All for a Good Cause – 92 Fish

CLIENTS: On Friday morning, October 23, I fished with returning guest, Robert Stine. Robert first fished with me around this time last year, along with his wife, Dulce, after the two were high bidders on a Vintage Christian Academy fundraiser gift certificate I had donated to the school located on FM 439 between Killeen and Nolanville.

TODAY’S DATE: 23 October 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN MORNING DATES: 26, 27, 28 Oct. & 24, 30 Nov. 2026

PHOTO CAPTION: Our ratio of better fish to smaller ones definitely improved today, but the trend for the better fish to come from deeper, clearer water still held true. That fish being held by Robert Stine on the right of the photo went 14″ … that’s a really good white for Lake Belton.

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Robert fished with me solo today, so I joined in on the fishing with his permission. Normally, I never even touch a rod with two or more clients aboard, but, I have found that with just one angler aboard, we cannot typically generate enough commotion among a school of white bass to keep them from leaving after one is reeled up from out of their midst.

We began at 7:20 AM and, for the fourth day in a row, there was no wind to speak of, just light and variable puffs of wind from different directions throughout the morning.

This lack of cloud cover and wind makes fishing tough, but, the fishing is so good right now that even with that working against us, we were still able to land nearly 100 fish.

We started our trip up in the 20 foot range, then quickly moved out to the 30 foot range and then spent our last hour in over 40 feet of water in order to go where the fish were still active and not put off by the extremely bright conditions. We used only the MAL Dense Lure, and only with the smoking tactic, dropping this lure to bottom among fish, then cranking it briskly upwards to imitate the motion of a fleeing threadfin shad.

In this manner, we were able to land exactly 92 fish, including 90 white bass and two short hybrid. In what I hope is a trend, a much better percentage of our fish were beyond yearling size, with multiple fish exceeding 14 inches this morning.

RESULTS: 92 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=IC3FMEQHOMQ

OBSERVATIONS:
-This fall’s second significant cold front came in on 16 Oct., dropping overnight lows to 48F with winds 25-40mph all day on 16 Oct. This has put the white bass fishing into overdrive. More fish are now in more places, and all are using bottom once again, thus making locating them much simpler than during the extended summer we just lived through.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 21 Oct. 2026, approx. 7:00AM

0 feet 74.9F

5 feet 75.6F

10 feet 75.9F

15 feet 75.9F

20 feet 75.9F

25 feet 75.9F

30 feet 75.9F

35 feet 75.7F

40 feet 75.1F

45 feet 74.3F

50 feet 74.3F

55 feet 74.2F

Taken on Lake Belton on 14 Oct. 2026, approx. 7:20AM…

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