November | 2022 | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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2 1/4 HOURS OF ACTION UNDER BIRDS — 113 FISH

November 29th, 2022November 29th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, November 29th, I fished with first-time guests Ron Moore of Georgetown, TX, and his grandson, Will Hensley, from near Katy, TX.

After graduating from Texas A&M “way back when”, Ron retired from architecture and now brings his expertise to bear with his church’s building committee as a volunteer. Will has talents in welding, ranching, and electrical work and, at age 17, is young enough to pursue any or all of them if he puts his mind to it.

My next openings are the mornings of 5, 6, 7, and 8 Dec. Next weekend opening is Sat., 24 Dec. (Christmas Eve)

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: When Humminbird Side-Imaging revealed a large school of fish to our portside, I had Ron Moore and his grandson, Will, quickly stowed their slab rods and begin throwing MAL Dense Lures with a sawtooth method out to them. We caught just five fish before the school wandered away, but this 5.75# hybrid was one of them.

PHOTO CAPTION: The Bladed Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook (5/8 oz. white) accounted for 108 of our 113 fish this morning. Adjusting speed to fish activity level was very important.

PHOTO CAPTION: It is good to see some “keeper” sized hybrid just over the 18″ mark like this one back in the catch this fall on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Ron and Will worked through exactly 90 white bass this morning. Incredibly, only 2 of those fish were “short” (under 10″)!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 29 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We had warm, humid air in place overnight with cloud cover which retained yesterday’s heat, thus, the overnight air temperature only fell to 60F making for a very balmy morning in advance of a strong, dry cold front due in tonight.

We enjoyed the longest run of bird activity I’ve seen since the birds (gulls) first arrived this fall. This morning’s bird activity stretched to 2.25 hours, from 7:35 to ~9:50, with multiple flocks working multiple schools of fish in multiple areas during that span of time.

We had our best success by using the birds as an indicator of where active fish were, then allowed sonar to help us find the “spot-on-the-spot”. Once we Spot-Locked, we dialed in the down-view of Garmin LiveScope to help us keep a visual on our presentations 100% of the time in real-time.

We caught most of our fish on the white 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook, although our largest fish (a 5.75 pound hybrid) and four other fish came on a MAL Dense with chartreuse tail worked with a sawtooth method when I spotted a large, wandering school of fish out to our portside and we worked them over with horizontal casts while they lingered within casting distance.

The vertical work with the Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs required some experimentation with retrieve speed. The fishes’ preference on speed varied — a faster retrieve was appropriate for the first 2 hours while the fish were most aggressive. Once the bird action died down, and the swimming speed of the fish scaled back (as witnessed on Garmin LiveScope), we scaled our speed down and continued to do very well.

Once the fish under the birds quit, the bite died pretty hard. After a 100 fish run through 10A, we landed only 13 additional fish in the 1.25 hours which followed.

When all was said and done, this grandfather-and-grandson team landed 113 fish including 6 legal hybrid, 15 short hybrid striped bass, 1 blue catfish, 1 largemouth bass, and 90 white bass with only 2 short fish in that take of 90 whites.

TALLY: 113 fish caught and released

Find Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hook here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 11th consecutive trip helpful bird activity. Birds active from 7:35A-9:50A.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Elevation: 12.91 feet low, 0.03 rise in last 24 hours, 41 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 59.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 at trip’s start, slowly increasing to SSE12 by 10A, then shifting SSW and ramping up sharply to 15-16 with higher gusts just after 10A.

Sky Condition: Fully greyed skies all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 37% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT: Prefrontal warming today; cold front moving in around 1AM Wednesday…

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1293 – 25 fish under birds

Area 1275/151 – 17 fish under birds

Area vic 1144/1142 – 6 fish under birds

Area B0181G – 40 fish under birds

Area B0182G- 12 fish under birds; bird activity ended here

Area vic 472 – 3 fish

Area 0006 – 7 fish

Area vic 151 – 3 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THE NOVELTY WORE OFF QUICKLY — 100 FISH @ BELTON

November 28th, 2022November 28th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, November 28th, I fished with returning guest U.S. Army Major General (retired) George Harmeyer and his son, Will Harmeyer, who, along with his wife, was down visiting his dad and mom from Wilmington, North Carolina, where he works in the telecommunications industry.

My next openings are the mornings of 5, 6, 7, and 8 Dec. Next weekend opening is Sat., 10 Dec.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: George Harmeyer (left) and his son, Will Harmeyer, spent the morning with me in pursuit of white bass on Lake Belton, then the lunch hour in pursuit of some really good BBQ over at Miller’s Smokehouse!

PHOTO CAPTION: Although white bass were our target species, we welcomed all comers! In addition to 80 white bass, the Harmeyers also landed 4 legal hybrid, 10 short hybrid striped bass, 3 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, & 1 smallmouth bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 28 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

With classic post-frontal conditions continuing this morning (cold, calm, & clear), we picked up today where we left off yesterday … we took advantage of whatever bird activity we could, then settled in and went to work thereafter, finding fish solely with sonar and moving frequent once the “novelty” of our presentations wore off. We only got about a hour’s worth of assistance from the birds, from 8A to 9A, then they quit.

As was the case yesterday, when we found fish this morning after the birds settled, the fish would get somewhat interested for a few minutes, then lose their enthusiasm. So, we found, caught, moved, and repeated as many times as we needed to.

We used Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (white, with stinger hooks) to catch 100% of our fish, and we used a slow-smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope 100% of the time.

By the four-hour mark, our count stood at 91 fish, so, we pressed on to just one more location in hopes of hitting the century mark. About 25 minutes later we had accomplished that feat and called it a great day, pointing the fellows over to Miller’s Smokehouse in Belton before Will headed back home to the Northeast where the only BBQ ribs the make come off a pig!

When all was said and done, this father-and-son team landed 100 fish including 4 legal hybrid, 10 short hybrid striped bass, 3 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth bass, and 80 white bass.

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

Find Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hook here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 10th consecutive trip helpful bird activity. Birds active from 8A-9A. Hundreds of migrating Sandhill cranes were seen and heard today. The cold, wet conditions on the Fri. and Sat. following Thanksgiving also brought in great numbers of gulls.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Elevation: 12.94 feet low, 0.04 rise in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 59.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm through 9:45A, then SE ramping up from nil to 12mph over a 2 hour span.

Sky Condition: Cloudless, “bluebird” skies

Moon Phase: Waxing moon at 27% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1280 – 35 fish

Area 1749/1378 – 7 fish

Area vic 1389 – 16 fish

Area vic B0171G – 3 fish

Area 354 – 6 fish

Area B0173G – 5 fish

Area 1482 – 8 fish

Area B0075C – 9 fish

Area B0081C – 2 fish

Area B0059C – 9 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

FIND, CATCH, MOVE, REPEAT … — 92 FISH @ BELTON

November 27th, 2022November 27th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This afternoon, Sunday, November 27th, I fished with the Breyfogle family from the Georgetown, TX, area.

Aboard were Mrs. Becki Breyfogle and Forrest Breyfogle III, Forrest Breyfogle IV (who goes by Wes), and Forrest Breyfogle V (age 16).

I normally never run trips on Sundays, but, the Breyfogles had been with me before and I found them to be likeable folks, and Becki had shared with me how tough schedules were to coordinate in order to get three generations aboard. Well, it just so happened that my church did a single morning service today anticipating a low turnout on the holiday weekend, so, I was able to worship and serve and still be available to conduct an afternoon trip, so we made it all come together nicely.

My next openings are the mornings of 5, 6, 7, and 8 Dec. Next weekend opening is Sat., 10 Dec.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Forrest Breyfogle III, Forrest Breyfogle V, Becki Breyfogle, and Forrest Breyfogle IV (a.k.a. Wes) with a sampling of our evening catch from Lake Belton as we pursued white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Sunday, 27 November 2022 (PM)

HOW WE FISHED:

The name of the game tonight was “move, catch, move, catch”. We had post-frontal conditions with clear skies, light winds, and high pressure which always work to make the fishing tough. When we found fish, they would get somewhat interested for a few minutes, then lose their enthusiasm. So, we found, caught, moved, and repeated as many times as we needed to.

We averaged just 8.3 fish caught at each of the 11 stops we made tonight.

