CLIENTS:  On Friday, May 2s, I welcomed back Lee Pointer and Melanie Ringstaff.  The two fished with me during the fall back in 2017, and recently bid on a gift certificate I had offered to a local Salado non-profit organization.

Melanie is retired from teaching K-8 in public school and Lee works in the tech industry.

DATE: Friday, 23 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  Lee Pointer and Melanie Ringstaff brought in a 96-fish haul during a morning white bass bite which ran from about 7:40 through 10AM before calming winds and brightening, clearing skies killed the bite.

PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Heavy Lure continues to produce while being fished vertically through suspended white bass.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Overnight storms passed from west to east and disrupted the stable weather we’d been enjoying since Monday.  The winds were actually still from the NW before sunrise, and the atmosphere was much more humid.  As the sun rose, winds shifted to just south of east and the skies began clearing rapidly, eventually going clear blue and cloudless by around 10A.

The fishing this morning picked up around 7:30 and went strong until 10A.  Just after 10, as the skies were brightest and the with the winds beginning to calm, the bite soured very quickly.  By 10:25 we were just hoping to pick off a few stray, suspended fish after landing over 90 as a steady clip prior to that.

Melanie stuck with the plan and was rewarded handsomely with a consistent take of white bass caught which “smoking” her MAL Heavy upward through suspended schools of white bass aided by Garmin LiveScope.

Lee, on the other hand, desired to experiment.  He was using a Gulp! Minnow (3 & 4″ versions) on an all-black jighead. He also took full advantage of LiveScope, but jigged his presentation in place, generally not moving it more than a foot or so vertically.

It was interested to be able to compare the results, both positive and negative.  I observed that 1) Lee, a more experienced angler than Melanie, caught fewer fish on the Gulp! Minnow (about a 40/60 split), 2) of the 6 freshwater drum we landed, 100% came on the Gulp! Minnow (all of which which were suspended), 3) oftentimes when white bass missed the Gulp! Minnow on their first attempt, they would come back and swipe at it again a second or third time as it was jigged in place, 4) the Gulp! Minnow resulted in a lot of missed strikes, and 5) I felt the 4″ version tipped the scales for larger white bass.

As the conditions began to deteriorate around the 10 o’clock hour, we wound up having to move multiple times to find fish still active enough to bite.  We fished a total of five areas.  This is in contrast with fishing just 1 or 2 areas for a better catch Tues. – Thurs. this week.

So, the fishing on Stillhouse has been “suspended” in that the fishing right now is primarily for suspended fish, and, in that I won’t be going near the place until after the Memorial Day weekend craziness dies down by Tuesday!

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn appears to be nearly over now.
2. White bass are clearly disassociating from the bottom, choosing instead to suspend.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 3.51′ low with a 0.02′ drop in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 79.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light SSE breeze at 2-6 thru 10A, then going calm

Sky Condition: Clearing throughout the morning to bright blue and cloudless by 10A

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 9% illumination.

GT = 90

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Thursday, May 22, I welcomed aboard a first-time crew of three.  Pat Hardin coordinated this trip for his friends Mike Huls and Al Kaeo.  When I asked Pat how he found me, he told me he’d been reading my Sunday fishing column in the Killeen Daily Herald for years and just decided to pull the trigger and give guided fishing a try.

All three are military “brats” and “locals” who call the Ft. Hood, Killeen, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove area home.

DATE: Thursday, 22 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mike Huls, Pat Hardin, and Al Kaeo — longtime friends and, now, experienced white bass fishermen!

PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Heavy Lure was the only thing I had tied on this morning (all week, actually), accounting for every last one of the 187 fish my clients landed today.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

One lure fished one way in one topographic scenario was all it took this morning.  None of the fellows had prior experience fishing the way we fished today, so, I had to introduce them first to the fundamentals (correct use of spinning gear, understanding the LiveScope screen, proper retrieve cadence) before moving on to advanced skills (targeting individual fish, gauging fish depth in the water column, exploiting fishes’ competitive nature, and more).  By the end of the trip all I had to do was keep my unhooking glove on my right hand and release the fish as fast as these fellows could catch them.

