While the Girls are Away, the Boys will Play – 35 Fish @ Stillhouse
CLIENTS: This past Saturday morning, March 14, I welcomed Tad Dorroh and his 14-year-old son, Zane, aboard for a morning of white bass fishing. While on the starting end of spring break, Tad’s wife and daughter were due to leave town, Zane had no baseball practice for a change, and my own wife was at a children’s ministry conference in Oklahoma, so, although I normally don’t take trips on the weekends from spring break through Labor Day, I told Tad I’d make an exception if he was okay fishing Stillhouse.
I chose that over Lake Belton as I anticipated a “zoo” there with nice weather, the start of spring break, and multiple sources reporting solid white bass action of late.
TODAY’S DATE: 14 March 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 24 March (AM or PM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Tad Dorroh and his son, Zane, worked slabs vertically and the new MAL Bridge horizontally for a 35 fish catch under other than ideal conditions this morning.
PHOTO CAPTION: Zane played and landed this 7.00 pound blue catfish while working a slab vertically.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Stillhouse typically gets tough in mid March. Being a fairly small reservoir and with the Lampasas River transitioning very sharply into open water, when the white bass spawn, they leave the main body of the lake in great numbers, leaving fish in open water fewer and further between, thus requiring a good bit of searching.
We had a very overcast start followed by clearing but low-wind conditions. All this put the bite off until mid-morning. The first solid group of fish I found I found at an area I had previously scanned with sonar thoroughly earlier in the morning.
From about 9A to 10:40A we enjoyed steady catching. At first, we worked white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope and the splasher. After the fish began to get sluggish (although still very much present), I moved upwind of them and positioned Tad and Zane in the stern, casting directly downwind with MAL Bridge lures.
The worked these mid-sized, heavy, in-line spinners right along bottom with a sawtooth method and caught a majority of their fish in that manner.
The bite began to shut down quickly about 3 hours after sunrise. We searched high and low and found only one more group of fish suspended over a deepwater high spot. Tad picked up one fish by reeling his slab past a small school of white bass at this location, and we then called it a morning.
RESULTS: 35 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-A majority of the white bass are upstream spawning, making fish tougher to find right now.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Stillhouse Hollow on 14 March 2026, approx. 7:10AM…
0 feet 64.7F
5 feet 65.0F
10 feet 65.0F
15 feet 65.0F
20 feet 65.0F
25 feet 64.9F
30 feet 64.9F
35 feet 62.0F
40 feet 59.0F
45 feet 56.1F
50 feet 54.9F
55 feet 54.7F
60 feet 54.5F
65 feet 54.5F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:20A
End Time: 11:40A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F
Elevation: Belton is 2.18′ low with a -0.03′ change in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 1 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 64.7F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: Light S. breeze accompanied early grey cloud cover, but died upon the skies clearing. Once winds picked up again under bright skies, the bite improved.
Sky Condition: Fully greyed over murky skies early, clearing quickly to cloudless, light blue skies.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 20% illumination.
GT = 80
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 1048 – 9 fish on smoked 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eyes
Area vic 996 – 6 fish on smoked 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eyes
Area SH0021G – 19 fish on sawtoothed MAL Bridge Lures
Area 2390- 1 fish on smoked 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eyes
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