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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Thursday, April 9, I welcomed aboard a crew of five for a morning of live bait fishing on Lake Belton. Joining me were Justin and Daylan Sharrock, Shane LaCanne, Kyle Kohring, and Shayne Wilson. The four men have been friends for many years now, and Daylan is Justin‘s 16-year-old son.

Justin is a public school teacher and coach in the Austin area, Daylan is working his way through high school, Shane is engaged in the Central Texas real estate market, Kyle works for a retail food manufacturer, and Shayne is a salesman in the packaging industry.

DATE: Thursday, 08 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  12 June (AM) 

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

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Justin and Daylan Sharrock, Shane LaCanne, Kyle Kohring, and Shayne Wilson, each with a white bass taken from 23-41 feet of water on live shad.

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left with a mixed bag of freshwater species landed on live bait today: from left: Justin Sharrock with a blue catfish, Daylan Sharrock with a hybrid striped bass, Kyle Kohring with a largemouth bass, and Shane LaCanne with a white bass.  We also caught one freshwater drum — 5 species in all today.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:Northerly winds continued today following heavy storms on Tuesday morning. The shad spawning activity under cool, clear conditions was minimal this morning.

As we got going, there was about 40% white cloud cover on a blue sky with winds picking up from the northwest to around 8 to 9 mph. As mid morning approached, the winds slacked off, and the skies cleared. In our final hour, the winds picked back up, still from due north, and light gray cloud cover filled in to about 85% coverage.

Today I went back to fishing live bait, as this crew’s desire was to land hybrid striped bass, and the odds of doing so are greatly enhanced using live shad.  As a result, our numbers came down, but the quality of the fish and average size was certainly better than would be experienced with using lures only.

We fished four locations today all using freshly caught threadfin shad on downlines with rods kept in rod holders to avoid premature hook sets.

Our catch was a mixed bag of white bass, hybrid striped bass, blue catfish, largemouth bass, and a solo freshwater drum thrown in for good measure.

I have all of my fluorocarbon leaders cut to the same exact length so that when the egg sinker above the leader contacts bottom, two cranks of one of the matching set of six Ambassador round reels will bring the baited hook to exactly one foot above the bottom.  Depending on what shows on sonar and the size and species of fish we were catching, I had my crew adjust their baits anywhere from 2 to 3 cranks off bottom.

We fished until 11:40 AM and by that time had landed a total of 97 fish with the largest being a 4 pound hybrid striper, with numerous blue cat in the 3+ pound range.

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

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn was back on after brief interruption due to a cold front Sat. – Mon., 3 – 5 May.
2. No helpful bird activity.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This was the previous water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 11:15AM, Friday, 02 May…

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:40AM on Thursday, 24 April

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 2.59′ low (a 0.06′ rise in 24 hours)

Water Surface Temp: 72.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW8-9 and slowly easing back to calm by mid-morning before picking back up to due N10-12 in our final 70 minutes

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning with light fog at (obscured) sunrise

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 86% illumination.

GT = 135

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 7th, I was joined by three generations of anglers — all first time guests. Martin Matelski arranged this trip back around Christmas as a gift to his grandson, Knox Graebar (age 12).  Knox’s mom, Courtni, joined in at the last minute

DATE: Wednesday, 07 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  23 May (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 24 May (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Martin and Cournti Matelski and Knox Graebar worked MAL Heavy Lures vertically all morning for a 126 fish catch following heavy rains which saw Stillhouse rise over a foot in the past week.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

In the wake of yesterday morning’s heavy thunderstorms, which dropped almost 2.5 inches of rain on Stillhouse Lake, the water was rising, and the damp ground was ripe for the production of fog. We got some very light fog just before sunrise – just enough to feel the sensation of drizzle on your skin. As the sun rose, although completely obscured by gray cloud cover, the drizzle stopped, and we never did have any additional precipitation.

The heavy cloud cover made for a slow brightening of the skies this morning and the bite got off to a slow start. We hit two areas and got the cold shoulder despite the presence of fish. Around 7:35 we got into our first group of fish in 23 feet of water, and, from that point until 10:10 AM, we enjoyed a consistent bite with fish aggressive enough to chase a smoked MAL heavy upwards off bottom.

Fortunately, Knox was a very fast learner, he intuitively understood what he was seeing on the LiveScope, and how fish were responding to what he was or was not doing.  I wasn’t worried about Martin — he operated independently on the forward, starboard side LiveScope.  Courtni was the cameraman, and joined in on the fishing about mid-trip and held her own from that point on.

Things were going great until exactly 10:10 AM. At that time, our northeast breeze stopped and was replaced by a wind from due north at about 5 mph harder and with a noticeable temperature drop. The fish responded negatively to this. We went about 20 or 25 minutes without a bite until that wind slowed down and the temperature rebounded a bit. All the fish we encountered from about 10:40 to 11:10 AM (when they quit) were suspended up off the bottom and barely moving horizontally.

The MAL Heavy with silver blade and chartreuse tail worked with a vertical “smoking” tactic accounted for 100% of our fish this morning.

By 10:10, although there were fish still suspended and clearly showing on LiveScope, they were nearly immobile and would no longer respond. We called it a day right there with 126 fish landed, including 4 freshwater drum and 122 white bass up to 14.5 inches.

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

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn was back on after brief interruption due to a cold front Sat. – Mon., 3 – 5 May.
2. No helpful bird activity.
3. Fish enthusiastically pursued MAL Lures both vertically from 7:30A to 10:10A, then slowed in the final hour.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This was the previous water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 11:15AM, Friday, 02 May…

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:40AM on Thursday, 24 April

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 3.11′ low (a 0.03′ rise in 24 hours)

Water Surface Temp: 72.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE8-9 and slowly easing back to ENE4-5 before shifting, building and getting colder at 10:10, going N10-12

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning with light fog at (obscured) sunrise

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 79% illumination.

GT = 155

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, “Cinco de Mayo”, I fished with a great group of four from the Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen, including Jim McGee, Flint Deshazo, Paul Irwin, and Peter Hutnick.  Jim is a retired missionary from Campus Crusade for Christ, Flint is a family medicine doctor, Paul works with a company providing a network of support to gun ranges, and Peter is U.S. Army Viet Nam veteran retired from the computer industry.

DATE: Monday, 05 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  23 May (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 24 May (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Jim McGee, Flint Deshazo, Peter Hutnick, and Paul Irwin with a few of the 308 fish they landed in a truly action-packed four hours of fishing.  That “magnum” held by Jim is being held in the same plane with the other three fish (which were all quality fish exceeding 13″).  It was just shy of 17″ and released in excellent condition.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

A stiff easterly breeze blew all morning, starting around 8mph, and increasing to 13+ mph by trip’s end.  This largely drove which side of underwater topographies we visited and searched with sonar.

There was no shad spawn this morning thanks to the lingering effects of this past weekend’s cold front forcing air temps this morning into the high 50’s.

With no shad spawn, I was none too confident that we’d find fish shallow (under 15′), and, after two quick checks up shallow under low light conditions, that was verified.

We spent the remainder of the trip in 23 to 31 feet of water fishing for bottom-oriented white bass which I initially found on side-imaging, then parked on top of using the i-Pilot Link connection between sonar and trolling motor.

The MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail and silver blade was the sole tool necessary to get the job done this morning.  My crew used it vertically with a smoking tactic at every one of the seven stops we made to put together our catch.  At one of these locations we also used the sawtooth tactic horizontally.

The fish fed hard in advance of incoming storms (which hit around 1:30pm) for a full 4 hours, then shut down hard right at the 4-hours-past-sunrise mark.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn was interrupted by a late spring cold front.
2. No helpful bird activity.
3. Fish enthusiastically pursued MAL Lures both vertically and horizontally for a full 4 hours.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This was the previous water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 11:15AM, Friday, 02 May…

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:40AM on Thursday, 24 April

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 3.30′ low (a 0.08′ rise in 24 hours)

Water Surface Temp: 72.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: E8 at trip’s start, and increasing to E13+ mph by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 80% to 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 30% 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 2, I fished with husband-and-wife team Kevin and Cherry David for what was an early Fathers’ Day gift from Cherry and her son and daughter to Kevin. The pair recently retired from public education and moved from the Houston area to near Lake Belton.

Cherry saw my truck parked at the boat ramp area at Temple’s Lake Park at Lake Belton recently, took a photo, gave me a call, and bought a gift certificate.

Due to a full spring schedule, we planned on an October trip, but, an unexpected cancellation allowed us to get this trip in earlier, and with good results!!

DATE: Friday, 02 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  23 May (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 24 May (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  Husband-and-wife team Kevin and Cherry David joined me for the first time this morning as we pursued white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.

PHOTO CAPTION: Cherry pulled up an eleventh-hour catch taking this nice largemouth from out of 33 feet of water as we spent the last portion of our trip fishing live shad after the white bass bite shut down around 10:25AM.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We fished a lull between storms today, threading the eye of the needle after violent thunderstorms, wind, hail, and at least two tornados hit Bell County last night, and before another round of severe thunderstorms were due to hit around 2PM today.

The morning dawned calm and overcast with an air temperature around 62F.  As the sun rose a bit higher, the clouds (around 80% coverage at this point) thinned and a light SW breeze just rippled the water.  A solid shad spawn event took place on the north shoreline this morning, and the white bass were keyed in on this shallow bait.

Kevin and Cherry cast MAL Heavy Lures (silver blade, chartreuse tail) in 12-14 feet of water in an area where we could see small pods of white bass occasionally pin shad against the surface.  This action was near the surface, so, the simply cast, closed their bails by hand as soon as the lure hit the water, and began retrieving.

This lasted about an hour and accounted for 68 fish.  The last fifteen minutes or so of this bite required a “sawtooth” retrieve as the fish pushed down closer to bottom with the calming winds and brightening sky.

When the winds went slack, the bite died.  Fortunately, the wind picked up again about 20 minutes later, this time from just north of east at about 5 mph, then built over the next two hours to ENE12 as the cloud cover increased to 100% and thickened.

We went on to fish three additional areas with action slowly decreasing and the duration of the bite shortening with each stop we made.  The first two of these three stops allowed for 38 additional fish to be caught using the vertical “smoking” tactic with the same MAL Heavy Lures.  We had a little chuckle as Cherry was getting used to visually tracking the rise and fall of her lure on Garmin LiveScope.  At one point, she opened the bail of her reel and the lure dropped downward and at an angle back toward the stern as she faced out the starboard side.  The lure disappeared from the LiveScope screen and Cherry said, “Oh, no!  I’m off the chart!!”.

At the last stop (and our deepest), the fish barely reacted to the MAL, so, with some live bait on board for just such a possibility, we put two downlines down with live shad as bait and enjoyed variety and slower, but steady, action right up until 11AM when we called it a great morning as Cherry connected with our largest fish of the trip — a healthy, hungry 4.25-pound largemouth bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Threadfin shad spawn continues.
2. No helpful bird activity.
3. Fish enthusiastically pursued MAL Lures both vertically and horizontally; live bait put fish in the boat in the final hour as the bite got tough.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This was the previous water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 11:15AM, Friday, 02 May…

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:40AM on Thursday, 24 April

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 3.52′ low (a 0.74′ rise in 24 hours)

Water Surface Temp: 75.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  Variable, from SW2-3 to calm to ENE6-12

Sky Condition: 80% cloud cover on a hazy sky for ~90 minutes, then clouding up to 100% grey thereafter

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 30% illumination.

GT = 40

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