My three-man crew used MAL Heavy Lures (w/silver blades & bodies and chartreuse tails) fished vertically using a “smoking” tactic to land all 187 fish (see video below).

Things started slowly with low wind and low light coming through some cloud cover at sunrise, but, once it brightened up a bit (still through moderate cloud cover) and the SSE wind began to ripple the surface, it was game on.  The bite went strong from 7:40 to 10:50 with a final pre-shutdown surge from 10:20 to 10:45.

Now, what about that topographic scenario?  Well, it became apparent by mid-week last week that white bass were leaving the bottom and showed a much greater tendency to suspend.  I believe last week’s heat and an abundance of newly available shad fry are driving this.  Now, instead of looking on bottom with side imaging, I am really scrutinizing down-looking sonar — both 2D and down-imaging  — for suspended fish signatures at the extreme edges/perimeters of those areas where I’d otherwise be looking for fish on bottom as recently as early last week.

A splashing device (not a thumping device) is critical for this kind of fishing in my opinion.  In fact, I’ve taken my thumper off the boat and will not reinstall it until the water drops back below 60-62F or so in December.

Once we found fish, we got them to stick with us thanks to the commotion created by the splasher and by the constant catching and releasing of fish adding to this commotion.  Included in this morning’s catch were at least 8 fish which exceeded 15 inches.

We only need to reposition one time, catching 51 fish at our first stop, and a final 136 fish at our second stop.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn appears to be nearly over now.
2. White bass are clearly disassociating from the bottom, choosing instead to suspend.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 3.49′ low with a 0.04′ drop in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 79.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light SSE breeze at 2-6 all morning

Sky Condition: 20-50% light grey clouds on a hazy blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 17% illumination.

GT = 10

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Wednesday, May 21st, I welcomed birthday girl Jemma Rogers aboard, accompanied by her grandfather, Dwight “Boom-Pa” Stone.  Dwight has made an annual event of getting his grandkids out fishing on their birthdays, and this was now Jemma’s day to shine as she celebrated her 11th birthday.

Dwight opted for a “Kids Fish, Too!” package, so, he was there only to help me help Jemma be successful, but did not fish.  I also did not fish — from time to time I will hook and hand off fish for kids to reel in if they are very young or are struggling, but, Jemma was in good form this morning and landed every last fish herself.

And, she did it in just 2.5 hours!  At 101 fish, that’s about 1 fish every minute and a half!!

DATE: Wednesday, 21 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  Dwight Stone and his 11-year-old granddaughter, Jemma, with a pair of 15+ inch white bass; Jemma landed four “magnum” white bass exceeding 15″ this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Heavy Lure was the only thing I had tied on this morning, accounting for 100% of Jemma’s 101 fish catch as she worked it vertically as described in the video below.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

After honing in on where suspended fish are tending to consolidate, we hopped right on the fish this morning and found them biting before 7AM, thanks to a less cloudy sky than of late allowing for a sudden brightening right at sunrise serving as a trigger for white bass to begin searching for forage.

The water is warming rapidly and the fishing is getting tricky.  There is a definite transition underway in which the white bass are making use of the bottom less and less and are beginning to suspend routinely.  There are two drivers for this: stratification of the water by temperature which will eventually lead to the creation of the thermocline by mid-June, and the increasing presence of young-of-the-year shad making their way into open water.

Jemma caught all 101 fish this morning at just one location and did so in right at 2.5 hours.  The fish never showed signs of slowing down until right at 9AM.  By this time Jemma had already landed over 90 fish, and so she persisted, pushing through a hurting left wrist left aching due to all the fish she’d landed previously, until she reached her goal of 101 fish.

Once that fish came in the boat, she had her mind on going shopping and eating chicken crispy crispers at Chili’s with both of her grandmothers.  So, we wrapped up early, took some photos, including those necessary to qualify her for a “Big Fish Award” from TPWD, and headed back to shore with one very happy camper.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn appears to be nearly over now.
2. White bass are clearly disassociating from the bottom, choosing instead to suspend.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 9:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 3.45′ low with a 0.05′ drop in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 79.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light ESE breeze at 1-5 all morning

Sky Condition: 20-50% light grey clouds on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 37% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Tuesday, May 20th, I fished with two Fort Cavazos active duty soldiers — Specialist Mike Cohen and Private First Class Nicholas “Pete” Peterson — on a trip coordinated through the U.S. Army’s Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers’ (B.O.S.S.) program.

