May | 2023 | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

#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

KIDS ARE CLIENTS, TOO! — 73 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 25th, 2023May 25th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, May 25, I ran a “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip with two young, returning guests, Koa Hanson, and his buddy, Jack Jereb, both of whom just ended their school year at the Belton Independent School District.

Both boys’ dads accompanied them. Jeremy Hanson and Michael Jereb helped me help the boys be successful by running crowd control, setting downriggers to depth, untangling lines, and unhooking any fish I couldn’t get to.

Here is how the fishing went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 28, & July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Koa, front left, and Jack, front right, used a variety of tactics this morning to put together their 73 fish catch. They sight-cast, downrigged, worked MALs vertically, and worked MALs horizontally.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! Jack landed our first triple of the morning about 50 minutes into the trip.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! Hanson closed us out with a triple of his own about 10 minutes before we wrapped up.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 25 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going right at 6:30 this morning anticipating some early, shallow sight fishing, which has been present the last two mornings. This action did, indeed, materialize, but it did not last long, thanks to very limited cloud cover, permitting the skies to brighten very quickly this morning.

Although the fish did not push bait all the way to the surface very long, gamefish were still very much present and within 100 yards of the shoreline. We ran twin downriggers and kept the boys’ rods bent, and their dads constantly re-rigging to keep the boys in the action.

This chapter lasted a full two hours and allowed us our first 51 fish which included singles, doubles, and one triple for Jack as the boys landed a roughly 70/30 mix of white bass/short hybrid stripers.

Our go-to rig on both downriggers was a weightless, three-armed umbrella rig equipped with a trio of #13 Pet Spoons with color patterns which matched the spawning adult shad.

The last two hours was a good bit slower than the first two, thanks to brightening skies and fairly light winds. I found a small patch of fish on bottom in about 30 feet of water, but they showed little interest in a smoking tactic, so I switched the boys over to the sawtooth method, and had their dads make the long cast, then hand the rods over to the boys to execute the sawtooth retrieve. This put a few more fish in the boat where the smoking tactic had fallen short, as well as the first six fish from the final area we would try this morning.

This final area held fish, but the fish were far from enthusiastic. After the boys thoroughly covered the area with the sawtooth method, I decided to wrap up with a few downrigger runs over this area. During this time, Koa was able to land a triple of his own, and additional singles and doubles helped bring our final count up to 73 fish by the 3.5 hour mark at which I wrap up these child-oriented trips.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 73 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Strong threadfin shad spawning was observed this morning by 6:20A. “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance. The Franklin’s gulls are all but gone now.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 12.86 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.10′ increase over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~75.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: E5 for the first two hours, then backing off to E2-3 thereafter

Sky Condition: Blue skies with ~30% cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 30% illumination.

GT = 95

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area BG0020CH to 1073 to B0169G – 4 fish on MAL Heavies sight-cast & counted down, 46 fish downrigged

Area vic B0042G – 4 fish sawtoothing MAL Dense Lures

Area 1411 to 1403 – 6 fish sawtoothing MAL Dense Lures, 13 fish on downriggers

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

DADDY-DAUGHTER DATE DAY! — 86 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 24th, 2023May 24th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, May 24, I fished with the daddy-daughter team of Daniel and Brynn Jeanes of Temple, Texas.

Brynn‘s folks originally got a fishing gift certificate for her last Christmas and planned to fish over the holiday, but we encountered bad weather and had to put it off. It all worked out pretty well, as Brynn, now almost 12, recently completed her school year at Providence Preparatory School in Belton so her schedule was free, and, her dad was able to work some “banker’s hours” and join her for the fishing.

Here is how the fishing went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 28, & July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Brynn and Daniel Jeanes with a few of the white bass they caught. The two sight-cast early, did some downrigging after that, then worked MAL Heavies vertically mid-morning, and wrapped up with some “sawtoothing” with MAL Dense Lures to put together their 86 fish catch.

