A Quiet, Peaceful Christmas Morning – 90 Fish

CLIENTS: On Christmas morning, I finished with returning guests, Brandon and Wendy Hunt from Hutto, Texas. They found themselves in the same situation I did, that of having family plans for later in the day, so, they decided to spend a few hours with me out on Lake Belton.

Generally speaking, Lake Belton produces higher numbers of smaller fish, whereas Stillhouse produces lower numbers of better quality fish when it comes to white bass. However, Belton has the potential to produce hybrid striped bass, whereas Stillhouse is not officially stocked with them.

TODAY’S DATE: Christmas Day, 25 December 2025 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 30 December 2025 (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Miss Wendy wore ’em out. She really got the hang of getting the MAL Lure’s blade spinning early (close to bottom) and keeping it spinning while retrieving slowly and the whites and hybrids just ate that up.

CAPTION: Belton is producing more, but smaller white bass, whereas Stillhouse is now producing fewer, but better quality fish. Both lakes have warmed to the 60F mark, so, the faster, vertical “slow-smoking” tactic with MAL Dense Lures is back in play.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/


WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
This morning‘s weather was nearly identical to yesterday‘s productive weather with fully clouded skies, but with that cloud cover thin enough to let enough sunlight through where you’d still need to squint without wearing sunglasses. That, combined with a balmy southerly wind, and a seven-day stretch of warming weather put the surface temperature back at just over 60° and put the fish in the mood to feed.

We caught fish from start to finish this morning. The action peaked around 9:10 when fish fed most aggressively, suspended up off the bottom, and moved more quickly as they swam parallel to the bottom while chasing shad.

As I experienced on Stillhouse yesterday, the warm-up has created a situation where fish are once again willing to chase the slightly faster moving MAL Lure.

Brandon and Wendy were the first clients to use what will be the newest MAL Lure which should be available sometime in late February.

That was the only lure we used this morning and it put exactly 90 fish in the boat in right at four hours. The Hunts’ 90-fish catch included one largemouth bass, eight hybrid striped bass, and 81 white bass.

All of our fish were caught in 25 to 32 feet of water on slow tapering bottoms impacted by the last week’s worth of southerly winds.

The key to getting bit consistently today was getting the MAL Lure’s blade spinning as close to bottom as possible, and then reeling it as slowly as possible thereafter, while still maintaining enough speed to keep the blade spinning.

RESULTS: 90 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

OBSERVATIONS:

-This was day 7 of a lengthy warming trend which has raised water temperature back up to 60 +/- which has caused fishing to improve.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton around 7:10AM on 25 December 2025…

Area B0194C – 5 fish on slow-smoked MAL Lures

Area 2332 – 24 fish on slow-smoked MAL Lures

Area B0199C – 30 fish on slow-smoked MAL Lures

Area B0202C – 9 fish on slow-smoked MAL Lures

Area 1188/1728 – 6 fish on slow-smoked MAL Lures

Area vic B0026G – 6 fish on slow-smoked MAL Lures

Area vic 2327 – 4 fish on slow-smoked MAL Lures

Area 2333 – 6 fish on slow-smoked MAL Lures

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