WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning, July 29th, I fished with returning guest Doug Streater of Temple, TX.

Doug is part of the executive leadership team at Extraco Bank and has been out with me previously in all season and in all weather.

This morning’s trip was focused on the success of his grandkids, Colby (13) and Camryn (10). Colby has been out with me before and is a solid fisherman. This was Camryn’s first time on my boat, and I discovered she was a good listener which makes her a fast learner.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Doug, Colby, and Camryn Streater with a few of the well-proportioned deep water white bass we landed this morning — 102 in all, and each taken on the MAL Dense Lure.




VIDEO CAPTION: This short video clip shows my three clients working their MAL Dense Lures through a school of white bass. Can you see the rise and fall of all three lures?

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 29 July 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

The fish on Stillhouse right now play to my strengths in that they are deep and scattered, making it a must to have excellent sonar and be able to both adjust it on the fly and interpret images from deep water.

Investing the time to slowly, methodically sweep over large tracts of bottom will, with a bit of patience, eventually result in finding concentrations of fish worth setting up on and fishing for.

I’ve also found, as my good friend Clay L. at Respect the Fish, has observed and shared, that a handful of summertime fish on sonar can quickly blow up into a multitude of catchable fish which seemingly materialize out of nowhere.

Such was the way we pieced together this morning’s trip. We searched with sonar, we found fish, we Spot-Locked atop them, we fished for them as long as they stayed interested, and then we moved on and repeated the process once the bite at a given area went soft. A few times we found fish which never really did “fire up” for us, but that was the exception, not the rule.

LiveScope was key today in helping keep my young clients engaged, and in letting everyone know what the fish were doing in relation to their retrieve. LiveScope made it clear when fish were following our baits so everyone knew when to continue to retrieve. LiveScope also made it clear when fish broke off the chase so everyone knew it was then okay to let their lures return to bottom, thus making everyone very efficient.

At each location, before moving, I scrutinized my side-imaging screen to see if there were any congregations of fish to my port or starboard. If they were their, we’d cast horizontally and use the sawtooth method. Otherwise, “smoking” the lures up off bottom vertically was the default method today.

At no point did we need to use downriggers today as the fish stayed active through nearly 11AM.

The MAL Dense Lure with white body and chartreuse tail was the only lure we used all morning.

Our final tally was 102 fish, including 101 white bass and 1 channel catfish.

A tutorial of the smoking method we used is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

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

TALLY: 102 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: “Schoolie” largemouth continue to feed on topwater over large expanses of open water.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 7.39 feet low, 0.06’ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW10-12 all morning

Sky Condition: Pale blue, cloudless skies all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 1% illumination.

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area SH0150G/1424 – 28 fish smoking only

Area SH0209G – 2 hops – 62 fish smoking and sawtooth

Area SH0210G – 12 fish smoking only





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

Neat post.

That is some deep water catching . No thermocline !

Yes, sir. This is how the deep, clear Hill Country reservoirs vary from those N, S, E, and W of here. These reservoirs (Belton, Stillhouse, Georgetown, Travis, and Canyon) all have limestone bottoms and their watersheds drain very poor, infertile soil. Thus, there is not as much life per surface acre as you have in more turbid, more fertile bodies of water (like Cedar Creek, Tawakoni, Richland-Chambers, etc.).

An anecdotal observation: In 30 years of fishing on Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow, I have boated five white bass which measured 18" or greater. During a one week, self-guided trip to Lake Tawakoni several years ago, I boated three white bass which measured 18" or greater. It's a great way to put lake fertility in perspective.

Thanks for the note! --Bob