WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday evening, May 27th, I fished with a great group of fellows, all in their late-60’s or early-70’s, and all with deep roots in the Temple-Belton community.

Joining me this evening was Gary Jones, Guy Fowler, Pat Mullins, and Harry Adams.  Gary is a retired banker, Guy and Pat are in real estate, and Harry is the president of Johnson Brothers’ Ford.  The trip came about when a few of the fellows bid on a fishing gift certificate I had offered to the Ralph Wilson Youth Club in Temple for one of their annual fundraisers.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Guy Fowler, Pat Mullins, Gary Jones, and Harry Adams with a solid result from their late May evening white bass fishing trip on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (PM), 27 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

After a pretty average morning trip thanks to the low pressure we’d enjoyed for over two weeks leaving us, I was anticipating an average evening, as well.  We had a few things working for us: some cloud cover and a southerly breeze, but the return to more normal barometric conditions was not going to do us any favors.

I tried to help everyone have realistic expectations at the get-go: that our first 90 minutes would likely be slow, then, we’d see fish express more interest and for longer periods of time from about 5:45PM toward dark.

Things trended very much this way, with more activity witnessed on the Garmin LiveScope and greater numbers of fish landed with each stop we made as we moved toward sunset.

Our best run of success came from 6:40 to 7:45 as we enjoyed non-stop action by white bass feeding strongly on the end of a deep point and in the lower third of the water column.  The white MAL Heavy worked its magic, and, by the time this school of fish began to ease up, we’d taken 114 fish over the side of the boat.

I let the fellows know as that group of fish wrapped up their feed that I’d need to move us to another location in order to keep catching fish through sunset (which would be obscured by grey clouds in the west).  It was now 7:45PM.  Someone (and I’m not sure how serious he was) mentioned something about missing their bedtime if we stayed that long.  The whole group then decided they’d like to end on the strong note at hand, and we decided to head back in about a half-hour early with those 114 fish as our final tally.

All of the fish we landed came on the white MAL Heavy.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 114 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  A flood-water juggling act continues with Proctor and Belton’s flows being reduced to allow Whitney to begin gushing water into the Brazos.  No stained water yet observed.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  4:15P

End Time: 7:45P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 85F

Elevation:  1.25 feet high, no 24-hour change, 1621 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 74.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE15 at trip’s start, tapering down to SSE12 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 65% white cloud cover above us, with grey skies to the west which the sun set behind

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination

GT =110

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0149C

**Area 561

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning, May 27th, I fished with Mr. Eddie Dunn of Troup, TX, and his long-time friend and fellow teacher, coach, and school administrator, Joe Oliver, of Temple, TX.  Also accompanying Eddie was his 7-year-old grandson, Briggs Dowdy.

Unfortunately, the low-pressure system that has fueled the uber-successful fishing for the majority of this month passed over us and to our east over night and into the early morning hours, and with that, we experienced a return to more seasonally “normal” fishing.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Joe Oliver, Briggs Dowdy (age 7), and Briggs’ grandfather, Eddie Dunn.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 27 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Instead of an intense, 4-hour long bite which had become the norm of the past 2+ weeks, we experienced so-so fishing for the first several hours of our trip, then were fortunate to be “tipped off” by gulls to the presence of a large, migrating school of white bass which, in our final hour, produced the majority of our catch of 70 fish.

Up until that time, we had some short-lived success right at first light, then hopped around a good bit taking just a handful of fish at each place we went to as the fish (which were present but simply not aggressive) would “flare” up and then settle back down after we caught just 3 or 4 of them.

