Verdict is in: The Bite was Good! – 80 Fish

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, 18 November, I welcomed back local Justices of the Peace Dan Hause and Larry Wilkey. Both men took office over three years ago with Larry in one of the Temple precincts, and Dan serving out near Lampasas.  They’ll both be seeking re-election in early 2026.

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 02 December 2025 (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Longtime friends and peers in law enforcement, Justices of the Peace Dan Hause and Larry Wilkey took some downtime to pursue the hot fall bite taking place right now for white bass.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing remained strong today despite the slow warmup working contrary to the beneficial cooldown we are overdue for here this autumn.

Thicker cloud cover this morning meant the bite got started a bit later, but once it started, it continued through the full four hours these fellows planned to stay out with me.

As is typical for this time of year, I used side-imaging to find fish and mark them so I could immediately return to them and hover atop them using my trolling motor’s Spot Lock feature. Once back atop the fish, I used the splasher to draw them in and keep them beneath us while then relying on Garmin LiveScope to gauge fish response to our MAL Dense lures worked vertically with a “smoking” tactic.

The fish were definitely more turned on today than yesterday, as evidenced by how many fish my clients were able to take at just a handful of stops versus have to hit over twice as many areas for roughly the same results yesterday.

At one point, in a lull between schools of fish passing beneath the boat, I spotted a large school of fish behind us as I kept side-imaging scrolling while we were fishing. I had the fellows pick up the rods I had pre-rigged with MAL Heavy lures (silver blade, white tail) and work then horizontally with a sawtooth method for about a half-dozen white bass before fish returned directly under the boat allowing them once again to employ the smoking tactic.

This morning’s catch included 78 white bass (all legal with some touching the 14″ mark), 1 freshwater drum, and 1 largemouth bass.

RESULTS: 80 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.

-Gulls have shown and are just beginning to figure out where to be and when to be there as far as picking up dead/crippled bait killed or maimed by gamefish.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Temperature profile measured on Stillhouse around 6:30A on Saturday, 15 November…

Compare to temps taken on Stillhouse Hollow around 7:10AM, Saturday, 25 October…

0 feet 76.8F
5 feet 77.0F
10 feet 77.0F
15 feet 77.0F
20 feet 77.0F
25 feet 77.0F
30 feet 77.0F
35 feet 77.6F
40 feet 77.0F
45 feet 76.8F
50 feet 76.8F
55 feet 76.8F
60 feet 76.8F
65 feet 76.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: Stillhouse is 0.85′ low with a 0.01′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 1 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 68.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SW7-8 for the first two hours, increasing to SW10-12 in the last two hours

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover for the entire trip.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

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

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle