December | 2024 | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Sounding Like A Broken Record — 108 Fish on MAL Dense Lures

December 30th, 2024December 30th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, December 30, I fished with Mr. Ryan Warren of Gatesville, Texas, and his two kids – Brayden, age 12, and Kendall, age 9.

Ryan runs his own air conditioning business in the Gatesville area. We first got acquainted when he and his bass fishing tournament partner (Frank Ellis, who has since passed away) took notice of the quality wintertime largemouth I routinely put my clients on while not even fishing for that species several years ago.

DATE: Monday, 30 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 3, 4 January (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Brayden, Ryan, and Kendall Warren with some solid Stillhouse Hollow white bass taken from 30-40 feet of water on shad-imitating MAL Dense Lures and Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. When the wind blew, the fish fed! There are four 15+ inch white bass in this photo.

PHOTO CAPTION: That’s yet another 5.25-pound Stillhouse Hollow largemouth taken while targeting white bass. This was the largest of 6 largemouth we boated as bycatch on this morning’s white bass fishing trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The weatherman called for the possibility of a record high for this date due to prefrontal warming in advance of an incoming cold front. Although dry, warm, southwest winds did materialize, it wasn’t until after 9:15 AM when they did so.

Not surprisingly, the bite was spotty until those winds got going.

In the first two hours of our trip, we picked up about 25 fish, catching four here and five there, but after the southwest wind got cranking, the fish put on the feedbag and we made up for some lost time.

Ryan chose to use a 5/8 ounce, white, Bladed Hazy Eye Slab working on the starboard side up near the bow very actively trying to tempt any largemouth that might have been sharing the space with white bass, while I had the two kids in the stern with me working MAL Dense Lures for their ease of use and consistency in catching white bass with the still-warm water we’ve enjoyed well beyond the normal mid-December date by which we usually see water cool down into the 50s.

I know I probably sound like a broken record, but there were three fundamentals which, when observed, produced fish for my young clients. Those were: 1)getting the blade of their MAL Dense Lures spinning on every retrieve they make, 2) timing the rise of their lure to intersect with the forward swim path of suspended fish shown moving horizontally on the LiveScope screen, and 3) continuing to retrieve their lure at a constant rate once a fish begins chasing it.

I found the fish, they caught the fish, and we all had fun doing our part.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

RESULTS: 108 fish, all caught and released

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) and 5/8 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs for 100% of our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Normal bell-shaped curve described this morning’s feeding activity with the rise to peak feeding coinciding with the beginning of the SW wind around 9:15; fish began slowing down around 10:55; fish shut down by 11:30.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Monday, 30 Dec …

0 feet 60.6F

5 feet 60.6F

10 feet 60.6F

15 feet 60.6F

20 feet 60.6F

25 feet 60.6F

30 feet 60.6F

35 feet 60.6F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 60.6F

50 feet 60.4F

55 feet 60.4F

60 feet 60.4F

65 feet 60.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 2.25′ low (with a 0.02′ fall in the last 24 hours) with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 60.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light winds until 9:15, then tapering up steadily to SW13

Sky Condition: Cloudless, light blue sky

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area SH0296G – 10 fish smoking 2 MAL Dense Lures

Area SH0297G – 5 fish smoking 2 MAL Dense Lures/snapping 1 Bladed Hazy Eye Slab

Area SH0397G – 29 fish smoking 2 MAL Dense Lures/snapping 1 Bladed Hazy Eye Slab (2 short hops)

Area 1434/250 – 22 fish smoking 2 MAL Dense Lures/snapping 1 Bladed Hazy Eye Slab

Area vic 464 – 32 fish smoking 2 MAL Dense Lures/snapping 1 Bladed Hazy Eye Slab

Area SH0061G – 10 fish smoking 2 MAL Dense Lures/snapping 1 Bladed Hazy Eye Slab

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Christmas Week – Wild Weather — 99 Fish

December 28th, 2024December 28th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Saturday, Dec. 28, I fished with a father-and-son duo — Tom and Barrett Nichols. Tom lives in the Georgetown, Texas, area and is retired from the video game industry while Barrett just recently graduated with his degree in environmental science out west and is now searching for his first post-college employment opportunity.

