Slowing it Down After Another 3-degree Drop – 33 Fish
CLIENTS: This past Tuesday morning, December 16, I fished with an outdoorsy couple – – Lawrence and Vanessa Sanchez, both U.S. Army veterans. Vanessa served in human resources, and Lawrence served in military intelligence and then went on to retire from that field.
TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 16 December 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 30 December 2025 (AM or PM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Vanessa and Lawrence Sanchez used both vertical and horizontal tactics for a 33-fish catch after yet another fast cool-down brought on by a hard cold front on Dec. 14th.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
This trip was originally scheduled for Monday, but, it became evident that Monday’s weather would include classic, post-frontal conditions, including bright sun, cold temperatures, and calm winds. It is particularly difficult to catch fish under these conditions in the winter, so, we waited for this morning‘s better conditions which included light, southerly winds, milder temperatures, and some thin, gray cloud cover.
It seems the 30 to 40 mph gusts that brought our most recent cold front in on Sunday blew our fish-eating birds further south. Although fish were actively feeding this morning, not a single gull or tern was anywhere to be found giving away the location of these feeding fish. Hence, it was back to relying solely on sonar to find the fish we caught today.
Although both Lawrence and Vanessa had prior fishing experience, neither had fished for white bass very much, and neither had used the vertical tactics we employed this morning at all. So, there was some coaching and teaching to be done at the very beginning, and a bit of a learning curve to work through, but, after a short while, both got the hang of just what they needed to do to consistently put fish in the boat, both vertically and horizontally.
For the vertical approach today, we fished Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (white, .75 ounces) with a slow-smoking tactic as my two-man crew kept cadence with the thumper. For horizontal work, we used 3/8 ounce jig heads with 3-inch, white, curl-tail grubs fished very slowly along the bottom.
We added to our vertical tactics today. Finding the fish very slow in our last hour on the water, we experimented with snap-jigging. Given that the water temperature fell another 3° in the last several days, the fish were in a bit of a funk and often unwilling to leave bottom. We caught three of our 33 fish with that tactic – – the last three fish of the trip when they were slowest.
When all was said and done, this couple put a total of 33 fish in the boat, including one largemouth bass, one freshwater drum, and 31 white bass up to 13.75 inches.
RESULTS: 32 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-We saw a drastic water temperature decrease of 3 degrees (from 60 down to 57) thanks to the hard cold front on Dec. 14.
-No birds this morning despite the presence of active fish in the first 90 minutes when birds are typically helpful.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Temperature profile measured on Stillhouse around 7:00A on Thursday, 11 December …
0 feet 59.6F
5 feet 59.6F
10 feet 59.8F
15 feet 59.8F
20 feet 59.8F
25 feet 59.8F
30 feet 59.8F
35 feet 59.6F
40 feet 59.4F
45 feet 59.2F
50 feet 58.7F
55 feet 58.4F
60 feet 58.2F
65 feet 58.0F
Temperature profile measured on Stillhouse around 6:45A on Friday, 28 November …
0 feet 67.4F
5 feet 67.6F
10 feet 67.6F
15 feet 67.6F
20 feet 67.6F
25 feet 67.6F
30 feet 67.6F
35 feet 67.6F
40 feet 67.6F
45 feet 67.6F
50 feet 67.6F
55 feet 67.4F
60 feet 67.4F
65 feet 67.2F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:30A
End Time: 11:35A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 42F
Elevation: Stillhouse is 1.08′ low with a -0.02′ change in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 1 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 57.6F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SE-3-5 all morning
Sky Condition: Thin grey cloud cover all morning at 100%
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 10% illumination.
GT = 45
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 118 – 6 fish on curl-tail grubs
Area 702 – 14 fish on slow-smoked slabs and curl-tail grubs
Area 2326 – 7 fish on slow-smoked slabs
Area 464 – 6 fish on slow-smoked & snap-jigged 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