We used Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (white, with stinger hooks) to catch 100% of our fish, and we used a slow-smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope 100% of the time.

Some of the most common mistakes folks make with this tactic are failing to maintain a smooth retrieve once they see a fish chasing them via LiveScope, failing to set the hook once a bite happens, and reeling a fish in too far once it is at boatside. The Breyfogles worked through all of these well, and their results showed it. They had a solid catch under tough weather conditions.

Although weather over the Thanksgiving holiday was generally wet and cool, we reversed two trends. The first was concerning air temperature. Today was the first day since Veterans’ Day (11 Nov.) during which the air temperature exceeded the water temperature for some part of the day. This weekend we also reversed the trend of falling water levels. Before the rains fell on Friday night, Nov. 25, Belton stood at ~13.43′ low. Today, the water level was at 12.97′ low, hence, a 0.46′ rise with the water still rising slowly.

When all was said and done, this crew landed 92 fish including 10 short hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, 3 largemouth bass, and 78 white bass.

TALLY: 92 fish caught and released

Find Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hook here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 9th consecutive trip helpful bird activity. Birds active only from 4:30-4:50P today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 1:15P

End Time: 5:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 12.97 feet low, 0.14 rise in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 60.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW1-4

Sky Condition: Cloudless, “bluebird” skies

Moon Phase: Waxing moon at 17% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0082C (9 fish)

Second hop (6 fish)

Area vic 346 (15 fish)

Area vic B0158G (9 fish)

Area 1944 (12 fish)

Area vic 1152 (5 fish)

Area vic 1483 (4 fish)

Area vic 301 (26 fish) under birds for ~20 minutes

Area vic 1548, 3 hops, (6 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

TOP TEN HYBRID IN 17 YEARS — SEE PHOTO!! — 102 FISH

November 25th, 2022November 25th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday afternoon, 23 November, I fished with returning guests Steve Niemeier, his adult daughter, Emily Haberer, and Emily’s daughter, seven-year-old Zoey Haberer, all from right here in Central Texas.

Steve is a real plan-ahead guy who understands how the fishing ebbs and flows through the seasons. He always books well ahead for the peak fishing from late March to late May, and again for the autumn peak, normally from late October to mid-December.

We had two trips booked for Steve for this past Monday so he could accommodate as many grandkids as possible during their Thanksgiving break, but the weather turned wet and cold, so, we wound up doing just one trip today.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mrs. Emily Haberer and her daughter, 7-year-old Zoey Haberer, hoist Zoey’s 7.75-pound Lake Belton hybrid striped bass. This fish was taken on a white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook. It is one of the top 10 heaviest hybrid I’ve had clients land in 17 years of guiding.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Emily & Zoey Haberer and Steve “Babu” Niemeier with a few of the solid white bass we caught in our take of 102 fish this afternoon.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 23 November 2022 (PM)

HOW WE FISHED:

As I mentioned in my previous report, our lengthy downward trend on water temperature continued today, making it an unheard of 13 consecutive days over which at no time did the air temperature exceed the water temperature. This has led to one of the fastest lake cooldowns I’ve seen in my 30 years on Central Texas reservoirs.

Although the weather (big picture) is far from stable, this afternoon’s weather (small picture) was not as crazy as this morning’s was, and the fish did feed throughout the afternoon. It was not a very aggressive feed, and we wound up moving pretty frequently as we observed that the fish would not stay “fired up” very long, but were were able to put together a solid catch.

Thanks to the quickly dropping water temperature, I’ve re-rigged my primary rod/reel combos with the Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks attached. This is a lure of my own making, incorporating the time-tested features of a slab with the fish-attracting flash of a spinning blade which has makes the Mepps MAL Lure so effective.

We used a “slow-smoking” tactic to work this bait up through the fish we saw suspended on sonar, as well as to draw fish up off the bottom. This kind of fishing can be tedious and demanding when done correctly, so I was very impressed at how well Zoey did. She stayed focused, adjusted her technique when need be, and was rewarded routinely for her efforts.

When all was said and done, this crew landed 102 fish including 2 legal hybrid (one @ 7.75 pounds), 8 short hybrid striped bass, 4 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, and 86 white bass.

