CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, May 21st, I welcomed birthday girl Jemma Rogers aboard, accompanied by her grandfather, Dwight “Boom-Pa” Stone. Dwight has made an annual event of getting his grandkids out fishing on their birthdays, and this was now Jemma’s day to shine as she celebrated her 11th birthday.

Dwight opted for a “Kids Fish, Too!” package, so, he was there only to help me help Jemma be successful, but did not fish. I also did not fish — from time to time I will hook and hand off fish for kids to reel in if they are very young or are struggling, but, Jemma was in good form this morning and landed every last fish herself.

And, she did it in just 2.5 hours! At 101 fish, that’s about 1 fish every minute and a half!!

DATE: Wednesday, 21 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)








PHOTO CAPTION: Dwight Stone and his 11-year-old granddaughter, Jemma, with a pair of 15+ inch white bass; Jemma landed four “magnum” white bass exceeding 15″ this morning.






PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Heavy Lure was the only thing I had tied on this morning, accounting for 100% of Jemma's 101 fish catch as she worked it vertically as described in the video below.



FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

After honing in on where suspended fish are tending to consolidate, we hopped right on the fish this morning and found them biting before 7AM, thanks to a less cloudy sky than of late allowing for a sudden brightening right at sunrise serving as a trigger for white bass to begin searching for forage.

The water is warming rapidly and the fishing is getting tricky. There is a definite transition underway in which the white bass are making use of the bottom less and less and are beginning to suspend routinely. There are two drivers for this: stratification of the water by temperature which will eventually lead to the creation of the thermocline by mid-June, and the increasing presence of young-of-the-year shad making their way into open water.

Jemma caught all 101 fish this morning at just one location and did so in right at 2.5 hours. The fish never showed signs of slowing down until right at 9AM. By this time Jemma had already landed over 90 fish, and so she persisted, pushing through a hurting left wrist left aching due to all the fish she’d landed previously, until she reached her goal of 101 fish.

Once that fish came in the boat, she had her mind on going shopping and eating chicken crispy crispers at Chili’s with both of her grandmothers. So, we wrapped up early, took some photos, including those necessary to qualify her for a “Big Fish Award” from TPWD, and headed back to shore with one very happy camper.

RESULTS: 101 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 appears to be nearly over now.
White bass are clearly disassociating from the bottom, choosing instead to suspend.


LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This was the latest water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:30AM on Wednesday, 21 May…

0 feet 79.7F
5 feet 79.9F
10 feet 79.9F
15 feet 79.9F
20 feet 76.8F
25 feet 73.9F
30 feet 72.3F
35 feet 69.8F
40 feet 67.2F
45 feet 64.3F
50 feet 62.8F
55 feet 61.4F
60 feet 60.1F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 9:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 3.45′ low with a 0.05′ drop in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 79.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light ESE breeze at 1-5 all morning

Sky Condition: 20-50% light grey clouds on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 37% illumination.

GT = 5



Wx SNAPSHOT:








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1312 – 101 fish on the MAL Heavy


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

That's impressive!

We caught 58 in 5 hours.

Never saw you on the water.

Great job Jemma!

Awesome post. "Priceless"!

Now that's impressive. Good fishing by a good angler.

Fabulous, what was the method of retrieval ??

gborg, she was using the "smoking" tactic with the MAL Heavy (silver blade and body/chartreuse tail).

That retrieve is shown here:

Happy Birthday Jemma....

Jemma , you rock , Happy Birthday !