Day: January 2, 2025

As Fair Weather Fades — 130 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS:  This afternoon, Thursday, Jan. 2, I welcomed aboard three generations of anglers:  Rick Bradstreet, his son-in-law, David Andrews, and David’s two kids,  Zach (age 11), and Quincy (age 10).

Rick is on the cusp of retirement after serving the Austin Police Department as a psychologist, and David is an information technology salesman.

Rick and crew were referred my way by Manuel Pena who I got to know over 16 years ago through the Austin Fly Fishers, and who Rick got  to know through APD, which Manuel retired from.

 

DATE: Thursday, 02 January 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES:   7-10 January (AM)

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Quincy & Zach Andrews, Rick Bradstreet, and David Andrews with a sampling of their 130-fish evening haul of Stillhouse Hollow white bass.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Miss Quincy (age 10) hooked, fought, and landed this beautifully colored 8.75 pound largemouth bass from out of 26 feet of water — our shallowest area fished all afternoon.  This is the largest largemouth any of my clients have landed thus far this winter.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Rick Bradstreet landed our largest white bass of the trip.  This fish measured 15 5/8″ and fell for a MAL Dense Lure worked with a smoking tactic.  The fish was suspended just below 25′ in 51 feet of water.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Whenever I have the choice, I prefer to fish with my clients in the morning because the morning bite on both Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow tends to be longer and stronger than the afternoon bite.  32 years of data shows that afternoons typically produce about 70% of the catch versus the morning bite.
Regardless, only the afternoon was available to this afternoon’s crew, and fortunately we had some grey cloud cover and a SW chop on the water.
We were able to find and catch fish from start to finish this afternoon, putting together a 130-fish catch which included 6 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 123 white bass.
100% of the catch came on the MAL Dense with silver body and chartreuse tail.  Some bottom-hugging fish followed the lure up off the bottom and struck, but, the majority of the fish my crew caught were suspended fish which struck as everyone made an effort to crank their lures up through and right off the snouts of these suspended fish as they clearly showed on Garmin LiveScope.
The bite stayed strong right up until 5:15P, and then died suddenly, just before sunset.  I believe we got a bit of a resurgence in activity from 4:55 until 5:15 because this is when the sun dipped below a cloud bank in the western sky and the sky brightened for about 20 minutes before dimming with sunset.

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: 130 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 Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1) No afternoon bird activity.

 

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, 30 Dec …

0 feet 60.6F
 5 feet 60.6F
10 feet 60.6F
15 feet 60.6F
20 feet 60.6F
25 feet 60.6F
30 feet 60.6F
35 feet 60.6F
40 feet 60.6F
45 feet 60.6F
50 feet 60.4F
55 feet 60.4F
60 feet 60.4F
65 feet 60.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 1:15P

End Time: 5:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 2.34′ low (with a 0.03′ fall in the last 24 hours) with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 59.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SW5-7 all afternoon

Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud cover until 4:55P when the sun dipped below the clouds and shone for ~20 min. prior to setting.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 9% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 033 – 18 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 675 – 3 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 785 – 33 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures (2 short hops)

Area SH0296G – 21 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area SH0213G/874 – 55 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