TALLY: 102 fish caught and released

Find Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hook here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 8th consecutive trip helpful bird activity. Birds active 3:50-5:00P today. Water temperature profile was as follows:

0 feet 61.5F
5 feet 61.2F
10 feet 61.1F
15 feet 60.9F
20 feet 60.9F
25 feet 60.3F
30 feet 59.0F
35 feet 57.5F
40 feet 57.1F
45 feet 56.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 1:15P

End Time: 5:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Elevation: 13.43 feet low, 0.01′ fall in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 61.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE4-6

Sky Condition: Solid grey sky all afternoon.

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1942/B0155G – slabbing for 4 fish

Area B0012C/B0119C – slabbing for 29 fish

Area vic 1141- slabbing for 26 fish

Area 1548 w/ 2 hops – slabbing for 27 fish

Area B0043G – slabbing for 16 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THEY KEPT THE CADENCE — 51 FISH

November 24th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, 23 November, Mr. John Matthews and his wife, Retta, treated three of their grandkids, all sisters from Humble, TX, to a fishing trip on Lake Belton.

This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip just for kids, hence, it was both a bit shorter and a good bit less expensive than a standard adult trip.

Joining their grandparents were Eva (age 14), and twins Madison and Bradie Smith (age 11). Two of the girls had never fished before.

We faced an uncertain weather forecast and, when all was said and done, experienced just about all manner of weather, short of frozen precipitation and a tornado, but, the girls were troopers and just kept smiling, talking, and catching fish through it all.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Eva, Madison, and Bradie Smith with a few of the white bass they worked Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically to catch.

PHOTO CAPTION: John Matthews gives his grandaughter, Madison Smith, a hand hoisting the 6.50 pound blue catfish she took from out of a school of white bass feeding on bottom in about 31 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: Everyone celebrated Eva’s catch of our largest of three legal (18″ minimum) hybrid striped bass. This one took a downrigged Pet Spoon worked about 3′ off bottom; it weighed 4.25 pounds.

PHOTO CAPTION: Madison also landed both of the morning’s “triples”, catching three fish at the same time on each of the three Pet Spoons used on the 3-armed umbrella rigs were were downrigging with on occasion over well-scattered fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 23 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Our lengthy downward trend on water temperature continued today, making it an unheard of 13 consecutive days over which at no time did the air temperature exceed the water temperature. This has led to one of the fastest lake cooldowns I’ve seen in my 30 years on Central Texas reservoirs.

Cold-blooded creatures just don’t take well to being chilled quickly — it’s like tossing a snake in a refrigerator and leaving him in there for a few days straight — he won’t come out near as lively as he went in!!

As I waited for my crew to arrive, I saw some very light topwater action on the calm, pre-dawn surface and mentally marked the general area where I’d seen that. As we got going, I ran sonar over the area and found roving schools of white and small hybrids cruising around and eating shad. I set us up with twin downriggers, each equipped with a 3-armed umbrella rigged outfitted with #13 Pet Spoons in a mix of white and yellow feathered tails. We got right down to catching, with singles, doubles and one triple taken as the girls went through three rounds of downrigger releases each, accounting for a total of 16 fish in our first 45 minutes.

No sooner did this action die down than some bird activity cropped up about a mile away leading us to our next round of catching. These birds were few in number (perhaps 20 gulls) and they were widely spread. This typically means fish which are also well spread and mobile. Sonar confirmed such was the case, so, after a short, fairly unsuccessful stab at vertical jigging, we went right back to downrigging and took another 9 fish fairly quickly. As we were in the midst of this, a short-lived rain shower moved through and once it cleared, it was as if someone turned off the switch. The birds disappeared, and the fish got harder to find and much harder to catch. Even when we found great concentrations of fish and got on top of them, they were still hard to catch.

My water temperature profiling (see details below) indicated that we’ve finally broken that critical 60F mark at depth, so, for the first time since the early spring, I relied on other than the MAL Lure to do my vertical work, choosing the 21 gram (~5/8 oz.) white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook to catch our fish.

For the remainder of the trip we relied on this bait worked with a “slow smoking” retrieve to tempt the very reluctant fish we found.

