Anglers from England – 54 Fish

CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, September 3, I fished with a group of six – Mr. Rick Burns organized everything for his adult son, Blake, Blake’s three sons, Callum, Charlie, and Taylor, and those three boys’, cousin, Tyler Dalziel.

Blake and his three sons are in visiting from England before their public school begins there this coming Monday.

TODAY’S DATE: 03 September 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN MORNING DATES: 16, 17, 29, 30 Sep. 2026

NEXT OPEN AFTERNOON DATES: 16, 17, 29, 30 Sep. 2026

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Charlie Burns, Callum Shoebridge, Taylor and Rick Burns, Tyler Dalziel , and Blake Burns, each with white bass which proved to be much more negatively influenced by the change of weather than did the catfish.

PHOTO CAPTION: We enjoyed a nice mix of 38 catfish caught on punchbait, including both blue and channel cat. The fish began to get very finnicky around 10:30, as we watched them rise slightly up off bottom toward the bait, but then decline to bite more often than not after a nice, 2+ hour run of aggressive feeding.

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I really had my work cut out for me this morning because the majority of the crew was not already familiar with the tactics we would be employing, and because Tropical Storm Edouard’s remnants significantly changed our very stable weather patterns which had been in place through Tuesday for over a month, driven by a high-pressure dome set up right over top of Texas.

Thanks to some difficulties in obtaining their licenses, only Rick, who resides here in the U.S., and the younger two boys who did not require a license were able to join me for a timely start at 6:35 AM. I kept an eye out for topwater action, but really did not expect to find any given this wrinkle in the weather that we were dealing with. We did find some fish pushing up shallow for a low light bite, but in nowhere near the numbers that we’ve been seeing while under the influence of the high pressure. We wound up downrigging for a total of nine white bass, all of which came as singles on #12 Pet Spoons before this early bite ended..

With the white bass bite not looking too hot, we devoted the vast majority of the remainder of the trip to targeting catfish once the other half of the crew joined us, now properly licensed. We fished punchbait over chummed areas at three distinct locations landing a total of 38 catfish by 10:45 AM. By this time, the catfish bite was waning, and I thought we’d give white bass one more crack since half of the party did not get in on the initial white bass fishing we did.

In the closing minutes of the trip I changed locations, and while watching sonar for telltale signs of white bass on bottom, spotted one large school schooling on the surface. We closed in on it, got everyone on one side of the boat for safety sake, and tossed MAL Bridge lures out into the melee. We wound up with six more white bass during this final effort, taking our grand total for the morning to 54 fish.

RESULTS: 54 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:
-Our 3-day-long weather anomaly continued today with thin, grey cloud cover, reduced temps, and an east-southeasterly wind, all thanks to Tropical Storm Edouard which made landfall on the TX-LA border Tuesday and was slowly moving up I-45 toward the DFW area.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 03 Sep. 2026, approx 6:05AM…

Taken on Lake Belton on 26 Aug. 2026, approx. 6:15AM ..

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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