June | 2020 | Fishing Report

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

SOMEONE CALL A NURSE … WAIT, I AM A NURSE! — 47 FISH @ BELTON

June 7th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning I fished with Sid and Kristien Spindor of Salado. Sid contacted me earlier this spring looking for some manner of water-related activity to do with his wife after their Caribbean cruise was cancelled due to COVID-19.

After waiting patiently for my next available opening, this morning we made it happen on Lake Belton.

Sid is an engineer working at a plastics business in Georgetown, and Kristien is an operating room nurse at one of our local hospitals.

My wife is also a nurse and, during her college years, I helped her study and practice her skills from time to time. As the Spindors and I were fishing our final location of the morning, Kristien, who was standing to my right, shrieked. As I looked over at her, I saw she had one of the tines of the treble hook from the lure she was using stuck in her finger, between the skin and the nail. I instinctively grabbed the line above the lure to relieve the strain her taut fishing line was placing on it, then quickly removed the point from her finger. Luckily, the point did not penetrate up to the barb.

After letting things calm down for a few moments, Kristien took me up on my offer of a Band-Aid. I tried to reassure her by using one of the nursing terms I recalled from helping Rebecca. I told her I would be sure to maintain the “sterile field” on the Band-Aid. I think this made her realize I had some medical background, which, in turn made me aware that I was now likely being evaluated as to the quality of my patch job by and OR nurse of all people!! We got the Band-Aid on securely and Kristien went right back to catching fish in no time.

PHOTO CAPTION: Sid and Kristien Spindor took a guided fishing trip with me today on Lake Belton after COVID-19 scuttled their plans for a Caribbean cruise.

WHEN WE FISHED: 06 June, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Summer patterns are definitely starting to kick in with low light times seeing the majority of the activity. We landed 47 fish this morning, with 21 of those coming prior to 7:30, then a slower, steady catch of fish thereafter. Fish are beginning to suspend more, with sparse action on/near bottom. Fish are also beginning to move routinely, both in terms of locations they are found in as they pursue shad, and in terms of the increased speed at which they are patrolling.

This morning we check two areas for shallow fish which moved up to feed overnight, and found fish at the second of those locations. We worked these moving, feeding fish over with downriggers, catching singles and doubles as we went. There was no topwater action to give away fish location, so sonar was key.

After this initial feed wrapped up around 7:30, we experienced a lull, they got back on fish around 8:40. This time, the fish were deeper, more scattered, and more suspended. Over the course of the next 75 minutes, we only encountered one scenario where I saw enough bottom-oriented fish to bother jigging for, and that did not produce. Eventually, these fish dissipated and we made one final move.

Once again, we started off by covering water with hooks in via downrigging, caught fish, and then stopped atop the one school of bottom-oriented white bass we found here. This produced just 3 fish before that school moved on. We wrapped up the trip with one final round of downrigging before the wind went out of the fishes’ sail and we called it done right at the 4-hour mark as the sun was getting hot.

TALLY: 47 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No topwater action worth noting as of yet.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 0.28′ high, 0.01′ drop, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 82F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW7-10

Sky Conditions: 25% white clouds on blue skies

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1642 thru B0123C – 21 white bass shallow downrigging under low light

**Area 1404 thru B0096C – white bass as singles, doubles, and 2 triples on ‘rigger

**Area 1743 – found fish with ‘riggers, then smoked for 3 as morning bite ended

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

3 GENERATIONS, 70 FISH – PM FISHING @ LAKE BELTON

June 7th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday evening I fished a multi-generational trip with the Benedick family. Jered, who lives in Belton, coordinated the trip, which included his son, Tyler, Jered’s dad, Ron, and Jered’s twin brother, Matt. Ron and Matt came down for a visit from the Ardmore, OK, area.

All of the men are involved in ministry. Ron is a retired pastor, Jered is a youth pastor turned youth counselor, and Matt is a hospice chaplain.

After Monday evening’s particularly tough trip on Belton, and after looking at the forecast which called for calm/very light winds and clear skies, I was a bit skittish about this trip, but, thanks to a SE wind velocity higher than forecast in the first 2 hours of this trip, all turned out well.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Matt, Ron, Tyler, and Jered Benedict with part of our 70-fish haul on a toasty June evening on Lake Belton.

WHEN WE FISHED: 05 June, 2020, PM

HOW WE FISHED:

After meeting everyone and covering the basics on the gear and presentations we would be using, we started off downrigging along a deep breakline. No sooner did we get both ‘riggers in the water then we had both rods go off as we encountered a sizeable, deep school of white bass holding tight to bottom in a feeding posture. As soon as we reeled those biters in, I changed us quickly over to spinning rods equipped with Hazy Eye Slabs (white, ¾ oz. with stinger hooks) and we worked these fish over with a smoking tactic.

We caught fish steadily for about a half-hour, including 2 largemouth and 1 freshwater drum in addition to over a score of white bass. After these fish dissipated, we continued downrigging in this general area and steadily picked up singles and doubles on the 3-armed umbrella rigs we were using, both equipped with Pet Spoons until the fish gradually lost interest, necessitating a move.

The first 90 minutes went better than expected. We then experienced a bit of a lull, checking several areas without result. Around 7:10, we began to slowly pick up white bass once again, and the catch rate improved right on through sunset with singles, doubles, and triples coming over the gunwale steadily.

Just following sunset, we found yet another sizeable school of white bass sufficiently close to the bottom to stay put long enough for us to Spot Lock on and fish vertically for. This feed lasted only 10-12 minutes as the fish continued to move both shoreward and upwards in the water column, but everyone caught several fish during the spree.

We closed the trip out with one last round of downrigging. Our final tally of 70 fish consisted of 67 white bass, 2 largemouth, and 1 drum.

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No topwater action worth noting as of yet.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:40P

End Time: 8:45P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 92F

Elevation: 0.28′ high, 0.01′ drop, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 82F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE2-4

Sky Conditions: 25% white clouds on blue skies

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 677- white bass found via downrigging, then worked over with smoking tactic

**Area 1608 thru B0196C

**Area B0018G – center of mass for pre- and post-sunset action on ‘riggers and smoked slabs

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

TIME WITH GRANDKIDS — 47 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

June 5th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning I fished Stillhouse, very capably assisted by Mr. Cliff Brown of Texas Boat World, as we worked together to put his grandkids, Isaiah, Michael, Kinsley, and Caleb, on fish.

Caleb and Isaiah live here locally, as does Michael, who just moved here recently from El Paso where his dad still serves on active duty, and Kinsley is here visiting from West Virginia for a few weeks.

This trip was a “Kids Fish, Too!” package trip intended just for kids. It is shorter and less expensive than my standard trips, and focuses only on the kids’ success.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, front row: Michael, Kinsley, Caleb, and Isaiah. And that’s “Poppy” Cliff Brown in the back row.

WHEN WE FISHED: 04 June, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: We started our day off with downriggers down searching for bait and for suspended and bottom-oriented white bass. After landing only one fish in the first area we searched, we enjoyed about an hour’s worth of action at the second area we covered. Fishing was a good bit tougher today, as the only white bass we found were close to the bottom and surged upward at the downrigger balls and trailing baits. We found very few hunting packs of white bass up suspended and patrolling for shad. Of the two times we stopped downrigging to try to hover atop fish and work slabs for them vertically, we hooked only one white bass in that manner and lost it at the boat. In all, we landed 10 white bass during this low-light period with a few other opportunities missed.

When I got concerned about the slow fishing wearing on the kids’ patience level, we switched over to fishing for sunfish up in shallow hydrilla. We hit two areas, landing 33 sunfish, including longears, bluegills, and greens.

In our final hour, I took a poll, found the kids’ interest in pursuing the larger white bass was renewed, and we headed out after a few additional white bass. We were able to land another 4 singles, all on the same 3-armed umbrella rig with Pet Spoons which we’d used earlier. These fish did come from very small, suspended groups of fish numbering only 2-5 individual fish each.

Our final tally was 14 white bass and 33 sunfish, for a total of 47 fish landed for the morning.

This was pretty slow action where the white bass were concerned. As I was cleaning up the boat in the park following the trip, I got a text from a fishing buddy, James C., over at Belton. He wrote, “Tough day. 3 bites and 1 smallmouth. Spoke to 3 other boats. One caught 7, another 2 cats, another 4. Hope you fared better.”

TALLY: 47 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No topwater action worth noting as of yet.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 0.59′ high, 0.01′ drop, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW2-4

Sky Conditions: Clear blue skies

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0058C to 040 for downrigged white bass

**Area 515 and SH0125C for sunfish

**Area SH0119C to SH0018C for white bass

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

BACK TO STILLHOUSE — 63 FISH

June 4th, 2020June 4th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning I returned to Stillhouse with another boat full of kids after doing well there fishing for a combination of white bass and sunfish this past Saturday.

I fished with Dave K. and his kids, Savannah (age 7), Cole, and Caden (4-year old twins).

PHOTO CAPTION: Multi-lure rigs seem to shine in the summer months when young-of-the year shad are abundant. The white bass we took today all came on 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons

WHEN WE FISHED: 02 June, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: We started our day off with downriggers down searching for bait and for suspended and bottom-oriented white bass. After striking out in the first area we searched, we enjoyed about an hour’s worth of action at the second area we covered. The downrigging was simple, effective, and enjoyed by the kids, so, we stuck with it as long as their interest level remained high, then transitioned to vertical jigging for the sake of variety when I judged a bit of variety was in order.

Once this bite dissipated, and at about the 2 hour mark on this 3.5 hour long “Kids Fish, Too!” package trip, we moved up shallow and gunned for sunfish.

We landed 21 white bass and 42 sunfish. The sunfish came on bait presented under floats in shallow hydrilla cover.