DATE: Saturday, 28 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 1, 3, 4, & 6 January (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Tom and Barrett Nichols landed exactly 99 fish on a morning which included calm conditions and winds from N, W, and S, as well as sun, clouds, fog, rain, distant lightning, and even a tornado watch! The leftmost fish in this frame went 15.75″.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Wow! What a morning of weather we lived through! On Friday morning, there was but a 4% chance of precipitation called for this morning, with a moderate SSW breeze and temps in the 50s. When I woke up this morning, we had a 56% chance of 0.60 inches of rain, patchy fog, and a developing line of thunderstorms out near Burnet stretching NE to Lampasas and headed our way.

With a limited window of opportunity to fish with Tom while Barrett was visiting, I pressed on and just stayed abreast of the weather situation as the morning unfolded. Our first hour was a bit slow, as it normally is, but, as the air got warm and humid in advance of the approaching cold front, the fishing really took off. The Nichols put 70 fish in the boat by 10A, then the weather got wonky.

We had a storm cell pass to our north and had outflow air from it turn the wind briefly NW with a ~10 degree temperature drop. Then we got rained on for about five minutes, then a tornado watch was issued (for E. Bell County), then things started to calm down. The winds went westerly, the clouds and storms moved east, and the sun began to shine.

It was now around 10:50, and another brief window of fish activity opened, allowing the Nichols to catch another 29 fish before the bite shut down for good right around noon.

Every fish landed came as the Nichols “smoked” MAL Dense Lures (silver body w/ chartreuse tail) upwards off the bottom. In some cases, the fish were massed on the bottom and chased the lure upwards; in other cases the fish were suspended and required that they time the rise of their lures with the forward travel speed of the fish so as to intersect with the fish.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

RESULTS: 99 fish, all caught and released

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) for 100% of our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Normal bell-shaped curve described this morning’s feeding activity with a solid 2.75 hours of catching in the middle of this 4-hour trip.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Monday, 23 Dec …

0 feet 60.4F

5 feet 60.4F

10 feet 60.4F

15 feet 60.4F

20 feet 60.4F

25 feet 60.4F

30 feet 60.4F

35 feet 60.4F

40 feet 60.3F

45 feet 60.3F

50 feet 60.1F

55 feet 60.0F

60 feet 59.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:35A

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 2.22′ low (with a 0.02′ fall in the last 24 hours) with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 60.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: As described in narrative above

Sky Condition: As described in narrative above

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 5% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 772 – 70 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area SH0396G – 24 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 866 – 5 fish smoking MAL Dense 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Christmas Week – N. Dakotans Brought Their Walleye A-Game — 189 Fish

December 27th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, Dec. 27, I fished with a crew of North Dakotans — Joe Bartole (now living in Hutto), Rick Warhurst, and Dinarri Peltier.

DATE: Friday, 27 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 3, 4, & 6 January (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Joe Bartole, Dinarri Peltier, and Rick Warhurst with a sampling of their 189-fish catch which included white bass, largemouth bass, and freshwater drum, all taken on MAL Dense Lures with silver bodies and chartreuse tails.

PHOTO CAPTION: Most every wintertime trip to Stillhouse results in the catch of one or several quality largemouth bass. Today was no exception. This fish struck Rick’s bait as it rose through a school of white bass holding in about 38 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing on a dry, NW wind following yesterday’s cold front was about as close to a sure thing as there is in fishing. Indeed, fish bit well from start to finish today, making it more of a catching trip than a fishing trip.

Add to that the fact that all three of my crew had practical prior experience with vertical jigging for walleye on the Missouri River, and a good thing got even better.

We found our fish in 32 to 48 feet of water this morning, and at five locations, only one of which was indicated by birds.

If there was ever a good day to compare tactics on the traditional slabbing approach versus smoking with an MAL Lure, today was it. The one location where we found some birds drew other holiday anglers, as well. So, we were surrounded by boats jerking slabs up and down catching fish occasionally while it was all I could do to keep up with my three anglers as they reeled their lures away from the bottom and drew overtaking follows by predator fish including white bass and largemouth bass.

