Representing Gatesville Well — 39 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, July 28, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip with Tripp Winkler and Barrett Bates, both from Gatesville. The trip was commissioned by Tripp’s Paw Paw Bill Palmer.
ABOUT “KIDS FISH, TOO!” TRIPS: Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended just for the kids. They are considerably less expensive than standard trips ($215 for up to 2 kids vs. $315 for up to 2 adults; and more can be added), and typically go a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4-plus hours for standard trips. On these trips, licensed adults who desire to do so often help me help the kids be successful by baiting hooks, untangling lines, resetting our downrigger spreads, etc. so the kids’ efforts are maximized, but, the adults do not fish.
TODAY’S DATE: 28 July 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING BEFORE PUBLIC SCHOOL RESTARTS: 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13 Aug. 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Tripp Winkler and Barrett Bates, both of Gatesville, showed up with solid spinning gear skills already under their belts which allowed us great latitude in the methods we employed for cooperative white bass in the first two hours of light this morning.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: After the white bass settled down, we retooled for catfish, practiced bait placement and hook setting, and the boys were off to the races, putting 10 cats in the boat, including both channels and blues.
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Thankfully, the boys both had prior fishing experience and both handled a spinning rod quite well. We began the morning downrigging with three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 Pet Spoons. Each of the boys picked up one fish on the downriggers. As the sun rose, the fish moved out of shallow water, and so we quickly left the downrigging behind.
I relocated into deeper water and for the first time in quite some time, found a few small schools of white bass using the bottom, albeit above the thermocline. These fish were in 20 to 22 feet of water. Using the Minnkota i-Pilot Link connection between my trolling motor and Hummingbird sonar unit, I positioned atop these fish with precision, got the fish fired up with the splasher, and sealed the deal with MAL Dense Lures (silver body version) retrieved with a vertical, “smoking” tactic. We reposition the boat several times in the same general area and wound up putting another 27 fish in the boat in addition to the two we had landed earlier on the downriggers. 26th of these were white bass and one of these was a freshwater drum.
It was now just after 8:30 AM and we devoted the remainder of the trip to fishing for catfish over baited areas using a tightline tactic with punchbait as our bait.
This effort resulted in 10 catfish landed (8 channel cats and 2 blue cats) with not quite that same number of missed fish as the boys both had very good hook setting form which we practiced on prior to even baiting up in order to try to help them make the most of every strike they got.
We wrapped up just after 10 AM with a total of 39 fish landed.
RESULTS: 39 fish, all caught and released
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
SEE THE “SMOKING TACTIC” TUTORIAL HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
OBSERVATIONS:
-I noted just a few spurts of brief topwater action well before sunrise this morning.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 28 July 2026, approx. 6:05AM …
0 feet 87.6F
5 feet 87.8F
10 feet 87.9F
15 feet 87.9F
20 feet 87.6F
25 feet 87.0F
30 feet 85.3F
35 feet 83.6F
40 feet 82.1F
45 feet 75.1F
50 feet 72.3F
55 feet 70.0F
60 feet 68.4F
Taken on Lake Belton on 21 July 2026, approx. 6:05AM …
0 feet 86.1F
5 feet 87.0F
10 feet 87.2F
15 feet 86.4F
20 feet 85.9F
25 feet 85.5F
30 feet 84.3F
35 feet 83.8F
40 feet 80.7F
45 feet 74.8F
50 feet 72.3F
55 feet 70.3F
60 feet 68.6F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:30A
End Time: 10:00A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F
Elevation – Lake Belton fell to 0.87′ high, with a 0.04′ loss in the last 24 hours. Flow rate was 86 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 87.6F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SE 6-11 all morning
Sky Condition: Pale blue, cloudless sky under the influence of dry, high pressure.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 99% illumination
GT = 85
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area vic 165 – 2 white bass on downrigged Pet Spoons
Area vic 164/2120 – 26 white bass, 1 drum on smoked MAL Dense lures
Area JULCAT02 – 7 channel catfish, 1 blue cat on punchbait
Area JULCAT09 – 1 channel catfish, 1 blue cat on punchbait
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