All of the fish we landed came on the white MAL Heavy.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  A flood-water juggling act continues with Proctor and Belton’s flows being reduced to allow Whitney to begin gushing water into the Brazos.  No stained water yet observed.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:40A

End Time: 10:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation:  1.25 feet high, no 24-hour change, 1621 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 73.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE9-12 all morning

Sky Condition: Murky grey for the first 90 minutes, then lightening, but still 100% grey

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination

GT =40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0094G – this was the only area that really produced more than a few fish for us all morning; fish were loosely schooled, but there were hundreds of fish spread over a wide, open-water area; even these fish were not overly aggressive

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This past Wednesday evening, May 26th, I fished an evening trip with long-time client Steve Niemeier, his granddaughter, Macy Fowler, and Macy’s friend, Noah Lanham.

Try as I might to get Steve and crew booked for a morning, schedules just didn’t work out and we wound up fishing in the afternoon, after Macy had completed her STAAR testing at the public school she attends, thus essentially wrapping up the academic year.

Afternoon fishing is very different from fishing mornings in that the bite in the morning tends to be longer and stronger, whereas the evening bite gets more consolidated into the final 2.5 hours or so prior to sunset.  Thus, on a full 4-hour trip, that first 90 minutes or so in the evening tends to be pretty tough.

This evening was no exception, but, once those fish turned on, they made up for lost time.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:   Macy Fowler, Noah Lanham, and Steve Niemeier with a few of the 235 fish they landed this past Wednesday evening on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Steve Niemeier picked up our one and only hybrid striped bass from out of 52 feet of water.  The fish raced more quickly and for a greater distance than most of the white bass we encountered in order to strike Steve’s white MAL Heavy.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (PM), 26 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing was very simple once fish were located.  This evening the fish we found were all at the deep ends of long points and heavily schooled there.

We Spot-Locked on ’em, got the MAL Heavy lures (in white) down to them, and it was game-on.  Several times I observed fish following hooked fish all the way to the surface trying to grab at the MAL Lure’s spinner blade hanging out of its schoolmate’s mouth.  At the final two areas we fished, we had Franklin’s gull activity develop around us after we’d arrived and begun fishing.

Although we did not witness a surface feed, fish were definitely feeding near (but not at) the surface.

Macy and Noah were pretty competitive, and that made both of them fish harder as they both listened closely to the tips and coaching I provided in an effort to outdo the other; this also kept them fully engaged for the duration of the trip.  Once, when Noah announced he was setting down his rod to go get a snack, Macy said, “Oh no you don’t!”   I told her I was proud of her as I was about to say the same thing, only a bit more tactfully.  I explained to Noah that snacking, picture taking, or taking a “bio-break” while fish are biting well is a faux pas.  After all, you have the rest of your life to do those things, but the fish will only be biting for a short while!!

We wrapped up just as the sun set in the west and the feed came to a stop, despite fish still being quite evident on sonar.  We landed 235 fish including 1 hybrid, 1 smallmouth bass, and 233 white bass.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 235 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  A flood-water juggling game has begun with Proctor and Belton’s flows being reduced to allow Whitney to begin gushing water into the Brazos.  No stained water yet observed.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  4:15P

End Time: 8:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 85F

Elevation:  1.22 feet high, -0.09 24-hour change, 1667 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 73.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11 all afternoon

Sky Condition: 50% white cloud cover on a hazy blue sky

Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination

GT =40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1555 to B0089C to B0090C – short hops for a handful of fish at each stop; 14 fish

**Area B0078C – one fairly short-lived spurt of 27 fish

**Area vic 561 – strong evening feed; 98 fish

**Area vic 097 – strong evening feed; 96 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) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This morning, Tuesday, May 25th, I fished Lake Belton with a crew of five: Joe and Jeff Oliver, Jeff’s girlfriend, Donna Hine, and two of Joe’s friends, Larry Lattimer and Larry Haynes.

As I went over “the plan” this morning just after everyone arrived, I expressed my optimism for an excellent trip.  All of the fundamentals were in place: low pressure weather, manageable southeasterly breeze, grey cloud cover, warming water, and fish that had not been put off by the recent increase in flow through the reservoir to shed some of the accumulated flood water.

