marlin, TX, after moving from Chula Vista, CA, to work in the aerospace industry here.

 

Eric Balders caught the first white bass of his life today, and used a Carolina rig to catch his first largemouth on such a rig, thus opening doors to more than just fishing visible cover for that species.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass in the first 3 hours, then on largemouth bass for the remainder of the trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 07 October

HOW WE FISHED: Eric’s hope was to recalibrate from the saltwater fishing he’d grown accustomed to in California where he pursued yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, and yellowtail, over to freshwater fishing.  We split the trip into two distinct parts involving a focus on white bass early, then a focus on largemouth towards the end.  While fishing for white bass, we used downriggers, tailspinners, and slabs (smoking and easing).  After some limited success on downriggers, we found a cooperative school of white bass that “stayed put” for nearly two hours allowing us to tally exactly 51 fish before we set our sights on largemouth. Eric had never before landed a white bass.

From just before 10am to our wrap-up around noon, I coached Eric on the use of a Carolina rig to help him access other than shallow water fish at his new “home” lake of Tradinghouse Reservoir, near Waco.  At our first of 4 stops Eric felt a largemouth take his bait, responded quickly by taking up slack and doing a sweeping hookset, and then hooked and landed his first largemouth on a Carolina rig.

OBSERVATIONS:  Compared to Thursday and Friday’s topwater action, this morning’s topwater action was much reduced.  The bite also began later today, not really getting going until around 8:15 versus right at 7:30 on Thursday and around 7:45 on Friday.

TALLY: 53 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:00noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  70

Water Surface Temp:  78.8

Wind Speed & Direction:  SW5-7

Sky Conditions:  20% white cloud cover at sunrise, increasing to under 30% by trip’s end

Water Level: 1.22 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1998 sparse success on downriggers

**Area 2020 – 0.5 hours of solid white bass action on tailspinners

**Area 1027/1029 – ~1.5 hours of solid white bass action on tailspinners

**Area 771, 680, 534, and 675 – Carolina rig for 2 fish at 771

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Shaun Trinkle of Harker Heights, TX, and his two sons, Bradley (age 6) and Wyatt (age 4).   Shaun is on active duty in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Hood, and is originally from Virginia.

 

Bradley Trinkle with one of many white bass he brought over the gunwales today.

“Okay, Mr. Bob, take the picture any time now.  The sun is killin’ me!!”   — Wyatt Trinkle with a 2-year class white bass.

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass in the first 2.5 hours, then on sunfish in the last 45 minutes.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday morning, 06 October

HOW WE FISHED: Given the boys’ age and limited experience, we used downriggers as long as the boys stayed interested in that method.  Once the novelty wore off (about the same time the first two areas we fished successfully began to taper off), we changed over to vertical tactics using tailspinners over a very cooperative school of deep white bass mixed with a few small largemouth in 47′.  We wrapped up with a round of shallow water sunfishing around weeds/rocks/brush for the last 45 minutes of the trip.

OBSERVATIONS:

TALLY: 76 FISH, all caught and released, including 48 white bass, 2 largemouth bass, and 26 sunfish

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  71

Water Surface Temp:  78.9

Wind Speed & Direction:  S5-8

Sky Conditions:  10% white cloud cover at sunrise, increasing to under 20% by trip’s end

Water Level: 1.21 feet low

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1523-1715 – low light downrigging with balls set at 36-38′ through 8:35a

**Area 074-1278 – downrigging with balls set at 30-32′ through 9:15a

**Area 2018 – tailspinners for white bass and 2 largemouth through 10:05a

**Area 667 – sunfish on slipfloats up shallow for 26 fish through 11:00a

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Mr. Todd Smith of Belton and his mother-in-law, Juanice Hamm, of Temple.  Juanice used to live in the Brookhaven Community which was on the south bank of Cowhouse Creek before Camp Hood came along in the 1940’s.  Todd makes a living selling Coca-Cola products locally.

 

Todd Smith of Belton and his mother-in-law, Juanice Hamm of Temple, enjoyed a half-day outing in pursuit of primarily white bass on Stillhouse.  Juanice’s daughter, Tina Smith, presented a fishing gift certificate to her mom and husband for Christmas 2016 and today was the day they chose to redeem it.