Mike is from the Las Vegas, NV, area and works in both maintenance and communications fields which he went into right out of high school.  Pete, after spending some time working construction as a civilian, enlisted and now works in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning field.  Mike is now putting himself through college and has plans to become a Signal Corps commissioned officer under the Army’s “Green to Gold” program.

The two men are in the same unit and are both single soldiers living in the barracks on Fort Cavazos.  Despite limited prior fishing experience, both were willing to be coached, and did quite well as a result.

DATE: Tuesday, 20 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Pete Peterson and Mike Cohen — two U.S. Army enlisted men — joined me today for a morning of white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow.

PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Heavy Lure did all the heavy lifting this morning, accounting for 100% of our 102 fish catch.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The water is warming rapidly and the fishing is getting tricky.  There is a definite transition underway in which the white bass are making use of the bottom less and less and are beginning to suspend routinely.  There are two drivers for this: stratification of the water by temperature which will eventually lead to the creation of the thermocline by mid-June, and the increasing presence of young-of-the-year shad making their way into open water.

This morning’s entire 4 hours was made on just two locations, each identical topographically, and about two miles apart from one another.

When fish are suspended, I rely heavily on my 2-D sonar (a.k.a. traditional sonar or colored sonar) as the three-dimensional cone it makes use of extends the echo signature of the fish into long arches which are larger and much more easily seen on a screen then the shorter “rice grain” signatures seen on side-imaging and down-imaging.

At these two areas we fished, the fish were suspended in a ~8 foot thick horizontal band about 15 feet off bottom.  This was so apparent that at our second area I did not even have the bottom showing on Garmin LiveScope, rather, I zoomed in to show about 10 feet below the fish and about 20 feet above them.

Only one presentation was required today — I had both men use the MAL Heavy (silver body, chartreuse tail) with a “smoking” tactic.  They’d let the lure drop on an open bail to a level several feet below the suspended fish, then crank about six times with the first handle turn getting the MAL Lure’s blade spinning, and the remaining five cranks to attract fish.  If LiveScope revealed a chase, they would keep on cranking without interruption until the fish either overtook and struck, or the fish turned away.

Pete and Mike’s 102 fish catch included 6 drum and 96 white bass with several exceeding 14″.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn appears to be weakening.
2. White bass are clearly disassociating from the bottom, choosing instead to suspend.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Elevation: 3.40′ low with a 0.03′ drop in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 77.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW7 at trip’s start, rising to NW12 by trip’s end with an incoming, dry cold front

Sky Condition: 100% thin grey cloud cover got pushed east as a dry cold front came in with clearing skies and falling humidity

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 48% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

CLIENTS:  On Friday morning, May 16, I hosted my most frequent clients in my 19 years in the fishing guide business –  joining me this morning from the Oliver Family was Mr. Jack Oliver, accompanied by his three sons, Asa, Isaac, and Eli, and Joseph Jarosek, Jack’s son-in-law.

DATE: Friday, 16 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Jack and Isaac Oliver did all the heavy lifting today as we used live shad to tempt exactly 100 fish of 5 different species on this Friday morning Lake Belton fishing trip.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although hybrid striped bass have been a bit of a letdown this season, I stocked up on live bait and we gave it another shot on Lake Belton. I let Jack know in advance that the hybrid would be few in number, so much so, that I’ve opted not to offer any more hybrid-specific trips for this season (and perhaps beyond that).

Regardless, we got out there, found fish with sonar, got healthy baits down among them, and we pulled up exactly 100 fish this morning, including hybrid striped bass, white bass, largemouth bass, freshwater drum, and blue catfish.

The fish location today seemed to be either boom or bust. We found it necessary to fish only two locations, but looked over about five times that many locations which were completely devoid of fish, including bait fish.

