central texas fishing guide

BACHELOR PARTY!! — 145 FISH ON BLADED HAZY EYE SLABS

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Saturday, March 2, I fished with a crew of five on a bachelor party outing in advance of Jeff Rose’s wedding to be held in mid-March.

The five fellows joining me either are now, or have been in the past, affiliated with the Temple Independent School District where they help maintain the district’s bus fleet.

Although all had fished before, none had fished the way we approached the white bass fishing this morning.

Here is how the fishing went…

Next available dates are 27-29 Feb. (AMs)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: John Cooper, Lindsey Davis, George Bell, James Horton, and Jeff Rose with a few of the 145 fish they caught and released this morning, March 2nd.

 

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 02 March. 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

After record high temps around 90F on Monday and Tuesday, we dropped back down with highs at only 54F on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday warmed up, but the lack of cloud cover put us back at 46F on the boat ramp before sunrise this morning.

We had some light fog and (worst of all) calm winds with clear, bright skies until around 9:30.  Our results up until 9:30 reflected the tough conditions with only 6 fish landed in two hours of effort.  At exactly 9:34, the lightest ripple of wind approached from the SW with no calm patches remaining upwind.  The fishing turned around “big time” once this wind began.  From 9:30 until 12:20, my five man crew (now VERY well practiced at the tactics they needed to employ) took full advantage of the improving bite.

The fish went strong for a full hour, then slacked off as the wind slacked off for about 20 minutes  — from about 10:40 to 11:00.  The wind picked back up and then blew even stronger than it did earlier from 11AM until we wrapped up at 12:20.

During the entire morning we used only one tactic and only one bait.  Everyone had the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab tied on and used it with a slow-smoking tactic.  The fish were very choosy as to retrieve speed.  I helped everyone zero in on the correct retrieve speed by using my thumper as a metronome beating faster when the wind blew and the fish swam and chased aggressively, and beating more slowly when the wind was light and the fish were more lethargic.

We closed out the trip with a grand total of 145 fish landed, including 1 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 142 white bass.

Here is a tutorial on the snap-jigging method … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtrnAQ_T94&t=55s

Here is a tutorial on the slow-smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ

TALLY: 145 fish caught and released 

 

OBSERVATIONS:  Here was the water temperature measured in 5′ increments from the surface to the bottom in 50′ this morning, 02 March…

0 feet, 58.3F
5 feet, 58.9F
10 feet, 58.9F
15 feet, 58.7F
20 feet, 58.4F
25 feet, 58.3F
30 feet, 57.1F
35 feet, 55.6F
40 feet, 54.3F
45 feet, 53.6F
50 feet, 52.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 12:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 649F

Elevation: 16.84 feet low, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 57.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for 2 hours, then going SW 4-11 for the rest of the morning

Sky Condition: Pale blue skies w/ no cloud cover after a light lake fog cleared by 8:10A

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 61% illumination.

GT = 0

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Vic 350, SH0044C, 2022, SH0260G, SH0268G, SH0269G (3 hops), SH0283G (2 hops), vic 980

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec #austinsubaru

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT “ASSUME” – 101 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, July 13th, I fished with a crew of four returning guests, including Mr. Larry Brewer, his good friend, Blake Hoekstra, Larry’s son-in-law, Chris Zwern, and Larry‘s grandson, Eymon McCormick.

Larry is a living legend in the Austin area HVAC world, Blake retired from accounting, Chris works for a medical imaging company, and Eymon is employed at a video gaming company after recently graduating from high school.

Here is how the fishing went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are July 31 & August 2 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From the left, that’s Larry Brewer, Blake Hoekstra, Eymon McCormick, and Chris Zwern.  That white bass Chris is holding went 15 3/8″ and was in great shape.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 13 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

As I sat on the bow of my boat awaiting my crew’s arrival, I was elated that the 14 to 15 mph southwest wind forecast to blow all day today had not yet materialized.  Rather, the wind was only blowing at about 8 to 10. Assuming that the white bass we’re going to feed aggressively on topwater under low light conditions once again (at they did like clockwork for the last several days), I just knew that they would be much easier to spot than in yesterday’s wind-blown tempest.

