CLIENTS:  This past Friday, June 13, I fished with business partners Joshua Goodnight and Frank Ruiz.  Joshua and his wife, Paige, operate The Woodlands Property Tax Group, helping taxpayers reduce their property taxes by appealing assessments before local tax appraisal districts on their clients’ behalf  ( https://twptg.com/ ).

Both men were experienced anglers and very quickly got the hang of getting the blade of the MAL Lures spinning during their retrieve, so, with very little learning curve, we got right down to catching from our first drop at our first area, right through the four hour mark.

DATE: Friday, 13 June 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  18 June (AM) – Discounted by $50 as part of a 2-lake study on white bass population and quality

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 12 July (AM)

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Joshua Goodnight and Frank Ruiz just wore out the white bass this morning using MAL Heavy Lures both vertically (smoking) and horizontally (sawtoothing).  The largest fish Joshua is holding in this photo went exactly 17.75 inches.  Both men caught numerous 15 and 16″ fish over the course of this morning’s trip. This “magnum” took an MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail and silver body/blade just a few feet off bottom in 32 feet of water as he used the sawtooth method casting cross-wind to fish we saw on well-tuned side-imaging.

 

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:

With experienced aboard, my life was made simple.  I provided basic guidance on how to get the fish I’d found (primarily with side-imaging today) to bite consistently using the MAL Heavy Lure, and then I sat back, let Joshua and Frank catch fish while I kept a glove on my right hand to take their fish off with for four solid hours.

We fished four areas with the first area producing at a lower rate, but for a longer duration than the rest — over 70 minutes.  At this area, in about 32 feet of water, the bite was exclusively a vertical bite with 100% of the fish taken by “smoking” the MAL Heavy as described in the video link below.  They landed 28 fish.

Frank and Joshua fished the same way at our second stop, picking up another 25 fish — all vertically, all on the MAL Heavy.

At our third stop, the fish were a bit more reluctant to leave the bottom and many ignored the smoking tactic.  These fish were not just under us, but all around us, as witnessed on side-imaging while we were Spot-Locked.

Given all of this, I introduced the horizontal “sawtooth method”, and that really turned these fish on accounting for another 25 fish, including our largest white bass of the trip, a 17.75 inch magnum landed by Joshua.

As this area began to ease up, I could see scattered, small pods of white bass here, there, and everywhere, both on bottom and suspended.  This just screamed out for a downrigging presentation, so, I fired up one ‘rigger, showed the fellows how to rig them up and fish them, and we immediately started catching singles and doubles.

We then went with twin ‘riggers and managed four sets of triples, all on three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons to match the bait we saw fish regurgitating.

This final push on downriggers netted my two man crew a final 42 fish, bringing the morning’s tally to exactly 120 fish landed.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1. White bass are clearly disassociating from the bottom, choosing instead to suspend.
2. The season’s first summertime “schoolie” largemouth are beginning to show.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 1.36′ low with a 0.24′ rise in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 83.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Steady SE5-6

Sky Condition: Blue skies with 30% white cloud cover increasing to 65% coverage by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 94% 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