The fish we did land we landed using tightlines with three-quarter ounce egg sinkers holding a 36“ leader terminated with a 1/0 Kahle hook to present the threadfin shad to the fish within 1 to 6 feet of bottom.

Birds, despite helping us find our best concentration of fish yesterday, were not a factor whatsoever this morning. The bite we experienced went from about 7:50 AM through 10:44 AM and then shut down hard thereafter.

Because this crew had multiple, successful, prior experiences aboard with me while fishing bait, I experimented with having them hold their rods instead of using rod holders, as they already understood the purpose the rod holders served.

After four hours of doing this, there was unanimous agreement that they liked holding the rod better because they felt they could be more responsive in setting the hook when necessary. I took note of that and will likely experiment a bit more with that going forward.

What all was said and done, we landed exactly 100 fish – 66 at our first stop and 34 at the second.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn appears to be weakening.
2. We are in Day 4 of a forecast 8 day heat wave bringing record heat to the area for the month of May

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 2.39′ low with a 0.03′ rise in the last 24 hours (thanks to water being released from Lake Proctor)

Water Surface Temp: 75.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9 at trip’s start, gradually increasing to SSE11 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% thin grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 85% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Thursday, May 15, I fished with a returning group of three – – Brandon Griffith, and brothers Eli and Isaac Schlabach. Brandon is a US Army veteran having once served as a cavalry scout, and the three are now partners in a central Texas real estate business engaged in property management and buying and selling real estate.

This trip was a long time in the making, as these fellow specifically wanted to pursue hybrid striped bass. During their scheduled trip last year (booked after waiting 2022 and 2023 out as we attempted to rebuild the hybrid fishery), Belton and Stillhouse were shut down due to flooding, so I rebooked them for this spring window this year.  I appreciate their patience!

DATE: Thursday, 15 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:   Eli Schlabach with a hybrid striped bass, Brandon Griffith with blue catfish, and Isaac Schlaback with a hybrid — all taken on live threadfin shad.

PHOTO CAPTION: Of course you just about can’t drop a shad in Lake Belton without attracting at least a few white bass — these all fell for live shad, as did largemouth bass, freshwater drum, blue cats, and hybrid stripers.

PHOTO CAPTION:  These are the main components of the tight-line rig I had my crew using to fish their live shad with this morning — a trolling sinker to take the bait to bottom and to give a non-sliding connection point for the main line and leader, and a Kahle-style hook with mono tag to help keep the shad in place.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Despite the ongoing unseasonably, hot weather, this morning was actually quite enjoyable thanks to a steady, southeasterly breeze and a thin deck of gray clouds, which kept it quite comfortable right up until about the last 30 minutes.

Encountering a morning bite on Belton that runs the full four hours is more of the exception than the rule, but that is what this trio got to enjoy today.

During their time on the water, these fellows landed five different species of fish, including white bass, hybrid striped bass, blue catfish, largemouth bass, and a single freshwater drum.

We fished tightlines with rods kept in rod holders so a quick tug could be distinguished from a steady pull down in the rod tip, even when the breeze started to create quite a chop on the water. We fished these baits anywhere from 1 to 10 feet off bottom based on what sonar was indicating. By the end of the trip, everyone had landed hybrid striped bass with a grand total of 111 fish for their efforts.

It has been quite some time since birds have been helpful in identifying fish location of any sort, but today, laughing gulls were responsible for helping us get close to the best concentration of fish we would find all morning.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn appears to be weakening.
2. We are in Day 3 of a forecast 8 day heat wave bringing record heat to the area for the month of May
3. Laughing gulls pointed the way to fish this morning.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 2.39′ low with a 0.03′ rise in the last 24 hours (thanks to water being released from Lake Proctor)

Water Surface Temp: 75.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6 at trip’s start, gradually increasing to SSE13 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% thin grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 92% illumination.

GT = 85

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Wednesday, May 14, I fish with first-time guests Robert and Dulce Stine of Temple, Texas. The Stines bid on a gift certificate I had donated to the Vintage Christian Academy located on FM 439 between Killeen and Lake Belton.