This morning, we focused all of our attention on white bass taken on artificial lures, using the white MAL Heavy, an inline spinner developed by working together with the folks at Mepps.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Larry Haynes, Joe Oliver, Donna Hine, Jeff Oliver, and Larry Lattimer.  This crew put together the highest tally I’ve ever had come aboard my boat — 389 fish during their half-day morning adventure!

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 25 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Today’s trip was a “cookie-cutter” repeat of what we experienced yesterday … lots of hungry white bass schooled together and ready to pursue and eat anything that came near them.

The sparse number of Franklin’s gulls now remaining at Lake Belton helped in initially getting on the fish today.  This is not the “white tornado” sort of bird activity common in the winter, rather, this is closely watching for just a bird or two hesitating over a patch of water now and then.  Occasionally, more birds join in and it becomes more obvious where the fish are, but, if you wait for that obvious action, you’d have missed a lot of good fishing in the meantime.

Because the fish we found were deep, they just aren’t driving shad all the way to the surface routinely, thus denying those gulls an opportunity at a more widespread, more lengthy feed.

Over the course of our four hours on the water, we fished four distinct areas, with the first area, which we fished under the least amount of ambient light, the only one which was anything less than excellent.

From approximately 7:20AM until the fish quit between 10:20 and 10:45AM there was scarcely a time we did not have at least one fish on the line.  There were multiple occasions wherein we had all five rods hooked up at once, with my clients patiently waiting on me to get to them to release their fish so they could get their MAL Heavy Lures (in white) down for another go at it.

In fact, it was so good that I supplied Joe, who was closest to the bow and furthest from my position in the stern, his own set of 6″ curved-tip forceps so he could efficiently release his own fish.

We landed our 100th fish at 8:03AM, we landed our 200th fish at 9:05AM, and we landed our 300th fish at 9:44AM.  After we eclipsed the previous high record of 364 fish set on April 26th of this year, I got some input from the group on how we would close out our trip.

We noted how, as the fish at a given area would begin to lose enthusiasm, those fish we caught from that point forward tended to be small.  We were at that point at what would be our second-to-last stop.  I offered that we could go right on catching what we could, or, roll the dice a bit at that point late in the morning when the fishing usually tapers off quickly, and try to hunt up one final bunch of better fish.  We went with the latter option and wound up boating nine more fish at this final stop.

As we brought in our lines for good, our tally stood at 386 white bass and 3 largemouth bass for a new boat record of 389 fish landed during a half-day trip.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 389 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Proctor is releasing 1360 CFS; Belton is releasing 3114 CFS.  This led to a net loss of 0.12 feet in the past 24 hours.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:45AM

End Time: 11 AM

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation:  1.39 feet high, -0.12 24-hour change, 3117 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 71F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8-9 all morning

Sky Condition: Grey skies all morning; no precipitation.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous at 99% illumination

GT =35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  B0002C

**Area   B0092G to B0093G – three short hops

**Area  593

**Area vic 259

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This morning, Monday, May 24th, I fished Lake Belton with pastors PJ Condit and Scott Smith.

PJ and Scott became friends a few years ago when they attended an event at the same retreat center near Lexington, TX.

PJ is the lead minister at Community Christian Church in Round Rock, and Scott is the senior pastor at Crestview Christian Church in Copperas Cove.

We’ve come to refer to our fishing trips together as “two-Goretex gatherings”, as the fellows have a habit of taking me up on discounted, last-minute cancellations I post on Facebook, typically when wet and/or cold weather deters less hearty anglers.

This morning, I had a crew (understandably) back out because they had hoped to catch hybrid and the hybrid have been terribly scarce this spring.

This morning, we focused all of our attention on white bass taken on artificial lures.

PHOTO CAPTION:   If we’d have listened to the weatherman, all three of us would have been sitting at home on the couch today.  Instead, PJ Condit and Scott Smith donned Gore-Tex and we put 255 fish over the side of the boat in right at 4 hours of non-stop action on Lake Belton.  The wetter, the better!