Well, you know what they say about ass-u-me…

Despite ideal spotting conditions, there was very little topwater action this morning, and what action did materialize was both weak, and short-lived.

By 7:30 AM, when over the past few days we’d had 20 or 30 fish in the boat already, we had landed only five at that point this morning.

Around 7:45 AM, the situation began to improve. I spotted a handful of white bass feeding on the surface atop an underwater anomaly. I swung in for a better look, and sonar really lit up.

I positioned the boat so that Spot-Lock would hold us about a cast’s length away from, and parallel to, the fish I found. I then put everyone on the starboard side, equipped with MAL Heavy Lures with white tails, and had them cast long and work these baits back with a sawtooth method.

Whenever the fishing got slow, I would move us a cast’s length into the wind, thus allowing us to cover this underwater feature very thoroughly.

After this area slacked off, I went to another, similar area, found fish there, positioned the boat in similar fashion, and continued working MALs with a sawtooth tactic. By the time these fish quit our tally was up to 88 fish and the time was 9:45 AM.

Having observed over the last two days how the fishing really began to tail off around this time of the morning, I told my crew that if we were going to hit 100 fish around the 4-hour mark, I felt we would need to downrig for them. Downrigging allows for a lot of ground to be covered very efficiently, thus weeding out the few still active fish amongst a majority of inactive fish.

We got both downriggers working, both equipped with three armed umbrella rigs. I ran #12 Pet Spoons with silver bodies and white feather tails on one downrigger, and #13 Pet Spoons with silver prismatic bodies and yellow feather tails on the other.

We scoured an area which sonar showed had quite a number of both suspended and bottom-oriented white bass present. After several rounds of singles and doubles, fish numbers 100 and 101 came aboard as a double which Eymon reeled in to close out this successful trip at exactly 10:25 AM.

Of the 101 fish landed today, we had 1 legal hybrid, 6 short hybrid, 4 freshwater drum, 1 smallmouth bass, and 89 white bass, of which only 2 were short.

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the Smoking Method here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

Find the entire family of MAL Lures  here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  Here was the water temperature taken the morning of  12 July:

0 feet, 84.5F
5 feet, 85.5F
10 feet, 85.5F
15 feet, 85.6F
20 feet, 85.5F
25 feet, 83.8F
30 feet, 76.1F
35 feet, 72.1F
40 feet, 68.8F
45 feet, 66.3F
50 feet, 65.0F
55 feet, 64.3F
60 feet, 63.1F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 10:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Elevation: 14.22 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW9-10 thru 8:30, then slowing tapering up to SSW13

Sky Condition: <10% white cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 17% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic 1937 – very light topwater activity through 7:30 – 5 fish

Area vic 1591 – consistent action on sawtoothed MALs

Area vic B0030G – consistent action on sawtoothed MAL’s, with ‘rigging to “mop up” as fish got reluctant

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec

THANKS, BOSS!! — 201 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Thursday, 19 May 2022, I fished with Aaron Martin, owner of A.M. Designs.

A.M. Designs makes “props” of all sizes out of foam for high school bands, theater companies, businesses, churches, and more.

Aaron brought with him three current employees and one former employee on a half-day morning fishing trip in pursuit of white bass.

Joining Aaron was Mason Stuart, Travis Reynolds, Coey Malina, and Jesus Suarez.

If you are a boss and would like to treat your employees to something like this, just give me a call!

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 7th and 12th.  Weekday mornings are always best.  Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Travis Reynolds, Mason Stuart, Jesus Suarez, Aaron Martin, and Coey Malina with but a few of the 201 fish haul these fellows caught and released this morning on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION:  The MAL Dense worked like a charm today.  All 201 fish were landed on this bait worked vertically with a “smoking” tactic.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 19 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

For the second consecutive day I had to adjust my launch location due to the forecast for high winds due to ramp up in the latter half of the morning.

With five anglers aboard, I decided to do a quick “demo” of the smoking tactic with the MAL Dense Lure and the Garmin LiveScope before we got out on top of fish, so that I could help reduce the learning curve a bit and avoid missing fish due to avoidable technique issues.

I get a little ribbing sometimes for having four gunwale-mounted sonar units on the boat, but, when I have a crew of 5 or 6 anglers and everyone has a clear view of the underwater world beneath them, including seeing exactly what their lure is doing as well as fish response to that lure, well, it is beyond worth it at that time.

Such was the case this morning.  I had two men looking together at the aft starboard Garmin unit, one man solo, looking at the forward starboard monitor, and another pair of men looking together at the port side aft Garmin unit (hence, the port side forward unit remained turned off).  Everyone had plenty of elbow room and everyone could see their bait rise and fall 100% of the time.

We fished four areas this morning.  The fishing was best from 7:25 through 9:30, then tapered off quickly from 9:30 through 10:15, and, by 10:30 the fish were done.

I observed very little in the way of spawning shad and I saw no signs of schooling white bass feeding on the surface.

All of our fish was done in 34 to 49 feet of water using the smoking tactic.

A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Our 201 fish catch included exactly 200 white bass, and 1 sub-legal hybrid striped bass.  Of the 200 white bass, only 6 were “short” (under the legal length of 10 inches).

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY:  201 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: For a third day in a row, the shad spawn was present, but much weaker than in the last 2-3 weeks.  We are definitely on the downhill slope of the ‘bell curve’.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time:  10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 4.19 feet low, 0.04’ fall in last 24 hours, 36 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S9 at trip’s start, building gradually to S16-17 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: A thin, grey cloud layer kept the sun’s heat off all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 84% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1012/1259, vic B0037C, B0042G, 835 (2 hops), 1209

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec #mepps

IT’S A CRIME TO PAY MORE THAN A DIME – 100 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: If you’ve ever heard the phrase “It’s a crime to pay more than a dime.” — you were most likely listening to a McLeod Auto Sales radio commercial.

This morning, Tuesday, December 1st, I fished with returning guest Travis McLeod, co-owner, along with his wife, Diane, of McLeod Auto Sales at 1601 E. Rancier Ave. in Killeen.

The McLeods have been in business for over 20 years selling used cars.  To take a break from that from time to time, Travis likes to get out and do some hunting and fishing.  Today, he braved some pretty tough weather to pursue white bass and sharpen up his own game on this abundant gamefish species on Lake Belton so as to be able to treat his own family, namely his grandkids, to some similar fishing.

Although we both enjoyed the catching, Travis also came to pick my brain a bit about tactics and sonar use.  He came away with a few valuable lessons, namely, that he’s likely been looking too shallow in his autumn fishing, and too dependent on the down-looking technologies of down-imaging and colored sonar, while not making full use of his side imaging on his own Humminbird Helix unit.

Travis is a well-traveled hunter and in that arena I picked up a tip or two from him, namely that I need to set aside time to go to the Dallas Safari Club’s Convention and Sporting Expo held annually in Dallas.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   Travis McLeod with one of several hybrid striped bass we took from about 40 feet of water as we focused on white bass using a combination of MAL Lures and Garmin LiveScope.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 01 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

After a sweet run of fishing for very aggressive fish spurred on by frontal activity this past Saturday and again yesterday, things settled back down to more normal conditions today as a southerly wind returned overnight after a very short post-frontal calm just at and after sunset last night.

Under these conditions, fish feed, but not for extended periods.  Fish chase, but not for extra long distances, and the energy they exhibit is generally less than when a rapid change of atmospheric pressure is taking place.

Today we wound up fishing 4 general locations, short-hopping a bit at the first three to keep up with the fish (under birds), to put together our catch of exactly 100 fish.  By 10:30, the winds, which were forecast to max out a 13 mph straight-line, actually rose to 16-17, with higher gusts.  It was such that we vacated open water for our last hour and fished more protected (but still wind-impacted) water.

Until we hit our last area, our ratio of young of the year fish to legal fish was very low, but, of the last 20 we landed, approx. 17 were shorts.  Regardless of size, it sure is fun to work individual fish while peering into the depths below with the LiveScope technology.

We ended up with exactly 100 fish caught this morning, including 3 hybrid stripers, 4 largemouth, and 93 white bass, with one big drum missed right at boatside which did not go on the “clicker” to be counted.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   2.5 hours worth of solid gull activity in the middle part of this morning’s trip.  First “killing” frost of the year occurred overnight.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Elevation:  0.86 low with a 0.03’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 60.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S12 at trip’s start, ramping up to S16 with higher gusts to 20+ by 10:30A

Sky Condition: High, thin white cloud cover at ~20% on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 99% illumination

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic B0098C; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 086 to 1551; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 1391; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 844; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

COULDN’T GET ENOUGH — 277 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday afternoon, November 25th, I fished with first-time guests Jeff and Sue Madden and their twin 12-year-old sons, Cash and Cooper.  The Maddens came down from Lewisville, TX, to gather in Salado for Thanksgiving with family and planned about a month ahead to do some fishing with me on Lake Belton the day before.

Because Jeff was pretty certain Sue would only come along if the weather cooperated, I suggested booking an afternoon trip, which they did.

All four of the Maddens really worked at catching fish the entire four hours on the water, and, thanks to weather conducive to a strong catch, they wound up boating 277 fish.

Toward the end of the trip, a request came in from a client to release their date with me on Saturday morning due to forecast damp, cool conditions.  Jeff thought all of about 2 seconds and told me he’d take that slot!!  So, I’ll be seeing at least him and the twins again on Saturday, rain or shine!

PHOTO CAPTION #1: The Madden family, from left, Jeff, Cooper, Cash, and Sue, with but a few of the 277 fish they landed during their 4-hour afternoon trip on Wednesday, Nov. 25th.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Mom (Sue Madden) landed our largest fish of the trip — a nice Lake Belton hybrid striped bass  — on a correctly worked MAL Lure.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #3: White bass and hybrid stripers weren’t the only species feeding on the MAL Lure, as Cash discovered when this Lake Belton largemouth bass went for his.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (PM), 25 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Thankfully, the north wind which treated us well this morning continued blowing this afternoon, thus we did not encounter difficult, post-frontal, calm conditions.

This family of four put 277 fish in the boat in just under 4 hours thanks to a few factors.  First, was the wind I’ve already mentioned. Second, everyone got the hang of using the MAL Lures early and executed the retrieve correctly and consistently.  Third, because no one minded catching smaller fish and, instead, enjoyed the non-stop action they provided, we did not engage in time-consuming fish-hunting hoping to find areas holding larger fish (thus, we did not leave fish to find fish).

We fished only four areas, and the Maddens put their 100th fish in the boat by 2:32PM, just over an hour into our trip.

Jeff and the boys were very enthused with the “video game-like qualities” of the Garmin LiveScope, and it kept their attention, helped them focus, and helped them be efficient with their retrieves.

Everything really came together well this afternoon and it was very gratifying to be able to give a family the experience which the Maddens got this day on Lake Belton.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 277 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   Although I feared the north winds would go calm during our time on the water, they kept right on blowing, and the fish kept right on biting well, right up to sunset, when they quit abruptly.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  1:30P

End Time: 5:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Elevation:  0.82 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour rise, and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were NW8 at trip’s start, tapering down to NW4 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue skies in the wake of last night’s cold front passage

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous at 80% illumination

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1000, 66  fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 409, 64 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0070C, 132 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 694/968, 15 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

 

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

FALL FISHING BEGINS – 50 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday, 29 September, I fished with Pollyanna Casey of Belton in pursuit of white bass on Lake Belton.

Polly was introduced to fishing by an aunt in Arizona at age 11.  Equipped with an old Orvis bamboo flyrod and some mismatched flies and tackle, Polly slowly but surely figured things out.  More recently she’s become a part of a bass fishing club in Copperas Cove and has added spinning and casting gear to her arsenal.

Today was about getting out and doing a kind of fishing she’d never done before.  She told me in the still-dark parking lot before we got going, “If I can catch just one fish, I’ll be happy.”    We then got in the boat and proceeded to exceed those expectations…

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   Although it has been a while since I had one come aboard, one of the 50 fish Polly landed this morning was a “pygmy” hybrid striped bass.  This one launched off bottom in 46′ of water to chase this lure about 15 feet upwards as we watched the whole chase scene on Garmin LiveScope.
 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Tuesday morning, 29 September 2020

HOW WE FISHED: After sitting out a day yesterday due to a mild, dry cold front’s passage which had straight-line winds at 21-22 with gusts to 30 all day yesterday, I was pleased to see a NW wind was still forecast to be blowing today before post-frontal, calm, bright conditions settled in.  This typically means good fishing in the fall.