DATE: Wednesday, 14 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:   Rob and Dulce Stine with some beefy, post-spawn white bass taken fishing MAL Heavy Lures vertically.  With rising water temperatures, fish are starting to disassociate from bottom and suspend more routinely.

PHOTO CAPTION: For the third consecutive day (and on two different lakes), my clients used one bait one way to catch their fish — The MAL Heavy Lure worked with a vertical “smoking” tactic.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Because they had to get their son off to school, we delayed our start until 7:40 AM, a little later than I would have preferred, but, this actually worked out well because there was next to no wind right up until we began fishing.

The Stines did wonderfully well today, due in large part to their willingness to be coached. They were earnest in their efforts to replicate the techniques I prescribe for them, and those techniques paid off from start to finish today. Once again, 100% of the 121 fish they landed were caught on the MAL Heavy with silver blade and chartreuse tail used with a smoking tactic.  A YouTube video of that tactic appears below.

Toward the end of the trip Dulce was so “dialed in” that if a fish showed on Garmin LiveScope and passed beneath her position on the starboard gunwale, we all just knew it was going to end up in the boat and be counted in the ongoing Temple College white bass study.  She just got the rhythm of getting the blade of the MAL Lure started and then kept it going while both reeling steadily and “leading” the fish just enough to get the lure to pass vertically right off the tips of their noses as the fish swam horizontally.

For the third day in a row, I observed more and more fish disassociating from bottom as the lake water begins to stratify by temperature with the warmer water atop the cooler water below.

When the fish begin to demonstrate this behavior, I feel a splashing device is at its greatest value. Those open water fish are just simply drawn to the commotion the splasher creates. Then, once my clients begin catching fish, the fish being fought back to the boat draws more fish because more commotion is created. It’s a cycle that then builds on itself and can keep sustaining a bite for 30 to 45 minutes in some cases.

When all was said and done, the Steins landed 121 fish of which two were freshwater drum with the balance all white bass — some just shy of 15 inches.

This trip was the second in a series of 13 monthly sampling dates set for Stillhouse Hollow with another 13 dates set for Lake Belton, during which each white bass landed will be weighed and measured to try to compare the white bass populations on these two reservoirs.

Joining us from Temple College to see this effort through was Professor Jason Locklin, and students, Caroline Vanderburg and Caleb Fry.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn appears to be weakening.
2. We are in Day 2 of a forecast 8 day heat wave bringing record heat to the area for the month of May
3. White bass are beginning to disassociate with the bottom, choosing instead to suspend.  This is the third consecutive day I’ve seen this on both Belton and Stillhouse.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:40A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 3.26′ low with a 0.03′ drop in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 75.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW6 at trip’s start, gradually increasing to SSW11 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% thin grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 96% illumination.

GT = P

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Monday, May 12th, I fished with first-time guests — the father-and-son team of Eric and Sam Nail of Salado.  Eric leads several tech-oriented business both in the U.S. and abroad, and Sam is working his way through high school where he plays both football and tennis.

DATE: Monday, 12 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Sam and Eric Nail worked MAL Heavy Lures vertically from start to finish this morning and put together a 2-man, 4-hour catch of 115 fish including 2 largemouth bass, 5 freshwater drum, and 108 white bass — all caught and released.

PHOTO CAPTION: This one bait, the MAL Heavy, worked one way (see “smoking” video tutorial below) accounted for all 115 fish for Eric and Sam Nail this morning.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This morning’s summary is pretty straightforward.  We found fish with sonar (shallow early, deep late), Spot-Locked on the fish using the i-Pilot Link system, used Garmin LiveScope to gauge fish response, and worked MAL Heavy lures with a vertical “smoking” retrieve for as long as the fish in a given area stayed interested.

The shallow fish we found early in under 25′ were tight to the bottom.  The fish we found in deeper (41′) water later in the morning were suspended throughout the lower 12 feet of the water column.

