ABOARD THE BOAT TODAY: This morning I was joined by returning guests Dwight Stone and his granddaughter, Jemma Rogers, in celebration of her 10th birthday.



DATE: 21 May 2024 (AM)



NEXT OPEN DATES: Wednesday, 22 May (AM), and Friday, 21 June (AM)








PHOTO CAPTION: Dwight Stone took his 10-year-old granddaughter, Jemma Rogers, out on Stillhouse Hollow for a morning of white bass catching. The MAL Dense and MAL Heavy, both with silver body and chartreuse tail, did the trick once again.








PHOTO CAPTION: This 3.5 pound “bonus bass” and one other just like it, along with a 6-pound drum, rounded out Jemma’s 105 fish birthday catch this morning as her grandfather, Dwight “Boom-Pa” Stone helped me help her, and cheered her on.



WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir



SHORT SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: The peak bite this morning ran from 8:30 to 10:00. Having seen this timing over my past three trips to Stillhouse, I put Jemma on some fast-biting sunfish up shallow beforehand, using bait and a slipfloat to land an even dozen bluegill, four of which we retained as largemouth bait once we got out into open water. Beginning around 8:30, we fished MAL Dense Lures (silver body/chartreuse tail) vertically with a smoking tactic until the fish lost interest, then, we switched over to a sawtooth tactic using MAL Heavy Lures (also w/silver body/chartreuse tail) to continue catching right on through 10:45AM. During the latter half of this white bass bite, I set out the sunfish on a downline resulting in landing a pair of 3.5 pound fish, and one white bass on the four baits.



LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the new MAL Dense with silver body (shown above) for vertical work, and the MAL Heavy with silver body and chartreuse tail for horizontal work today. Find these lures at the Liberty Mart Exxon uphill from Temple Lake Park on Lake Belton, or go here: https://whitebasstools.com/



TUTORIAL LINK FOR SAWTOOTH & SMOKING TACTICS:

Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ&t=89s

Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=56s



TALLY: 105 fish caught and released (2 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, & 102 white bass)



OBSERVATIONS:

1) The lower third of Stillhouse was in good shape today with fairly clear water. The water, although clear, resembled iced tea in color and clarity at mid-lake.

2) The lake fell 0.08′ in the last 24 hours

3) The flooded vegetation has made finding fish using side-imaging very tough. We had to drive over most fish today with DI and/or 2D to get a bead on their location.

4) Due to decreasing flooding on the Brazos River’s main channel, USACE began releasing water from Stillhouse on the afternoon of 19 May 2024 at a rate of 808 CFS. That increased to 1534 CFS by mid-afternoon that same day, and continued at that rate today.



LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Measured with FishHawk TD device on 17 May…

0 feet 74.8F
5 feet 74.9F
10 feet 74.9F
15 feet 74.9F
20 feet 74.9F
25 feet 74.8F
30 feet 73.8F
35 feet 71.7F
40 feet 70.3F
45 feet 69.9F
50 feet 68.8F
55 feet 68.5F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 10.11 feet high and slowly rising, with a 1534 CFS release.

Water Surface Temp: 77.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW8-12 all morning

Sky Condition:100% light grey cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 96% illumination.

GT = 5



Wx SNAPSHOT:








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 239 for sunfish

Areas SHFL24015 and SHFL24013 – produced all of our white bass



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

I love those smiles on the birthday girl...

Awesome post as always. Good job.