PHOTO CAPTION: When you fish with a shad-imitating bait, there is no telling what you’ll catch. This 10.00-pound blue cat hit Daniel’s MAL Heavy on the fly!

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! Brynn landed three fish at once as we downrigged for aggressive whites and hybrid after they pulled off the bank and slowly headed for deeper water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 24 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going around 6:40 AM and headed right to some visible topwater action. Various year classes of white bass and some 13 to 14 inch hybrid striper had shad pinned into the rear of a cove and were working them over aggressively.

Brynn and Daniel sight-cast to these fish as long as they were on the surface, then, when they sounded, they continued casting and catching by using a countdown method, all with MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails.

After the fish moved offshore a bit more with the increasing ambient light level, I could see that they were pretty well scattered and suspended from 14 to 17 feet. We switched over quickly to downrigging and put singles, doubles, and a triple in the boat taking our count from 22 fish taken by sight-casting up to 39 fish.

During the middle two hours from roughly 8 AM to 10 AM I focused on what had produced well for us on Monday and Tuesday around the same point in the morning, and that was finding suspended fish in open water, getting them to congregate under the boat by using the splasher to create commotion, and then fishing them by racing MAL Heavy Lures through them using the smoking tactic.

Although this certainly produced for us again today, we did not see the fish school as densely nor react as aggressively as they had on Monday and Tuesday. When the most productive school we had drawn in with this approach gave up on us, we had a total of 63 fish in the boat.

With about 45 minutes left in the trip, I found an abundantschool of smaller white bass on a sloped bottom in about 23 feet of water. These would be the only fish we found on bottom all day. I have noted in the past that Lake Belton white bass often leave the bottom during periods of rising water, and I suspect we are seeing some of that behavior currently.

As we got Spot-Locked on top of these fish on bottom, they responded aggressively to a smoking tactic but quickly cooled off after we had boated the first three fish. Seeing this, I quickly switched Daniel and Brynn over to MAL Dense Lures and had them work sawtooth-style to put our final 23 fish in the boat by 10:55 AM.

Our final count this morning was 86 fish, including three blue catfish and a 50-50 mix of white bass and short hybrid striper. Eight of the white bass we landed today were undersized.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 86 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Moderate threadfin shad spawning was observed this morning ending around 6:50A, the, in an unusual occurrence, I spotted shad spawning around 11A along a ~200 yard stretch of shoreline. “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance. The Franklin’s gulls are all but gone now.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 12.76 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.14′ increase over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~74.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: E6 most of the morning, shifting and increasing to ENE8 around 10A

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 100% most of the morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 179 to B0019G – 39 fish on MAL Heavies sight-cast & counted down

Area B0224G – 173 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies

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

AS STRAIGHTFORWARD AS IT GETS — 212 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 23rd, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, May 23, I’ve fished with returning guests, Joe Oliver, Larry Haines, and Larry Latimer, all joined by first-time guest, Brent Burkes from the Admissions Department at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton, TX.

Joe and Brent first got to know one another when Joe coached Brent in high school football up in Hillsborough, Texas. Joe, Larry, and Larry are buds from “way back” — from well before written records were common 😉

A little wrinkle in the weather overnight really gave the fishing a bump today.

Here is how the fishing went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 28, & July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Larry Lattimer, Joe Oliver, Brent Burkes, and Larry Haines teamed up for a 212-fish morning on Lake Belton

PHOTO CAPTION: The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s own Brent Burkes landed this aggressive blue catfish. We stood side-by-side and watched this fish surge about 3 feet forward and upward toward Brent’s MAL Lure which at that time was rising through about the 20′ level over a 40+ foot bottom. This was one of three bluecats which went for our moving baits this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 23 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing was about as straightforward as it gets this morning. Bottom line: this foursome put 212 fish in the boat in four hours flat and did it while fishing just one lure at each of two locations.

