WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 24 May 2022, I fished with long-time clients Joe, Jack, and Jamie Oliver, all brothers who grew up around Lake Belton.
Joe is a retired coach and school district superintendent, Jack owns an electrical contracting business near Marble Falls and dabbles in real estate, and Jamie just recently retired from counseling and moved back to the Belton/Temple area.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next openings will be on July 12th – 14th. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Joe, Jack, & Jamie Oliver took fish after fish today for a final tally of 200 caught and released. The grey skies and wind had the fish cranked up pretty good until around 10AM.
PHOTO CAPTION: We used the MAL Dense with chartreuse tail in deep water exclusively today as higher winds at sunrise eliminated any visible, shallow topwater action.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 24 May 2022
HOW WE FISHED:
Fishing was solid this morning, albeit a bit one-dimensional. Thanks to a stiff pre-dawn breeze out of the ENE around 12 mph, there was no topwater action to be found as was the case yesterday morning under balmier conditions.
So, after about 20 minutes spent looking for topwater action, we headed out deep, found fish consistently, and fished effectively with MAL Dense Lures used vertically with a “smoking” tactic.
I continue to have the MAL Dense with chartreuse tails tied on to match the vivid yellow tails of the spawning threadfin shad. On that topic, the spawn has now just about run its course, with only dribs and drabs of fish hitting the shoreline to spawn — gone are the 45 to 60 minute-long, unbroken waves of fish which were commonplace just a few days ago.
With a cold front on the way and storms due to spark up as it passes through, we kept a wary eye on weather radar for the entire trip, but, never had a drop of rain fall on us over the full 4-hour duration.
The fish bit well through ~9:55AM, then downshifted to nil over the following hour.
By 9:55, we’d landed 181 fish. We were only able to muster an additional 19 fish in that final hour from 9:55 to 10:50 to bring our final count to 200 fish, with fooling the last 6 fish being quite the feat as the whites got very lethargic very quickly.
A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Our 200 fish catch included exactly 198 white bass, 1 sub-legal hybrid striped bass, and 1 largemouth bass. Once again, fewer than 20 of our white bass were short.
The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 200 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Water temperature profile comparing this morning with last Thursday (on 19 May, prior to the arrival of our current cold front on Saturday, 21 May:
| 24-May | 19-May |
| 0 feet 77.9 | 0 feet 78. 8 |
| 5 feet 78.1 | 5 feet 78. 8 |
| 10 feet 78.1 | 10 feet 78. 6 |
| 15 feet 78.1 | 15 feet 78.4 |
| 20 feet 78.1 | 20 feet 78.1 |
| 25 feet 77.9 | 25 feet 77. 9 |
| 30 feet 76.7 | 30 feet 76. 8 |
| 35 feet 72.2 | 35 feet 72.2 |
| 40 feet 67.4 | 40 feet 68.2 |
| 45 feet 66.0 | 45 feet 64.5 |
| 50 feet 63.8 | 50 feet 62.2 |
| 55 feet 61.7 | 55 and 61.8 |
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:45A
End Time: 10:50A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F
Elevation: 4.37 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 32 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 77.9F
Wind Speed & Direction: ENE12 at trip’s start, slowly shifting toward the S and building to ESE14 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: Fully greyed skies all morning.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 32% illumination.
GT = 120
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas 1012/1552 (46 fish), 150/1298 (114 fish), B0042G (53 fish), 1489/B0005C (21 fish), vic 835 (19 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
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