CLIENTS: This morning, Saturday, 23 November, I welcomed Mr. Kelvin Gladden back aboard. Kelvin has been with me quite a few times, sometimes with friends, and sometimes with family, but, until this morning, never by himself.

As we parted ways during our last trip, Kelvin told me he would like to join me the next time I did a scouting trip. This morning, as I put some feelers out on Stillhouse Hollow, I conducted the trip as a scouting trip, and invited Kelvin along.

DATE: Saturday, 23 November 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 29 November, 2, 3, 4, 6 December (weekday AMs). Next Saturday opening: 14 December (AM)




PHOTO CAPTION: Kelvin Gladden joined me this morning on a scouting trip to Stillhouse. I hadn’t fished this lake in a while and wanted to get a feel for the fishing before making any further plans on this body of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Over the course of a year, I will spend about thirty percent of my time on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, and the balance of my time on Lake Belton. Whenever I change over from one to the other, I will insert an intentional scouting effort before doing so.

The first thing I do when dedicating time to scouting is to get on the lake and fish over the same timespan which I will be fishing with my clients aboard. Fish, like all animals, go through daily cycles of feeding and resting. I want to take note of periods of low, moderate, and high activity levels during my scouting efforts.

So, since I encourage my clients to book morning trips and, lately, have been fishing with them from roughly 7:30AM to 11:30AM, that is the time during which I will also conduct my scouting efforts.

When I go scouting, I do not go back and fish areas I already have high confidence in, rather, I fish more marginal areas, areas I have not fished in a while, and areas which may be at the beginning or end of the seasonal timeframe during which they normally produce fish.

When scouting, I have already made up my mind that I will catch no more than five fish at a given area before moving on to seek out additional productive areas. Now, that said, the species I am pursuing are typically white bass and hybrid striped bass. If you are focused on a species of fish, like largemouth bass, which are not as abundant as white bass, you may cut that maximum catch number back to just one or two.

One of the reasons for limiting myself to catching no more than five fish at a given area is so while fish are in a feeding mode, I can cover as many potential areas as possible by not staying too long at an area at which I have already verified the presence of fish.

Once I successfully locate fish, I will take note of the wind direction, the depth, and the topography in play when those fish were found. Most times, such information can be helpful in “patterning” other areas with similar orientation, depth, and topography. This helps me prioritize which other areas I should search first with the limited time I have to accomplish my scouting efforts within the normal four-plus hours over which I would normally be conducting a guided trip with clients aboard.

This morning, Kelvin and I identified exactly 17 areas which gave up at least 5 fish. As I noted the locations of these fish concentrations, I also noted how much effort was required to catch them, and the size of the fish.

100% of our 88 fish were taken with MAL Originals or MAL Dense Lures with chartreuse tails worked vertically with a smoking tactic aided by Garmin LiveScope and the fish-attracting noise of a splasher.

I noted that areas heavy with bait held greater numbers of white bass, and those white bass tended to be more aggressive (likely because they were competing with schoolmates).

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ



RESULTS: 88 fish, all caught and released



LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We primarily used MAL Originals in under 30′ & MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) in over 30′ vertically today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/



OBSERVATIONS:

1) No helpful bird activity today.

2) Southerly winds returned today after two days of slack winds.

2) We found our first fish at 7:43A, and left fish biting at 11:40A



LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00 AM on Friday, 15 Nov….

0 feet 70.2F
5 feet 71.7F
10 feet 72.2F
15 feet 72.3F
20 feet 72.3F
25 feet 72.3F
30 feet 72.3F
35 feet 72.3F
40 feet 72.3F
45 feet 72.3F
50 feet 72.3F
55 feet 72.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 38F

Elevation: 1.41′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at sunrise, with a light SE breeze quickly shifting and increasing to SSW14 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Cloudless, blue skies

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 44% illumination.

GT = 15



Wx SNAPSHOT:








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 034 – 7 fish smoking MAL Original Lures & sawtoothing White Tornados (quality fish)

Area vic SH0110C – 5 fish fish smoking MAL Original Lures

Area 759 – 5 fish smoking MAL Original Lures

Area 789/790 – 5 fish smoking MAL Original Lures (all small)

Area SH0042C – 5 fish smoking MAL Original Lures (small keepers)

Area 778/805 – 5 fish smoking MAL Original Lures (small keepers)

Area 785/679 – 5 fish smoking MAL Original Lures (small keepers)

Area SH0286G to as far east as Area SH0070G in 39 to 41′- 6 fish smoking MAL Original Lures (quality fish)

Area SH0287G – 6 fish smoking MAL Original Lures in 50′

Area vic 259 – 5 fish smoking MAL Original Lures (quickly lost interest)

Area vic 927 – 5 fish smoking MAL Original Lures

Area SH0289G – 7 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures & sawtoothing White Tornados (quality fish)

Area SH0290G – 5 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area SH0049C – 6 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 988 – 5 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 0279 – 6 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures (all suspended in small groups; no heavy concentrations)





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

Bob, did you notice any Hydrilla trying to come back.

On some of the slower sloping shorelines there is a ~10 foot band of single strands of hydrilla, but with falling water, winter die-back, and coots, that won't last long. It is going to be a years-long process to get hydrilla back on Stillhouse.

Awesome report...