VISSEN MET VRIENDEN — 106 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, May 9, I welcomed a crew of six first-time guests aboard for a morning of catch-and-release white bass fishing on Lake Belton.

Mr. Mark Ratcliffe put everything together and provided a great outing for his two adult sons, Justin and Jeremy, as well as three friends of theirs from the Netherlands. Sven Van Den Oever is Mark’s future son-in-law, and joining Sven were his dad, Antoon Van Den Oever, and Sven’s uncle, Johan Holland.

The Ratcliffes run Technique Flooring and Restoration in Killeen, Sven is pursuing his masters in business administration, while coaching soccer at a Christian college in Oklahoma, Antoon develops drawings for construction, and Johan is a welder.

If you are wondering about the title, ‘Vissen met Vrienden‘ means Fishing with Friends (or at least that is what Sven told me, but, if I get banned from Facebook overnight, you’ll know Sven did me wrong!).

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:  Mark Ratcliffe, Antoon Van Den Oever, Jeremy and Justin Ratcliffe, Johan Holland, and Antoon Van Den Oever with some of the white bass they caught and released using a combination of smoked MAL Lures and downrigged Pet Spoons.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Triple!  Antoon landed both of our two sets of triples as we downrigged for white bass late in the trip.  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: Tuesday, 09 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

In what has become the norm of late, we had a great low light bite from about 6:50 to around 8:10AM. During this time, the fish were as active as they would be over our entire trip, with fish pursuing our smoked MAL Lures aggressively, and for long distances up off the bottom. The fish themselves were often positioned several feet up off the bottom, and they were seen moving quickly as they swam horizontally passing under the boat.

Around 8:10, the bite began to cool off rapidly, and we had to work for our fish from that point until around 10:10 AM. During this time I moved from group of fish to group of fish as seen (typically) on side imaging, I then Spot-Locked us atop these fish and, with the assistance of Garmin LiveScope, we fished them only until the initial surge of interest waned, and then we moved on.  To stay any longer just saw the law of diminishing returns kick in and the fish & fishing get slower and slower with time.

For our final hour, I planned ahead to downrig as both a means to catch our final fish of the morning, and to offer some variety.

Earlier in the trip I asked Mark, of the six people in his party, which would he identify as the two most mechanically inclined. He said his sons and Johan, the welder, would be his picks. I went with the English-speaking brothers and recruited them to be the ones working the downriggers so I would be free to watch sonar and pilot the boat from group of fish to group of fish as they appeared on sonar.

Justin and Jeremy did a great job keeping baits in the water and fishing effectively. In our final 50 minutes on the water, we boated 31 more fish, taking our count from 75 up to 106. This included two sets of triples, both landed by Antoon, as well as a numerous doubles and singles. These all came on three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with # 13 Pet Spoons.

Our 106-fish catch this morning consisted of 104 white bass and 2 short hybrid stripers.

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: 106 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:  The migration of Franklin’s gulls looks like it is all but over now with but a handful of these very helpful birds witnessed this morning, for the second day in a row.  A few small flocks of Forster’s terns still remain, and ample white and blue herons are still signaling where the threadfin shad spawn is strong each morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 13.71 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.01′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 70.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9 all morning

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

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 91% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 473 – 15 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails

Area 1975 – 36 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails (2 hops)

Area vic B0041G – 20 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails (3 hops)

Area vic 187 to B0041G – 31 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)

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

STRONG START, STRONG FINISH, BUT THAT MIDDLE WAS TOUGH — 101 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Monday, May 8, I fished with returning guests – – the father and son team of Frank and Marcos Sumner.

Frank, a US Army veteran who worked in the military healthcare field, now continues in that same field as a civilian. Marcos and his family reside south of Austin where Marcos works in the banking industry.