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 24 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite the threat of rain all morning, the conditions were near-perfect this morning.  The major player is the low-pressure system which has been influencing our weather for over 10 days now.  It continues slowly moving east from its location over Utah, and continues to draw Gulf moisture over us in counter-clockwise moving bands.  Add to that rising water temperature, and the stage was set.

The only thing that concerned me was the flow which began Friday as the COE opened the gates, but, that was a non-issue this morning.

We fished simply and effectively this morning at only three locations, with our last 150+ fish coming at our third and final anchorage.  We initially approached this area based on suspicious, but short-lived, bird action by Franklin’s gulls.

We found fish on sonar, Spot-Locked atop them, then used MAL Heavy Lures worked vertically with outstanding results.  Given that the water temperature has now breeched the 70F mark, I retied my rods with MAL Heavy lures in white.  Up to this point I’d been using the lighter, slightly shorter, original MAL Lures using chartreuse and white interchangeably.

Both Scott and PJ have fished with me previous using this tactic, so there was no learning curve.  In fact, Scott took our first fish of the trip on his first drop of his MAL Heavy.

We landed our 100th fish at exactly 8:48AM; we landed our 200th fish at exactly 10:19AM; we ended the trip at 10:55 with 255 fish landed.  100% were white bass, 100% were landed on the white MAL Heavy, and only 12-15 of all of these fish were short (under 10″).

As the fourth hour past sunrise came and went, the fish had just about wrapped up their morning feed, and some uncertain weather was coming in from the SE, so, we called it a great outing right at the 4-hour mark and headed on in to get these guys fed at Sol de Jalisco in Morgan’s Point (yes, they went to Miller’s Smokehouse on their last trip with me).

The weatherman says drier, sunnier weather ahead late this week … I kinda hate to see this grey, wet stuff go as it sure makes the fishing easier.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 255 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Belton’s floodgates were finally opened late last week as the inflow from Lake Proctor, upstream from Lake Belton, increased to 1425 CFS given that Proctor is now 3.77 feet high.  Belton is releasing 3117 CFS and wound up falling slightly (0.16 feet) over the last 24 hours.  The fish seem to have adjusted already, as the fishing was excellent today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:45AM

End Time: 10:55 AM

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation:  1.51 feet high, -0.16 24-hour change, 3117 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8-9 all morning

Sky Condition: Grey skies all morning; spotty, light precipitation.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous at 94% illumination

GT =0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1552/1012 – low light fish

**Area  B0089G/2033

**Area B0190G – fish were, at times, in a 20-25′ thick vertical band in over 50′ of water (bird assist)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning, May 22, I fished with Mr. Clint Currier of Belton, TX, and his three kids, 7-year-old Ali, and her twin 5-year-old brothers, Logan and Mason.

This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” package trip, geared specifically for kids (only).  Dad was there to help me help them.  I charge considerably less for these trips, and they last 3.5 hours versus 4+ hours for my adult trips.

Although the fishing has been great over on Belton, the ever-present potential for a 300-boat weekend fishing tournament, and the fact that the COE began running over 3,000 CFS of water through the dam yesterday, made me opt for Stillhouse instead.

PHOTO CAPTION: Just look at that fish! A picture is worth a thousand words.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mason (6), Ali (7), and Logan (6), with their dad, Clint Currier.

PHOTO CAPTION: The Curriers with their largest fish of the trip, a freshwater drum landed by Mason (with hoodie on) on a well-worked MAL Lure.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 21 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

The morning started out a bit rough, with three young, eager anglers facing a cool, cloudy, rainy morning.  We gave flatline trolling with crankbaits a try up shallow where I’d scored on bladebaits the previous morning, but, there weren’t many fish where I looked.  Ali landed one white bass on a crankbait and we changed our plans.

