Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen – 88 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, November 19, I was joined by returning guest, Mr. Randy Rowley, President of the Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen, accompanied by three first-time guests, including Randy’s wife, Chris, and friends of the Rowleys – – the mother-and-son team of Monalisa and Luis Almanza.
Randy is a Program Manager with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Chris is a state-wide consultant for the Christian Women’s Job Corps and Christian Men’s Job Corps.
Monalisa is a phlebotomist and mental health technician, and Luis is a welding student at Austin Community College.
TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 19 November 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Monday, 01 December 2025 (AM or PM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Chris Rowley, Monalisa Almanza, Randy Rowley, and Luis Almanza with a few of the 88 fish we hunted for and caught on a morning fishing trip on Lake Belton.
PHOTO CAPTION: Randy Rowley came up with a bonus hybrid in our final hour as the white bass activity peaked thanks to brightening skies and helpful winds around SE8.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Over this past weekend some question marks hung over this morning‘s trip in regards to potential rainfall, but overnight the chance of precipitation was removed from the forecast. Even though rain did not fall, our trip was still impacted by weather. We had heavy cloud cover, which kept the skies from brightening save for two or three brief periods where the sun, those still obscured by the clouds, shown brightly enough to make you want to squint without sunglasses on.
Winds were also fairly light up until about 9:30 when they finally picked up from the southeast at around 8 mph.
We definitely did more catching when the sun shown more brightly through the clouds. As white bass often do under less than ideal circumstances, these fish were often so reluctant they would not pull up off the bottom and chase. We hit at least three areas where this was the case.
Those areas which did produce typically saw the fish get most enthusiastic within the first few minutes of us beginning our presentations, and then they would lose interest fairly quickly thereafter.
Given these scenarios, we wound up fishing quite a number of areas in order to put together our catch. Our best run of catching came at the end of the trip when it was windiest and brightest, right before the fish shut down for good around 11:30.
When all was said and done, my crew of four landed exactly 88 fish including 86 white bass, one legal hybrid, and one short hybrid.
100% of these fish were taken on the MAL Dense with silver body and while using the vertical “smoking” tactic.
RESULTS: 88 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:
-The week-long warmup definitely toned the fish down versus the first hot fishing we saw on 10-12 Nov. following our last significant cold front, but, those fish we found were still much more willing to swim fast, far, and stay up off bottom than at any point thus far this fall.
-Water surface temp was back up to 69.6F before the sun rose this morning.
-First handful of gulls were seen on Monday, 10 Nov., with additional birds spotted on 14 Nov. and again today, although none were helpful in locating fish.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:30AM, Saturday, 14 November…
0 feet 69.6
5 feet 69.6F
10 feet 69.6F
15 feet 69.6F
20 feet 69.6F
25 feet 69.4F
30 feet 69.0F
35 feet 68.8F
40 feet67.4F
45 feet 66.9F
50 feet 66.9F
55 feet 66.8F
Compare to temps taken on Lake Belton around 7AM, Saturday, 08 November…
0 feet 72.3F
5 feet 72.3F
10 feet 72.5F
15 feet 72.3F
20 feet 72.5F
25 feet 72.5F
30 feet 72.3F
35 feet 72.1F
40 feet70.7F
45 feet 69.6F
50 feet 69.4F
55 feet 69.4F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:55A
End Time: 11:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Elevation: Belton is 0.89′ low with a 0.02′ fall in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 43 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 68F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE2-3 for about 2.5 hours, then picking up to SSE6-8 thereafter
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning
Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.
GT = 40
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 2263 – 10 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures
Area vic 1814 – 17 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures
Area 826 – 4 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures
Area 817 – 3 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures
Area vic B0186C – 23 fish smoking MAL Dense Lures
Area vic 2260/B0308G – 31 fish smoking MAL Dense 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