Fortunately, all of the girls have a background in dance and so when I used the word “cadence” and demonstrated how to effectively move the bait upward off the bottom smoothly and steadily to a “count” or “beat”, they immediately picked up on what I meant.

This served them well and allowed for a steady catch of fish right up to the 11 o’clock hour when the fish voted that they were done.

When all was said and done, this crew landed 51 fish including 3 legal hybrid, 9 short hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, 1 blue catfish, and 37 white bass.

TALLY: 51 fish caught and released

Find Bladed Hazy Eye Slab with Stinger Hook here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 7th consecutive trip helpful bird activity. Birds active 8:30 – 9:20A today. Water temperature profile was as follows:

0 feet 61.5F
5 feet 61.2F
10 feet 61.1F
15 feet 60.9F
20 feet 60.9F
25 feet 60.3F
30 feet 59.0F
35 feet 57.5F
40 feet 57.1F
45 feet 56.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Elevation: 13.43 feet low, 0.01′ fall in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 61.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable, never more than 4mph

Sky Condition: Solid grey sky all morning with light fog and occasional brief rain all morning.

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1404/472 – downrigging

Area 0006/086 – downrigging

Area vic B0166G – downrigging

Area vic 1469 with multiple short hops – slabbing

Area vic 1280 – slabbing

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

WATER TEMPS ON A DOWNHILL SLIDE — 98 FISH

November 22nd, 2022November 22nd, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 22 November, I fished with returning guest Mike Tomberlin, accompanied by his sons, Josh and Sean, and by Mike’s friend, Donna. This was Donna, Josh, and Sean’s first time aboard with me. The trip was in celebration of Josh and Sean’s forthcoming birthdays.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Sean, Donna, Mike, and Josh with a portion of their take as we pursued Lake Belton white bass under cool, grey conditions with cooling water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 22 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

As much as I hate to say it this early in November, I think we’ve moved “past peak” on the fantastic fall white bass fishing which, in some years, has held on through late December. This long downward slide we’ve had on water temperature ever since the Veterans’ Day cold front tore through has cut 4-5 degrees from the surface temperature in just over a week and the fish certainly haven’t taken a liking to it.

I noted that even when we were at peak feed times today with fish driving bait close enough to the surface to interest the birds, the fish were not moving with the speed and agility that I saw just a week to ten days ago. Corresponding with this was an increased number of “refusals” on our baits where fish either outright ignored the baits, or, followed half-heartedly a few feet and then gave up.

I’m sure things will rebound a bit when fish get used to the “new normal” if/when we get some stable and/or warming weather, but a rapid cooldown like we are now experiencing never helps.

Still, we managed a 98 fish outing, but everyone had to stay on their game for the entire time to make that happen.

We used MAL Originals with white tails the entire trip, fishing them vertically with a smoking tactic. I did try a slab now and then, but the fish weren’t any more or less interested in that than the spinner.

When all was said and done, this crew landed 98 fish including 1 legal hybrid, 9 short hybrid striped bass, 2 largemouth bass, and 86 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 98 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 6th consecutive trip helpful bird activity. Birds active 8:30 – 9:50A today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Elevation: 13.42 feet low, 0.03′ fall in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 60.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm with fog for first hour, SSE4 for middle 2 hours, NNW3-4 for last hour

Sky Condition: Solid grey sky all morning with light fog in the first hour.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 3% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

B0167G through B0052G – whites on slope under birds

Area vic 151 – under birds

Areas B0013C/1543/966/967/715/1544 – under birds

Area B0102C/B0042C – after bird activity 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

(DIS)COMFORT MASTERS — 157 FISH

November 19th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, November 19th, I fished with a full boat of 6 anglers from the Comfort Masters DFW crew. These fellows are focused on commercial and residential HVAC work. Fortunately, these guys were all accustomed to working out in the elements, as we had some serious elements to work through today.

As a damp cold front slowly eased into Central Texas overnight, the sunset temperature of 51F on Friday evening fell to 37F as we launched this morning. When we arrived back at the boat ramp four hours later, the air temperature was still just 39F.