I moved us up into more protected waters as the kids were dressed a bit lightly for the conditions, and I felt the wind-cooled rain was going to be a comfort issue for them very quickly.  I looked for sunfish up shallow so we could use a poling technique with slip floats and baits to provide lots of action for the kids.

This worked out well.  We found an area with a nice combination of rock, wood, and hydrilla and landed a variety of sunfish, including bluegill, longear, and redear, over a 90-minute span.  Clint helped one of the kids at all times, as did I, and we worked out a rotation on the two rods so the kids stayed engaged given the fast pace of the fishing.  We wound up catching 54 sunfish before I sensed the kids needed a change of scenery.

By now, the skies had brightened, the wind had settled a bit, the rain was on and off but light, and it had warmed up a few degrees, so, I felt it okay at this point to be out in more exposed water to search for white bass.

We scored on the very first place we searched, finding a school of white bass on a breakline into an old creek channel.  After showing the kids what to do, I got Ali working on her own, and Clint and I each covered down on one of the boys to help them execute an appropriate retrieve with the MAL Lures we were using.  As long as the fish stayed active, we caught them successfully.  As soon as the fish showed signs of slacking off, we moved.

After landing 14 white bass at that first area, we looked at four more similar areas without success.  With about 20 minutes left in the trip, and because the kids had expressed interest in the downriggers, I rigged them both up to fish Pet Spoons on 3-armed umbrella rigs to see if we could get one last shot as some white bass and end the trip on a positive note.

I chose an open-water high spot to run our baits over and, just as I describe in my In-Fisherman magazine article entitled “Wrecking Ball Whites”, as the downrigger balls, set at about 32 feet deep, traveled above the 37-foot bottom, dozens of white bass otherwise unable to be detected on sonar just materialized from off the bottom and gave chase.  We scored a double on one rig and a triple on the other, then brought in the gear, turned about and Spot-Locked on what we’d just found.

The kids wrapped up the trip hauling in a final 16 white bass before we wrapped up the trip by working MAL Lures vertically through this now-excited batch of fish.

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 85 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   Yesterday the COE cracked open the flood gates just a bit, running 201 CFS.  Belton also opened up to 3121 CFS.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:00A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation:  0.59 feet high, +0.01 24-hour change, 201 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 72F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE7 at trip’s start, shifting and increasing to SE11 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous; 68% illumination

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  SH0044G – 54 sunfish on poles/floats

**Area 1319/1048 – White bass on MAL Lures

**Area  088 – downrigging leading to vertical work with MAL 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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning, May 21st, I fished with brothers Angel and Romeo Lemus of Killeen, aged 14 and 12, respectively.

Angel is a student at Smith Middle School, and Romeo attends Palo Alto Elementary School.

The boys’ mom, Rosemary, has an outdoor-oriented, Christian co-worker over at Action Pawn #1 in Killeen.  This gentleman kindly sponsored the boys’ adventure this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Angel and Romeo Lemus of Killeen landed 57 fish, taking advantage of the flexibility of a KISD “virtual learning” day.

PHOTO CAPTION:    14-year-old Angel Lemus landed our trip’s largest fish.  This 5.00-pound freshwater drum smacked his well-worked Cicada bladebait in about 13 feet of water and the fight was on!

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 21 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Since both boys had fished successfully using spinning gear before, I decided to head up shallow and take advantage of the warm, overcast, early morning conditions to probe for white bass with bladebaits.  We threw Cicadas in 12-14 feet of water to land 13 white bass, one small drum, and one 5.00-pound freshwater drum before the skies got bright enough to drive the fish deeper.

As the fish went deeper, so did we, hitting some 30-foot water in two distinct areas for schooled white bass caught fishing vertically with the MAL Lure.  By 9:10, this got quiet and we went even deeper, finding fish in over 50 feet of water, again working for them with the MAL Lure fished vertically.

For variety’s sake, we ended the trip up in shallow water poling for sunfish.  The boys landed 6 sunfish in the few minutes we put into this effort close to the ramp where their mom was due to pick them up at 10:30.

