Truly a Labor of Love — 27 Fish

CLIENTS: This morning I welcomed Brandon Hunter and his girlfriend, Jody Smith, aboard for a half-day morning fishing trip targeting white bass in celebration of Jody’s birthday. Brandon is a U.S. Army veteran and both he and Jody now serve those in the military at Fort Hood in their roles at Darnall Army Medical Center.

TODAY’S DATE: 09 – 13 February 2026 (AM or PM)


NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 10, 13 February 2026 (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Brandon Hunter and Jody Smith celebrated Jody’s birthday on the water. Even though Brandon did not care for either fishing nor cold weather, he worked through both to show Jody a good time for her birthday. Although the bright, clear skies and failing winds made it tough, they both did well fishing slabs and deadsticking.

PHOTO CAPTION: Brandon landed our largest fish of the trip. This 3.50-pound largemouth swam straight up off bottom in pursuit of his 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook. I thought this fish just might change Brandon’s mind about fishing!

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


WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This trip was truly a labor of love on Brandon’s behalf, as he admitted he really doesn’t care for either fishing nor cold weather, yet he was living through both of them to do something with Jody that she really wanted to do for her birthday. As we fished I learned Jody is originally from Hawaii and grew up fishing.

I’d hoped for better weather today — if just a consistent wind, but, what wind we had began to fail after about 2 hours on the water, and, once that happened, things got pretty tough.

During those first two hours, after working through the normal learning curve that most folks experience during their first time out with me, Brandon and Jody landed the majority (23 of 27) fish we’d see caught.

While these fish were feeding as the winds blew, they were just active enough to be willing to routinely follow and overtake a white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab worked with a slow-smoking tactic. We found any suspended fish were more aggressive than those fish clinging to bottom, and Brandon and Jody got pretty good at targeting these suspended fish using Garmin LiveScope.

Once the winds subsided, just finding fish became tough. The remaining fish we caught were taken over much deeper (60+ feet) water and were taken on a deadsticking tactic from out of small, suspended schools around 40-45′ deep. We used VMC Neon Mooneye jigheads and Gulp! Minnow baits. Brandon and Jody picked up a final 4 fish this way.

Our tally came to 27 fish, including one largemouth bass and 26 legal white bass with several surpassing 14″.

RESULTS: 27 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

OBSERVATIONS:

-Water temps have dropped to 49-50F, necessitating the use of slabs once again, w/deadsticking now also effective

-Birds worked for nearly 3 hours over fish which were quite widespread and which were stunning sunfish, thus crippling them. These crippled sunfish would flounder on the surface and kept the birds interested.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Stillhouse Hollow on 03 February 2026…

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