WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, July 26th, I fished with a portion of the Oliver family — Temple-Belton natives from “way back”.

Mr. Joe Oliver and two of his three adult children, Thomas and Amber, were joined by Amber’s three kids, Ben (15), Beau (8), and Addie (7).

Corey, Joe’s other son, also has three kids. They’ll be fishing with me next Wednesday!

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left, back row: Joe, Thomas, and Amber Oliver; from left, front row: Addie (7), Ben (15), and Beau (8). As Beau said a few time this morning, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” Once everyone got into a groove, stayed in his or her own “lane” when retrieving their lures, moved hooked fish away from the person to their left or right, etc., catching the fish became a regular occurence.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 26 July 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

After Belton’s topwater action went on a 3-day AWOL status, I moved on over to Stillhouse to offer kid-friendly fishing which did not require casting to my three young anglers this morning.

We fished MAL Dense Lures (white body, chartreuse tail) 100% of the time today across six areas to put together our 119 fish catch.

Well-adjusted sonar capable of picking out single fish on bottom in deep water (or, at best, small groups of fish) is critical right now as fish are in splintered groups here, there, and everywhere chasing after shad.

Once the fish were found, we Spot-Locked atop them and worked MAL Dense Lures vertically with a “smoking” tactic to land fish after fish. The nice thing about having multiple anglers is that there is rarely a time when a bait is not in the water, thus keeping something attractive to the fish in the water and down near the bottom where they lurk most all of the time.

We kept 3-4 rods going all the time as Thomas manned a rod and as Joe and Amber filled in when one of the kids tired or needed a snack break.

We landed 119 fish including 116 white bass (2 short), 2 largemouth bass, and 1 freshwater drum.

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 119 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: We experienced an overnight mayfly hatch on Stillhouse. This was the first strong hatch I’ve seen this summer.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 7.16 feet low, 0.06’ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW10-13 all morning

Sky Condition: Pale blue, cloudless skies all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 5% illumination.

GT = 110

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area SH0207G/SH0032G – 37 fish

Area SH0031G – 21 fish

Area vic 1412 – 22 fish

Area 872 – 5 fish

Area vic 913 – 18 fish

Area SH0208G – 16 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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

Solid post!