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.
RESULTS: 121 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
- Threadfin shad spawn appears to be weakening.
- We are in Day 2 of a forecast 8 day heat wave bringing record heat to the area for the month of May
- 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:
This was the latest water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7AM on Wednesday, 14 May…
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
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