Under low light conditions, I spotted a mix of white bass and short hybrid stripers busting shad on the surface within about 100 yards of the shoreline along a slow, tapering bank. I believe these gamefish picked up on the shad as they left the bank after spawning as the slowly brightening sky brought the spawn to a close this morning.

I put all four men abreast of one another on either the starboard or port side of the boat for safety’s sake, and then had them cast perpendicular to that side of the boat straight out to the fish which were routinely churning the surface, forcing adult shad to skip out of the water regularly.

Although many anglers would have chosen to throw a topwater, I have discovered these fish breaking the surface are but the tip of the iceberg. For every one white bass on the surface, I assume there are 15 to 20 or more beneath the surface. For this reason, I had everyone throw MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails to match the size & appearance of these spawning adult shad. Depending on what I was seeing on the surface and on sonar, I would let the fellows know whether to retrieve the lure immediately after it hit the surface, or to do a four-count or six-count, just letting the lure sink a little bit deeper before beginning the retrieve.

We boated a total of 39 fish before the sun got up high enough to push these fish downward in the water column, and outward from the shoreline, thus killing this bite.

After this nearshore bite wrapped up, I spent about 20 minutes doing some looking on the slightly rippled surface under significant cloud cover for any sort of natural sign giving away fish location. After not seeing much, I went to investigate the general area where I’ve finished up yesterday’s morning trip.

I encountered fairly well congregated fish suspended up off the bottom and to within 20 feet of the surface over about a 40 foot bottom. These fish were within about 200 yards of where I had last contacted the fish yesterday.

From around 7:40 to 10:40, we sat on one spot and landed the balance of our 212 fish using MAL Heavies with the vertical “smoking“ tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. Of the 173 fish we took here, one was a largemouth bass, three were blue catfish, and the remainder were white bass, of which only 11 were short.

As the light ripple on the surface died down and the cloud cover began to clear simultaneously, our bite began to drop off right around 10 AM. We called it a good morning before the action completely died at 10:40, but were still pulling fish now and then even at that time.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 212 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Light threadfin shad spawning was observed this morning, ending about 25 minutes before sunrise. “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance. Here was the water temperature profile taken on 22 May:

0 feet, 76.3F
5 feet, 77.1F
10 feet, 77.4F
15 feet, 77.4F
20 feet, 76.6F
25 feet, 73.8F
30 feet, 71.2F
35 feet, 68.4F
40 feet, 66.4F
45 feet, 65.0F
50 feet, 63.9F
55 feet, 62.4F
60 feet, 61.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Elevation: 12.90 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.06′ increase over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~76.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW at 5-6 most of the morning, then slacking off as the sky brightened beginning around 10A

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 100% gradually brightening to 30% white clouds on blue sky by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 179 to B0019G – 39 fish on MAL Heavies sight-cast & counted down

Area B0224G – 173 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies

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

WE WAITED ON THE WIND — 64 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 22nd, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, 22 May, I fished with first-time guests David and Pam Byer from the Little River – Academy community just outside Temple, TX.

David and Pam have run a lawn cutting and landscaping business for over 20 years and raised 5 kids doing it. Those kids, now adults, are spread from Texas to South Carolina to Florida, and have blessed David and Pam with 10 grandchildren.

Here is how the fishing went…
—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 28, & July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: David and Pam waited out the wind and, once it started to blow, cashed in on the enhanced fishing it brought with it. They used MAL Heavy lures to take 55 of the 64 fish they boated this morning. That long white bass in Pam’s right hand went over 15″ — a “magnum” white bass!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 22 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We’ve been plagued by more than our fair share of calm days so far this May, and this morning was one of them. A good wind and a good white bass bite often go hand-in-hand.

We caught a few fish under low-light conditions just after we got underway this morning, but then struggled while the surface was slick, catching just a few fish here and there.

During this calm period, we could routinely see nomadic schools of white bass slurping young-of-the-year shad at the surface. A fast, well placed cast MIGHT goad one into striking, but these fish were pretty locked onto that tiny forage size.