Mr. Stephen Moore honchoed the whole event, initially reaching out to me to make reservations. Accompanying him were father-and-son team Jim & Cameron Moore, Matt Johnson, Rondel Campbell, and Reese Patterson.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Back row, from left: Matt “Yankee” Johnson, Rondel “First Fish” Campbell, Jim “Group Shower” Moore, & Stephen “Boss Man” Moore. Front row, from left: Reese “Best Behaved” Patterson, and Cameron “Above Average” Moore.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 19 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Cold fronts with persistent, damp conditions like this one just don’t have the fish-motivating power which fronts like that which came through on Veterans’ Day do. That Veterans’ Day front had a turbulent lead edge, but, once the rain moved off, the weather dried out and cooled down rapidly.

So, the fishing was a bit tough this morning. We found interested fish everywhere we went, but, they were not overly aggressive and they typically did not stay interested very long. This simply required that we move frequently to stay on top of fish which we could coax into striking.

We used the MAL Original Lure with white tail to catch 100% of our fish this morning, and used a vertical “smoking” tactic with a moderate retrieve speed with these lures.

Helpful bird activity did develop albeit only for about 75 minutes mid-morning. The bird activity followed the fish activity in that the birds would work aggressively but briefly over a patch of water, then quit, then reignite some distance away, then quit, etc. as the gamefish which were driving the feeding cycle did likewise.

There was lots of cajoling and good-natured trash-talking amongst friends on this trip, and the banter plus the steady pick of fish helped keep everyone’s minds off there cold hands, feet, and faces. One highlight was that Rondel caught the first fish of his life, which was ironic since he grew up on an island in the Caribbean!

When all was said and done, this crew landed 157 fish including 10 short hybrid striped bass, 8 largemouth bass, 4 freshwater drum, and 135 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 157 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 5th consecutive trip helpful bird activity. Birds active 8:30-9:45A.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Elevation: 13.33 feet low, 0.00′ change in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 62.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW10-12 all morning

Sky Condition: Solid grey sky all morning

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 23% illumination.

GT = 71

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Vic BG0026 (28 fish), 1325/150 w/2 hops (39 fish), Vic 1489 w/2 hops (33 fish), Vic 354 w/2 hops (34 fish), B0054G (10 fish), B0201C (13 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

OCTOGENARIAN DAY — 58 FISH

November 17th, 2022November 17th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, November 17th, I fished returning guest Floyd Falter of Temple, and his friend, Mr. Doyle Davis of Moffat, Texas.

The two became friends through their Sunday School class at First Baptist Church of Belton.

Floyd, a U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army veteran, is 89 years old. Doyle, once a Texas National Guardsman, recently turned 80.

Our target species was white bass on Lake Belton.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mr. Floyd Falter (age 89) and his buddy from Sunday School, Mr. Doyle Davis (age 80), came up with 58 fish this morning under increasingly tough post-frontal conditions.

PHOTO CAPTION: Doyle finished out the trip with a bang, landing a “triple” — one fish on each of the 3 spoons on the 3-armed umbrella rig we were trolling at the time.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 17 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Given Floyd and Doyle’s age, I had to really think through some of the things I often take for granted when it came to launch site selection, passenger loading and unloading, seating & moving about in the boat, and the fishing tactics we’d employ.

Even though this morning’s weather was (much) less than ideal for fishing, it made for a safer, more enjoyable outdoor experience. We had skies clearing to cloudless and wind diminishing to calm as our Veterans’ Day cold front finally played out today and went “post-frontal”.

The whole “watch your bait on LiveScope while adjusting your retrieve to fish response” thing wasn’t something the fellows really caught onto all that well, nor was horizontally presenting baits via a sawtooth method of retrieve, so, as an alternative, we did a lot of downrigging today. This allowed the fellows to stay seated and enjoy a steady catch rate from start to finish this morning.

I upsized the baits to #13 Pet Spoons (versus the #12’s I use over the summer) and mixed white tails and yellow tails together on the 3-armed umbrella rigs in order to best imitate the size of shad we are encountering this time of year.

For the fourth consecutive trip, gulls were helpful in getting us to the general location where we would catch our fish. I then used sonar, especially well-tuned side-imaging, to find the spot on the spot.

