Fishing Report

This past Saturday morning, March 11th, I fished with U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jay Bruns, his 16 year old son, Robbie, and Robbie’s buddy, 16 year old Trent Fly, all of Harker Heights.

From left: Robbie Bruns, Jay Bruns, and Trent Fly, all of Harker Heights, put 106 fish in the boat this March 11th morning on Stillhouse using a combination of fishing bladebaits for shallow fish, and slabs for deeper fish.

TALLY = 106 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm at sunrise and until 8:45a, then quickly ramping up to SSE12

Sky Conditions: Morning began with 30% clouds on a sunny skies at sunrise, slowly transitioning to grey skies to just shy of the point of drizzle by trip’s end

Water Level:  0.40 feet above full pool

GT =  15

WX SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Bob Maindelle

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

This past Friday morning, March 10th, I fished with Jaime Gonzalez, José Chapa, and Ruben Cavazos, all U.S. military retirees who had the opportunity to fish with me once before this past winter as we did some deep vertical jigging for white bass over on Stillhouse.

From left: Jaime Gonzales, Ruben Cavazos, and Jose Chapa, each with one of the many 18″+ “legal” hybrid we landed today on live shad.

Ruben Cavazos with a 7 pound bluecat that came up and chomped his live shad intended for a hybrid striper.

Jaime Gonzales with one of the three 22.75″, 6+ pound hybrid we boated today.

Jose Chapa with his first keeper hybrid of the morning.

This past Friday morning, March 10th, I fished with Jaime Gonzalez, José Chapa, and Ruben Cavazos, all U.S. military retirees who had the opportunity to fish with me once before this past winter as we did some deep vertical jigging for white bass over on Stillhouse.

During that trip, the trio asked me about different fishing opportunities on our local lakes through the various seasons. I let them know that the “next big thing” would be the tremendous hybrid striped bass bite that coincides with the threadfin shad spawn each spring.

Based on my recent successes in fishing “experimental” trips for hybrid using live shad last Thursday, and the Thursday before that, I felt confident in offering a live shad trip targeting hybrid at this point in the season.

Today was the first day this spring that I actually witnessed spawning threadfin shad. These fish were “running the bank” in shallow water and for quite some distance, thus, there is no doubt that they were truly spawning.

In hindsight, catching shad actually proved to be more difficult than catching the gamefish we landed with those shad, as I spent a good bit of time on the water prior to seeing this spawning activity attempting to collect sufficient bait for the trip.

I picked my crew up at 6:45 AM, and thanks to very calm conditions, we only picked up three fish in our first hour on the water. I made a move to more open water to try to take advantage of the little bit of movement the light breeze we had was creating. What I found was evidently sufficient, as once we buckled down on top of fish, we never had to move for the remaining three hours of our trip.

With our baits suspended between 25 and 27 feet deep over a deeper bottom, the hybrid bite started before all three men could get a single rod down. We never had a chance to put in a second rod at any point in the morning. The action was nonstop and the vast majority (over 75%) of the fish we caught were keeper hybrid striped bass. Very few hybrid we caught were undersized, and we caught a number of long, but thin, white bass, numerous smallish largemouth from 12 to 14 inches, two drum, a single smallmouth bass, and two catfish that measured 7 and 8 pounds respectively.

Our largest three hybrid all went 22.75 inches and just barely topped 6 pounds.

By the time 10:45 rolled around, the bite was waning, and my three guys were ready for lunch and a break. In summary, we landed three white bass in our first hour on the water under very calm conditions, and 142 quality fish on live shad with just the lightest of breeze blowing and some light gray cloud cover in the east when these fish started biting. Once they started, they simply would not quit. I am expecting good things to come for the next several weeks now.

TALLY = 145 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm at sunrise, then light ESE breeze at under 5mph for rest of AM

Sky Conditions: Under 10% white cloud cover on fair skies

Water Level:  0.40 feet above full pool

GT =  25

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Bob Maindelle

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

This past Saturday morning, March 4th, I fished with Tom Spence’s crew of six in pursuit of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.

From left: Chuck Smith, Nolan Smith, Heidi Spence, Jacob Spence, Tristan Early, and Tom Spence — all up and at ’em before 7am for some cool, early March white bass fishing.

TALLY = 113 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:20a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Water Surface Temp:  60.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE9-12

Sky Conditions: Grey skies to the point of occasional drizzle

Water Level:  0.64 feet above full pool

GT =  30

WX SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Bob Maindelle

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

This past Friday morning, March 3rd, I fished a morning trip on Lake Belton with old college buddies Bob Isbell of Temple, and Robert Hoppe from the Austin area. The two went to the University of Texas in Arlington and have remained friends ever since.

