Old Navy & The Summer Solstice – 38 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, June 22, I fished with first time guests Bill Surina, and his daughter, Elisa Garay.
Bill is a U.S. Navy veteran and retiree from the Vietnam era. He served primarily as a crewman on naval surveillance aircraft. Elisa oversees operations for an Austin-area credit union. The two had some prior fishing experience, but none doing what we did today to catch fish, so, we started with the basics and built up from there.
TODAY’S DATE: 22 June 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 15-17 July 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Elisa Garay and her dad, Bill Surina, landed 38 fish on Lake Belton this morning primarily working the MAL Dense (silver body, chartreuse tail) vertically for suspended white bass.
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Here we are at the summer solstice, and there are still two things atypical about this summer. The first is a near total lack of topwater action, and the second is the late hour at which the fish are beginning to feed.
Most summers we would have seen at least some topwater by now with consistent top water action occurring by the time we get to Father’s Day. Also, there is normally a pre-sunrise, shallow water bite which also often leads to a short burst of topwater action right before, during, and after sunrise. As it is, the bite has really not been kicking in well until after 7:30. I really believe this correlates with how few times we’ve had a visible sunrise in the last month. Almost without exception, our days have started off cloudy and stayed that way well into the morning.
This morning, the fish really did not get going until around 7:50 AM, but, once they started, the bite stayed consistent (not strong, but consistent) right up until 10:30 AM.
To find fish, I am counting on running down-imaging and 2D sonar keeping a very close eye out for small, suspended schools of white bass and/or hybrid striped bass. If just a handful of schools are witnessed in a 50 to 100 yard area, that area is a solid candidate for further investigation.
When I find this, I circle back, put the trolling motor on Spot Lock, get the splasher going to draw fish in beneath the boat, and keep a sharp eye on LiveScope for evidence of active fish, moving parallel to the bottom.
The key to success as these schools of fish pass beneath the boat is timing the rise of the MAL Lure to try to get it 2 feet off the tip of the nose of the lead fish in the school. If these lead fish will follow, the entire school will follow, and the individuals will try to outcompete one another to get to that lure. In this way, doubling up is typical using this “smoking” tactic.
We made several such stops in the first large area where I’d found fish this morning, then, around 10 AM moved on. I spotted an area where four blue herons, a white egret, and some cormorants were all working. I knew at least baitfish had to be present, so I went to investigate although we were on our way to go to try to catch catfish over bait.
I don’t believe what I found is what the birds were responding to, but I spotted spawning freshwater drum on an underwater lip in about 26 feet of water. These drum have a very distinctive appearance on 2-D sonar. I quickly took off the MAL Lures and put on small, 3/8 ounce, white, Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs I had Bill and Elisa drop them to the bottom, bring them up off bottom by just inches, and then alternate between jiggling them by working the rod tip up and down rapidly for just 3-4 inches and for about 2 seconds, and then holding them still. The drum would come in to the shaking and strike on the pause.
In this way, the pair landed 11 drum and one white bass in about 40 minutes’ time. It was now about 10:50 and I intended to head us to fish for catfish, but Bill felt he’d had enough with the temperature rising and the humidity really making itself felt by this point.
We wrapped up at 10:50 with exactly 38 fish landed including 11 freshwater drum, one blue catfish, and 26 white bass.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
RESULTS: 38 fish, all caught and released by clients
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW WORK AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY:
OBSERVATIONS:
-Persistent morning clouds have kept any early morning bite from developing for quite some time now. Peak bite has consistently been ~8-10A for the past several weeks.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 17 June 2026, approx. 6:20AM…
0 feet 84.5F
5 feet 85.0F
10 feet 84.8F
15 feet 84.3F
20 feet 84.0F
25 feet 83.4F
30 feet 79.2F
35 feet 75.7F
40 feet 74.3F
45 feet 71.5F
50 feet 69.6F
55 feet 67.4F
60 feet 65.5F
65 feet 63.3F
70 feet 61.5F
Taken on Lake Belton on 08 June 2026, approx. 6:25AM…
0 feet 81.9F
5 feet 81.9F
10 feet 81.9F
15 feet 81.9F
20 feet 79.7F
25 feet 76.7F
30 feet 74.3F
35 feet 73.3F
40 feet 72.0F
45 feet 70.5F
50 feet 67.8F
55 feet 65.0F
60 feet 63.1F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7A
End Time: 10:50A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F
Elevation – Lake Belton fell 0.08′ down to 1.32′ high in the last 24 hours.
Water Surface Temp: 85.2F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: ESE9 until 7:50A, then SE13 thereafter
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning, with constant thinning, thus allowing more light thru as the morning went on. Sun broke through around 10:40A.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 58% illumination
GT = 145
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 2503- 10 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area 2504 – 13 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area 2505 – 2 white bass, 1 blue cat on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area 2506- 11 drum and 1 white bass on 3/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (white) – all off bottom
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