Having never used the MAL Lure before, and coming from a bass fishing background, the Nails encountered a bit of a learning curve.  Once they got the fundamentals down, it was more catching than fishing.  Those fundamentals included: getting the MAL Lure’s blade spinning as close to bottom as possible and doing so using only the reel’s handle (not jerking the tip upwards), maintaining a steady cadence during the retrieve, avoiding overdone hooksets, and leaving some space between the rod’s tip and the swivel connecting main line to leader so as to avoid losing fish right at the boat.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn was going strong this morning well before sunrise thanks to cloudless conditions.
2. Flocks of terns have shown up but did not point us to any fish today.
3. A heatwave is due to hit with abnormally high temps for the next 8 days, beginning on 13 May.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 3.22′ low (a 0.04′ fall in 24 hours)

Water Surface Temp: 71.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW4 at trip’s start, gradually increasing to WNW7 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover on bluebird sky.

Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Friday, May 9, I fished with a crew of four, three of which had fish with me previously. Joining me was the father and son team of Mike and Randall Stone, Shawn DeJournett, and Kevin Foresman (the new guy).

This crew started poking at each other before they even boarded the boat this morning and the good-natured ribbing never stopped over the entire trip.  By mid-trip everyone was cautiously measuring their words so no one could one-up them.  About this time, Randall asks Mike, “Hey, Dad, are those new jeans you’re wearing?”.

Everyone assumed Randall had something devious he intended to say once Mike replied.  To his credit, Mike did not reply immediately and everyone was silent, kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Then everyone looked at Randall expectantly, at which time he defensively said, “What? I just wanted to know if they were new or not!”.

I then jokingly asked Randall, “What is that you’ve said to your father in the past which has now made him so hesitant to give you a reply to such a simple question?”.  This kickstarted a lot of interesting storytelling about how everyone dealt with critiques or criticisms from others.

DATE: Friday, 09 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Randall Stone, Shawn DeJournett, Kevin Foresman, and Mike Stone, with a few of the white bass taken on live shad.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Randall Stone with an 11.5-pound blue catfish which went for a lively threadfin shad fished just a foot off bottom.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Shawn DeJournett with a yellow (flathead) catfish which went for a lively threadfin shad fished just a foot off bottom.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Mike wanted to focus on hybrid striped bass, so, despite a solid bite on artificial for white bass going on right now, we used fresh caught threadfin shad for most of the morning.

Aside from increasing the odds of catching hybrid stripers, live bait does typically produce better quality fish. Part of the reason for this is because I net enough bait to allow me to be picky in those I actually place in the livewell for later use. By choosing only larger shad, many smaller fish are put off by the size of that forage, hence the bait gets left alone long enough for a larger fish to come and grab it.

We fished two areas through 10 AM. At the first, in about 25 feet of water, the fish presented on sonar on the bottom.  At the second location, I saw the fish suspended between 25 and 40 feet deep over a deeper bottom.  In this case, I had everyone carefully hand strip exactly 25 to 30 feet of line off their reels so the bait would be in the midst of this band of fish.

At around 9:30, and with 62 fish already landed, I saw a very large school of white bass on sonar. I offered to everyone that we could very quickly put a lot of fish in the boat and still leave about an hour to continue fishing live bait for better quality fish. Everyone was good with this, so, I switched everyone over to spinning reels with MAL Heavy lures tied on (chartreuse tail/silver blade). At exactly 10:01, our 100th fish came aboard putting that 31 minute catch rate at over a fish per minute.

From that point through 11:10 we left those fish to continue on with live shad and picked up a final 17 fish, including our largest fish of the trip, an 11.5 pound blue cat which Randall landed while using live shad.

As as often in the case when using live bait, we caught a mixed bag of fish today, including white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, blue catfish, one yellow catfish, and a freshwater drum.

This four man crew’s final total was 118 fish with all fish caught and released.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn was going strong this morning on a light, but balmy NW wind at ~5-6mph with an overnight low of 62F
2. No helpful bird activity.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:40AM on Friday, 09 May

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 2.57′ low (a 0.02′ rise in 24 hours)

Water Surface Temp: 73.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW6 at trip’s start, gradually increasing to NW14 by 11A

Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover on bluebird sky at sunrise, with clouds increasing to 50% white cloud coverage by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 92% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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