Finally, around 9:50A, a decent 6-7 mph ESE wind kicked in and stayed blowing through about 11:30A.

During this time, we took our fish count which was only at 15, up to 57 as we found an active school of fish over a 40′ bottom. These fish were suspended from bottom up to the 20′ mark, with the most active fish being those nearest the surface.

Since David and Pam had plenty of “practice” under their belt from using the smoking tactic all morning up to this point, they were primed and ready to catch these fish with their technique which was spot-on.

We used the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail as a near exact match for the spawning adult threadfin shad these white bass were consuming.

Once the winds began to die back after about 70 minutes of catching, we “mopped up” with a single downrigger running a 3-armed umbrella rig outfitted with #13 Pet Spoons. This produced a triple, a double, and 2 singles, adding a final 7 fish to our tally, and bringing the Byers’ total catch up to 64 fish on the morning.

This catch included 1 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 62 white bass, of which 6 were short.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 64 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance. Here was the water temperature profile:

0 feet, 76.3F
5 feet, 77.1F
10 feet, 77.4F
15 feet, 77.4F
20 feet, 76.6F
25 feet, 73.8F
30 feet, 71.2F
35 feet, 68.4F
40 feet, 66.4F
45 feet, 65.0F
50 feet, 63.9F
55 feet, 62.4F
60 feet, 61.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 11:350A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Elevation: 12.94 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.40′ change over the last 72 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~76.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at sunrise thru 10:50, with an ESE wind picking up to 6 for ~70 minutes thereafter

Sky Condition: Bright blue skies with ~20% white cloud cover increasing to ~50% by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 8% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0096C – 7 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0084CG – 8 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0090G/B0088G – 42 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies, then 7 final fish downrigged from the same area

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

I TOOK A PICTURE OF THE PICTURE — 110 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 18th, 2023May 18th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, May 18, I fished with longtime clients Tom and Tracie Byrd of Weir, Texas, and Tom’s sister, Patty Williams, who lives out west of San Antonio.

As they have for many years now, this crew came out in celebration of Traci‘s birthday. This was her 74th!

Before we launched, Tom asked me to join him at the trunk of his car. He opened the trunk and revealed a painting Tracie had made for me. It took her about an hour a day for three weeks to draw the picture in charcoal and then paint it with some input from her painting coach. What a nice thing to do!!

Here is how the fishing went…
—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Tom and Tracie Byrd and Tom’s sister, Patty Williams, each with one of the solid white bass we got into this morning using MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! After wearing the fish out fishing MAL Lures vertically, they finally gave up around 10:15. We ran downriggers to “mop up”, and Patty wound up with three at a time.

PHOTO CAPTION: This was the original artwork Tracie presented me with this morning. I’ve got awesome clients!!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 18 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

There were both positive and negative factors at work when one considered today’s weather. On the positive side, this was the first day of a returning south wind, and we were due to have at least a bit of wind, which actually did materialize. On the negative side, there was no cloud cover at sunrise leaving bright skies to contend with.

Thanks to a lack of wind overnight, there was also very little shad spawning activity this morning, hence, there was not a strong draw bringing gamefish shallow after this forage.

As we got going, I, idled along parallel to a productive bank in 18 to 22 feet of water looking on down imaging, colored sonar, and that side of side-imaging aimed towards the bank, looking for signs of shad and/or white bass. The first group we came across was scattered, but fish were definitely present.

I first tried getting everyone going on a horizontal sawtooth tactic. That did not do too well with the fairly short casts the ladies were making, so, we went vertical instead, and wound up putting all our first five fish in the boat and, more importantly, working all of the kinks out of this “smoking“ tactic early on, which would serve us well the remainder of the trip.

Seeing that shallow water was likely not going to produce all that well this morning, I shifted out to deeper water and found a very large, active school of fish in just over 40 feet of water. This school produced 37 fish for us, every one of which was taken using a smoking tactic with an MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail. After this school lost interest, I moved about 100 or so feet away, found another, similarly active and large school of fish. We sat on these fish for a full two hours and took our fish count up to 104, again, using the smoking tactic and the MAL Heavy.

