CLIENTS:  This morning, Monday, Feb. 17, I fished with father-and-son team Jason and JJ Yick of Danville, CA.  Jason and his family flew into Austin over the weekend to visit his daughter now in her junior year at Baylor University in Waco.  While sis went to class and mom slept in, Jason and JJ braved the 28F start to work in a half-day of fishing targeting white bass in pre-spawn mode.

DATE: Monday, 17 February 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES:  18-21 February (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Jason and JJ Yick came in to visit JJ’s sister at Baylor University and snuck in a little fishing while sister was hitting the books and mom was hitting the snooze button.  Multiple 15″ white bass were a part of their cool-water catch this morning on Hazy Eye Slabs.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

RESULTS: 60 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “EASING” WITH A SLAB: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO SNAP-JIG:  Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab and 1/2 oz. jigheads with white curl-tail grubs to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Bird activity was present, but heavily weighted toward loons.

2) Best fishing came in the middle two hours this morning.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Monday, 17 Feb. …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 28F

Elevation: 2.91′ low

Water Surface Temp: 52.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE3 at sunrise, increasing steadily to SSE12-13

Sky Condition: Light blue sky all morning with under 15% white cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 77% illumination.

GT = 85

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1960 – 14 fish on jighead/grub

Area vic 942 – 8 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic 785 – 11 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic 1690 – 10 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic SH0005G – 9 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic 108 – 8 fish easing slabs

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 past Saturday morning I fished with three guests: Julissa Gomez, her brother, Johnathan, and Julissa’s boyfriend, Anthony Jones.  Julissa first came out with me as the guest of Dr. Pat Lin of Symmetry Chiropractic in the Cedar Park area where she serves with the office staff.  Julissa enjoyed the trip so much she gave Anthony a fishing gift certificate for Christmas.

Anthony, originally from North Dakota, is the foreman with a drywall company in the north Austin area and is a martial arts enthusiast.  Johnathan is a senior in high school and enjoys playing soccer.

DATE: Saturday, 08 February 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES:  10-12, 18-20 February (AMs or PMs)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Anthony Jones, and Julissa & Johnathan Gomez.  Note the sky conditions in this photo compared to the sky conditions in the photo below.

PHOTO CAPTION: Fishing got off to a great start this morning with balmy overnight temperatures, grey cloud cover, and wind blowing before sunrise.  My crew of three landed 44 fish in under 90 minutes before a weather change really put the fish off.  During this great start, Johnathan landed two fish on one lure — one hooked on the treble and one hooked on the stinger.

PHOTO CAPTION:  This is the white, 5/8 oz. slab which has produced so consistently since late November on Stillhouse.  When it comes to fishing a slab in the winter, if you don’t have a stinger hook attached, you are missing fish which could otherwise be hooked and landed.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Things started very well thanks to balmy overnight temperatures, grey cloud cover, and wind blowing before sunrise getting both birds and fish in a mood to really gorge themselves.  My crew caught fish at a very steady clip from 7:25 to 8:45, landing 44 fish during that span, all relying on the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab to get the jog done on fish which were primarily tight to the bottom in under 30 feet of water.

Several times during this feed we observed fish regurgitating shad they had just recently eaten.  Not surprisingly, one fishing buddy over on Lake Belton shared the same observation from his efforts during this same timeframe.

Then, the weather changed very abruptly and the fishing really tanked.  Between 8:45 and 9:00, the winds increased sharply and the cloud cover completely dissipated.  This allowed for very bright conditions to persist, and as they did, the fishing just got tougher and tougher.  Bird activity and fish activity stopped in a matter of minutes.  Later, some bird action resumed, but it was all driven by loons on bait with no gamefish in the equation.

After 9A, my crew added only 13 more fish to their tally, and these came just one at a time from two locations where we found suspended fish in deep water which half-heartedly responded to my  thumper, swam under the boat, and presented an opportunity for a “slow-smoking” tactic to be applied.

Still, everyone had a good time, and Anthony, whom the trip was for, came away having learned some tactics he intends to use while fishing from his kayak and, eventually, from his “project” boat.

RESULTS: 57 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO SNAP-JIG:  Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEON ON HOW TO DO “EASING”:  Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We primarily used the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab to catch our fish this morning. Find all Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Water temperature has risen substantially this week (see comparison below)

2) Birds were witnessed in multiple locations and have definitely made upstream movement this week.