Just observing the basics of 1) the importance of getting the blade of their MAL Dense Lures spinning on every retrieve they make, 2) the importance of timing the rise of their lure to intersect with the forward swim path of suspended fish shown moving horizontally on the LiveScope screen, and 3) the importance of continuing to retrieve their lure at a constant rate once a fish begins chasing it, was really all that was necessary to keep these cooperative fish coming over the gunwale all morning.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

RESULTS: 189 fish, all caught and released

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) for 100% of our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Normal bell-shaped curve described this morning’s feeding activity with a solid 2.75 hours of catching in the middle of this 4-hour trip.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Monday, 23 Dec …

0 feet 60.4F

5 feet 60.4F

10 feet 60.4F

15 feet 60.4F

20 feet 60.4F

25 feet 60.4F

30 feet 60.4F

35 feet 60.4F

40 feet 60.3F

45 feet 60.3F

50 feet 60.1F

55 feet 60.0F

60 feet 59.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:35A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation: 2.18′ low (with a 0.02′ rise due to rain yesterday) with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 59.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW7-10 all morning

Sky Condition: 40% light grey clouds in the E. sky dissipated within 40 minutes leaving a light blue, cloudless sky the rest of the AM

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 10% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 122 – 36 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 772 – 30 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 645 – 12 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 833/872 – 65 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area SH0296G – 46 fish smoking MAL Dense 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Christmas Week — Check Out This Screenshot!! — 116 Fish

December 25th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Christmas Day 2024, I fished with two returning guests — Dwight Stone of Georgetown, TX, and his son-in-law, Ryan Renfrow, in visiting from Virginia.

The Stones’ Christmas celebration was going to kick off around 1:30P, and my own small family gathering wasn’t scheduled until 12:30P, so, we wiggled in a fishing trip on deserted Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir with great results.

DATE: Wednesday, 25 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 1, 3, & 6 January (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: This is what awaited us under what I believe is the most underrated set of weather conditions in all of freshwater fishing — that time after a cold front passes as the north wind’s velocity is still increasing. Fish, loons, and gulls fed hard for 2.75 hours this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Dwight Stone and Ryan Renfrow with a few of the white bass they took on MAL Dense Lures this morning. That fish on the far left went 15 3/8″ and was a truly thick fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing was very straightforward this morning. Once the cloudy, grey skies brightened sufficiently, the fish began feeding, drawing the attention of gulls. The gulls, in turn, were pretty easy to spot on the grey sky, and lead us to two of the three productive areas. Once in these areas, well-tuned side-imaging helped close the deal.

Once we set up over the fish, the splasher kept the fish under us, and the ideal conditions with a steadily increasing northwest wind following the passage of a mild cold front last night kept the fish interested right up until around 10:25.

Dwight and Ryan did just one thing, and they did it well — dropping their MAL Dense Lures (silver bodies with chartreuse tails) to bottom and cranking them upwards so as to cover the lower third of the water column. The “trick” was getting the blade spinning as close as possible to bottom, then cranking as slow as possible while still keeping the blade spinning.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

RESULTS: 116 fish, all caught and released

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) for 100% of our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) With this morning’s first light being the first daytime conditions with a northerly wind following the passage of a mild cold front last night, all of nature was moving this morning — deer all over the place, birds at the feeders, and gulls, loons, and fish working aggressively above and below the waterline on the lake. Birds worked a full 2.75 hours this morning.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Monday, 23 Dec …

0 feet 60.4F

5 feet 60.4F

10 feet 60.4F

15 feet 60.4F

20 feet 60.4F

25 feet 60.4F

30 feet 60.4F

35 feet 60.4F

40 feet 60.3F

45 feet 60.3F

50 feet 60.1F

55 feet 60.0F

60 feet 59.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 10:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Elevation: 2.20′ low and falling slowly with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 59.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW7-10 all morning

Sky Condition: Light grey skies at 100% coverage all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 25% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 779 – 12 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 2015 – 18 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 931 – 86 fish smoking MAL Dense 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Christmas Week – Applegate Girls – Final SKIFF Trip of 2024 – 51 Fish

December 24th, 2024December 24th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Christmas Eve 2024, I fished with Serenity and Rose Applegate from Copperas Cove on what was the final SKIFF trip of 2024. The girls’ mom, Emerald, is a disabled veteran who served in the U.S. Army for 6 years in an administrative military occupational specialty (MOS).