These fish finally gave up around 10:15 AM. Since Patty had expressed an interest in understanding how the downriggers worked, I suggested that we finish out the trip using the downriggers. I explained how they help cover ground and put baits in front of a lot of disinterested fish, helping us to weed out the few still active fish from among them.

We spent our last 30 minutes or so downrigging and picked up a single, a double, and a triple adding a final six fish to our count and finishing up the morning a bit early with 110 fish landed and the birthday girl just about worn smooth out.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 110 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: The first “offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 13.33 feet low, 24 CFS flow, no change over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~76.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at sunrise, with a SE wind picking up to 6 as the morning went on

Sky Condition: Bright blue skies with ~20% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0182C – 5 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0222G – 36 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0223G – 63 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies, then 6 final fish downrigged from the same area

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

TRANSITION UNDERWAY — 100 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 17th, 2023May 17th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, May 17, I fished with long-time client, Dwight Stone, a well-traveled sportsman and retired restaurateur from Georgetown, Texas.

There is a subtle transition taking place as the threadfin shad spawn comes within two weeks or so of wrapping up. Those young of the year shad spawned early on, back in April, are now growing out with some reaching about 1/2″ in length now. Additionally, spawned out shad are beginning to use the upper portion of the water column as sun and warmth cause algae to bloom there. More fish are now found suspended than there has been up to this point in the season.

Here is how the fishing went…
—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are May 22, June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Dwight Stone enjoyed a 1-man, 100-fish outing this morning. He worked MAL Heavy lures both vertically and horizontally to put this sizeable catch together.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 17 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

After seeing topwater action increasing in frequency and abundance on my trips earlier this week, I had Dwight meet me a tad earlier today as the cloud coverage was to be much reduced versus Monday and Tuesday.

Unfortunately, we had very little cloud cover, and very little wind, so the exciting sight casting we were both hoping for did not materialize to a great extent, however, there was enough action to help us get to where the fish were and work our baits according to the fishes’ position relative to the bottom and in the water column.

Under low light conditions, while the sun was still low in the morning sky, we found fish in shallow water and in the middle third of the water column in under 22 feet of water. These fish lent themselves well to horizontally casting with the MAL Heavy Lure, and counting it down to a two-, four-, or six-count, depending on what we were observing.

We put just over 30 fish in the boat this way before the wind slacked off, the cloud cover was at its low point for the morning, and the sky began to brighten. From this point on, we found fish with sonar, typically in the lower 4 feet of the water column, and typically with side-by-side down-imaging and traditional sonar.

As frequently happens on Lake Belton due to a rise in the lake’s elevation (this time caused by locally heavy rains over the weekend and on Monday), the fish tend not to hold tightly to the bottom in large schools, but rather use the space just up off the bottom as they hunt under bright conditions.

By moving whenever the bite got quiet, by taking full advantage of Garmin LiveScope, and employing the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail using a smoking tactic, we were able to land exactly 100 fish by 11:20 this morning.

On occasion, when things got slow for Dwight as he worked the MAL, heavy vertically, I would cast an MAL Dense out horizontally and work it back with a sawtooth method. Whenever we were on fish responding to a vertical tactic, the sawtooth method did not fail to produce additional fish.

Our catch included one freshwater drum, and an 80/20 mix of white bass and short hybrid striped bass. Additionally, under the low light conditions early in the morning, I brought and tested a Cork Rig with a streamer selected to match the size of the threadfin shad we watched fish feeding on.

Even though fish were not feeding heavily on the surface, the Cork Rig drew fish upward, and this rig was able to produce, as well.

