Century Mark – All MALs, All Morning – 100 Fish
FISHING REPORT BY LAKE BELTON FISHING GUIDE BOB MAINDELLE: This morning, Friday, October 31, I fished with the father and son team of Michael and Jack Hoyson. Michael owns an operates Hoyson Auto Care LLC in Harker Heights – – the one and only location. I trust my own vehicle and the vehicle my wife drives to be serviced at (https://hoysonautocare.com/) .
This trip was in celebration of Jacks 16th birthday.
TODAY’S DATE: Friday, 31 October 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 12 November 2025 (AM or PM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Michael Hoyson treated his 16-year-old son, Jack, to a fishing trip for his birthday. The pair put exactly 100 fish in the boat in 4+ hours this morning despite a foggy start.
PHOTO CAPTION: “Sea smoke” formed over Lake Belton as the 73F surface water interacted with the 43F air. This fog persisted for about 90 minutes.
FIND THE LURES WE USED HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
We’ve had some wild weather this week from southerly winds Monday and Tuesday, to a roaring cold front on Wednesday, followed by post-frontal, calm, and bright conditions yesterday, and then a decent day of fishing today, albeit with winds from three different directions this morning.
We began the morning with a little bit of lake-specific fog which dimmed down the first few minutes of sunrise and allowed us to catch fish in under 20 feet of water at a steady clip, casting MAL Originals with white tails and retrieving them horizontally with a sawtooth method.
After the fog began to thin, and the sun continued rising, the skies brightened, and the fish pushed deeper. We continued catching fish in 22 to 24 foot water using a vertical, smoking tactic, assisted both by Garmin LiveScope and my splashing device.
As the sun now shown brightly, and the fog completely cleared, our light northwest breeze at 3 to 4 mph quit in advance of a wind shift from the southwest. As the breeze was tapering to zero, we made one final catch of fish in under 30 feet of water, once again using the sawtooth method, but this time with MAL Heavy baits.
The fishing died pretty quickly once the sun shown brightly and the winds went calm. I used this lull to take us to deeper, clearer water, which often buffers the impact of bright, windless conditions. Fortunately, as we got to the area I’d hoped to search, the winds picked up once again from the west north west and built to five or 6 mph allowing us a nice catch on resurgent fish willing to chase smoked MAL Heavy baits up off the bottom. This fishing died as the wind died once again, albeit only for 10 minutes or so.
Once the wind picked back up from the southeast, we had a final run of fish through 12 noon taking the Micheal and Jack’s two person catch to exactly 100 white bass. These last fish were found in 34 feet of water and also responded to MAL Heavy lures smoked vertically assisted by Garmin LiveScope and the splashing device.
RESULTS: 100 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 0.38′ low with a 0.03 fall in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 43 CFS.
-Fall conditions are peaking with a surface temp. now at around 72F
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken on Lake Belton around 7AM, Monday, 27 October…
0 feet 77F
5 feet 77.1F
10 feet 77.1F
15 feet 77.1F
20 feet 77.1F
25 feet 77.1F
30 feet 77.3F
35 feet 77.1F
40 feet 77.1F
45 feet 76.8F
50 feet 76.7F
55 feet 76.7F
60 feet 76.7F
Compare to temps taken on Lake Belton around 6:40AM, Saturday, 18 October…
0 feet 79.9F
5 feet 79.9F
10 feet 79.9F
15 feet 80.1F
20 feet 80.1F
25 feet 80.1F
30 feet 80.1F
35 feet 79.9F
40 feet 79.9F
45 feet 79.9F
50 feet 79.9F
55 feet 79.9F
60 feet 79.9F
65 feet 79.9F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:20A
End Time: 12:00 Noon
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F
Elevation: Belton is 0.38′ low with a 0.03 fall in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 43 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 72.6F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: NW3-4 for 1.25 hours, calm for 30 min., WSW5-6 for 1.25 hours, calm for 10 min., SSE5-7 for remainder of trip
Sky Condition: Clear blue skies all morning with lake-specific fog for 1.5 hours.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 71% illumination.
GT = 5
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 1618 – 14 whites sawtoothing MAL Original Lures
Area vic B0101G – 11 whites smoking MAL Heavy Lures
Area vic B0114C – 8 sawtoothing MAL Heavy Lures
Area 2276 – 46 whites smoking MAL Heavy Lures
Area 682 – 2 whites smoking MAL Heavy Lures
Area B00186G – 19 whites smoking MAL Heavy Lures
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