Over the course of 2024, we conducted 24 SKIFF trips, putting 49 kids on the water. Those kids landed a total of 1,661 fish, or an average of just over 33 fish per child.

ABOUT SKIFF: SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009. SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru. S.K.I.F.F. provides kids of military members separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish. SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member. In mid-2019, SKIFF began providing trips to kids of bona fide disabled veterans. I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

DATE: Tuesday, 24 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 1, 3, & 6 January (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rose and Serenity Applegate, each with a pair of healthy Stillhouse Hollow white bass they took “smoking” MAL Dense Lures up off the bottom in as much as 49 feet of water on a bit of a soggy Christmas Eve morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: Rose Applegate took our largest fish of the trip. This white bass measured 15.25 inches and came out of 34 feet of water on an MAL Dense Lure with silver body.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This morning’s weather hindered the bite quite a bit as we experienced thick, dark cloud cover, accompanied by intermittent, light rain over most of the first 2.5 hours of the trip. Although fish were not all that difficult to find, they were less than enthusiastic.

We’d typically find a small school of fish on side-imaging, Spot Lock on them, then present MAL Dense Lures vertically. The fish would respond aggressively for perhaps the first 3 or 4 vertical retrieves the girls made through the fish, but then they would quickly lose that enthusiasm and chase only half-heartedly, following the lures upward, but not overtaking them. A few minutes thereafter, the fish would lose interest altogether. After seeing this repeat itself twice, I just began moving us much more frequently to experience that “novelty bite”. In our final hour on the water, we hit several areas where we could not get a rise out of the fish at all and wound of leaving quickly without catching any fish.

All of the fish we did catch came on the MAL Dense with silver body and chartreuse tail, and most of the fish were taken as they followed the lure up off the bottom and overtook it (not by racing the lure past fish which were suspended).

The girls, despite their lack of prior experience with this method, adjusted “on the fly” very well whenever I asked them to modify their technique based on what I was interpreting on Garmin LiveScope. As a result, they enjoyed their best day on the water ever!

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

RESULTS: 51 fish, all caught and released

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) for nearly 100% of our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) The thick, dark grey cloud cover we experience in the first 2.5 hours of this trip hindered the bite. Fish would get excited only briefly, then settle back down. We have to move routinely to encounter fish aggressive enough to match the girls’ experience level.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Monday, 23 Dec …

0 feet 60.4F

5 feet 60.4F

10 feet 60.4F

15 feet 60.4F

20 feet 60.4F

25 feet 60.4F

30 feet 60.4F

35 feet 60.4F

40 feet 60.3F

45 feet 60.3F

50 feet 60.1F

55 feet 60.0F

60 feet 59.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Elevation: 2.18′ low and falling slowly with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 59.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE4-7 all morning

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 100% coverage all morning with intermittent light rain in most of the first 2 hours

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 33% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 034 – 2 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 878 – 10 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area SH0033G – 6 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 881 – 5 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic SH0244G -6 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 1395 – 6 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 785 – 16 fish smoking MAL Dense 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Christmas Week Fishing – Florence Crew – 163 Fish on MAL Dense Lures

December 23rd, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, Dec. 23rd, I fished with returning guest Jay Florence, accompanied by his sons and my first-time guests, Austin and Wyatt. The boys are 15-year-old twins living in the Odessa area.

Balmy weather actually caused a bit of an uptick in the water temperature, and, with the entire water column above 60 feet at above 60F, the fish were still hunting shad and chasing & hitting baits hard.

DATE: Monday, 23 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 1 & 3 January (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: The Florence crew, from left — Wyatt, Jay, and Austin with some of the beefy white bass they landed today on MAL Dense Lures. The four largest shown here all went at least 15.00 inches with the largest at 15.625″.

PHOTO CAPTION: That’s 10.75 pounds of largemouth between the twins — man, were they excited!!

PHOTO CAPTION: This big male white bass was oozing milt already. I sure hope there is flow in the Lampasas River so a big spawn can happen this spring!

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I could not have custom-ordered a better set of weather conditions than those we enjoyed this morning. Balmy temperatures for late December, starting at 55F before sunrise, were accompanied by light, grey cloud cover and a manageable SSE breeze between 10-13mph.