One important observation I have shared over the past few days is that of the presence of young of the year shad are now found here, there, and everywhere out in open water. Schools of primarily smaller white bass are definitely keying in on these juvenile shad. When we found this to be the case, lures imitating adult shad get largely ignored. For this reason, I went prepared this morning, with some very small baits to fish behind a Cork Rig, as well. Unfortunately, we did not get a real good chance to try this out. More on that end in next week’s reports, I’m sure.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures & Cork Rigs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: The first “offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 13.33 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.01′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~76F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW2-4 until around 8A, then going calm for the remainder of the morning

Sky Condition: Bright blue skies with ~20% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 5% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0109G – 7 fish on MAL Heavy w/ countdown

Area B0221G – 25 fish on MAL Heavy w/ countdown

Area 150 – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavy

Area B0081C – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavy

Area B0042G – 28 fish on smoked MAL Heavy

Area vic B0017G – 28 fish on smoked MAL Heavy

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

SIGHT & SONAR – 136 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 16th, 2023May 16th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 16 May, I fished with Mr. Mike French of Salado, and one of his sons-in-law, Rob Cabaniss of Morgan’s Point, TX.

Mike bid on a fishing gift certificate I had recently donated to the Salado United Methodist Church for their wild game dinner which raised around $30,000 for the church’s various missions.

In stark contrast with yesterday’s results made difficult by weather, weather turned out to be our best friend this morning thanks to grey skies and breeze on the heels of a mild cold front which came in overnight.

Here is how the fishing went.….

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are May 22, June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:Mike French with a sweet Lake Belton hybrid striped bass taken by counting down an MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail to a 6-count as these fish stalked shad and forced them to the surface to trap and eat them.

PHOTO CAPTION: Rob Cabaniss with a 4-pound class hybrid which fell for his MAL Heavy Lure worked via a count-down method to this fish any many others which were suspended down about 15′ beneath the surface.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rob Cabaniss and his father-in-law, Mike French, with a few of the nice white bass we caught using a variety of tactics on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 16 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going this morning right at 7 AM under overcast skies with a temperature of about 68°, and a night light northerly breeze at around 3 to 4 mph. The threadfin shad spawn was going full tilt on those banks impacted by the wind.

As I was observing both the lake surface for signs of fish, as well as sonar, I was using my spotting scope to see things more distant than my unaided I could detect. I picked up some bird activity some distance away, and we drove to it to find a few Franklin’s gulls scouting but not really committed to any given patch of water. I ran sonar through the area and found white bass and hybrid were suspended and moving, indicating they were intercepting spawning shad moving back off the bank towards deep water as the sky began to brighten.

We picked up a handful of fish fishing MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails vertically using a smoking tactic before I both saw and heard gamefish forcing bait fish to the surface and feeding on them aggressively within about 100 yards of us.

I moved us to those fish and we begin sight casting for what would be ~3 hours of such sight casting to white bass and short hybrid stripers feeding on 3.5 to 4 inch long threadfin shad over open water.

The MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail was a near perfect match for these broadsided, silver forage fish with bright yellow tails which get particularly bright during the spawn. See photo …

As the fish finally disappeared from the surface, and the 10 or 12 gulls that were working them dispersed, we had managed a total of 85 fish.

I could see abundant fish still in the area suspended 15 to 20 feet below the surface. We rigged up with twin downriggers, each equipped with three armed umbrella rigs terminated with a trio of # 13 Pet Spoons with silver prismatic tape and yellow tails. Mike and Rob very quickly got the hang of deploying the downriggers, leaving me to spot and drive to fish using, sight and sonar. We wound up with another 21 fish taken as singles and doubles before these fish pushed even deeper down to the 30 to 40 foot level and quit feeding.

It was now 10:30 and I gave the fellows the option of continuing to downrig, while letting them know that our success rate would drop off given what I was seeing on sonar, or going and looking afresh for fish holding on open water topographies. They opted for the latter, and we headed out to find fish we could park on top of and work MAL Lures through.

This turned out well for us. I rather quickly found a school of fish holding on and over a 42 foot bottom. These fish were already suspended 6 to 7 feet off the bottom, telling me they were already feeding. We quickly got atop them, got the splasher working, and landed exactly 30 more fish before they quit right around 11:15 AM as a line of light rain clouds moved in from the north and west.

Our 136 fish catch this morning consisted of two largemouth bass and a roughly 60/40 split of white bass versus hybrid striper. Of the hybrid, five were of legal size. Only three of our white bass were sub-legal fish (under 10 inches).

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 136 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: One BIG observation: I spotted the first “offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad which were the earliest spawned this year yesterday. Shad were still spawning on windblown shorelines this morning. Here is the water temperature profile taken yesterday:

0 feet, 76.3F
5 feet, 76.7F
10 feet, 75.7F
15 feet, 75.1F
20 feet, 73.9F
25 feet, 72.2F
30 feet, 67.4F
35 feet, 66.8F
40 feet, 66.0F
45 feet, 65.0F
50 feet, 64.1F
55 feet, 62.2F
60 feet, 60.8F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 13.34 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.16′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~76F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW5-6 with occasional brief gusts NW9

Sky Condition: “Squinting” grey cloud cover most of the morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 11% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1356 to B0220G – 85 fish sight casting MAL Heavies

Area vic B0220G – 26 fish downrigging

Area 1469/B0151G – 30 fish smoking MAL Heavies in 42′

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

GRINDING IN THE FOG — 30 FISH @ BELTON

May 15th, 2023May 15th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, May 15, I fished with David Hermann, David’s uncle Matt Bierwirth, and David’s grandfather, Bob Shull.

Bob recently attended the Public Arts League of Salado‘s (PALS) fundraiser and bid on a fishing trip I had donated to the cause. Bob is not much of a fisherman, but knew Matt and David were, and so he bid on this, intending to gift it to David in celebration of his graduation from the civil engineering program at Texas A&M.

Bob is a retired OB/GYN physician, Matt is a practicing pediatric physician, and David has been employed with a Waco-based engineering firm since before his graduation.

Here’s how the fishing went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Matt Bierwirth, Bob Shull, and David Hermann with a few of the fish they labored for on a very tough morning with calm winds and 3 hours of fog.

PHOTO CAPTION: If you look past the fish (and brand-spanking new Aggie ring!!) and note the sky conditions, the fish fired up for about 25 minutes just as the fog was lifting, but before the direct sun began to shine. Once the sun shone, it was over. This Lake Belton hybrid fell for a downrigged Pet Spoon and went 4.25 pounds on a certified scale.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 15 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

In a word, this morning’s fishing was … tough!

After this weekend’s rains, we experienced calm and foggy conditions for three of the four-plus hours on the water.

Neither the calm winds nor the fog were forecast as I closed out the day on Sunday, so they caught me a bit off guard as I was prepping for the trip this morning. We were initially due to have winds from the south around six, and the ambient temperature and dewpoint showed at least a bit of separation which is necessary to avoid fog. Neither of those materialized.

We had a brief spurt of activity with the typical low-light bite that is still taking place in conjunction with the threadfin shad spawn, but after that ended, both finding and catching fish became a real chore. I never once found any schools of white bass of any significance on side-imaging, and what we drove directly over top of, typically on drop-off areas, showed as just handfuls of individual fish on down-imaging and colored sonar.

After giving up on trying to find enough fish to present to vertically, I shifted to downrigging. For about a 25 minute span, just as the fog was burning off, but before the direct sun shone brightly, we more than doubled our catch from 11 fish up to 24 fish in a quick spurt. But, once the sun burned the fog off completely just a few minutes afterwards, it became calm and bright, and the fishing tanked once again.

Having fished Lake Belton for 30 years with the last 18 of them fishing professionally, I recognize the boats of most of our regular retirees out on the water on the weekdays. I noted that we were all doing exactly the same thing this morning with very limited success.

I found it interesting while comparing notes at the end of my trip with a bass angler, that the five smallmouth he managed today all came right at the transition as the fog burned off. So, to summarize, we caught 11 fish early with MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope, and then our remaining 19 fish came as singles, doubles, and one triple taken on three armed umbrella rigs fished behind downriggers.

,Of the 30 fish landed, two were legal hybrid striped bass, and the remainder were legal white bass.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 30 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: One BIG observation: I spotted the first “offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad which were the earliest spawned this year. Shad were still spawning on windblown shorelines this morning. Here is the water temperature profile:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 13.50 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.03′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 70.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning

Sky Condition: Moderate density fog through 10A, clearing to 50% white cloud cover on a blue sky with calm winds

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 19% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0022C – 11

Area vic 835 – 19 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

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

WE SAW THE LIGHT!! – 101 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 11th, 2023May 11th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, May 11, I fished with longtime clients Tommy and Sylvia Maedgen from Troy, Texas.

Both are now retired, both enjoy the outdoors, and both are very good at the various fishing tactics we needed to employ today mainly because they have fished with me in all weather, and in all seasons and so they already had familiarity with the methods required to consistently catch white bass here in the late spring. Hence, there was really no learning curve for them.

Here is how the fishing went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Tommy and Sylvia Maedgen with a few of the quality white bass they took primarily fishing MAL Heavy Lures vertically this morning. The largest of the two fish Tommy is holding was just fractions of an inch shy of 16″!

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! Sylvia landed this triple to close out the trip and put us over the 100 fish mark as we downrigged for white bass late in the morning. We used silver #13 Pet Spoons with silver prismatic tape on the bodies and yellow tails behind umbrella rigs.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 11 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We are in a strange weather pattern with the jet stream way up north in the continental U.S., thus allowing for a counter-clockwise spin of Gulf moisture to stay in place over us for a number of days now, with at least three more days of the same forecast to follow.

This made for a very murky, dark gray sky this morning. Although the shad spawn was heavy, there was not as much shallow water gamefish action as there has been over the past several weeks. In fact, the fishing really didn’t get going until after 7:30 when the sun had risen a bit higher and begin to burn off some of the gray cloud cover.

Once we “saw the light” (as the light level reached “squinting brightness“), the fishing turned on and stayed on right up through about 10:20. Prior to 10:20 AM, we hit three distinct areas and found decreasingly aggressive white bass congregated at each location. We did not experience the two hour lull in the middle of the morning, which has been bothersome over the last week or so.

Once these fish were found, the catching was pretty straightforward. I Spot-Locked over top of the fish, got Garmin LiveScope adjusted so Tommy and Sylvia could see their lures ascend and descend very well, and then they began working their MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails vertically using a smoking tactic. The key, as always, with the smoking tactic is to get the blade spinning as close to bottom as possible, and to never change cadence while a fish is seen chasing after the lure on LiveScope.

In this manner, Tommy and Sylvia put 89 fish in the boat through 10:20. At this point, the fishing got increasingly difficult with each passing moment. Although we found groups of fish, they were very reluctant to chase. Although we picked up three more fish using the sawtooth method when I spotted large schools of fish out to the port side of the boat, it was the downriggers that helped us get our final count up over 100.

The downriggers allow for efficiently covering large tracts of the bottom when the fish are sluggish, thus weeding out the few remaining active fish from an increasingly inactive population. We ran twin downriggers with three-armed umbrella rigs each outfitted with three #13 Pet Spoons and trolled them using the bottom-tracking feature on the Cannon Optimum TS downriggers I retrofitted by guiding boat with for this 2023 season.

Our count of 101 fish included one freshwater drum, and exactly 100 white bass.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: I witnessed the second most intense shad spawn of this spring this morning with millions of fish really moving fast, churning the shallows, and actually often creating a wake as they moved parallel to the shoreline.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 13.57 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.11′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 70.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE4-6 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 63% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 684 – 57 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails

Area 355 – 15 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails

Area 1483/B0031C – 17 fish on MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails

Area vic 835 – 13 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons (10) and sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures (3)

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