CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, February 3, I welcomed aboard Jackson Rogers, a newly minted 9-year-old young man, accompanied by his grandfather, Dwight “Boom-Pa” Stone. This was a “Kids’ Fish, Too!” trip, so all the effort was focused solely on Jackson’s success.
As we swept over a potential area with sonar, Dwight asked about the potential for fishing for hybrid on Lake Belton this year. Immediately, Jackson asked, “What’s a hybrid?” Dwight immediately buried his nose in his phone and let me field that pop-fly solo. Jackson left understanding that if you “cross” the DNA of a tyrannosaurus rex with a velociraptor, you get a really bad dude you don’t want to mess with. We didn’t delve into “crossing”. I felt successful.
DATE: Monday, 03 February 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 5, 7, 10-12 February (AMs or PMs)
PHOTO CAPTION: Female white bass are beginning to show bulging sides as the eggs in their ovaries begin to develop in advance of the forthcoming spring spawn. Three of these four fish are 15+ inches in length.
PHOTO CAPTION: Jackson matched his personal best “PB” for largemouth bass with this 4.25-pounder which fell for a white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab in our first half hour on the water.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
As we got going this morning, we found ourselves in at Day 3 of what is supposed to be a 7-day warming trend before a weekend cold front brings that to an end.
Fish are definitely showing signs of movement, migration, and spawn preparation. By movement, I mean heading generally shallower than during the month of January. By migration, I mean heading generally upstream, and by spawn preparation, I mean physiological changes in the fishes’ appearance (bulging sides, leaking milt on males, and some capillary bleeding on females).
We fished vertically all morning, primarily to keep it simple. There were scenarios where horizontal presentations were appropriate, but Jackson was doing well, so, since he was “good with a hammer”, we went and found him nails to pound.
Fishing was best in the earlier half of the trip (which coincided with the start of the morning’s wind and with the only cloud cover we had). As the rising winds leveled off and the skies cleared to cloudless, the fish got real finicky and started behaving as fish in 49-50F water typically do.
As we fished vertically, we found some fish using the bottom, and other fish cruising by suspended. For those on bottom, we snap-jigged, and for the cruisers, we used a slow-smoking tactic always attempting to get the baits right off the snoots of the passing fish as they swam by, aided by LiveScope. All fish were taken on a white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab save for Jackson’s last three fish which came on a white grub/jighead combo.
RESULTS: 32 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO SNAP-JIG: Click here for tutorial
TUTORIAL VIDEON ON HOW TO DO “EASING”: Click here for tutorial
LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used curl-tail grubs and jigheads and the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab to catch our fish this morning. Find all Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS:
1) Water temperature has risen from 48.6F to ~50F
2) Birds were witnessed in multiple locations, although no location had more than 9-12 birds
3) Lots of suspended fish in the mix today — a sign of migration very common for this time of year.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Monday, 03 Feb. …
5 feet 51.7F
10 feet 51.6F
15 feet 51.4F
20 feet 51.3F
25 feet 51.3F
30 feet 50.9F
35 feet 50.8F
40 feet 50.5F
45 feet 50.0F
50 feet 49.5F
55 feet 49.0F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:30A
End Time: 11A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 51F
Elevation: 2.73′ low (with a 0.25′ rise since last Thursday’s rain)
Water Surface Temp: 49.4F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S6-9
Sky Condition: bright, clear, cloudless skies after 45 minutes of 85% grey cloud cover at trip’s start
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 32% illumination.
GT = 5
Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area vic 798 – 13 fish on slow-smoked white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic 649 – 4 fish on slow-smoked white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic 0295 – 15 on slow-smoked & snap-jigged white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs & on grub/jighead combo
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