We caught fish from start to finish this morning, with the bite from 7:30 to 8:20 a bit tougher and more technical than the rest due to low light causing fish to suspend as they fed right after sunrise. But, after the rising sun illuminated the sky better, the depths became more well-lit, and the fishing picked up.

All but 11 of the Florence crew’s fish came on the MAL Dense with silver body and chartreuse tail worked with a smoking tactic this morning, with the balance coming on the 3/4 oz. White Tornado worked with a sawtooth method. We fished from 25 to 51 feet over the course of the morning, catching the fish on the White Tornado in 31′.

One minor adjustment to the ‘smoking’ tactic was necessary due to the water temperature nipping at the 50 degree range — that was reeling the MAL as slowly as possible while still keeping the blade spinning so as to help the lure spend as much time as possible in the 5-6 foot band of water up off the bottom. Bottom-oriented fish would be reluctant to chase much further than that. The way we accomplished this was by removing all slack from the main line before beginning the retrieve while still keeping the lure laying on the bottom. Then, a SINGLE hard, fast handle turn (at most!) was used to get the blade spinning, then, without pausing from making that first hard turn, 4 or 5 additional, slower handle turns were made to raise the lure up and away from the bottom at a slow pace.

Birds (gulls) were helpful in identifying just one of the seven areas we fished; and that one area was identified around 9:50A; otherwise, all other areas were ferreted out with well-tuned sonar.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

RESULTS: 163 fish, all caught and released (6 largemouth, 157 white bass)

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) for nearly 100% of our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) We landed the 2nd white bass of the winter which was already oozing milt. Both males were taken on Stillhouse within the last week (17-23 Dec.)

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Monday, 23 Dec …

0 feet 60.4F

5 feet 60.4F

10 feet 60.4F

15 feet 60.4F

20 feet 60.4F

25 feet 60.4F

30 feet 60.4F

35 feet 60.4F

40 feet 60.3F

45 feet 60.3F

50 feet 60.1F

55 feet 60.0F

60 feet 59.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Elevation: 2.16′ low and falling slowly with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 60.43F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10-13 all morning

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 100% coverage all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 42% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 034 – 19 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 0317 – 4 fish smoking MAL Dense Lure

Area vic 772 – 20 fish – 1/2 smoking MAL Dense Lures, 1/2 sawtoothing White Tornados

Area vic SH0302G – 7 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic SH0218G/662 – 11 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 881/878 – 20 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 867 – 72 fish smoking MAL Dense 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

That Was a Wannabe Cold Front — 101 Fish

December 17th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, Dec. 17th, I fished with first-time guests Royce Roberts and Teri Muse.

A very weak cold front moved through Central Texas overnight, leaving some questions as to what this morning’s fishing was going to be like. Ultimately, the bite followed the wind, and we wound up having a memorable morning on the water.

DATE: Tuesday, 17 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 19-20, 23-28 December (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Royce Roberts and Teri Muse landed 101 fish working MAL Dense Lures vertically up off bottom for both bottom-hugging and suspended fish this morning on Stillhouse Hollow.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

After the passage of last night’s VERY mild cold front (hardly noticeable temperature drop or wind shift), this morning began still balmy at 62F, and with grey cloud cover, but, we had no wind to speak of until 90 minutes into the trip.

During this time of calm, all of the fish we caught were suspended fish moving horizontally with most drawn in to us by the work of the splasher.

So, Royce and Teri had to learn quickly how to execute the most technical sort of fishing we’d do all morning. The trick was to time the rise of their lures (MAL Dense Lures w/ silver bodies) to intersect with the suspended fishes’ direction of travel AND to do so very near the fish (ideally within 2 feet or so).

There was a bit of a learning curve, and Royce’s prior fishing experience actually worked contrary to preventing him from trying to set the hook when the spinner’s blade spin was interrupted, but, we worked through all of that and put together a good day.

