Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News – 60 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, August 19, I fished with a crew of three – all first timers with me. Aboard was the father and son team of Kevin and Keaton Altom, originally from the Springfield, Missouri region, and also joining me was a coworker of Keaton‘s spouse– Taylor Williams, originally from the Houston area. Kevin works in construction, and the two younger men are just starting their careers in medicine – – both surgeons, one with a local private hospital, and the other in the military.
TODAY’S DATE: 19 August 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN MORNING DATES: 27, 28 Aug., 01 Sep. 2026
NEXT OPEN AFTERNOON DATES: 28, 31 Aug., 14 Sep. 2026
PHOTO CAPTION: From left – Taylor Williams with a “double” and Keaton Altom with a “triple” as we downrigged a pair of 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons (6 baits total) through fish which were reluctant to come to the surface this morning.
PHOTO CAPTION: We only took 7 white bass on topwater this morning. Despite fishing being in the area, they just would not break the surface and stay there very long.
PHOTO CAPTION: Both blues and channels cooperated at mid-morning with one chummed area giving up 23 catfish with at least as many misses as everyone went through the learning curve of bite detection and reflexive hooksetting.
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Thankfully, everyone was already well-versed in the use of spinning gear, so we were able to get right down to catching.
The white bass which have been feeding well on the surface for over two weeks now still showed up this morning but in significantly lower numbers and with much less aggression in their behavior. We only picked up seven fish during the very brief time they exposed themselves on the surface. We then had to re-tool with downriggers to continue getting bit as the fish were still present, just not visible. The twin downriggers equipped with three armed umbrella rigs terminated with #12 Pet Spoons did the trick for multiple singles, doubles, and triples. We closed out this early, low light white bass portion of the morning with exactly 29 fish landed including 28 white bass and one hybrid striper (which was a short fish).
Next, we baited what would be the second area we would later go on to catfish at. When that chore was done, we went and fished an area I had chummed prior to fishing for the white bass.
That area produced 23 catfish, including a mix of blues and channels all coming on punchbait.
When the bite there died, and before moving to the second chummed area, I went and looked for suspended white bass, and, after finding a few, we worked MAL Bridge lures vertically with a smoking tactic, assisted by Garmin LiveScope to put six white bass in the boat before the schools frequenting this area stopped coming under the boat.
With about 25 minutes left in the trip, we returned to the second area we had chummed. Things had definitely slowed down by that 10 o’clock mark. We only landed two additional catfish at this location and got only a handful of additional bites there. In one instance as the bite was winding down, and as we all looked on the LiveScope screen at Taylor’s bait, we watched his nickel-sized gob of punchbait get approached 9 times in a roughly 30-second span without the fish ever committing to bite.
We wrapped up the morning with a total of 60 fish landed including 1 hybrid striped bass, 34 white bass, and 25 catfish including a roughly 50-50 mix of blues and channels.
RESULTS: 60 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:
-As of late July USACE had finally reduced the flow of water through the dam to the “normal” summertime rate of 52CFS — just a trickle to keep fresh water moving downstream.
-Fishable topwater action lasted only 10 minutes or so this morning with very little “popcorn” action witnessed thereafter.
-Lake Belton finally fell below conservation level on Monday, Aug. 17, for the first time since the spring rains caused it to flood in May.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 19 Aug. 2026, approx. 6:05AM …
0 feet 86.4F
5 feet 86.4F
10 feet 86.4F
15 feet 86.4F
20 feet 86.4F
25 feet 86.1F
30 feet 85.5F
35 feet 83.7F
40 feet 79.9F
45 feet 75.2F
50 feet 71.7F
55 feet 69.8F
60 feet 67.8F
Taken on Lake Belton on 11 Aug. 2026, approx. 6:05AM …
0 feet 86.5F
5 feet 86.7F
10 feet 86.7F
15 feet 86.7F
20 feet 86.7F
25 feet 86.2F
30 feet 85.1F
35 feet 82.6F
40 feet 80.3F
45 feet 76.3F
50 feet 71.6F
55 feet 69.4F
60 feet 68.2F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:25A
End Time: 10:35A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F
Elevation – Lake Belton fell to 0.10′ low, with a 0.04′ loss in the last 24 hours. Flow rate was 52 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 86.4F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S6-12 all morning
Sky Condition: 30% white cloud cover on a light blue sky
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 46% illumination
GT = 100
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area vic 903 thru 2332- 29 white bass w/ 7 on Cork Rig with Sandy Sandwich Streamer, then 21 white bass & 1 hybrid on downriggers with Pet Spoons
Area AUGCAT03 – 23 catfish on punchbait
Area vic 2570 – 6 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures
Area AUGCAT05 – 2 catfish on punchbait
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