CLIENTS: On Tuesday morning, November 26, I conducted a Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) fishing trip for brothers Nate and Evan Oakes of Killeen, Texas.

The boys’, father, Jesse Oakes, is a retired US Army noncommissioned officer and a disabled veteran. Mr. Oakes spent most of his time in the military as a SERE (Survival Escape Resistance Evasion) instructor.

The boys both came into the trip with substantially greater prior fishing experience than most kids do, thus allowing them to take full advantage of the excellent conditions we encountered this morning.

ABOUT SKIFF: SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009. SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru. S.K.I.F.F. provides kids of military members separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish. SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member. In mid-2019, SKIFF began providing trips to kids of bona fide disabled veterans. I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

DATE: Tuesday, 26 November 2024 (AM)



NEXT OPEN DATES: 3, 6, 9-13 December (AM)




PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Evan and Nate Oakes with a few of the 125 fish they caught and released on Stillhouse using MAL Dense Lures worked vertically.






PHOTO CAPTION: Without exception during the winter months, quality largemouth bass are caught as a bycatch as we work shad-imitating lures vertically near bottom. Freshwater drum are also routinely landed.



WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Heading to bed the night before, I was a bit concerned that the north winds, which came in on a dry cold front in the afternoon the day before, might go flat, but, that did not happen. Thankfully, we enjoyed light winds out of the NNW all morning with a slight bit of cloud cover and a sunrise temperature around 40° with just a bit of wind chill.

As was the case the day before, the only thing we needed to do after finding fish was to drop MAL Dense Lures to the bottom and crank them upwards at a moderate cadence. As long as the blade was spinning, the lure was attractive to very aggressively feeding and heavily congregated white bass. We began looking for fish in water as shallow as 22 feet as the sun was rising, then moved out steadily deeper as sky conditions brightened.

We fished a number of areas. At some areas, the fish would clearly consolidate beneath the boat, thanks to the splasher and would suspend anywhere from 2 to 8 feet off the bottom. In other areas, the fish were more prone to stay on the bottom and crept in until they were centered beneath the boat.

In four hours’ time, the brothers landed exactly 125 fish, including a handful of largemouth bass and drum, with a vast majority of the fish being legal-sized white bass up to 15 inches.


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: 125 fish, all caught and released





LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Dense Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) for 100% of our catch today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/





OBSERVATIONS:

1) Bird activity was helpful in finding fish in the 2nd hour of this trip.

2) A moderately strong, dry cold front began to push in around noon the day before and N winds persisted today.

2) We stayed on fish for the entire morning thanks to decent winds.



LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00 AM on Monday, 25 Nov….

0 feet 67.9F
5 feet 67.9F
10 feet 67.9F
15 feet 67.9F
20 feet 67.9F
25 feet 67.9F
30 feet 67.9F
35 feet 67.9F
40 feet 67.9F
45 feet 67.8F
50 feet 67.2F
55 feet 66.4F
60 feet 66.1F
65 feet 66.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 40F

Elevation: 1.50′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 67.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW wind at 13-14 with higher gusts on an incoming cold front

Sky Condition: Cloudless, light blue skies

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 18% illumination.

GT = N/A





Wx SNAPSHOT:








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 034 – 4 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic 772 – 42 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures ( 2 hops)

Area vic 2015 – 57 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures (2 hops)

Area vic SH0299G – 22 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures





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, I always enjoy your posts about the SKIFF fishing trips. Another job well done Sir....

Good times. Nice fish.