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: Marcos  Sumner and his dad, Frank, with a few of the 101 fish we caught.  Fishing was strong at both the start of the trip and again at the end, with two tough hours in between.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Triple!  Frank landed both of our two sets of triples as we downrigged for disinterested fish.  We used #13 Pet Spoons behind umbrella rigs.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 08 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

I encouraged Frank and Marcos to be punctual for our 6:40 AM start time suspecting that we would have an opportunity to sight-cast to white bass and hybrid striper feeding in shallow water on spawning shad.

That shallow action did materialize, and thanks to thin, but complete, gray cloud cover, that early morning feed lasted for a full 70 minutes and allowed us a take of 51 fish all on MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails, counted down to either a four-, six-, or eight-count depending on the light level and what I was seeing on sonar.

As this fairly easy and productive fishing tapered off sharply as the sun began to burn through the clouds, I told Frank and Marcos that it was now time to go to work. Thing was … I didn’t know just how much work it was going to be this morning. Over the next 2 1/4 hours we were only able to put six more fish in the boat as I found it difficult to locate large groups of fish, and also found that those fish I did find were quite reluctant to chase and strike our presentations.

Last week, when the fishing got tough, downrigging was the cure, but, that was when there were ample fish present and after those abundant fish had turned off after feeding pretty well prior to.

This morning, those large groups of fish I’d hoped to downrigger over were in short supply.  I hit one open water area which the wind was impacting pretty substantially, and we were able to pick up seven fish on the downriggers.

Seeing the effectiveness of this approach, I backtracked to one of the areas where we found fish earlier in the morning, but could not get them to fire up.

Fortunately, the fish were still there and this time, they went for the horizontal movement of the downriggers.  We spent the remaining 75 minutes of the trip at that location, catching singles, doubles, and two sets of triples as the wind reached peak speed, and the skies began to clear.

To best imitate spawning shad, I chose a number 13 Pet Spoon with silver prismatic tape, and a yellow feather for the tail.  I placed three of these behind the three-armed umbrella rig on 22-inch leaders and that combination was simply deadly. I tried to keep the downrigger balls about 4 feet off the bottom so these lazy fish did not have to travel very far if they were interested.  We landed 37 more white bass in this area.

We wrapped up this morning’s trip with exactly 101 fish, including 43 hybrid, all of which were short, and all of which were taken while we were sight-casting during the first 70 minutes of the trip

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:  The migration of Franklin’s gulls looks like it is all but over now with but a handful of these very helpful birds witnessed this morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 13.72 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.02′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 70.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11 at trip’s start, building slowly to an end-of-trip peak of SSE13

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover with brief spurts of direct sun breaking thru in the final 90 minutes

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 91% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic 1562 – 51 fish on sight-cast MAL Heavies counted down to 4, 6, or 8

Area 098 – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic  B0023C thru 1556 – 7 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area vic B0041G – 37 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)

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

THEY GOT “BUS”TED — 131 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Friday, May 5, I fished with returning guests — the father and son team of Kelvin Gladden, and one of his sons, Tevin.

I Kelvin is a US Army veteran and Tevin works in the computer industry over in Temple.

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: Kelvin and Tevin Gladden with some mature Lake Belton white bass which came on MAL Heavy Lures worked vertically and on downrigged Pet Spoons when the fish were less aggressive.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Triple!  Tevin landed five sets of triples as we downrigged for increasingly disinterested fish after the winds reached a peak and then began falling off.  We used #13 Pet Spoons behind twin umbrella rigs behind two downriggers.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 05 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

Due to high wind speeds forecast toward the end of our trip, I had to launch at a more distant ramp this morning than usual, and although I got there with no problem before 6:15A, the Gladdens got stuck behind a school bus and arrived a bit late, which cost us an opportunity at sight-casting to white bass forcing shad to the surface in shallow water under low light conditions.

Although this action was still going on as we got underway, we only managed three fish in the few minutes which remained of that action before the skies brightened, the shad moved out, the birds quit, and the white bass crept downward and outwards away from the shoreline.

We moved away from the shoreline out to the first breakline and were able to catch abundant, active white bass, just as we did under similar weather conditions yesterday. We took these fish with a vertical tactic using MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. After nearly an hour on these fish, found on two distinct areas along this first breakline, the bite began to wane.

Next, I spotted about three dozen Franklins gulls working over open water, got to them, saw abundant, but very scattered fish, and after making a quick attempt to see if we could draw fish to us with the splasher, I instead changed over to downrigging.  This allowed us to cover water quickly, spot fish on side-imaging, then turn to port or starboard, and troll directly over top of them. This accounted for six fish very quickly before the birds quit flying and resumed resting on the water, and the fish dispersed.

With the southerly wind now picking up to right at 13 mph, I felt that some of the deeper topographies might begin producing, and this suspicion turned out to be right. We made three stops in about 32 feet of water and continued using the smoking tactic.

As the wind velocity built to a peak, the fish feeding activity also built to a peak. We were able to take our fish count up to 102 while the wind remained strong by fishing these three fairly similar areas.  The first gave up 13 fish, the second gave up 9 fish, and the third gave up 30 fish.

The NOAA forecast called for the winds to peak late morning, and then begin falling off toward noon, and that is exactly what happened this morning. As soon as the winds slacked off, the bite begin to decline, as well.

With 102 fish in the boat at this point, I asked Kelvin and Tevom if they would prefer to move to a number of spots in rapid succession and try to pull a few fish at each, or would prefer to put the downriggers back down. They asked me which I thought would produce more fish. I told them I thought the downrigging would put a few more fish in the boat, so they went for that option. We wound up with 29 additional fish landed, including 5 sets of triples all landed by Tevin, over the final 40 minutes of our trip. We concluded with 131 fish all of which were white bass, except for a single short hybrid.

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: 131 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 13.80 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.02′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 67.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7 at trip’s start, peaking around 10A at SSE13, then dropping back to SSE6-7

Sky Condition: 90% moderate grey cloud cover with brief spurts of direct sun breaking thru

Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area  B0196C – 44 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0171G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 0008 – 10 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0023C thru 1556 – 20 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)

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

I’LL BET YOU A MATCHBOX YOU CAN’T … — 80 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, May 4, I fished with two of Wayne Winekauf’s grandkids —  cousins Jude Masoner and Noah Thomas.

Wayne, originally from Iowa and now residing in Morgan’s Point, fished with me for the first time earlier this spring, while entertaining a friend of his who had come in for a visit from Iowa for a few days.

This morning’s trip was specifically for the boys, so, Wayne came in the role of helping me help the boys be successful, but didn’t fish.

Jude is 11 and Noah is 8, so my “Kids Fish, Too!“ package was a very good fit for these young men. These kid–specific packages last a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4+ hours for adult trips, and they cost about $100 less than a comparable trip for adults.

Although the kids did a great job and their results showed it, one thing we never could get ironed out was their tendency to reel a fish up so far that the swivel on the leader hit the tip of the rod.  At one point Wayne told them he’d take them to Walmart and let each one pick out a Matchbox car if they could avoid slamming the swivel into the rod tip any longer.  Suffice it to say that Walmart is still well stocked with Matchboxes.

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 6 and 21 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Jude Masoner, Wayne Winekauf, and Noah Thomas with a portion of the boys’ 80 fish catch taken on a combination of vertical tactics using MAL Lures and horizontal tactics using downrigged Pet Spoons.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 03 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

Weather conditions were much improved today fishing–wise, as we had light gray, but complete cloud cover and enough wind to ripple the surface prior to sunrise. That wind would continue all morning and be of a great help.

We fished three areas this morning using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope for which I rigged the boys up with light spinning rods terminated with MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. The boys landed 44 fish at our first stop, 6 fish at our second stop, and 10 fish at our third stop.

By 9:15 AM the boys had landed 60 fish, but the bite was beginning to wane. I could see it by gauging the swimming speed and reaction of the fish we found, as well as by observing multiple small flocks of Franklin’s gulls, which, at this time, were beginning to settle on the water, no longer scouting for, finding, nor eating shad.

