CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, “Cinco de Mayo”, I fished with a great group of four from the Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen, including Jim McGee, Flint Deshazo, Paul Irwin, and Peter Hutnick. Jim is a retired missionary from Campus Crusade for Christ, Flint is a family medicine doctor, Paul works with a company providing a network of support to gun ranges, and Peter is U.S. Army Viet Nam veteran retired from the computer industry.



DATE: Monday, 05 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 23 May (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 24 May (AM)








PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jim McGee, Flint Deshazo, Peter Hutnick, and Paul Irwin with a few of the 308 fish they landed in a truly action-packed four hours of fishing. That “magnum” held by Jim is being held in the same plane with the other three fish (which were all quality fish exceeding 13″). It was just shy of 17″ and released in excellent condition.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

A stiff easterly breeze blew all morning, starting around 8mph, and increasing to 13+ mph by trip’s end. This largely drove which side of underwater topographies we visited and searched with sonar.

There was no shad spawn this morning thanks to the lingering effects of this past weekend’s cold front forcing air temps this morning into the high 50’s.

With no shad spawn, I was none too confident that we’d find fish shallow (under 15′), and, after two quick checks up shallow under low light conditions, that was verified.

We spent the remainder of the trip in 23 to 31 feet of water fishing for bottom-oriented white bass which I initially found on side-imaging, then parked on top of using the i-Pilot Link connection between sonar and trolling motor.

The MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail and silver blade was the sole tool necessary to get the job done this morning. My crew used it vertically with a smoking tactic at every one of the seven stops we made to put together our catch. At one of these locations we also used the sawtooth tactic horizontally.

The fish fed hard in advance of incoming storms (which hit around 1:30pm) for a full 4 hours, then shut down hard right at the 4-hours-past-sunrise mark.

RESULTS: 308 fish, all caught and released


TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO THE “SMOKING” TACTIC:

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH THE MAL LURE WITH A SAWTOOTH METHOD:




OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn was interrupted by a late spring cold front.
No helpful bird activity.
Fish enthusiastically pursued MAL Lures both vertically and horizontally for a full 4 hours.


LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This was the previous water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 11:15AM, Friday, 02 May…

0 feet 75.3F
5 feet 75.3F
10 feet 75.3F
15 feet 74.9F
20 feet 74.8F
25 feet 73.0F
30 feet 68.5F
35 feet 65.5F
40 feet 62.8F
45 feet 60.4F
50 feet 59.4F
55 feet 58.9F
60 feet 58.3F

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:40AM on Thursday, 24 April

0 feet 71.7F
5 feet 71.7F
10 feet 71.7F
15 feet 71.3F
20 feet 69.9F
25 feet 68.4F
30 feet 66.9F
35 feet 65.0F
40 feet 63.3F
45 feet61.5F
50 feet 60.3F
55 feet 59.2F
60 feet 59.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 3.30′ low (a 0.08′ rise in 24 hours)

Water Surface Temp: 72.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: E8 at trip’s start, and increasing to E13+ mph by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 80% to 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 30% illumination.

GT = 105



Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 108/143 – 140 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically & sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures fished horizontally
Area 108/1048 – 25 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically
Area 1048 – 68 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically
Area 746 – 16 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically
Area 104 – 7 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically
Area 131 – 52 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically (2 short hops)

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

The smiles keep coming. Nice post and fish.

...

Thank you for your service Peter Hutnick....

1 fish every 3.16 minutes per person. Y'all were busy!