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

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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