As I prepared the boat for Polly’s arrival, I checked the temperature profile down to 60 feet and found the thermocline has disappeared a bit earlier than normal.  This is a major development which very few anglers will recognize or respond to.  This opens the gates to fall fishing and fish that can locate just about anywhere in the water column and at any depth, thanks to complete oxygenation of the lake.  

We began covering water this morning by downrigging under low-light conditions and found active white bass in ~35 feet of water feeding throughout the lower half of the water column.  We worked these fish over trying to “make hay while the sun shines”, suspecting that, due to the cloudless skies, the fish would shut down once the direct sun hit the water for any length of time (and they did).  We landed 12 fish before moving on.

There was a bit of a lull between leaving this first population of fish and finding another willing school to fish for.  Our next run of success came in ~40 feet of water on a barren bottom with a gentle slope.  I spotted the white bass heavily congregated on the bottom, and carpeting the bottom for about 3 boat lengths as I idled over them.  We Spot-Locked on ’em, got the MAL Lures going to work for us and boated another 32 fish in about a 75 minute span — not on fire, but not having to pull teeth, either.

Once these fish shut down around 10AM, the wind was letting up and we moved into more classic post-frontal conditions.  In our final hour on the water, I looked over 4 distinct areas (all deep, given the clear, bright skies and nearly calm surface), finding fish at only one of them, and working to land our final 6 fish of the morning to top us off right at 50 fish for the morning

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released (1 hybrid, 2 freshwater drum, 47 white bass)

OBSERVATIONS:  Temperature profile indicating the thermocline is nearly dissipated…

0 feet 76.3

5 feet 76.4

10 feet 76.4

15 feet 76.4

20 feet 76.4

25 feet 76.4

30 feet 76.4

35 feet 76.4

40feet 76.4

45 feet 76.4

50 feet 76.6

55 feet 76.6

60 feet 76.4

65 feet 71.6
 
 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  6:45A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F

Elevation:  0.50′ high with a 0.24′ 24-hour drop and 1,670 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 76.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW breeze at 8 at sunrise, increasing thru 10 A to NNW13, then slacking off the NNW 6 by trip’s end.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous with 95% illumination

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 085 to 488 – low light downrigging for 12 fish

**Area B0078C – vertical MAL Lure work for 32 fish

**Area  B0043G – vertical MAL Lure work for 6 fish  

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

HAIL TO THE CHIEF — 70 FISH CPR’d @ STILLHOUSE; MAL LURE GETS A WORKOUT

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, September 1st, I fished with first-time guest Chuck Kimble, the Chief of Police for the City of Killeen. Chief Kimble celebrated his third anniversary in that position today.

Aside from Chuck’s current status as a public servant, he is also a U.S. Army veteran, as is his wife. The Kimbles came to Central Texas a few years ago from Fayetteville, NC, just outside the gates of Ft. Bragg.

Chuck recently bought a pre-owned Bayliner and is slowly getting into fishing as time allows, so, he came not only to catch fish, but to learn new approaches to catching fish this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   Chuck Kimble with some mature white bass we took in deep water on MAL Lures.  Chartreuse did the trick today under 100% grey cloud cover.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

HOW WE FISHED:  Today the weather “wrinkled” on us a bit versus the “cookie-cutter” weather we’ve enjoyed since the passage of last week’s hurricane-influenced weather.  The winds were up early and strong this morning, and we dealt with 100% grey cloud cover all morning, as well.

The fish were still generally in the same pattern, but the topwater feeding activity was much reduced today as the winds and cloud cover made the surface more difficult for gamefish to pin bait against. Generally, we downrigged from 6:50 until about 8:00, then found white bass heavily schooled both on bottom and suspended and worked MAL Lures through them until around 9:20. 

We then moved to an area I’d not fished yet this summer and alternated between downrigging and using MAL Lures to close out the trip with exactly 70 white bass landed.

