CLIENTS:  This morning, Monday, June 16, I fished with returning guest, Mr. Bob Keith, accompanied by two of his grandsons – Keith and Ben Freeman, ages 11 and 9 respectively. The boys really look forward to spending as much time as they can with their grandpa when they are out of school over the summers, and this go-round, Bob drove up to Hamilton and picked these two up as they eagerly anticipated this morning’s fishing trip.

DATE: Monday, 16 June 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  23 June (AM) 

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

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Ben Freeman, Bob Keith, and Keith Freeman, each with hefty Stillhouse Hollow white bass.  That fish Bob is holding went 16.75″ and weighed 2.25 pounds.  It took an MAL Heavy worked with a horizontal “sawtooth” tactic just as the winds were going calm and the fishing began to get tougher.

 

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:

The weather forecast for this morning looked great, although it did not fully realize the potential shown on paper. We did have some cloud cover, which was helpful, and, until about 8:30 or so there was a light south east wind (also helpful). Eventually, as the skies brightened and the clouds thinned, the winds which were forecast to strengthen actually went slack (not good).

We hit a tough patch for about a half an hour before changing over from aggressive vertical tactics to more bottom-oriented, horizontal tactics, and that afforded us a strong finish. During the early part of the day, we fished MAL Lures exclusively. We used the version with a chartreuse tail, silver body, and silver blade. While keeping a close eye on Garmin LiveScope, everyone worked their lures straight up and down with a “smoking“ tactic and did quite well. This accounted for our first 64 fish.

After the winds went calm, I hit several areas, but got a pretty cold reception, taking only one or two fish, and watching a lot of fish simply ignore our presentation, or just half-heartedly follow a short distance and then give up.

Around 10 AM, with about an hour left in the trip and conditions still bright and calm, I switched us over to downrigging using a pair of ‘riggers with three-armed umbrella riggs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons.

I started off with the balls kept just 3 or 4 feet up off the bottom and we began to catch fish with regularity. Soon thereafter, a nice southerly breeze kicked in completely rippling the surface, and the fish kicked it up a notch. In our final 40 minutes we enjoyed fast action as the rippled surface brought the fish up off the bottom to feed heavily on threadfin shad. At this point, I just kept the ball suspended about a foot or two above the highest fish seen on 2-D sonar, and we took our count up to a final tally of 108 fish. That catch consisted of 104 white bass, two largemouth bass, one channel catfish, and one freshwater drum.

 

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, but was minimal today due to calm winds.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 71F

Elevation: 1.29′ low with no rise or fall in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 82.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Steady SE3-4 through 9:30, then going calm until 10:30

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

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 72% illumination.

GT = 205

 

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