After seeing how well a downrigging approach worked while the fish were uncooperative yesterday, and for variety sake, we retooled with twin downriggers each equipped with a three arm umbrella rig terminated with number 13 Pet Spoons. I fished a windward, underwater ledge which side-imaging revealed white bass were using.

We kept the downrigger balls ~3′ off bottom and our rigs about 20′ behind the ball.

In our final 90 minutes, the boys landed an additional 20 fish, including singles, doubles, and a pair of triples.

We wrapped up right at 11 AM with 80 fish landed, including 2 freshwater drum, 4 short hybrid striped bass, and 74 white bass.

Going back to my first sentence in this section, “Weather conditions were much improved today fishing–wise…”, consider this … this morning, with grey skies and wind, two inexperienced boys landed 80 fish in 3.5 hours, whereas yesterday, under calm, bright skies, and while fishing the same areas, two very experienced men struggled mightily to land 74 fish in over 5 hours.  Weather matters!!

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: 80 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 13.78 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.02′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-9 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area  B0196C – 44 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0171G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 0008 – 10 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0023C thru 1556 – 20 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)

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

YOU NEED MORE TEETH IN YOUR SAW — 74 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Wednesday, May 3, I fished with first time guests Bill Bebee and John Pickens.  The men were offered this trip when a friend, Mr. Reid Funderburk, as unable to attend following recent knee surgery.

Both men work in real estate, thus making their schedules flexible and allowing for a weekday fishing trip.

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 6 and 21 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: John Pickens and Bill Bebee with a few of the 74 fish we REALLY had to work for today when the skies went clear and the winds went slack.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 03 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

We faced what is, in my opinion, the toughest of fishing conditions this morning with bright skies and calm winds for 3 1/2 of our planned four hours on the water. When the conditions are like this, the fish just turn off and become very lethargic.

Our only saving grace today was that the temperature of the water is still climbing, thus increasing the fishes’ metabolism, goading them into feeding at least a bit. Right at around 7 AM, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon, a few dozen Franklins gulls begin to dive on shad being forced to the surface by white bass beneath. What, on a normal day, would produce 30 to 40 fish or so, this morning only rendered 16 as the fish flared up, ate for just a few moments, and then settled right back down.  The popped up briefly here and there over about an eighth of a mile of shoreline for about 40 minutes until, finally, the brightening sky drove them down and out away from shore.

When that ended, the hard work of convincing disinterested fish in biting began.

We spent most of our time working MAL Heavies with chartreuse tails vertically, using a smoking tactic for bottom-hugging fish found on side-imaging and down-imaging.  At one of these locations, a solid group of fish appeared out to the starboard side of the boat and allowed for some horizontal work using the MAL Dense Lures with a sawtooth tactic.

I observed that Bill was casting a good bit further than John, and was catching fish with regularity on the sawtooth tactic, whereas John’s shorter casts we’re landing shy of where the fish were. I suggested to John that he lengthen his cast so he could get in more diagonal retrieve iterations and bring his lure past the fish more consistently. Bill chimed in, “You need more teeth in your saw!“.

As soon as John increased his cast length, he joined in on the fish-catching, as well.

So it went, catching just a few fish here in there at each of the stops we made until finally, around 10:20, a southeast wind began to kick in and began to blow at around 12 mph. I asked the fellows if they would be able to stay longer as I suspected that the fishing would pick up substantially once the wind had a chance to work on the water. It was now about 10:50. We stayed until 12:10 and during that final hour and 20 minutes, we added 30 fish to our then current count of 44 fish. After seeing the fish getting more active, I went after them with downriggers so we could cover as much bottom as possible to strain out the active fish amongst a still relatively inactive population.

We pulled a single rod with a single, three-armed umbrella rig equipped with number 13 Pet Spoons through increasingly aggressive schools of fish for this result.  In the catch were three sets of triples (one fish on each of the three Pet Spoons landed simultaneously).