3) For the first time since November, the number of large, egg-laden females made up a lower percentage of our catch.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Monday, 03 Feb. …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Elevation: 2.78′ low

Water Surface Temp: 56.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW9-11 thru 8:45A, then ramping up to SSW15+ with higher gusts for the remainder of the morning

Sky Condition: Moderate, grey cloud cover for 90 minutes, quickly burning off as the wind ramped up around 8:45-9A

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 85% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 549 – 44 fish on slow-smoked white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 106 – 5 fish on slow-smoked white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 338 – 8 fish on slow-smoked white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs

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

This past Tuesday morning, Feb. 04, a group of experienced anglers put their skills to good use on the clear, cool waters of Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir in an attempt to collect mature, egg-laden white bass for use in the production of hybrid striped bass by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) personnel.

Joining me were Andy Amburn, Phil Moore, Cody Talley, and Dustin Marsh.

CAPTION: From left: Dustin Marsh, Phil Moore, Cody Talley, and Andy Amburn joined local fishing guide Bob Maindelle to collect mature female white bass to enhance hybrid striped bass production by TPWD. Right photo shows the 64 fish transferred by these efforts to the TPWD hatchery in Dundee, TX. These fish will produce millions of eggs each year they are in captivity.

I took Moore, Talley, and Marsh aboard my boat, while Amburn set out on his own boat. In this manner we were able to cover different parts of the lake and catch fish from different schools of fish, thus increasing the likelihood of dissimilar DNA being possessed by the captured fish.

We met at 7:15AM and determined that we would retain all legal (10-inch minimum) white bass which did not emit milt when their abdomens were gently squeezed, thus increasing the likelihood that only female fish were retained.

By the time the first hour had passed, those in my boat had landed over thirty fish, fifteen of which we retained.

We noted some issues with barotrauma due to the depth from which some of the fish were taken from. Fortunately, Marsh, a large animal veterinarian who specializes in dairy herd care, had some 18-gauge needles in his work truck.

We vented the fish exhibiting signs of barotrauma and got them to right themselves and got back on track thanks to Marsh’s ingenuity.

The tactics we used to capture these fish included slowly reeling white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs upwards off bottom to draw bottom-hugging fish upward, and/or reeling these same lures past suspended fish as we viewed them on Garmin LiveScope.

Occasionally, when in less than thirty feet of water, after we had fished an area thoroughly with vertical tactics, we used white, curl-tail grubs on jigheads to work out away from the boat horizontally using a “sawtooth” retrieve.

Over the course of four hours, we found fish at four distinct areas, ranging from twenty-seven feet to forty-seven feet in depth.

As we concluded our efforts around 11:15AM, we met back up with Amburn just after we had finished transferring the second batch of fish from my boat into the TPWD trailer operated by Talley.

After Amburn’s fish were transferred, the total number of white bass headed to the Dundee Hatchery for hybrid striped bass production was sixty-four. Over fifty percent of these exceeded 15 inches.

Not all the fish we landed were able to be retained. We returned all male white bass, all undersized fish, and all fish of other species to the water.
Those that were retained were transported the same day to the Dundee State Fish Hatchery near Wichita Falls, Texas.

Within a few weeks these fish will be induced to release their eggs. These eggs will be mixed by hand with the milt (fish version of semen) from male striped bass to produce a hybrid striped bass referred to as the sunshine bass.

Several million fry will be able to be produced from this small batch of sixty-four female white bass.

These will be stocked as either fry or fingerlings in reservoirs across the state to sustain the popular hybrid striped bass fisheries in those locations.

This cooperation between the TPWD and private sector has taken place for several years now and has played a part in producing and stocking hybrid striped bass more predictably and consistently.

Prior to using angler-caught female white bass, TPWD personnel relied upon the capture of female striped bass collected via electro-fishing efforts at a handful of locations in north and northeast Texas.
For various reasons, these locations have failed to consistently yield the number and size of female striped bass required to meet the statewide demand for hybrid.

Since male striped bass are not nearly as challenging to locate and collect, TPWD biologists began experimenting with using the opposite gender mix for hybrid production – something which has been done in the private sector at places like the Keo Fish Farm in Keo, Arkansas, very successfully for many years.

Amburn summarized our morning’s effort well when he said, “This was fun — it was like fishing with a mission.”.