From left: Bob Isbell and Robert Hoppe fished with me this past Friday, March 3rd, on what would be the 2nd intentional attempt I’ve made at targeting hybrid stripers on live shad thus far in the 2017 season.  We wound up with 133 fish, of which ~20 surpassed the 18″ “legal” threshold.

Robert Hoppe took our largest hybrid of the trip between around 7:45 am as this 4.75 pounder fell for his shad fished off bottom in 28′.
Today would be the second trip in this 2017 season in which I specifically targeted hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake using live shad.

I was a bit concerned about our wind situation as the forecast called for light winds in the 3 to 5 mph range during the first 90 minutes after sunrise. The winds were then due to pick up to the 9 to 10 mph range for the remainder of the trip. Bob and Robert showed up promptly just before our 6:45 AM start. From that time and until 9 AM we targeted hybrids using shad. We made two stops, caught 37 fish, of which 8 were “keeper” hybrid of 18+ inches in length. We also caught about the same number of short hybrid, as well as white bass, one crappie, one largemouth, and two blue cats. During this time, we had a gentle west northwest wind blowing sufficiently to ripple the surface.  At 9 AM, that wind completely stopped. The surface of the lake got glassy calm, and the sun shone brightly through a cloudless sky – – the very worst of all fishing conditions. To combat this, I headed into the deepest water I could find fish in and, from 9:20 AM through 10 AM we parked on top of a group of deep white bass which readily fell for our slabbing presentation in 48 feet of water.

In under an hour we put 63 white bass in the boat, most of which were smaller one year old class fish with a few two-year class fish mixed in. During the time we were slabbing for these whites, a nice east southeast wind began to build. At 10 AM, with our tally sitting right at 100 fish, I offered that we could leave the jigging behind and shoot for more hybrid in this same deep water now that the wind had begun moving the water once again.

This turned out to be a good move. Over the next 90 minutes we put an additional 33 fish in the boat, half of which were keeper hybrid, with the other half evenly split between short hybrid and white bass with two more blue cat thrown in for good measure.

Neither Bob nor Robert had ever fished using either of the techniques I introduced them to today, and so the novelty made this trip particularly interesting to them.

We called it a day right at 11:30 as it seemed the midday lull was about to kick in.

TALLY = 133 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 40F

Water Surface Temp:  59.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  <5WNW until 9:00, then calm for 25 minutes, then starting ESE and building to 13

Sky Conditions: Clear, cloudless skies

Water Level:  1.08 feet above full pool

GT =  90

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Bob Maindelle

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

This past Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings were all spent on Stillhouse, and all with the Bozeman family of Copperas Cove and Killeen.  It all started last week when John Bozeman called me to book a trip…

My crew from Day 1, from left, John Bozeman, Eric Heitman, and Brittany Bozeman.

Eric Heitman took big fish honors for Day 1.

Brandon Bozeman joined his brother, John, for Day 2.

Day 3 was all about the boys’ mom, Linda.  She took big fish honors with this sweet largemouth that hit a slab equipped with the Hazy Eye Stinger Hook.

And largemouth weren’t the only large fish biting on Day 3.  We also took this fat and sassy 16″ long female white bass on a bladebait early.  Yes, it looks like a hybrid, but it is definitely a magnum white bass.

DAY 1:

On Day 1, John Bozeman and his wife, Brittany, and their friend, Eric Heitman joined me for what would be the best trip of the 3 day span in terms of numbers and “fishy” weather.  We had a balmy start to the day thanks to cloud cover overnight keeping the heat in.  The winds were from just west of south and at a good speed for the entire trip.  We drove right into fish and birds at around 7:10am and slabbed briefly until it became clear that fish had moved shallow.  Seeing this, we moved shallow and threw bladebaits for over 2 hours with everyone continuously hooking fish with many in the 13-14″ class.

Once the bird action died, we moved deeper and continued catching smaller fish on slabs.

DAY 2:

On Day 2, John Bozeman and his older brother, Brandon, came aboard.  Fishing was a bit tougher on this morning as we had very murky, dark skies and a lack of wind until around 9am.  Once the breeze kicked in, it ramped up quickly.  We landed only 36 fish through 9:30am, then took our tally up to 108 for the morning after extending the trip about an hour to 11:40.  Nearly 100% of our fish were caught on the slab today in deep water.

DAY 3:

On Day 2, John and Brandon returned, this time with their mother, Linda.  I tried to talk John out of the trip over the phone the night before after seeing the forecast wind speeds up over 20mph.  I let him know the fish would be biting as the cold front came in, and that we could catch them, but that the wind would be an annoyance.  John was okay with that if it meant getting his mom on some fish, so, we went.  And we caught fish!  The lake was nearly calm as we got going, then a NNW breeze slowly began to move the water.  As it did, the bite turned on, allowing us about 80 minutes’ worth of productive shallow fishing with bladebaits.  Once the front arrived, the winds shifted to N17-21, then settled back to a more manageable 17-18mph.  Once the wind got hard, we moved deep and caught the remainder of our fish on 3/4 oz slabs chosen to give us a little more feel for the bottom.

TALLY DAY 1 = 163 FISH, all caught and released

TALLY DAY 2 = 108 FISH, all caught and released

TALLY DAY 3 = 101FISH, all caught and released

TOTAL TALLY = 372 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshots:

For Monday (Tuesday nearly identical):

For Wednesday:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  Day 1 6:50a, Day 2 6:50a, Day 3 6:45a

End Time:  Day 1 11:15a, Day 2 11:40, Day 3 11:00

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: Day 1 67F, Day 2 62F, Day 3 62F

Water Surface Temp:  Day 1 61.2F, Day 2 61.5, Day 3 61.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Day 1 SW9, Day 2 calm ’til 9:00, then SSE13, Day 3 NNW4 ’til 8:30, then N17-20

Sky Conditions: Day 1 100% grey, Day 2 100% grey, Day 3 clearing to bluebird on incoming cold front

Water Level: 1.08 feet above full pool all 3 days

GT =  0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

DAY 1

**Area  vic 702/1048 slabbing for 18 fish

**Area  vic 054 fishing blades to 54 fish

**Area  vic 109/1897 fishing blades to 102 fish

**Area  1682/741 fishing slabs to 132 fish

**Area  638/1565 to 163 fish

DAY 2

**Area  vic 108 slabbing for 18 fish

**Area  092 slabbing to 22 fish

**Area 1903 slabbing to 64 fish

**Area  1902 slabbing to 90 fish

**Area  1565 slabbing to 108 fish

DAY 3

**Area  triangulate 1060/089/1682 blades for 36 fish

**Area  vic 1682 to 45 fish

**Area 103 slabbing to 77 fish

**Area 1156 slabbing to 101 fish

Bob Maindelle

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Saturday afternoon I was joined by 14-year-old Charley Elgin and his sister, 9-year-old Addison Tinkelenberg of Ft. Hood for a “Fishing 101” trip — one of the many offerings available to military families through the Ft. Hood SKIESUnlimited program.

Charley and Addison stayed focused on their goal of beating the results of their previous fishing trip and, over the course of 4 hours on the water, accomplished that goal by landing a total of 84 fish using a variety of techniques.

Addison ate her own weight in snacks during our trip!

After a dry, mild cold front passed through beginning mid-morning Friday through noon today, winds quickly shifted to the east and brought in some thin, grey cloud cover over a fair sky.  Fortunately, we never experienced a prolonged “post frontal” situation with calm winds, cold temperatures, and clear skies.

The fish were in a biting mode this afternoon and, with the experience from our previous trips (2 for Charley and 1 for Addison), the kids knew what to do and when to do it, thus making our time on the water that much more successful without the beginner’s learning curve to get through.

On our previous outing, we used strictly vertical tactics.  Now that the water has warmed a bit, fish have moved into shallower, flatter areas, thus allowing the use of bladebaits in a horizontal presentation.  The kids enjoyed the more active approach that casting these bladebaits involved, and caught on quickly to the proper retrieved used for this style of lure.

The kids let me know right from the start that they wanted to beat their previous trip’s total of 67 fish, and they stayed focused in order to make that happen.  With about 40 minutes left to go, we matched and then beat that 67 fish threshold, and went on to land an extra 17 fish just for “cushioning”.

We came off the water right at 6:30 with 84 fish landed for our efforts, and approximately 18 pounds of food consumed during those efforts!

IF YOU ARE A MILITARY PARENT INTERESTED IN ARRANGING A TRIP FOR YOUR OWN CHILD:

To participate in such courses, children must first be registered with Child and Youth Services (CYS).  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.  Payment must be made for courses in advance.

Military families separated from their sponsor may be eligible for deployment benefits in the form of SKIESUnlimited course credits.  Mission Level  1 credits may amount to $300 per child and Mission Level 2 credits may amount to $150 per child.  Parent Central Services can help parents understand which applies to their situation.

TALLY = 84 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 2:30p

End Time:  6:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  61.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ENE7-9 all afternoon

Sky Conditions: 30% cloud cover on a fair sky

Water Level: 1.08 feet above full pool

GT =  0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1172 – 12 fish on easing tactic

**Area 1900 – 32 fish on easing tactic

**Area 443 – 26 fish on easing tactic

**Area 1492 – 11 fish on bladebaits

**Area vic 116 – 3 fish on flatline cranks at sunset

Bob Maindelle

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Saturday morning I was joined by returning guests Gary Moore, Kirk Bateman, and Israel Lozada military veterans, and all friends through Eastside Baptist Church in Copperas Cove.  Also joining us for his first time was Israel’s son, Isaac Lozada, a freshman at Harker Heights High School.