As the bite was winding down at the first place we had success at using vertical tactics, catfish and drum moved in to clean up the feces and regurgitated shad left on the bottom by the heavily feeding white bass we caught over the previous hour.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 02 October

HOW WE FISHED:  Our first hour was spent downrigging successfully over 40-50 feet of water for fish that were suspended.  We set our downrigger balls at 36-38 feet for fish that were at, or just slightly deeper than, this depth.  Our second hour saw a halt to natural activity (no birds, no bait moving, no fish on sonar, etc.) as a murky, grey cloud bank moved over and reduced the light to pre-dawn levels.  By 9:15 this murk began to clear and the bite picked up again, allowing us to catch fish consistently from out of bottom-hugging schools with vertical tactics.

OTHER NOTES/OBSERVATIONS:  Noted abundant, widespread largemouth bass schooling action in a number of open water areas both this morning and this afternoon, with more action in the PM than in the AM.

TALLY: 62 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Water Surface Temp: 78.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE under 5 for first 2 hours, then SE at 10-11 with slowly clearing skies for the last 2 hours

Sky Conditions: The morning started out with a grey cloud bank in the east through which the sun would rise.  Just about the time the sun was clearing this cloud bank (around 8:15) our conditions got quickly murky with dark, low, grey clouds under low-wind conditions.  The fish dropped off and we went for an hour just searching for fish unsuccessfully.  Once the clouds cleared and a breeze resumed around 9:15, we again got on active fish and stayed on them through the close of the trip just after 11:15.

Water Level: 1.36 feet low

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1523 through 590 — 19 fish in an hour’s effort using 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons and balls set at 36 and 38′.

**Area vic 470 — 19 fish in an hour’s effort from 9:15 to 10:15 using slabs with a smoking and easing tactic, and using tailspinners.

**Area vic 1034 — 24 fish in an hour’s effort from 10: 25 to 11:25 using slabs with a smoking and easing tactic, and using tailspinners.

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: 12-year-old Jayden Abbott and 10-year-old Tyler Nolen

 

12-year-old Jayden Abbott celebrated his birthday aboard my boat this afternoon, landing his fair share of the 91 fish that we caught.

 

10-year-old Tyler Nolen celebrated his birthday, as well, doing a bit more snacking than Jayden, but still holding his own in the fishing department.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday evening, 30 September

HOW WE FISHED:  Given that I’d only come off the lake from the morning trip about 5 hours before the start of this trip, and (more importantly) that the weather had not changed since the end of the morning trip, we essentially drove from the courtesy dock to the fish and had both boys tight on fish within minutes of saying goodbye to their dads in the parking lot.  The fishing stayed solid all afternoon as the winds stayed blowing as higher pressure and brighter skies prevailed.  We fished vertically for the first 3 hours with both slabs and tailspinners, then, mainly for variety’s sake, changed over to downrigging in the final hour.  All fish were caught between 36 and 43 feet on bottom.  The last 45 minutes prior to sunset saw the fish pull up off bottom by as much as 8-10 feet where we ran the downriggers at 32-36 feet to continue catching them right up until trip’s end at 7:15p.

OTHER NOTES/OBSERVATIONS:  Noted abundant, widespread largemouth bass schooling action in a number of open water areas both this morning and this afternoon, with more action in the PM than in the AM.

TALLY: 91 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15p

End Time: 3:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp: 80.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE under 10mph

Sky Conditions: Under 20% white cloud cover for the entire trip. First day of clearing after a mild cool front passed and then stalled, bringing cooler temperatures and about 2 days’ worth of rainy, humid weather.

Water Level: 1.32 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2014 – tailspinners accounted for exactly 35 fish from out of a heavily congregated school of fish on bottom.

**Area vic 1034 – tailspinners and slabs accounted for exactly 20 more fish

**Area 2016 and then Area 1993 to 2014 gave up a final 36 fish in the form of singles, doubles and triples (x2) on downrigged 3-armed umbrella rigs as fish moved up in the water column and shoreward as the light faded before and at sunset.

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle