Family Tradition Part 1 of 2 – 75 Fish

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, June 24, I can continued an annual tradition now over a decade old. Mr. Joe Oliver each year treats his kids and grandkids to a fishing trip while everyone is on summer break. This morning, I hosted Joe, his son, Corey, and Corey‘s three kids, 16-year-old twins, Cullen and Presley, and 14 year-old Harper.

Corey and his family now live in Utah, where the girls are involved in horseback riding and Cullen is into theater via school plays he has gotten involved with.

TODAY’S DATE: 24 June 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 15, 16, 21-24 July 2026 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: The fishing for white bass was very exacting, requiring constant monitoring of the Garmin LiveScope and then an appropriate response consisting of getting the MAL Lure worked right off the snoots of the fish we spotted in suspended schools as they passed beneath the boat. From left: Corey, Presley, Cullen, Harper, and Papa Joe Oliver.

PHOTO CAPTION: Despite having no prior experience in detecting the bite of a catfish, nor in setting the hook in response to a bite, the kids all swung and missed a few times, and eventually connected!!

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although fishing on Lake Belton this summer has not been easy, it has at least begun to develop some consistency. Like it or not, the white bass bite has been getting going much later than normal – – between 7:40 and 8:10, but, once it’s gotten going, it has stayed consistent for about two hours.

This morning, after watching the video I have linked to this report, everyone came prepared to properly work their MAL Lure (the Dense version with silver body) via the vertical “smoking” tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope to take advantage of every single suspended school of white bass that came beneath our boat.

Everyone did quite well right from the start and there were very few times we had white bass come under us that we did not take full advantage of what was presented. In this manner, by 10:15 AM, my crew of five had put a total of 69 fish in the boat, including 6 hybrid striped bass, 4 largemouth bass, and 59 white bass, all of legal size.

By 10:15 AM, I felt the action was past peak and so we pulled away from the white bass fishing and wrapped up the trip targeting catfish over an area I had baited prior to everyone’s arrival. Despite not having prior experience with this form of fishing, and not really having a great idea on exactly how and when they were supposed to set the hook, the kids did especially well, and everyone landed at least one catfish, adding a final six fish to our count and taking our final tally to 75 fish for the morning.

We wrapped up right around 11AM as the cloud cover was burning off and the sun was beginning to beat down noticeably.

RESULTS: 75 fish, all caught and released by clients

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


WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton


TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW WORK AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: 

OBSERVATIONS:
-Persistent morning clouds have kept any early morning bite from developing for quite some time now. Peak bite has consistently been ~8-10A for the past several weeks, today included.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 17 June 2026, approx. 6:20AM…

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