WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, August 3rd, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with the fourth generation of the Oliver family I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and fishing with through the years.

Joining me were Cullen (12), Presley (12), and Harper (10) Oliver, the children of Corey Oliver, who is the son of Joe Oliver, who is the son of Billy Joe Oliver, all of whom have fished with me for many years now.

The kids’ grandfather, Joe, and their Uncle Thomas were present to help me help the kids be successful.

My next open date will be on August 23rd.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Harper, Presley, and Cullen Oliver with one of the three or four “triples” we landed when each of the kids hooked up as a large school of white bass passed by. I promise they all did better at fishing than they did keeping their eyes open for the photo!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 03 August 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

As solid as the summertime fishing on Stillhouse has been, it is definitely not for everyone. Quality sonar, well-interpreted, is a must right now. Fish are uncharacteristically deep and, as is typical for the summer, they are scattered and found in small groups. Slowly passing over large tracts of bottom looking for the rice-grainlike specks which are fish is pretty tedious.

But, when even just a few are detected, what I’ve been finding can be surprising. Although 6 or 10 or 18 fish may be showing on sonar as I pass by, once we Spot-Lock and start creating commotion, the numbers can blossom very quickly, offering long spans of successful fishing.

My three young anglers focused on the task at hand once I got the boat well-positioned, and put a solid 106 fish in the boat this morning in right at 3.75 hours of effort.

All of my rods have but one lure tied on right now, and that is the MAL Dense with chartreuse tail. It is my heaviest MAL Lure and gets back to bottom quickly, thus cutting to a minimum the time spent waiting for it to fall.

A fast, smooth “smoking” retrieve really gets the goat of those congregated white bass which are, at this time of year, accustomed to literally racing after shad. Both fish species’ metabolism is at an annual high right now and everything is moving fast beneath the surface.

The kids landed exactly 106 fish, 100% of which were white bass with no short fish in the haul. Our first hour was the best, and the final 45 minutes was strong. The middle two hours this morning were a bit tough in that we found plenty of fish, but they were just reluctant to fire up, chase, and bite.

The smoking tactic we used is demonstrated here (skip to 2:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

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

TALLY: 106 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Continued hot, dry, high-pressure conditions continue to fuel a consistent, albeit technical bite at Stillhouse. For the second day in a row, winds up over 13 mph today kept the topwater largemouth schooling largely at bay. Here was the temperature profile down to 50′ …

0 feet 86.8F
5 feet 86.8F
10 feet 86.8F
15 feet 86.8F
20 feet 86.8F
25 feet 86.5F
30 feet 86.4F
35 feet 86.2F
40 feet 79.4F
45 feet 73.3F
50 feet 66.8F



WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:55A

End Time: 10:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 7.74 feet low, 0.08′ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 86.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW12-15

Sky Condition: Cloudless, pale blue skies

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 30% illumination.

GT = 160

Wx SNAPSHOT:




AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 258/SH0214G – smoking MAL Dense Lures for 46 fish

Area vic 1222 – smoking MAL Dense Lures for 16 fish (2 short hops)

Area vic 1412 – smoking MAL Dense Lures for 6 fish

Area SH0216G – smoking MAL Dense Lures for 38 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

Always love seeing the young ones taking part in fishing. Great post.