CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, Dec. 23rd, I fished with returning guest Jay Florence, accompanied by his sons and my first-time guests, Austin and Wyatt. The boys are 15-year-old twins living in the Odessa area.

Balmy weather actually caused a bit of an uptick in the water temperature, and, with the entire water column above 60 feet at above 60F, the fish were still hunting shad and chasing & hitting baits hard.

DATE: Monday, 23 December 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 1 & 3 January (AM)






PHOTO CAPTION: The Florence crew, from left — Wyatt, Jay, and Austin with some of the beefy white bass they landed today on MAL Dense Lures. The four largest shown here all went at least 15.00 inches with the largest at 15.625″.






PHOTO CAPTION: That’s 10.75 pounds of largemouth between the twins — man, were they excited!!






PHOTO CAPTION: This big male white bass was oozing milt already. I sure hope there is flow in the Lampasas River so a big spawn can happen this spring!



WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I could not have custom-ordered a better set of weather conditions than those we enjoyed this morning. Balmy temperatures for late December, starting at 55F before sunrise, were accompanied by light, grey cloud cover and a manageable SSE breeze between 10-13mph.

We caught fish from start to finish this morning, with the bite from 7:30 to 8:20 a bit tougher and more technical than the rest due to low light causing fish to suspend as they fed right after sunrise. But, after the rising sun illuminated the sky better, the depths became more well-lit, and the fishing picked up.

All but 11 of the Florence crew’s fish came on the MAL Dense with silver body and chartreuse tail worked with a smoking tactic this morning, with the balance coming on the 3/4 oz. White Tornado worked with a sawtooth method. We fished from 25 to 51 feet over the course of the morning, catching the fish on the White Tornado in 31′.

One minor adjustment to the ‘smoking’ tactic was necessary due to the water temperature nipping at the 50 degree range — that was reeling the MAL as slowly as possible while still keeping the blade spinning so as to help the lure spend as much time as possible in the 5-6 foot band of water up off the bottom. Bottom-oriented fish would be reluctant to chase much further than that. The way we accomplished this was by removing all slack from the main line before beginning the retrieve while still keeping the lure laying on the bottom. Then, a SINGLE hard, fast handle turn (at most!) was used to get the blade spinning, then, without pausing from making that first hard turn, 4 or 5 additional, slower handle turns were made to raise the lure up and away from the bottom at a slow pace.

Birds (gulls) were helpful in identifying just one of the seven areas we fished; and that one area was identified around 9:50A; otherwise, all other areas were ferreted out with well-tuned sonar.

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: 163 fish, all caught and released (6 largemouth, 157 white bass)

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

OBSERVATIONS:

1) We landed the 2nd white bass of the winter which was already oozing milt. Both males were taken on Stillhouse within the last week (17-23 Dec.)



LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Monday, 23 Dec …

0 feet 60.4F
5 feet 60.4F
10 feet 60.4F
15 feet 60.4F
20 feet 60.4F
25 feet 60.4F
30 feet 60.4F
35 feet 60.4F
40 feet 60.3F
45 feet 60.3F
50 feet 60.1F
55 feet 60.0F
60 feet 59.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Elevation: 2.16′ low and falling slowly with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 60.43F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10-13 all morning

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 100% coverage all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 42% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 034 – 19 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 0317 – 4 fish smoking MAL Dense Lure

Area vic 772 – 20 fish – 1/2 smoking MAL Dense Lures, 1/2 sawtoothing White Tornados

Area vic SH0302G – 7 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area vic SH0218G/662 – 11 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 881/878 – 20 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures

Area 867 – 72 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

Those are healthy fat Whites. Good job Bob! Do I see a modified H.E.S. in that Largemouths face?

No, that is a White Tornado (3/4 oz., white color). Found here: LINK

Nice post and fish. Good job.

...