Bella & The Bagel-Man – 94 Fish

CLIENTS: This morning, Saturday, November 8, I fished a morning white bass trip on Lake Belton with returning guest Dr. David Clark. This time, David was accompanied by his family, including his wife, Ayse, his daughter, Bella (age 15), and David son, Jake (age 13). This trip was designated as a sampling date for the 13-month-long Temple College study of white bass populations on Lake Belton and on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir. Thus, we also had two researchers aboard – – Dr. Jason Locklin and one of his students, Caleb Fry.

My mom tells a true tale of my brother and I back in our high school days while we were both playing sports in which she and my dad paid more for groceries than for our mortgage. Jake was not far off that mark this morning as he was powerfully drawn to the store of bagels and cream cheese David had planned to share (with the whole family).

ABOUT THE WHITE BASS STUDY:
Through April of 2026, researchers will be measuring and weighing the white bass captured by my clients to consider establish a baseline of fish quality on both lakes. If you come out fishing with me to help collect these fish, you will get $50 deducted from your trip in exchange for allowing researchers to accompany your party on my boat. We have designated one sampling day per lake, per month through April of 2026. We will still be catching and releasing all fish.

REMAINING OPEN DATES FOR DISCOUNTED WHITE BASS STUDY FISHING TRIPS:

TODAY’S DATE: Saturday, 08 November 2025 (PM)


NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 12 November 2025 (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: David, Bella, Jake, and Ayse Clark with white bass they took primarily with MAL Dense lures fished vertically with a “smoking” tactic during their 4.5 hour morning trip on Lake Belton.


FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/


WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
We met up at 6:25 AM, got everyone quickly familiarized with the smoking method we would be using to fish vertically for white bass this morning, then, we set off to hunt for fish.

As has been the case all this past week and the two weeks prior to that, we found fish up shallow in under 22 feet of water before the sun’s angle got high enough to brighten those shallows and drive the fish deeper at around 8:30 AM, but not before my crew had landed 17 white bass via the smoking tactic.

As the fish begin to make this transition, I retooled with downriggers for a short while and, using three armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 Pet Spoons, we landed singles, doubles, and a triple. Once the fish had moved deeper than 28 feet we were fortunate to have a light north northwesterly breeze pick up a little bit – – enough to ripple the water. To take advantage of the positive impact this blowing wind can have on the fishing, I sought out deeper, clearer water where the wind was acting more obviously on the water’s surface.

We were able to find two distinct groups of fish which would yield the lion’s share of our catch this morning. These fish were in the 40 foot range and were all taken on MAL Dense lures with silver blades and chartreuse tails fish with a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope while sitting atop these fish aided by Spot Lock.

Around 10 AM, we began to see the interest level of these fish drop off as the winds also began to lighten up.

Using valuable intel gathered yesterday, I returned to the same vicinity where I’d found fish on bottom in just shy of 50 feet around the same time. We were able to put our last 21 fish in the boat at this area bringing our final tally to 94 fish landed.

This count included 2 hybrid striped bass, 4 largemouth bass, and 88 white bass. As the fish have done for the past two weeks, they quit right around 10:45 this morning as the light north wind failed and went calm.

RESULTS: 94 fish, all caught and released


TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE HORIZONTALLY USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

OBSERVATIONS:

-Belton is 0.64′ low with a 0.02′ fall in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 43 CFS.

-Very little noted in the form of migratory bird activity thus far, but, the strong cold front due in 9 Nov. should change that.
-Fall conditions are peaking with a surface temp. now at around 72.4F



LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken on Lake Belton around 7AM, Saturday, 08 November…

Compare to temps taken on Lake Belton around 7AM, Saturday, 01 November…

 0 feet 73.5F
5 feet 73.5F
10 feet 73.8F
15 feet 73.8F
20 feet 73.8F
25 feet 73.8F
30 feet 73.8F
35 feet 73.8F
40 feet 73.1F
45 feet 72.8F
50 feet 72.8F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Elevation: Belton is 0.64′ low with a 0.02′ fall in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 43 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 72.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW for first 90 minutes, then NNW8-11 for the remainder of the trip, finally dying back to NNW0-2 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 0% clouds on a clear blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous at 93% illumination.

GT = 70


Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

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: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle