CLIENTS:  This morning, five active duty soldiers stationed at Ft. Cavazos (formerly, Ft. Hood) joined me for a morning of fishing on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.   This trip was undertaken through the longstanding B.O.S.S. program (Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers).

Joining me were Amber Solis, Jess Davis, Erik Jimenez, Martha Land, and Danika Guillory.  SGT Solis is assigned as administrative support to the BOSS program, while the other four soldiers are in the same route clearance platoon in an Army engineering unit.

DATE: Thursday, 29 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

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

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Amber Solis, Jess Davis, Erik Jimenez, Martha Land, and Danika Guillory each with a white bass exceeding 14 inches.  Every one of the 203 fish landed today were landed on the MAL Heavy shown below, using a vertical “smoking” tactic.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Danika Guillory caught all three of the trip’s largest fish today, including this 4.25-pound largemouth and an even larger freshwater drum.

 

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:

Despite a slow start thanks to moderately heavy fog, we made up for lost time from around 8:15 AM through around 10:10AM.

Light rain combined last night combined with this morning’s dewpoint made for fog area wide.  We never did see the fog clear completely until the 9 o’clock hour, and, even then, the skies stayed heavily overcast and grey through the trip’s end.

We fished only four areas, finding fish at the last three of them.  There were catchable fish at our first stop, but the fish were reluctant to follow, and my crew was starting from scratch in learning to use spinning gear and the necessary tactics.  After working out the kinks and missing a few fish at this first area, everyone was much more well-equipped to do business at the remaining locations we fished.

The fishing was pretty easy after the finding was done, and the finding was made easier by 2D sonar and the ability it has to differentiate between white bass and other species when properly tuned.

Once we found fish and I got Spot-Locked on them, the splasher held them in place and my crew worked them over using the MAL Heavy with silver blade and chartreuse tail using the smoking tactic explained in the video below.

The fishing went strong until 10:10 when our already light winds went nearly calm and the fish settled down almost immediately.

This crew landed a total of 203 fish, including 4 freshwater drum, 3 largemouth bass and 196 white bass.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1. White bass are clearly disassociating from the bottom, choosing instead to suspend.
2. Despite a rise of over 1.20′ in 48-hours due to heavy rainfall on Monday, May 26, the fish were still plenty turned on this morning.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 2.16 low with a 0.04′ rise in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 78.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light NE breeze at 5-8 all AM, going slack by 10:10

Sky Condition: Moderate fog coverage for first two hours, giving way to 100% grey cloud cover the rest of the AM

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 9% 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