The boys ended up with 57 fish, including exactly 49 white bass, 2 drum, and 6 sunfish.

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 57 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   The COE cracked open the flood gates just a bit, running 201 CFS.  Belton also opened up to 3121 CFS.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:00A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation:  0.59 feet high, +0.01 24-hour change, 201 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 72F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE7 at trip’s start, shifting and increasing to SE11 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous; 68% illumination

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  SH0091C – white bass in 12-14′ on blades under low-light conditions

**Area  549 – whites on MAL Lures

**Area  529 – whites on MAL Lures

**Area SH0014G – whites on MAL Lures

**Area 1948 – 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) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This morning, Tuesday, May 18th, I once again fished with a boatful of the Oliver clan, including Pa and three of his four sons, Joe, Jack, and Jamie.

We didn’t know until right down to the wire if we’d be able to get this trip in, but, as Pa said, “If we believed the weatherman, we’d all still be sitting at home right now.”

Joe and I compared notes by phone around 5A after I had a look at weather radar.  Although there was certainly precipitation out to our west headed our way, it looked like we could get in at least a few hours.  Since one of the boys’ main concerns was getting Pa out, this seemed like a good idea to all of us.

As it turned out, we got 3.5 of our planned 4 hours in before a band of rain which had already reached Copperas Cove caused a wind shift, and a minor temperature drop.  We decided since we’d done so well already, there was no use risking a soaking, or worse, so we headed on back in before we got rained on  — after all, Pa is 92 now, so getting wet and cold can be more than just uncomfortable.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Jamie, Joe, Pa, and Jack Oliver with a few of the 252 fish we landed on a low-pressure-influenced bite on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 18 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Once again, thanks to the low pressure system sitting well off to our west and a blocking high pressure system set up to our east, the low is moving ever so slowly, providing us with much needed rains, and very welcome cloud cover and unseasonably cool temperatures.  The low barometric pressure has the fish just going nuts right now.

We fished only 2 locations this morning.  The catching was non-stop, and, from time to time, I had one or two of my crew waiting on me to get to them to take their fish off because of the high rate at which we were catching them.

Our first hour was our slowest, I suspect due to the very low light level and the slow brightening of the skies at sunrise due to the thick cloud cover.  But, even then we caught fish steadily, landing 50 fish in our first hour.  Things then picked up.  We landed another 50 fish in the forty minutes between 8AM and 8:40AM.  We went on to land a total of 174 fish at this first stop, all on vertically worked MAL Lures.

Our second and final stop came thanks to birds leading the way.  A flock of Franklin’s gulls were working over open water and over a 60′ bottom.  White bass were found from about 25 feet down to about 50 feet and they were stacked deep and wide.  We put an additional 78 fish in the boat, again using the MAL Lures vertically.

The size of the fish we caught today was truly exceptional for Lake Belton.  Of our catch of 252 fish, fewer than 20 were sub-legal (10 inches), and, we had multiple fish which went between 14-15 inches.  Further, despite the fact that these fish were post-spawn fish, they have definitely put weight back on by feeding.  Many had plump bellies versus the more skinny, gaunt look which many of the larger white bass had shown prior to this morning’s trip.

This was Jamie’s first exposure to Garmin LiveScope, and he was like a kid in a candy store watching those fish take a bead on his lure and chase it down as it rose off bottom.

It was a very enjoyable trip with a super family!

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 252 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Frankin’s gulls led the way to open water fish in the second half of the morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:50AM

End Time: 10:20AM

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation:  1.69 feet high, +0.18 24-hour change, 26 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 69.5F  (this represents a slight net cooling for the week)

Wind Speed & Direction: E10 until 9:50, then shifting abruptly to WSW8

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies all morning; no precipitation.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 37% illumination

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 187 count to 174; white bass on MAL Lures

**Area B0088G count to 252; 78 white bass on MAL 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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec