The Balm(y) Before the Storm — 88 Fish

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle