A Buffalo as Big as a Boy – 45 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, July 14, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!“ Trip with eight year-old Davin Thomas in visiting his grandparents from Northern California. Casey Adamich and Tricia Greene came along as Davin’s non-fishing chaperones and helped me help Davin be successful.
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: 14 July 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 30-31 July, 3-6 August 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Davin Thomas came in from Northern California to visit his grandparents and landed this 15-pound buffalo. That’s his grandfather, Casey Adamich providing backup.
PHOTO CAPTION: Davin alternated between catfishing and panfishing and wound up with 45 fish landed just before heavy rains moved in on Lake Belton.
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Given the lack of consistency in white bass behavior of late, and the rather technical demands of the tactics necessary to catch white bass, even when they do cooperate, I decided to omit the white bass effort from this fishing trip to focus solely on sunfish and catfish.
During our 3.5 hours of the water, we were able to get in two sessions of sunfishing and two sessions of catfishing. Our first attempt at each was longer than the second in order to contend with Davin’s decreasing attention span over time.
Our first efforts at catching sunfish using bream rods with slip floats to suspend live bait just off the bottom resulted in a catch of 26 fish.
Our first efforts at catfishing resulted in a catch of six fish with about as many missed as Davin was reluctant at first to set his hook as hard as necessary to connect with this species. The largest of these six fish was not a catfish at all, but a 15-pound buffalo that sniffed his way into our baited spread.
I continued my efforts at equipping kids with slipfloats for catfish in order to eliminate the problem many kids (and some adults!) have in detecting a bite while fishing vertically with a tightline technique.
Our second stop up shallow for some more sunfish resulted in another 13 panfish.
Our final push for catfish resulted in four bites, none of which ended up putting a fish in the boat.
When all was said and done, Davin had independently landed a mixed bag of 45 fish and his grandparents could not have been happier for him. Through the modern marvel of texting, Davin‘s mom, back in California, found out about his catch just about the time she was waking up (or possibly earlier than that as Casey was pretty eager to spread the good news!).
RESULTS: 45 fish, all caught and released
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS:
-Not a lick of topwater action seen nor heard all morning for the second day in a row.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 14 July 2026, approx. 6:05AM …
0 feet 86.1F
5 feet 86.5F
10 feet 86.5F
15 feet 86.5F
20 feet 86.5F
25 feet 86.5F
30 feet 85.0F
35 feet 83.8F
40 feet 78.2F
45 feet72.2F
50 feet 70.7F
55 feet 69.2F
60 feet 67.4F
Taken on Lake Belton on 07 July 2026, approx. 6:20AM (Note thermocline forming between 35-40 feet!!)
0 feet 87.9F
5 feet 88.2F
10 feet 88.2F
15 feet 88.1F
20 feet 85.6F
25 feet 85.0F
30 feet 84.3F
35 feet 83.1F
40 feet 78.2F
45 feet 73.8F
50 feet 71.4F
55 feet 70.2F
60 feet 68.1F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:30A
End Time: 10:00A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F
Elevation – Lake Belton rose 0.35′ up to 0.57′ high in the last 24 hours. Flow rate was 52 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 86.1F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: ESE3-6 all morning
Sky Condition: Moderately thick grey cloud cover at 100% with the lightest of precip. falling in our final 30 minutes before heavy, area-wide rains set in later in the day.
Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination
GT = 10
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area B0033G – 26 panfish on bream rods, bait & slipfloats
Area JULCAT02 – 5 catfish & 1 buffalo on punchbait
Area B0036G – 13 panfish on bream rods, bait & slipfloats
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