CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, Dec. 9th, I fished with first-time guests Shawn Kelley and Carlos Saldana. The two got to know each other through the church — The Potter’s House — in Killeen, TX.

Shawn, a father of 8 ranging from a baby all the way up to 18 years of age, does remodeling work for a large property management company in the area, as well as custom cabinetry, and Carlos works construction for a long-time, local company specializing in acoustics.

We nick-named Carlos “The Closer” at trip’s end as we set our sights on catching 175 fish, and he worked, fooled, and landed the final one of the morning helping us reach that goal.

DATE: Monday, 09 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 11, 16, 18-20 December (AM)






PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Shawn Kelley and Carlos Saldana with a few of the 175 fish they landed on a balmy December morning on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.









PHOTO CAPTION: This freshwater drum looked more like a black drum you’d see down on the Gulf Coast. It went 6.75 pounds and struck Shawn’s MAL Dense just at it hit bottom, which is where these fish primarily dwell.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The fishing was better today than the weather we experienced led me to believe it might be. The forecast for this morning was great (and is shown below), but, that westerly wind never developed until we had less than an hour left in our trip. We also experienced some fog early in the trip.

Regardless, we found fish and bait consistently and got bit consistently in those areas after ferreting them out using sonar. At mid-morning, we were blessed to find a small, active flock of gulls working over a ~3 acre area. The fish here were deep and active, and, as a result, were willing to come up to the top of the lower third of the water column in the 51 feet of water we found them in.

This area gave up the majority of our fish and produced until about 10:20.

Thanks to water temperatures still in the low 60’s, we were able to “smoke” MAL Dense Lures up off the bottom and catch fish consistently with just this one lure and with just this one tactic.

Of the 175 fish landed, 2 were freshwater drum, 12 were largemouth bass, and the remainder were white bass.

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: 175 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) With the water temperature now in the very low 60’s from top to bottom, fish were noticeably less aggressive than over the previous 2 weeks, but, still aggressive enough to chase the MAL Lure moving at a moderate cadence. That will likely change inside a week’s time.

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, 9 Dec….

0 feet 60.8F
5 feet 60.9F
10 feet 61.1F
15 feet 61.1F
20 feet 61.1F
25 feet 61.1F
30 feet 61.1F
35 feet 61.1F
40 feet 60.9F
45 feet 60.6F
50 feet 60.6F
55 feet 60.4F
60 feet 60.4F
65 feet 60.4F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F

Elevation: 1.88′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 60.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: WSW4-5 until 10:40, then ramping up quickly to WSW13-14

Sky Condition: Clear blue skies all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 62% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 034 – 7 suspended fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 088 – 36 suspended fish smoking MAL Dense Lures for bottom-oriented fish

Area SH0301G – 112 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures for bottom-oriented fish

Area 716/0305 – 20 suspended 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

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Nice post and fish.