Day: December 8, 2024

Happy 11th Birthday, Son! — 125 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS:  On Thursday morning, December 5, I fished with first time guests – – the father and son team of Clinton and Charlie Fatter.

Clinton is a family medicine doctor, who, along with his wife, is raising their three kids in Belton, Texas. Charlie is the eldest of the three kids, and this trip was in celebration of his 11th birthday.

 

DATE: Thursday, 05 December 2024 (AM)

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

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Clinton Fatter took the eldest of his three children, Charlie, on a fishing trip for his 11th birthday.  The pair landed 125 fish, including white bass, largemouth bass, and freshwater drum.

PHOTO CAPTION:   This freshwater drum struck Clinton’s lure right as it dropped to bottom.  It would be the heaviest of the 125 fish father and son landed on their 4-hour morning trip.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Conditions were good today, in that we had a northerly wind blowing hard enough to create occasional whitecaps, and we had a nice deck of thin, gray clouds with no direct sun shining on the water.
The water temperature continues to fall very slowly, but is still in the 60s. Although the fish were not as aggressive as they have been over the last two weeks, they were still quite willing to follow a smoked MAL Lure up off the bottom .
Since the fish were willing to follow, only one technique and one lure was necessary this morning. We used MAL Dense Lures with silver bodies and chartreuse tails in conjunction with a smoking tactic. Smoking involves dropping these heavy lures to bottom and cranking them right back toward the surface at a moderate cadence, ensuring the blade gets spinning as close to the bottom as possible.
In this manner, Clinton and Charlie put together a catch of exactly 125 fish in four hours of effort.
Their catch included freshwater drum, largemouth bass, and white bass up to 15 inches in length.
This morning‘s fishing followed a normal curve with activity going from near zero and improving in the first hour, plateauing at a peak in the middle two hours, then falling off to very low activity by the time the fourth hour had run its course.
During the second hour, some light bird activity cropped up, mainly consisting of gulls working over top of loons. This activity did help get us in the vicinity of some bottom-hugging white bass, which were certainly easier to catch than those which were suspended.

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: 125 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 the water temperature now in the very low 60’s from top to bottom, fish were noticeably less aggressive, but, still aggressive enough to chase the MAL Lure moving at a moderate cadence.  That will likely change inside a week’s time.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00 AM on Saturday, 29 Nov….

0 feet 62.0F
5 feet 63.7F
10 feet 63.9F
15 feet 63.9F
20 feet 64.1F
25 feet 63.9F
30 feet 63.9F
35 feet 63.9F
40 feet 63.9F
45 feet 63.8F
50 feet 63.5F
55 feet 63.5F
60 feet 63.5F
65 feet 63.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 51F

Elevation: 1.70′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 62.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE10-13

Sky Condition: Grey skies all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 20% illumination.

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 034 – 6 suspended fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic SH0109C – 27 suspended fish smoking MAL Dense Lures for bottom-oriented fish

Area 0210 – 16 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures for bottom-oriented fish

Area 772 – 47 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures for bottom-oriented fish

Area vic SDH001 – 5 suspended fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area SH0296G – 7 suspended fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 716/0305 – 17 suspended 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

Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) Trip #23 for 2024

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On Saturday morning, November 30, I welcomed aboard Haniel and Nancy Aglee, ages 9 and 5, respectively. The girls’ mother, Abra Alokpa, is a disabled US Army veteran, originally from Togo.  This was the 2024 season’s 23rd SKIFF program trip provided specifically for military kids.

Abra served six years in the military’s supply chain.

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: Saturday, 30 November 2024 (AM)

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

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Nancy (age 5) and Haniel (age 9) Aglee were treated to a free SKIFF program.  The girls’ mother, Abra Alopka, is a disabled veteran who served 6 years in the U.S. Army’s supply chain.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

After a cold front passed through Central Texas on Thanksgiving Day, this trip began clear, cold, and breezy. The ambient air temperature was 38°, with windchill pushing it a bit lower than that.
The calm conditions which often follow a front existed overnight, and so this morning we were fortunate to have a returning south wind.
Thanks to this wind, which began blowing before sunrise, fish were active right as the sun rose, and stayed that way for several hours.
We fished only two areas with the first giving up 18 fish, despite going through a pretty steep learning curve, which was not aided by the girls’ thick clothing, gloved hands, and donned lifejackets.
Despite that, they both eventually got the hang of cranking the MAL Dense Lures I rigged them up with at an attractive cadence to fish which were located both on the bottom and suspended.
Once the girls had the hang of the technique, I moved to our second and final area, which, thankfully, had more bottom-oriented fish than suspended fish. These bottom-oriented fish are more easily caught, because it is not as critical to get it ahead of their direction of travel as it is for suspended fish.
As we inched past the two hour mark, around 9:40 AM, Abra took some cues from Nancy after sensing she was getting cold. As it turns out, she was quite cold despite dressing well for the conditions and, to play it safe, we concluded the trip at that time.
By this time, we’d seen 54 fish come over the gunwale. Everyone hunkered down with hooded heads ducked, and cold fingers in gloves and pockets for the ride back to the boat ramp and took some photos in an area protected from the wind and cold.

 

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: 54 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) For a second consecutive day, bird activity kicked in during our second hour on the water and helped us narrow down where we needed to look for fish.

2) We stayed on fish for the entire morning thanks to decent winds from the south following a cold front’s passage over the course of daylight hours on Thanksgiving Day two days prior.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00 AM on Saturday, 29 Nov….

0 feet 62.0F
5 feet 63.7F
10 feet 63.9F
15 feet 63.9F
20 feet 64.1F
25 feet 63.9F
30 feet 63.9F
35 feet 63.9F
40 feet 63.9F
45 feet 63.8F
50 feet 63.5F
55 feet 63.5F
60 feet 63.5F
65 feet 63.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 9:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 38F

Elevation: 1.68′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 62.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6-8

Sky Condition: Clear blue skies with thin, white cloud cover in the NW

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 0% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 034 – 18 suspended fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 1691 – 36 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures for bottom-oriented 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