Christmas Week – Wild Weather — 99 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Saturday, Dec. 28, I fished with a father-and-son duo — Tom and Barrett Nichols.  Tom lives in the Georgetown, Texas, area and is retired from the video game industry while Barrett just recently graduated with his degree in environmental science out west and is now searching for his first post-college employment opportunity.

 

DATE: Saturday, 28 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 1, 3, 4, & 6 January (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Tom and Barrett Nichols landed exactly 99 fish on a morning which included calm conditions and winds from N, W, and S, as well as sun, clouds, fog, rain, distant lightning, and even a tornado watch!  The leftmost fish in this frame went 15.75″.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Wow!  What a morning of weather we lived through!  On Friday morning, there was but a 4% chance of precipitation called for this morning, with a moderate SSW breeze and temps in the 50s.  When I woke up this morning, we had a 56% chance of 0.60 inches of rain, patchy fog, and a developing line of thunderstorms out near Burnet stretching NE to Lampasas and headed our way.
With a limited window of opportunity to fish with Tom while Barrett was visiting, I pressed on and just stayed abreast of the weather situation as the morning unfolded.  Our first hour was a bit slow, as it normally is, but, as the air got warm and humid in advance of the approaching cold front, the fishing really took off.  The Nichols put 70 fish in the boat by 10A, then the weather got wonky.
We had a storm cell pass to our north and had outflow air from it turn the wind briefly NW with a ~10 degree temperature drop.  Then we got rained on for about five minutes, then a tornado watch was issued (for E. Bell County), then things started to calm down.  The winds went westerly, the clouds and storms moved east, and the sun began to shine.
It was now around 10:50, and another brief window of fish activity opened, allowing the Nichols to catch another 29 fish before the bite shut down for good right around noon.
Every fish landed came as the Nichols “smoked” MAL Dense Lures (silver body w/ chartreuse tail) upwards off the bottom.  In some cases, the fish were massed on the bottom and chased the lure upwards; in other cases the fish were suspended and required that they time the rise of their lures with the forward travel speed of the fish so as to intersect with the fish.

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: 99 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) Normal bell-shaped curve described this morning’s feeding activity with a solid 2.75 hours of catching in the middle of this 4-hour trip.

 

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: 7:35A

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 2.22′ low (with a 0.02′ fall in the last 24 hours) with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 60.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: As described in narrative above

Sky Condition: As described in narrative above

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 5% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

Area 772 – 70 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area SH0396G – 24 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 866 – 5 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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