When all was said and done, the fellows fished for about 3.25 hours and were ready to head back in by around 10:30. By that time, we’d managed a catch of 58 fish, including 3 hybrid striped bass and 55 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 58 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 4th consecutive day of helpful bird activity. Birds active 8:15 – 9:00, then 9:45 – 10:15. 2) Temperature profile yesterday was as follows:

0 feet 63.7F
5 feet 64.1F
10 feet 64.3F
15 feet 64.4F
20 feet 64.4F
25 feet 64.4F
30 feet 64.4F
35 feet 64.4F
40 feet 64.4F
45 feet 64.3F
50 feet 64.1F
55 feet 63.8F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 41F

Elevation: 13.30 feet low, 0.05′ fall in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: WSW4-6 for the first hour, then tapering back to light and variable.

Sky Condition: A grey bank of clouds in the eastern sky quickly cleared to a bright, cloudless sky.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 41% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

-Downrigged within that patch of bottom bordered by Areas B0013C/1543/966/967/715/1544

-Smoked for a few fish under bird at B0159G/B0042G

-Finished up downrigging at vic 714

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

EVERYONE JUST CALLS HIM “COACH” — 161 FISH

November 16th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, November 16th, I fished returning guest Coach Bob McQueen. Bob recently brought out three neighbors of his, had a good time fishing for white bass with them, and so decided to bring out another crew of three neighbors/friends today.

Joining Coach McQueen were Joe Maines, Donnie Carpenter, and Mitch Longley.

It seems like everyone around here, regardless of age, gender, level of interest in sports, or former high school affiliation, knows Bob McQueen and simply refers to him as Coach.

“Coach” led the Temple Wildcats football team to their first state championship during his 28 years of coaching, but, besides that, he is a godly fellow who demonstrates love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, and self-control — all the marks of someone who follows Christ. Those qualities draw others to him.

Our target species was white bass on Lake Belton.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Coach Bob McQueen with a dandy Lake Belton smallmouth bass taken on an MAL Original from out of a school of white bass and hybrid striped bass feeding hard on threadfin shad.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Coach Bob McQueen and his long-time friend Joe Maines, a native of Florence, Texas, with our largest fish of the trip — a Lake Belton hybrid striped bass which fell for Joe’s MAL Original.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mitch Longley, Coach Bob McQueen, Joe Maines, and Donnie Carpenter with a sampling of the white bass we took with a vertical “smoking” tactic using MAL Original Lures aided by Garmin LiveScope.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 16 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

At trip’s start, the air temperature was 41F and the winds continued out of the NW (5th day in a row) following the strong Veterans’ Day cold front.

A low deck of thick, grey clouds kept it from getting colder overnight, and also kept it from warming up to any great extent this morning.

Once again, we were blessed with gull activity early and late in this morning’s trip, requiring that I find fish solely with sonar only during the mid-morning at two locations.

Whether the fish were under birds or not, with ~64F water down to a depth of 50 feet, the white bass were turned on and quite willing to chase. The timeframe from 8:45 to 10:30 was the best of the best, with a taper up to that peak activity early on, and a taper down from that peak activity noticeably around 11AM.

Every single one of the 161 fish my crew landed today came on the MAL Original with white tail worked vertically with a “smoking” tactic. The only thing we altered was the retrieve speed based on the aggression level of the fish, as gauged by watching Garmin LiveScope.

Our 161 fish tally included 3 legal hybrid stripers, 6 short hybrid, 1 smallmouth bass, 1 largemouth bass, and exactly 150 white bass up to 13.50″.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 161 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 3rd consecutive day of helpful bird activity. Birds active 7:30 – 8:30, then 10:15 – 11:25. 2) Temperature profile was as follows:

0 feet 63.7F
5 feet 64.1F
10 feet 64.3F
15 feet 64.4F
20 feet 64.4F
25 feet 64.4F
30 feet 64.4F
35 feet 64.4F
40 feet 64.4F
45 feet 64.3F
50 feet 64.1F
55 feet 63.8F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 41F

Elevation: 13.25 feet low, 0.05′ fall in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW-6-8 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 51% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas vic 1390 (25 fish), 862 (15 fish), 952 (21 fish), B0173G (23 fish), vic 294 (16 fish), vic 787 (61 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com