The use of Garmin LiveScope in downward mode absolutely helped put more fish in the boat as we were able to very precisely time the rise of our lures through horizontally moving schools of white bass.  We were also able to track the rise and fall of our lures 100% of the time, thus allowing us to continue retrieving when we saw we were getting followed, and, on the other hand, stop a retrieve short and allow it to return to bottom once we saw no fish expressed interest.

TALLY: 70 white bass caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   About 20 terns were helpful in finding active fish between 8:00 and 9:15.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  6:25A

End Time: 10:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 82F

Elevation:  2.95′ low, -0.06′ 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  83.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: S12 prior to sunrise, slowly increasing to SSW 15 by 9:15, then gusting higher thereafter.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous with 99% illumination (full moon -1)

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 853 – low light downrigging

**Area 062 to 071 – MAL Lures worked vertically for bottom-hugging and suspended fish

**Area vic 912/1133 – MAL Lures worked vertically for bottom-hugging and suspended fish

**Area 1222 to 668  – alternated between MAL Lure vertical work and downrigging horizontal work

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHAT’S THE GOOD WORD?? — 108 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, August 14th, I fished with Bob “Paw Paw” Word, and his three grandsons, Justin Word, Jordan Word, and Travis Scott.

Bob retired from civil service as a welder and resides south of Killeen.

Justin and Jordan are brothers, and Travis married their sister. 

All of the grandsons live around Austin where Jordan works as a building inspector, Justin works for the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), and Travis is a K-9 police officer.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   From left: Travis Scott, and Jordan, Bob, and Justin Word, all with 2-year old white bass taken with a combination of downrigging and vertical work with MAL Lures.  

WHEN WE FISHED: 14 August, 2020, AM

 WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

 HOW WE FISHED:  We looked for “easy” topwater action this morning but found none, thanks to the heavy chop on the surface.  So, we downrigged for the fish that were still there and feeding, but not showing themselves on the surface.  We wound up with 8 fish and moved on just as the sun rose.

I spotted multiple occasions of “popcorn” schooling as I surveyed calmer waters, but these fish did not stay up long, so, we passed on them.

We eventually found fish in 25-29 feet of water, and they “carpeted” the bottom, a good sign of their willingness to strike lures presented vertically.  Indeed, the fish were willing to strike, but, they were also very prone to moving. 

Seeing this, we simply bounced back and forth for the remainder of the morning between downrigging to both find and catch fish, and then stopping on top of any large (100+ fish) schools we found in order to work MAL Lures vertically.  We’d catch a few before the school moved on using the MAL Lures, then, it was back to downrigging to repeat the process.

A mixed presentation of white/silver #12 Pet Spoons on one 3-armed umbrella rig and yellow/silver #13 Pet Spoons on the other 3-armed rig worked equally well.

We wound up with 108 fish landed in right at 4 hours.  This included fish in the 0, 1, and 2 year classes.  Looks like a great crop of white bass was spawned this year based on the size of fish I’m seeing from this spring’s spawn (we caught ~10-12 of them, all right about the same size and looking plump).

TALLY: 108 fish caught and released  

OBSERVATIONS:  Low-light topwater fish were definitely “off” this morning, thanks to a heavy chop created by the 13+ mph wind we experienced.  Fish were present, but did not pop up on top for an extended period of time.  After sunrise, “popcorn” schooling took place briefly through about 8AM, then the fish went down for good.  

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:30A  

End Time: 10:45A  

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F  

Elevation:  2.09′ low, -0.12′ 24-hour change, 51 CFS flow  

Water Surface Temp:  83.5F  

Wind Speed & Direction: S13-14 before sunrise, dropping off to S11 right around sunrise.   Sky Condition:  No cloud cover, with light blue skies and low humidity

Moon Phase: Waning crescent with 24% illumination  

GT = 50  

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

**Area  vic 813 – downrigging in under 20′ on wind-impacted shoreline for low-light white bass action hindered by strong wave action.

**Area vic 1024 – back and forth between downrigging to catch and find fish, and then dropping MAL Lures on active fish to take advantage of what we’d found.  

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec