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

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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