Once the wind began to blow, the fishing got easier and more productive as fish hugging bottom now began to respond well to Royce and Teri’s presentations. Our best run of fish came from 10:30 to 11:20 as the S. wind peaked at 13 mph and kept blowing at that speed over that entire timespan.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

RESULTS: 101 fish, all caught and released (5 largemouth, 96 white bass)

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) for 100% of our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Only very light bird activity existed in the second hour following sunrise; although it was widespread, it still helped us be at the right place at the right time. These birds were working over loons which were feeding on the same shad with the white bass were.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00 AM on Monday, 9 Dec, and at 7:00A on Monday, 16 Dec ….

9-Dec	16-Dec
0 feet 60.8F	0 feet 63.2F
5 feet 60.9F	5 feet 62.6F
10 feet 61.1F	10 feet 62.3F
15 feet 61.1F	15 feet 61.5F
20 feet 61.1F	20 feet 61.1F
25 feet 61.1F	25 feet 60.8F
30 feet 61.1F	30 feet 60.3F
35 feet 61.1F	35 feet 59.8F
40 feet 60.9F	40 feet 59.2F
45 feet 60.6F	45 feet 58.4F
50 feet 60.6F	50 feet 58.2F
55 feet 60.4F	55 feet 58.0F
60 feet 60.4F	60 feet 57.6F
65 feet 60.4F	65 feet 57.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 2.01′ low and falling slowly with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 63.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for 90 min., then slowly building from the S up to 13mph by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 100% coverage all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1517 – 10 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 1691 – 37 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures (3 short hops)

Area 195 – 23 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures (2 short hops)

Area vic SH0041C – 6 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic SH0290G/SH0292G – 25 fish smoking MAL Dense 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

The Balm(y) Before the Storm — 88 Fish

December 16th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, Dec. 16th, I fished with long-time client and excellent angler Dwight Stone, a retired restaurateur from the Georgetown, TX, area.

A run of sonar training engagements took the place of fishing engagements since last Tuesday, but, this morning we hit Stillhouse after fish and did well, enjoying what may be the last balmy temperatures for some time to come.

DATE: Monday, 16 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 19-20, 23-28 December (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Girthy white bass were common this morning as the water temperatures hover at either side of 60F, depending on depth.

PHOTO CAPTION: Dwight Stone with a deep-water largemouth which rocketed up off bottom to overtake his MAL Dense lure as we fished in over 30′ of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This morning was warm and overcast with about 45 minutes of calm before the SE breeze begin to slowly build to 12 mph by trip’s end.

With grey, cloud-darkened skies, I fished the shallowest areas on my mental checklist first, then quickly moved to the deeper water which I had much more confidence in once the sun rose higher and illuminated the sky through the cloud cover.

Over the course of the morning, we hit seven areas, with the two we hit between 8:30 and 10AM producing the lion’s share of the fish. These areas were in ~51 feet of water and the fish at these areas were bottom-hugging. We scanned a lot of desolate acreage to find these fish, but, when we found them, they were present in force and were ready to feed.

Before Dwight’s arrival I collected the temperature readings at depth (shown below) and was concerned that fish this deep might be too sluggish to chase the MAL Dense which they have done so reliably of late. That was not the case. All but one of our fish caught today came on an MAL Dense raced upwards off the bottom using a “smoking” tactic.

I can’t overstate how important well-tuned sonar is to success. If your side-imaging is not reading crystal clear to its furthest-reaching extend, you are leaving money on the table!

The fish definitely downshifted at around 10:10A, and catching thereafter became much tougher as the fish would simply not follow as far nor as aggressively as they had in the 2 hours prior.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

RESULTS: 88 fish, all caught and released (1 largemouth, 1 crappie, 86 white bass)

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) for 100% of our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) No bird activity helpful to fish finding occurred this morning.

2) I observed the first male white bass oozing milt so far this season. Of the 88 fish landed, only one did so.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00 AM on Monday, 9 Dec, and at 7:00A on Monday, 16 Dec ….

