CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, May 22, I welcomed aboard a first-time crew of three. Pat Hardin coordinated this trip for his friends Mike Huls and Al Kaeo. When I asked Pat how he found me, he told me he’d been reading my Sunday fishing column in the Killeen Daily Herald for years and just decided to pull the trigger and give guided fishing a try.

All three are military “brats” and “locals” who call the Ft. Hood, Killeen, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove area home.

DATE: Thursday, 22 May 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

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








PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mike Huls, Pat Hardin, and Al Kaeo — longtime friends and, now, experienced white bass fishermen!






PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Heavy Lure was the only thing I had tied on this morning (all week, actually), accounting for every last one of the 187 fish my clients landed today.



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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

One lure fished one way in one topographic scenario was all it took this morning. None of the fellows had prior experience fishing the way we fished today, so, I had to introduce them first to the fundamentals (correct use of spinning gear, understanding the LiveScope screen, proper retrieve cadence) before moving on to advanced skills (targeting individual fish, gauging fish depth in the water column, exploiting fishes’ competitive nature, and more). By the end of the trip all I had to do was keep my unhooking glove on my right hand and release the fish as fast as these fellows could catch them.

My three-man crew used MAL Heavy Lures (w/silver blades & bodies and chartreuse tails) fished vertically using a “smoking” tactic to land all 187 fish (see video below).

Things started slowly with low wind and low light coming through some cloud cover at sunrise, but, once it brightened up a bit (still through moderate cloud cover) and the SSE wind began to ripple the surface, it was game on. The bite went strong from 7:40 to 10:50 with a final pre-shutdown surge from 10:20 to 10:45.

Now, what about that topographic scenario? Well, it became apparent by mid-week last week that white bass were leaving the bottom and showed a much greater tendency to suspend. I believe last week’s heat and an abundance of newly available shad fry are driving this. Now, instead of looking on bottom with side imaging, I am really scrutinizing down-looking sonar — both 2D and down-imaging — for suspended fish signatures at the extreme edges/perimeters of those areas where I’d otherwise be looking for fish on bottom as recently as early last week.

A splashing device (not a thumping device) is critical for this kind of fishing in my opinion. In fact, I’ve taken my thumper off the boat and will not reinstall it until the water drops back below 60-62F or so in December.

Once we found fish, we got them to stick with us thanks to the commotion created by the splasher and by the constant catching and releasing of fish adding to this commotion. Included in this morning’s catch were at least 8 fish which exceeded 15 inches.

We only need to reposition one time, catching 51 fish at our first stop, and a final 136 fish at our second stop.

RESULTS: 187 fish, all caught and released



TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE HORIZONTALLY USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial



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: 7A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 3.49′ low with a 0.04′ drop in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 79.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light SSE breeze at 2-6 all morning

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

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 17% illumination.

GT = 10



Wx SNAPSHOT:








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1278 – 51 fish on the MAL Heavy
Area 006 – 136 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

And the smile keep coming. As always. Good job.

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