A Morning of Firsts – 60 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning was a morning of firsts for Mr. Phil Gadd‘s two grandsons, Maddox and Miles Rose, ages nine and seven respectively. Neither had been on a boat before, neither had fished before, and both caught their very first fish during this 3.5 hour “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip geared just for children.
TODAY’S DATE: 29 May 2026 (PM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 16, 23-25 June 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Maddox and Miles Rose each landed the first fish of their lives on Lake Belton, thus earning a TPWD First Fish Award. Maddox landed a bluegill and Miles landed a longear.
PHOTO CAPTION: We didn’t put much time into the white bass fishing this morning, as the fishing has been technical all week, and the conditions were far less than ideal this morning, but, the one we came up with in the short time we tried for them turned out to be our largest fish of the morning.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
We got going at 6:45 AM under a fully clouded sky with southerly winds around 9 mph. Things were looking great. In fact, it was so cloudy, that I did not anticipate the suspended fish we’ve been doing so well on from early to mid-morning the rest of the week would be engaged quite yet.
Well, things quickly turned 180 in a matter of minutes when the cloud cover cleared, and the winds went slack, leaving far less than ideal conditions in their wake.
The very productive fishing for suspended schools of fish did not materialize this morning, and I had already made up my mind that unless the fishing for white bass (which has been great, but quite technical) was a cakewalk, we were not going to stick with that very long given the boys’ lack of experience with the tactics needed to catch them.
After landing, one white bass, and seeing that this morning was going to be tough, I immediately shifted up shallow and targeted sunfish with the boys for the rest of our outing.
Using telescoping rods, small hooks, and very light floats, the boys landed bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, longear, sunfish, and spotted shiners for right at 2.5 hours at which time young Miles reached his limit and, with 60 fish boated at that point in the morning, Phil and and I thought it best to call it a good morning before it got any hotter and Miles got any less enthusiastic.
The boys both earned TPWD First Fish Awards for their efforts!
RESULTS: 60 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW WORK AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY:
OBSERVATIONS:
-USACE is running water through the Belton Dam at a rate of 412 CFS.
-No helpful bird action today.
-I measured 2.70″ of rainfall between 8P and 4A on 25/26 May. This has brought Belton up to 1.81 feet above full pool.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 24 May 2026, approx. 6:25AM…
0 feet 79.9F
5 feet 80.2F
10 feet 79.2F
15 feet 78.8F
20 feet 78.1F
25 feet 76.6F
30 feet 74.7F
35 feet 73.3F
40 feet 70.8F
45 feet 68.2F
50 feet 66.4F
55 feet 63.3F
60 feet 61.4F
Taken on Lake Belton on 14 May 2026, approx. 6:00AM…
0 feet 75.7F
5 feet 75.7F
10 feet 74.3F
15 feet 73.9F
20 feet 73.0F
25 feet 71.6F
30 feet 71.3F
35 feet 70.5F
40 feet 69.1F
45 feet 67.8F
50 feet 65.3F
55 feet 63.3F
60 feet 60.8F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:45A
End Time: 9:45A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F
Elevation: Belton is 1.81′ high with a +0.06′ change in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 411 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 78.1F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW3-7 all morning
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud coverage gave way to 20% thin white cloud coverage on light blue skies after the first 30 minutes
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 98% illumination
GT = 100
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area vic 2471 – 1 fish on MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) from suspended schools
Area 166 – 22 sunfish on slipfloats and bait
Area B0291G- 37 sunfish on slipfloats and bait
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