9-Dec	16-Dec
0 feet 60.8F	0 feet 63.2F
5 feet 60.9F	5 feet 62.6F
10 feet 61.1F	10 feet 62.3F
15 feet 61.1F	15 feet 61.5F
20 feet 61.1F	20 feet 61.1F
25 feet 61.1F	25 feet 60.8F
30 feet 61.1F	30 feet 60.3F
35 feet 61.1F	35 feet 59.8F
40 feet 60.9F	40 feet 59.2F
45 feet 60.6F	45 feet 58.4F
50 feet 60.6F	50 feet 58.2F
55 feet 60.4F	55 feet 58.0F
60 feet 60.4F	60 feet 57.6F
65 feet 60.4F	65 feet 57.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 2.00′ low and falling slowly with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 63.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for 45 min., then slowly building from the SE up to 12mph by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 100% coverage all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 034 – 10 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 0317 – 31 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 879/880 – 24 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 196 – 2 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 0vic SH0298G – 5 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 779 – 14 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 0305 – 2 fish smoking MAL Dense 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Scouting Belton Provides Confirmations

December 10th, 2024December 10th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, Dec. 10, I fished with returning guests Jerry Saikley and Jeff Burns. Back on Nov. 23 when I reported about moving operations from Lake Belton to Stillhouse Hollow and conducting a scouting trip in advance of taking clients there, Jerry expressed interest in being part of such a scouting effort.

Since I’ve had no reason to fish Lake Belton since that time, and since most of the fish I was doing on Belton was confined to only one part of the lake, we scouted an area that Jerry and Jeff were not all that familiar with, and which I had not fished in quite a white.

DATE: Tuesday, 10 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 11, 16, 18-20 December (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jerry Saikley and Jeff Burns hoist a pair of hybrid striped bass taken moments apart from a fast-moving school of fish chasing shad in just under 30 feet of water. The fish both fell for white, 1 1/8 oz. White Tornados during a morning scouting effort.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Essentially, the point of scouting is to find fish and catch a few in a number of places, versus a fishing trip where, once fish are found, we stay put until we have caught all the fish an area will produce.

This give me options as a guide, instead of running clients around to areas which may not have proven to hold fish lately.

This morning’s trip was bitter-sweet. It confirmed that Lake Belton’s fishing has gotten tougher as the water temperatures have fallen. It confirmed that fish are in areas where we suspected them to be. It confirmed that Stillhouse is definitely producing better at this point in the season. However, we really only found one solid location in the segment of the lake we scouted which would be worth returning to.

Whenever I scout, I like to do so during the same timeframe during which I will have clients aboard, and I like to time these efforts with good fishing weather, as even marginal areas will produce at least a few fish with favorable weather.

Despite not finding a multitude of fish-holding areas, Jerry and Jeff were able to pick my brain and watch my approach to fish-finding, especially when it came to the use of topographic mapping, side-imaging interpretation, and the i-Pilot Link function allowing a user to pinpoint an object (like fish) on the bottom and then direct the trolling motor to that object quickly and accurately — a feature Jerry has on his own boat but was not really taking advantage of.

We wound up finding fish in two areas — one with white bass only, and the other with a mix of whites and hybrid. The white bass came up off bottom to strike smoked MAL Dense Lures early in the trip, and the mix of whites and hybrids came near trip’s end and were taken on 1 1/8 oz. White Tornados worked with a sawtooth method.

The men also took one suspended fish in an area where lots of bait was holding, but that was more the exception than the rule, so we dismissed that as an area with future potential.

We fished each location until we’d taken 5 fish, then packed up and moved on so as to cover as much water as possible.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

RESULTS: 11 fish, all caught and released

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) and White Tornados (white, 1 1/8 oz.) to make our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) A very hard cold front with high winds built in today. Overnight lows around 33F (the lowest since last spring) are expected. This will likely push water temps into the high 50s and further slow the fishing.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00 AM on Tuesday, 10+ Dec….

0 feet 62.2F

5 feet 62.6F

10 feet 62.8F

15 feet 62.8F

20 feet 62.8F

25 feet 62.8F

30 feet 62.8F

35 feet 62.8F

40 feet 62.8F

45 feet 62.6F

50 feet 62.4F

55 feet 62.4F

60 feet 62.3F

65 feet 60.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F

Elevation: 2.12′ low and falling slowly

Water Surface Temp: 62.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW12 at trip’s start, increasing to NNW18 with higher gusts thru the morning

Sky Condition: Grey skies until 11A, then quickly clearing from W to E.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 73% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 029 – 5 white bass smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area B0197C – mix of 5 white bass and hybrid stripers sawtoothing White Tornados

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com