Time with his Grandson – 49 Fish

CLIENTS: This past Friday morning, I finished with a grandfather/grandson team welcoming aboard Thad Willson and his 13-year-old grandson, Alex Grossman. Both fellows had fished before, but neither had fished in the way we went about approaching white bass this morning. Both already had down the fundamentals of using spinning gear, so, their learning curve was flattened a bit. What they didn’t know previously they were able to pick up after making a few mistakes like most of my clients do, then turn around and learn from those mistakes to finish strong.

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Monday, 01 December 2025 (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Thad Willson and his 13-year-old grandson, Alex Grossman, landed 49 fish on MAL Dense lures fishing Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir the morning after Thanksgiving.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Today’s weather made the fishing a bit difficult. We sat less than 24 hours away from the arrival of our next cold front, which meant the weather was as warm and humid as it is going to get before that cold front comes in. I have found in the winter months that the further you get away from the cold front’s arrival, the softer the bite tends to become. Today was no exception. We had to hunt longer and fish harder for the fish we found and the bites we got.

This morning‘s bite got off to a later start due to very heavy, gray cloud cover, preventing the brightening of the skies until well into the 8 o’clock hour. Once the clouds thinned, even though the sun did not shine directly, the fish turned on and stayed feeding well until about 10:55 AM. All fish caught today were caught with the MAL Dense fished vertically using the smoking tactic. We did not catch a single fish in less than 30 feet of water, with some coming as deep as 49 feet.

As we wrapped up this morning‘s trip around 11:30 AM, my two-man crew shared a 49 fish catch including 48 legal white bass up to 14.50 inches and one freshwater drum.

RESULTS: 49 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH THE MAL LURE WITH A SAWTOOTH METHOD:

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON FISHING AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY USING THE “SMOKING” TACTIC:

OBSERVATIONS:

-White bass are falling into typical autumn patterns, but multi-day warmups between cold fronts tends to mute the impact of falling water temperatures.

-Very dark, murky skies hindered our first half of the morning, but, once the clouds thinned and the skies brightened, the fish began feeding well, right up until about 11A.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Temperature profile measured on Stillhouse around 6:45A on Friday, 28 November …

Compare to temps taken on Stillhouse Hollow around 6:30A on Saturday, 15 November…

0 feet 68.6F
5 feet 68.6F
10 feet 68.6F
15 feet 68.6F
20 feet 68.6F
25 feet 68.6F
30 feet 68.6F
35 feet 68.4F
40 feet 68.2F
45 feet 67.4F
50 feet 66.6F
55 feet 66.4F
60 feet 66.0F
65 feet 66.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: Stillhouse is 0.74′ low with a .02′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 1 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 76.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13-15 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover for the first two hours, then clearing to 60% white clouds on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 55% illumination.

GT = 0

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AREAS FISHED WITH MOST 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

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