When all was said and done, Bill and John landed 74 fish, including 1 freshwater drum, 6 short, hybrid striped bass, and 67 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: 74 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 12:10P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 13.76 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.00′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 67.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm thru 10:20, the ramping up quickly to SE12

Sky Condition: A thin white haze on a cloudless blue sky is the only cover we had today thru 10:20, then white cloud cover begin to build to ~30% by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 008 thru 562 – 16 fish on smoked MAL Heavies sightcast under Franklins gulls

Area  B0201G – 9 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 098 – 13 fish on smoked MAL Heavies and sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures

Area B0173G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic 2059 – 30 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)

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

MAKING MOUNTAINS OUT OF MOLEHILLS — 89 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, May 1, I fished with brothers Corbin and Matt Seliga. Corbin is a pharmaceutical salesman in the Georgetown area, and Matt is a physical therapist working in the Fort Worth area. The brothers were offered this trip when a friend of Corbin‘s from church, Mr. Reid Funderburk, as unable to attend following recent knee surgery.

Both Matt and Corbin had prior fishing experience and arrived with the ability to handle a spinning outfit already under their belt.

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 6 and 21 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Corbin and Matt Seliga each with a pair of the white bass we teased up from between 30-35 feet this morning using a “smoking tactic” with MAL Heavy Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

 

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 01 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

About five minutes before the Seliga‘s arrival, a flock of terns begin to work a distance away on a wind blown shoreline, and I assumed they were on shad being driven to the surface and the shoreline by hungry white bass.

By the time Matt and Corbin arrived and we hustled over to the scene of the crime, whatever was there had dissipated, so we spent a few more minutes on this cloudless morning looking for shoreline action, but found none.

This left us fishing the entire trip in deeper, open water primarily using sonar to find the fish we caught.

The water was a little turbid, there was small flotsam everywhere, and, according to the USACE, the lake rose over a half-foot thanks to Friday night’s hard rains, which dropped 1.5 to 2.5 inches area wide.

The fishing was just average this morning. We had no problem finding fish, but the fish never really got fired up at any of the locations we caught them at. Although we did give the sawtooth method a try here and there, we only landed two fish with that method. The other 87 fish put in the boat this morning came using the MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail worked vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

We had birds get fidgety twice this morning, but both times they worked for just a few minutes and over a large span of water.  I ran to both episodes and still had to use side-imaging extensively to find a nearby concentration of fish worth stopping for.  I believe (mainly) small hybrid are very aggressively chasing shad to the surface in small pods.  Anything that breaks the surface will immediately draw a “dogpile” response from dozens of these hungry Franklin’s gulls, thus sort of making a mountain out of a molehill.

Although by the end of the trip, we were able to laugh about it, Matt had a very reflexive, hard hookset built into his “muscle memory”, which he found hard to overcome. This cost him quite a few fish this morning. The reason why hooksetting is undesirable using the smoking tactic is because that tactic is a zero-slack tactic using braided line, which is a zero-stretch product. When you couple these things together, and understand the white bass’ habit of swiping at a bait then turning away, you begin to understand why hooksetting is not only a necessary, but counterproductive.

Additionally, the white bass (and any other object moving through the water) push a pressure wave ahead of themselves as they swim toward and overtake the bait. This causes an interruption in the spinner blade’s action, and this happens a split second before the fish actually closes its mouth over the hook. Setting the hook the instant this sensation is felt results in a premature hookset and missed or lightly hooked (and then lost) fish.

I know there are a lot of MAL Lure users out there who struggle with this, so I mention it in hope you can understand not just the “what”, but the “why” behind it.

Our catch of 89 fish consisted of 3 freshwater drum, 3 short, hybrid striper, 1 blue catfish, and 82 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: 89 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 12:10P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Elevation: 13.77 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.50′ rise over the last 72 hrs. thanks to heavy rains Fri. night

Water Surface Temp: 66.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: E4-5, building to E13 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: A thin white haze on a cloudless blue sky is the only cover we had today.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 82% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 1749 – 28 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area  083 – 17 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0063G – 11 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0169G – 2 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic B0173G – 10 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1402 -21 fish 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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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