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