Yesterday’s Plan B was Today’s Plan A – 30 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, May 13, I welcomed aboard returning guest, Kevin Yuille. Joining him for the first time aboard was his wife, Toni.
The two met in high school and are going on their 28th year of marriage. Kevin is a U.S. Army veteran having served in both the field artillery and as an air traffic controller, and Toni’s background is in elementary education.
TODAY’S DATE: 13 May 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 15 June 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Kevin and Toni caught hybrid until Toni literally called it quits as her right arm began to get a little achy. Gotta love the smiles!!
PHOTO CAPTION: Sit in one place on Lake Belton long enough with live bait hung out and the blue cat will find you. All but one of our bluecat this morning tracked down a lively shad (not cut or dead baits).
PHOTO CAPTION: When high pressure conditions complete with calm winds and bright skies nudged me to use live bait, our numbers dropped, but our quality improved. The Yuilles caught and released three limits of hybrid striped bass (15 fish at least 18″ long).
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
For the second (and hopefully last!) consecutive day, a high pressure ridge was set up squarely atop Texas, thus pushing all other weather away. This has resulted in clear skies, dry conditions, and very light winds.
Such post-frontal conditions are, in my opinion, among the toughest an angler can face.
Having seen this coming, I made efforts to prepare for it by retooling the boat to fish with live shad starting yesterday. Fortunately, with the threadfin shad spawn now taking place, shad are rather easy to obtain.
On top of all that, USACE began running water through the dam. When a release starts and again when it stops, fishing gets disrupted until the fish settle into a new normal.
After seeing fish respond very reluctantly to artificial lures at the first two areas I tried, I determined we would fish live shad exclusively from that point on.
Live shad today turned out to be a bit of a double edge sword. While the shad accounted for lower numbers of fish, they also accounted for better quality fish, and quite a variety of them.
Kevin and Toni landed 7 white bass, 15 hybrid striped bass, 6 blue catfish, and 2 freshwater drum.
To fish these live shad, I prefer “tight-lining” either with rods in rod holders or in my clients’ hands. I prefer short, ~15″ leaders and small, #2 hooks which I snell for the sake of stiffening the hook-to-leader connection. I hook the shad through the nostrils and coach folks not to respond until there is a steady loading of the rod caused by the fish pulling downward.
By the time 4 1/2 hours had rolled by, Toni and Kevin had landed exactly 30 fish and probably missed at least that many which is not uncommon for folks trying this for their first time. Of those 30 fish, half were legal hybrid striped bass with the largest going 22.25 inches and 4.75 pounds.
RESULTS: 30 fish, all caught and released
OBSERVATIONS:
-Strong threadfin shad spawning activity this morning
-Strong high pressure set up right over Texas has made for bright, calm weather due to last at least 2 days
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 05 May 2026, approx. 6:40AM…
0 feet 72.2F
5 feet 70.8F
10 feet 72.1F
15 feet 72.1F
20 feet 72.1F
25 feet 71.6F
30 feet 71.3F
35 feet 71.2F
40 feet 69.6F
45 feet 65.3F
50 feet 63.2F
55 feet 61.1F
60 feet 59.4F
Taken on Lake Belton on 29 April 2026, approx. 6:45AM…
0 feet 74.3F
5 feet 74.2F
10 feet 74.0F
15 feet 74.0F
20 feet 73.0F
25 feet 71.5F
30 feet 69.1F
35 feet 68.6F
40 feet 68.1F
45 feet 65.9F
50 feet 63.1F
55 feet 60.1F
60 feet 59.4F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:20A
End Time: 10:45A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F at sunrise
Elevation: Belton is 0.99 high with a +0.60′ change since May 9th thanks to Sunday night’s cold front and associated rain to our northwest in the Leon River watershed. USACE is releasing 410 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 72.6.F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S0-2
Sky Condition: Brilliant sun from a cloudless blue sky all morning.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 13% illumination
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 2431- 6 fish on MAL Dense w/ silver body (2), and live shad (4)
Area 2463 – 13 fish on live threadfin shad
Area 2465 – 11 fish on live threadfin shad
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: https://www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle