CLIENTS:  This morning, Thursday, July 17, I fished with returning guest Jimmie McCormack, accompanied by a friend of his and first-time guest of mine, Jason Pessa. This morning‘s trip was the fourth installment on what will be 13 sampling efforts conducted on Stillhouse hollow from April 2025 to April 2026 in an effort to compare the quality and quantity of white bass in Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir with that of the population in Lake Belton.

Helping with the measuring and weighing of each and every white bass landed this morning were Morgan Locklin and Mervin Narito.

ABOUT THE WHITE BASS STUDY: This study takes place from April 2025 through April 2026. On one designated day each month during that timeframe, anglers will assist in collecting white bass from Belton and from Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir using traditional rod and reel tactics.  All fish will be released. Those participating will receive a $50 discount per trip. The dates remaining open are as follows:

 

August 2025:                    14^th Thursday – Belton – OPEN

September 2025:             20^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN

October 2025:                  18^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 25^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

November 2025               8^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 15^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

January 2026                     17^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN

February 2026                  14^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 21st Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

March 2026                      11^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN / 12^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

April 2026                          15^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN / 16^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

TODAY’S DATE: Thursday, 17 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 04 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 09 August (AM)

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:   Jimmie McCormack and Jason Pessa supported the 13-month-long Temple College study of white bass populations on Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow, helping collect 151 fish for the study, and an additional 6 non-study fish, all in a 4-hour morning trip on this, the first day Stillhouse Hollow reopened following a short, flood-related closure from 13-16 July.

 

FIND CORK RIGS & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This collection effort was up in the air until around 5 PM last night when the USACE determined it was once again safe to open the Stillhouse boat ramp at Union Grove Park.  We hastily remade our plans and met up at that park at 6:45 AM this morning. The water level was nearly 10 feet above conservation pool level, and I had not fished on Stillhouse since prior to Father’s Day back in late June. I was a bit concerned about locating quantities of fish for my two anglers to catch, but 25 or 30 minutes into the morning, that concern proved to be for naught.

We looked over four areas during our four hour trip. The first area had just a bit of low hydrilla growth on the bottom, but I had seen both shad and white bass present. We caught only a handful of fish there, but it at least gave me a clue as to which depth the fish and bait were going to be located in.

I decided to put downriggers down as we made our way a short distance to the second area I’d hoped to scan with sonar. Along the way, we picked up several white bass and saw enough suspended fish present to make me think the area was worth spending some time in. As we were getting ready to drop both ‘riggers down once again, my down-imaging and 2-D Sonar lit up with signatures of white bass from bottom all the way up halfway into the water column. I immediately scrambled to get us re-rigged to fish vertically with MAL Heavy lures using a smoking tactic, enhanced by Garmin LiveScope, and we stayed on those fish for nearly 2 1/2 hours which is actually pretty unheard of in the summer months.

It was here that Jimmie told Jason concerning the effectiveness of Garmin LiveScope, ” If you’re not ‘Scopin’, you’re just hopin’!”

Once the vertical bite went sour, we pulled a few more fish using MAL Heavy lures fished horizontally with a sawtooth method, and once that dried up, we once again began downrigging, as I kept an eye primarily on side-imaging to see if we could find any additional concentrations of fish. At one area, as as the downrigger balls showed clearly on 2-D sonar, I saw about a dozen or more fish surge up off the bottom over 12 feet vertically to come and inspect the downrigger balls. I knew these were active fish and felt we could catch them by using MALs vertically with a smoking tactic.

This turned out to be true. We fished another hour on that group of fish taking our fish count up to 157.

With about 20 or 25 minutes left in the trip and the bite beginning to wane, I suggested we go look for some additional fish on similar bottom topographies at mid-lake. Although we did find fish and bait, by this time, the feed was done and we did not add any more fish to our count.

We wrapped up the morning with exactly 157 fish landed, of which 156 were white bass, with one freshwater drum thrown in for good measure.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Stilllhouse peaked yesterday afternoon and began to fall.  It reached a high of 9.94′ above full pool and has since fallen 0.30′ thanks to USACE’s release of 2558 CFS.
2. Water is beginning to clear, even in the most flood-impacted upper third of the reservoir.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  This reading was taken around 6:20A, Thursday, 17 July 2025…

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 9.64′ high with a 0.30′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 2558 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 84.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S5 increasing to S11

Sky Condition: 30% white cloud cover on a hazy sky.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 54% illumination.

GT = 15

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic SHFL24012 – 3 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 032 – 85 fish initially detected while downrigging, then caught on smoked and sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area 2117 – 69 fish initially detected while downrigging, then caught on smoked and sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

 

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

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Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle