Peak Season Participants — 145 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On Wednesday morning, November 27, I welcomed back long time client, Mr. Steve Niemeier and his granddaughter, Zoey Haberer.

Joining the two was first-time guest, Adam Haberer, Steve’s son-in-law. Both Steve and Adam work at a Temple, Texas-based certified public accounting firm. Steve is a very plan-ahead kind of guy, and through the years has always looked ahead and tried to hand-pick fishing dates during peak times of year (Oct. to Dec., and mid-Mar. to late May) which coincided with his grandchildren’s days off from school.

As a result, he and they tend to do much better than average.

DATE: Wednesday, 27 November 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 6, 9-13 December (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Steve Niemeier, and Zoey & Adam Haberer with a few of the 145 fish they landed working MAL Dense Lures vertically up off bottom in deep, open water.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  At this time of year, through mid-February, quality largemouth bass will become a regular part of the catch even though we are not specifically targeting them.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
This morning‘s conditions were ideal – – we had a southwesterly breeze which began before sunrise, along with thin, gray cloud cover,  and a warming trend, which would only last until yet another cold front entered into Texas airspace in the overnight hours following this trip.

As we began our trip, I spotted what I thought would be some helpful bird activity after seeing both loons and gulls working in a deep, windblown cove.  I headed to the commotion, but only found scattered and suspended white bass along with the shad these birds were eating.
Although Steve did just fine here, this was not the kind of fishing in which I would expect a nine year-old to do well, because this fishing required timing the rise of the lure to intersect with the horizontal travel path of the fish as they swam beneath the boat and could be observed doing so on the Garmin LiveScope.
We caught a few fish there and moved on in a search for a much larger congregation of more bottom-oriented, fish.
We were fortunate to find exactly that in the following two areas we would visit.
Once we found what we were after, the fishing was very straightforward. Just as with the five prior trips fished on Stillhouse on Saturday thru Tuesday, all that was required was to drop an MAL Dense Lure (silver body and chartreuse tail) to the bottom and crank it sufficiently fast to get the blade spinning. Once the blade was spinning after one good, hard, fast crank, I had everyone idle back on the speed to allow the lure to rise moderately quickly through the water column, while keeping the blades spinning.
Those fish hugging-bottom would chase it upward and grab it, and those fish which were suspended would take chase after it after the lure passed by their noses.
When all was said and done, this crew of three landed 145 fish, including a few largemouth bass, a few drum, and a lot of quality white bass with many in the 14 inch range and a handful exceeding 15 inches.
Zoey was a real trooper, staying engaged and maintaining her technique throughout the four hour trip and doing far better than she had on any of her previous trips out with her grandpa.

 

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: 145 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) Bird activity was helpful in finding fish in the 2nd hour of this trip.

2) We stayed on fish for the entire morning thanks to decent winds and grey cloud cover.

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, 25 Nov….

0 feet 67.9F
5 feet 67.9F
10 feet 67.9F
15 feet 67.9F
20 feet 67.9F
25 feet 67.9F
30 feet 67.9F
35 feet 67.9F
40 feet 67.9F
45 feet 67.8F
50 feet 67.2F
55 feet 66.4F
60 feet 66.1F
65 feet 66.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 40F

Elevation: 1.50′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 65.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S10-12 with higher gusts on an incoming cold front

Sky Condition: Light grey skies with 100% cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 11% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic SH0055G – 3 suspended fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area SH0297G – 132 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures (3 short hops)

Area SH0296G – 10 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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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