My 4-man crew this last blustery Saturday morning consisted of (from left) Gary Moore, Kirk Bateman, Israel Lozada, and Isaac Lozada — all fishermen, and all fishers of men.  These men all came to know each other while serving the Lord at Eastside Baptist Church in Copperas Cove.  Their catch totalled 132 fish.

Kirk Bateman took big fish honors with this 4 pound class largemouth caught early on in the trip in the shallowest water we would visit.

After getting to catch up a bit at the Central Texas Boat Show, Gary made it clear he wanted to see to it that we could schedule the trip such that Isaac could attend and he wanted to focus on number of fish so the young man could get lots of experience through repetition on his first guided fishing trip.  The Stillhouse white bass surely lent themselves to just that on this trip.

A dry cold front begin moving into central Texas the day before, around 8:30am.  Overnight, radiational cooling took place, and cold air moved in from the north and west.  We woke up to the chilliest morning in a while — right at 45F.  This, plus a brisk 10-11 mph NNW wind meant back to gloves, balaclavas, and dressing in layers to stay warm enough to concentrate on the fishing.

This wrinkle in the weather also really got the fish fired up this morning as the wind kept right on blowing, thus the typical clear, calm, bright “post-frontal” conditions never impacted us.

My four guest landed exactly 68 fish in their first 60 minutes on the water.  This is one of the best, if not the best, starts I’ve had to a fishing trip.  The fish were moving bait and were feeding aggressively well up off the bottom, thus attracting birds.  The birds made it easy for us to locate fish, and, thanks to the blustery weather, there were no other white bass anglers anywhere near us.

We slabbed nearly 100% of the time this morning, moving progressively deeper as the sun climbed higher.  The 3/8 oz. white Redneck Fishn Jigs Model 180 rigged out with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook produced over and over and over again.

The last bird activity we observed occurred right around 10 am.  Once the birds settled down, the fish did likewise.  We spent over half of our last hour on the water searching for fish with sonar and finally found a very heavily schooled bunch of white bass and largemouth mixed together in about 42 feet of water very near the old Lampasas River channel.

As they often do, these late morning fish perked right up, hit well for a few minutes, and then shut right back down again.

As we headed back in after a full 4+ hours on the water, hats and gloves were still in place and no layers had yet been shed as the temperature rose only to 52F and the NNW was still blowing.

TALLY = 132 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Water Surface Temp:  60.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW9-11 all morning

Sky Conditions: >5% cloud cover on a fair sky

Water Level: 1.08 feet above full pool

GT =  20

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1060-1682 – strong first light bite under ample birds working slabs with an easing tactic

**Area vic 1741 – working slabs with an easing tactic

**Area 1565 – working slabs with an easing tactic

Bob Maindelle

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Friday morning, February 24th, I welcomed aboard R.C. and Marsha Stephenson from the Georgetown area.

R.C. landed this nice 4 pound class largemouth on a small, 3/8 oz. slab equipped with a Hazy Eye Stinger Hook from out of a school of white bass.  Stillhouse has consistently produced sizeable largemouth as a bycatch as we’ve been white bass fishing on nearly every trip out this winter.

Despite an Ace Wrap on her “fishing wrist”, Marsha pushed through the morning, contributing her fair share to our catch of 100 fish.

The fishing started off a bit slow as one would expect under nearly windless conditions. Around 8:30 AM, a hard, northwest wind ramped up very quickly with a velocity of up to 16 mph as a dry cool front moved into the area. The fishing instantly improved and stayed strong right until 10:50 AM. By this time, we had boated 86 fish.

The Stephenson’s son, an Austin resident, had read my Facebook post about the 100 fish today I had treated my mother to on this past Monday. Her catch included a 4+ pound largemouth bass. That same son chided them that if they didn’t catch 100 fish with me on this trip, he would suspect nepotism was involved. In the back of my mind, I knew we could put an additional 14 fish in the boat to make theirs a 100 fish day, but this was coming at a time when the fish were showing much less interest in feeding. Long story short, we did put in an extra 50 minutes in order to land the last 14 fish necessary to have a 100 fish day. As icing on the cake, R.C. also landed a largemouth that barely eclipsed the weight of my mom’s largemouth bass, thus dispelling any valid claims of nepotism aboard my boat!

Although I had taken the Stephenson’s out before, we never discussed our shared love for the Boothbay Harbor area of Maine where Rebecca and I had both our first honeymoon, and, 20 years later, a second honeymoon. We all enjoyed reminiscing about the sights, sounds, and eateries in this neck of the woods.

TALLY = 100 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  60.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  <2SW until 8:30, then suddenly shifting and increasing to NNW16

Sky Conditions: Fair, cloudless skies after windshift

Water Level:  1.25 feet above full pool

GT =  50

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Bob Maindelle

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