TALLY: 63 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No topwater action worth noting as of yet.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 0.6′ high, 0.00′ drop, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78F

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE2-4

Sky Conditions: Clear blue skies

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1128-040 for downrigged white bass

**Area 039 – SH0058C for downrigged and smoked white bass

**Area SH0121C for sunfish

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

FROM BOOM TO BUST — 21 FISH @ BELTON

June 3rd, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday evening I fished with Lamar Story, Bruce Dvorak, and Carl Hughes. The three have been friends for about 40 years. Lamar serves as one of the gatekeepers at the Westcliff Park on Lake Belton. Bruce and Carl came down from the Dallas area to do some fishing on Monday and some golfing on Tuesday with Lamar.

After a great morning with 96 fish in the boat, this afternoon’s trip was disappointing both in terms of quality and quantity. We landed only 21 fish, and only three of these were more than yearling white bass.

PHOTO CAPTION: No spin or sugarcoating here, nor reporting on just the good trips. After a better-that-average morning, we struggled this afternoon. From left: Carl Hughes, Lamar Story, and Bruce Dvorak spent the final four hours of the evening with me on Lake Belton and landed just 21 fish.

WHEN WE FISHED: 01 June, 2020, PM

HOW WE FISHED: We had trouble finding fish to fish for this afternoon. We never found a single, solid concentration of fish holding on or near bottom to stop atop of and fish for “in detail”. The fish we found were scattered, generally small fish which were in small packs of 4-8 fish each suspended up about mid-way in the water column. We ran dual downriggers over them equipped with Pet Spoons fished on 3-armed umbrella rigs and caught mainly singles.

I anticipated at least light topwater action by white bass pushing shad to the surface right at sunset, but, sunset was heavily obscured by cloud cover and the fading light scenario we normally enjoy at sunset did not take place. Several herons on station anticipating the same action I was left early after failing to see what we all hoped to see.

Between the near-calm winds and increasing water temperature pushing us toward summer patterns, it was just a tough outing all the way around.

TALLY: 21 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No evidence of spawning shad whatsoever. Fish are beginning to move off of deeper bottom features. Summer fishing patterns slowly beginning to unfold.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:40P

End Time: 8:50P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 82F

Elevation: 0.26′ high, 0.25′ drop, 1607 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE2-4

Sky Conditions: Grey skies all evening

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0167C (off east tip) – downrigging for scattered, suspended fish

**Area vic B0170G to 171 – downrigging for scattered, suspended fish

**Area vic 357 – downrigging for scattered, suspended fish

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

ANALYZE THIS! — 96 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 2nd, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, June 1st, I fished with co-workers and friends Aaron Baggett and Josh Bias, both professors of psychology at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, TX. COVID-19 fouled our first attempt at fishing together, then a babysitting situation scuttled our second attempt. The third time was a charm.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Aaron Baggett and Josh Bias with a few of the 96 fish we landed this morning, including 95 white bass and 1 freshwater drum.

WHEN WE FISHED: 01 June, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: We got on it early this morning — early enough that we were waiting on topwater action to begin. When it did, it went for about an hour, thanks to grey skies ushered in by a light NE wind. During this time we sight-cast spoons to individual fish using spinning gear with large arbor reels for distance. When the white bass gave up on pushing shad to the surface, they continued feeding subsurface up shallow until 7:50AM. During this time, we downrigged successfully for singles, doubles, and a few triples using 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.

From 8A to 9:15A things got very quiet. We struggled to find fish and observed a number of Belton regulars, mainly retirees, moving and looking for fish, as we were doing.

Around 9:15 things began looking up for us when we experienced the first brighter sky conditions of the morning. Within minutes of the grey skies thinning (although still fully obscuring the sun), the fish began to get active. We found our first late morning fish on bottom in 40 feet of water in a school about 25 yards in size. We fished them with a smoking tactic using my Hazy Eye Slabs equipped with stinger hooks. When the fish thinned, slowed their feeding, or dispersed, we moved a few boat lengths very slowly to try to maintain contact with them, and did so with consistency for about an hour.

After this, I noted that the fish moved to our south, over deeper water, and suspended from 25 feet down to 40 feet over a 60+ foot bottom. When we found tight congregations, we smoked for them. When we found more loose congregations, we employed the downriggers. We flipped back and forth between smoking and downrigging until around 11:15 when nothing but sparse suspended fish remained in the area.

TALLY: 96 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No evidence of spawning shad whatsoever. Fish are beginning to move off of deeper bottom features. Summer fishing patterns slowly beginning to unfold.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 0.26′ high, 0.25′ drop, 1607 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: NE2-5

Sky Conditions: Grey skies all morning

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1019 to B0197 – early morning downrigging for 6 smallish white bass

**Area vic B0041G to B0042G – 57 white bass via smoking slabs in 2 short hops

**Area vic B0148C and south to the 60′ countour – 19 fish in 2 short hops

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec