October | 2023 | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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SUN CITY ROD & GUN CLUB VISITS LAKE BELTON — 108 FISH

October 26th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, October 25, I fished with a crew from the Sun City Rod and Gun Club out of Georgetown, Texas.

Mr. Pat Patterson is the club’s fishing director, and he did a great job of communicating clearly and well in advance to the crew he assembled for this trip so as to make the trip as enjoyable as could be for the three fellows who joined him: Jim Pax, Russ Gibbs, and Bill Domescik.

Everyone had prior fishing experience, including experience with spinning gear, so we were in good shape for the morning. Here is how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are Oct. 30, Nov. 2 & 6

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jim Pax, Russ Gibbs, Pat Patterson, and Bill Domescik, all members of the Sun City Rod and Gun Club, converged on Lake Belton this morning for a 108-fish haul.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jim Pax took our largest fish of the trip, a hybrid striped bass in the 4-pound class.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: the 3/4 oz., 5/8 oz., & 3/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs complete with bladed treble hook and stinger hook will see increasing action as the water cools. Our fish came on the white 5/8 oz. version this morning as it did the best job of imitating the size of the shad I saw the fish we were catching regurgitate.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 25 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

We had a third consecutive day of rainy, cloudy weather. There were about three 10 to 15 minute spans during the trip when it rained heavily enough to send us grabbing for our rain gear.

With the grey, dim skies at sunrise, the fish were not yet active on the bottom. I moved to a new location to search out some subsurface, low light activity, and was successful in finding just that.

We took nine fish via downrigging right off the bat this morning, including whites, hybrid, and one largemouth bass, before the skies got bright enough to illuminate the deeper water to kick off the fish feed there. I continued downrigging until I saw evidence of fish feeding on the bottom, and once I did, we switched over to a vertical tactic and never looked back.

Given my experience yesterday, finding schooled fish which were heavily congregated on bottom and eating shad roughly 2 inches in length, I stuck with the 5/8 ounce, white, Bladed Hazy Eye Slab instead of going with the larger MAL Lure. I believe this turned out to be a good choice, which put additional fish in the boat, especially given that many of the fish we encountered today were on the small end of the spectrum.

Over the course of the morning, we hit approximately seven deepwater areas and the scenario at each was the same. I spotted fish either with down-imaging or side-imaging, positioned atop them using the Spot-Lock feature on my Minn Kota, then maintained contact with these fish using Garmin LiveScope in downward mode. My four clients were all in the back of the boat so we confined all of the commotion we created to one area. I had them smoke the slabs from bottom upwards for a default amount of seven cranks. The first group of fish we got into allowed us a very quick 42 fish in about as many minutes, but the vast majority of these fish were small.

Feeling that everyone had the gist of the smoking tactic at this point, I offered that we could continue right on doing what we were doing, or roll the dice and hope to find larger fish in other locations. This works out about 30% of the time. Everyone put their heads together and agreed they’d like to go after larger white bass, so we moved routinely, and all of the areas we went to produced at least a few fish larger than all of the fish we caught at that first area.

By the time noon rolled around, we had just eclipsed the 100 fish mark and took the count to 108 before the fish finally gave up the ghost.

Our tally of 108 fish included 1 largemouth bass, 5 hybrid striped bass, 8 freshwater drum, and 94, white bass of which about 45% were legal.

TALLY: 108 fish caught and released.

0 feet, 73.4F
5 feet, 73.3F
10 feet, 73.3F
15 feet, 73.3F
20 feet, 73.1F
25 feet, 72.8F
30 feet, 71.7F
35 feet, 71.6F
40 feet, 70.7F
45 feet, 69.0F
50 feet, 64.5F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 12:10P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 19.37 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 73.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-15 all morning

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with scattered, occasional, brief, light rain over the 4 hour trip

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 85% illumination.

GT = 125

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0171G – downrigging for 9 fish

Areas 717/0005 (42 fish), B0094C (5 fish), BDH010 in 42′ (14 fish), 0151 (18 fish in 2 hops), and B0240G (20 fish) for a total of 99 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

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

A MULTI-NATIONAL FISH CATCHING FORCE — 101 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

October 24th, 2023October 24th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, October 24, I fished with returning guest, Mostafa Kassem. Mostafa fished with me once before during the summer months and returned today with a friend, Bobby Nkemka, to experience some fall fishing.

We truly had a multi-national fishing force assembled this morning — Mostafa was born in Egypt, Bobby was born in Nigeria, and I was born right here in the USA ; the two became friends, are both accountants in the construction industry, and both enjoy experiencing new things. Bobby enjoyed his time on the water so much, he made mention of bringing his girlfriend out in the future.

Bobby had never been aboard a boat before, and had also never caught a fish before in his life; all that would change this morning

Here is how our morning went.…

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

Next available dates are Oct. 26 & 30, Nov. 2 & 6

PHOTO CAPTION: Bobby Nkemka had never caught a fish before this morning’s 101-fish haul on Lake Belton. He made up for lost time!

PHOTO CAPTION: Mostafa had fished with me once before, but in summer-time conditions over on Stillhouse, so he got some exposure to a different reservoir and to some different tactics this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: This is what took 99 of our 101 fish this morning … the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab. Mostafa and Bobby used the white, 5/8 oz. version to match the 3/4-grown shad the white bass were regurgitating.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 24 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

The rainy weather we experienced yesterday, thanks to bands of rain spinning off of a Pacific low pressure system off of Mexico’s west coast, continued this morning. We have rain in the forecast for at least the next few days.

With the skies so grey, I opted to downrig for starters, but, the population of fish I’d been on for such a long time now for that early morning bite has now really thinned out. We wound up only taking one fish and losing another on the downriggers before some temporary thinning in the clouds allowed enough light to come through that I felt it appropriate to begin looking for heavily schooled fish in deep water on bottom.

I struck out at the first area I searched, but more than made up for it after finding fish at a second area.

That school of fish was large enough and stayed aggressive enough long enough to allow us a 99 fish catch from one Spot-Locked position over a three hour span.

For simplicity‘s sake with Bobby being brand new, and with the gusty winds blowing a minimum of 14 making things a bit challenging on boat handling, I chose to go with a smoking tactic using Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs in white color to tempt these heavily-concentrated, bottom-oriented fish

This smoking tactic seems pretty simple on its face, but there are definitely nuances which up your chances of success. The two nuances I focused on with Mostafa and Bobby were those of retrieve speed and retrieve smoothness. For speed, I simply gave them an example while they reeled up their lures at the same speed I did, as I provided them with a demonstration. I demonstrated retrieve smoothness in the same manner, and then also showed them how to identify when their retrieve was not as smooth as necessary by telling them what to look for in their own rod tip as they reeled.

As both men got the hang of reeling smoothly and quickly from the bottom upward, their success rate increased exponentially.

It is pretty rare to put together an entire trip on one location and at just one anchorage on that location, but that is exactly what happened today. If such a thing is going to happen, it will typically be between now and the middle of December, or sometime in late-April to early May, the two truly peak seasons of the white bass fishing annual cycle.

Our 101 fish catch included for drum and 97 white bass.

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released.

Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

0 feet, 73.4F
5 feet, 73.3F
10 feet, 73.3F
15 feet, 73.3F
20 feet, 73.1F
25 feet, 72.8F
30 feet, 71.7F
35 feet, 71.6F
40 feet, 70.7F
45 feet, 69.0F
50 feet, 64.5F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 12:00 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 19.34 feet low, 47 CFS flow ( a 0.02-foot rise)

Water Surface Temp: 73.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE11-15 all morning

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with scattered, occasional rain 8:45 to 10:45

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 76% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0233G – downrigging for 1 fish

Area 717 – 99 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0239G – 1 fish smoking an MAL Heavy after the bite was over

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 DID NOT FIT THE PROFILE — 92 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

October 23rd, 2023October 23rd, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, October 23, I fished with first time guests Mr. Ron Mahan and his longtime friend, Mr. Dave Ensminger. Ron resides on Cedar Creek Lake where he fishes routinely from a Skeeter bass boat. Dave is a resident of Euless, Texas, and fishes routinely from a kayak.

Ron has made a number of lure purchases from me and follows my reports on the Texas Fishing Forum. Today was as much about learning approaches to white bass fishing as it was about catching them.

For this reason, I tried to demonstrate as many tactics as possible as the fishing conditions permitted. Sometimes “retired guys” can be a bit tough to teach as they tend to want to do things the way they’ve always done things. In this regard, Ron and Dave did not fit the “profile”.

Here is how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are Oct. 26 & 30, Nov. 2 & 6

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ron Mahan and Dave Ensminger with a few of the Lake Belton white bass they took using a multitude of tactics under grey, rainy skies which would drop over 1.25″ of much needed rain on Central Texas between sunrise and sunset!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 23 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

Cloud cover was heavy and gray this morning as I launched, and a steady, light rain began right as we put lines in the water. That rain lasted until about 9 AM when the skies began to clear. Under the dark skies, active fish moved up in the water column and suspended as they fed, which led me to choose downrigging as our initial approach. The men picked up 12 fish, all as singles, as the fish activity level was below average as compared to the brighter, drier mornings of late.

Once I saw fish moving and feeding along the bottom, primarily by viewing 2D Sonar, I switched us over as quickly as I could from downrigging to using vertical tactics.

We would go on to hit five areas, all holding fish, and all allowing for fish to be caught using a smoking tactic. We started off with a MAL Heavy Lures, since the water is still in the low 70s. As we got the fish worked up, I also showed how to smoke with Hazy Eye Slabs.

Then, as the fish began to lose interest and thin out after we spent a while catching on each of these five areas, I demonstrated how to slow things down, using an easing tactic with the same Hazy Eye Slabs.

The second to last area we hit had the most fish located at it, albeit at a time of day when the fish were coming off of their morning feed. Seeing that fish were well-schooled and spread over quite some square footage of bottom, I finally had an opportunity to demonstrate the sawtooth method with success. I put both MAL Heavies and MAL Dense Lures on for both fellows to give them an opportunity to compare the sink rate and the feel of these two lures side by side.

We stayed until about 12:45 and managed 92 fish this morning. This included four hybrid stripers, all of which were short, four largemouth bass, one drum, and the balance of white bass. This morning was a little atypical in that we caught nearly 50% small white bass. These were not necessarily short, but closer to 10 inch fish then they were the nicer 12 inch fish which have been making up the lion’s share of the catch over the last three weeks.

TALLY: 92 fish caught and released.

Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

0 feet, 73.4F
5 feet, 73.3F
10 feet, 73.3F
15 feet, 73.3F
20 feet, 73.1F
25 feet, 72.8F
30 feet, 71.7F
35 feet, 71.6F
40 feet, 70.7F
45 feet, 69.0F
50 feet, 64.5F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 12:45P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 19.37 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 73.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-13 all morning

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with some rain in the first 2 hours after sunrise

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 65% illumination.

GT = 155

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0233G – downrigging for 12 fish

Areas 1552 (2 hops, 48 fish), B0030G (8 fish), 2062 (15 fish), & 2063 (9 fish) – smoking & sawtoothing MAL Heavies, & smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

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

Three Generations in “Fishing Heaven” — 107 Fish @ Belton

October 20th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, October 20, I fished with three generations of Connally men. James Connally is a retired Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game warden captain who resides in Belton. His son, Michael Connally, is an orthopedic surgeon based in Bryan/College Station, and Michael’s son, Case, is almost 9 years old, and is working his way through the third grade this year.

We caught ’em pretty hot and heavy this morning. At one point, Case, who experienced the most productive trip of his life thus far said it was like “fishing heaven”!

Here is how the fishing went…
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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Oct. 26 & 30, Nov. 2 & 6

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mike, James, and Case Connally with a few of the 107 fish they landed during their 4-hour morning trip on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: As we wrapped up the trip this morning an approached the shoreline, a massive hatch of aquatic insects was underway. This is what the boat looked like … there had to be millions of these things!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 20 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

NOAA was spot-on today with their wind and weather forecast. They called for southwesterly winds to swing through the west and then northwest as a mild front pushed in around 11:15 AM. We had no cloud cover this morning as this dry front approached.

Although the fish were not truly “on fire”, they bit consistently from start to finish this morning and are definitely beginning to relate to the bottom and school up into large groups thanks to the slow but steady decline in water temperature.

We spent our first hour downrigging for suspended white bass and hybrid striper which were holding between 15 and 20 feet below the surface over deeper water. We took these fish using three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons.

Fish were caught as singles, doubles, and one triple, allowing us a downrigger catch of 24 fish before the skies brightened sufficiently to push the fish further down into the water column and to bottom.

From around 8:30 AM and until we wrapped up around 11:40 AM, all of our fishing involved using MAL Heavies with chartreuse tails fish vertically with a smoking tactic for an additional 83 fish.

While I could find no fish deeper than about 30 feet last week, fish and shad were routinely found down to 35 feet today, again, thanks to the slowly cooling water.

Our catch of 107 fish consisted of five largemouth bass, six hybrid striped bass, one freshwater drum, and 95 white bass.

TALLY: 107 fish caught and released.

Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Osprey, coot and teal numbers are increasing daily; I have now spotted the first multi-bird flock of gulls since spotting a single back on Saturday, 14 Oct.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Elevation: 18.99 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: WSW6 at sunrise, shifting to W by 9A, then going slack briefly for about 20 minutes prior to the start of a NW breeze at 9 mph around 11:15A

Sky Condition: Light blue skies; 0% cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 32% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0233G to B0231G – downrigging for 24 fish

Area 1486/953, 2059, 1290/B016G, B0181G, B0090C – smoking MAL Heavies for 83 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

A Little Father-and-Son Time — 72 Fish @ Lake Belton

October 14th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, October 14th, I welcomed aboard first-time guests Jason and Gregory for a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip intended mainly to introduce Gregory to fishing and give father and son some time together outdoors while giving mom, Rachelle, a little break from stay-at-home “momming”.

Neither father or son had ever been fishing before.

“Kids Fish, Too!” trips are specifically for kids in that they cost less than adult trips, go for a shorter period of time than adult trips, and include a greater variety of tactics to cater to kids’ shorter attention spans.

Here’s how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: Fishing newbies Jason and Gregory (age 5) enjoyed ideal conditions today as an incoming cold front spurred the fish to feed long and hard this morning. The pair landed 72 fish in under 3.5 hours with no prior experience under their belts! We fished until little Gregory wore out!

PHOTO CAPTION: We downrigged early for suspended fish, then worked MAL Lures from the bottom, upwards during the late morning for fish holding tightly to bottom.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 14 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite my boatmates’ lack of prior experience, they did very well today because 1) they were willing to be coached, and 2) the incoming cold front had the fish feeding in overdrive this morning.

Not only did father and son land 72 fish on their first-ever fishing trip, they did it in just 3.25 hours and while fishing only two distinct areas.

This trip broke down neatly into two parts. Part one involved downrigging for white bass and hybrid striped bass under low-light conditions from 7:25 until around 9AM. We used 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons on twin downriggers to present six baits at any given time.

I used down-imaging and 2-D sonar to estimate the depth at which these suspended fish were holding, and ran our baits at, or as much as 2 feet above, these fish.

Jason and Greg put 30 fish in the boat via downrigging, including two sets of triples, and multiple doubles and singles. The three legal hybrid landed today all came on downriggers during this time.

By around 9AM, the sky was much brighter, and the suspended fish began to push down to bottom.

I then transitioned Jason and Greg to using MAL Lures presented vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. We found fish in ~32 feet of water, so, I put MAL Heavies on (with chartreuse tails) to increase the sink rate.

Once Jason got the hang of cranking the spinning reel’s handle hard and fast on the first crank in order to get the MAL Lure’s blade spinning quickly, he was off to the races.

Little Gregory was hoping against hope for 1) a salmon, and 2) an alligator gar, but those were not in the cards this morning 😉

We left a bit before the 3.5 hours which I normally conduct “Kids Fish, Too!” trips for because, despite sharing with his dad early in the morning that he’d like to stay until he caught 20 million fish, Gregory began to wane around fish #64. Still, hanging for 3.25 hours is a good bit longer than the vast majority of 5-year-olds I’ve had aboard have stayed engaged.

In all, the pair landed 72 fish including 12 hybrid striped bass (3 legal), and 60 white bass (57 legal).

TALLY: 72 fish caught and released.

Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: I’m afraid we’ve seen the last of the topwater for 2023. The previous four days of cloud cover yielded no topwater action, and this morning, under ideal, sunny conditions, there was very little action — not nearly enough to focus on, even if I’d had experienced casters aboard.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 18.99 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 74.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: N13-15 all morning

Sky Condition: Clear “bluebird” skies

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0234G thru B0233G – downrigging for 30 fish

Area B0235G – smoking MAL Heavies for 42 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

TACO-POWERED TROLLING — 81 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

October 13th, 2023October 13th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, October 13, I fished with returning guest, Ken Powell, from near Lake Buchanan, joined by first time guest Jay Florence, from Odessa, Texas.

After working as a welder in the oil industry, Jay now has his own lawn care business which allows him more time with his twin 14-year-old sons. Ken retired some years ago from coaching high school football.

Jay does a lot of fishing from a kayak. As we were trolling for white bass with downriggers, the topic of ideal trolling speed came up. I told Jay and Ken that I thought maintaining a speed of ~2.6 mph was ideal; that happened to be the speed at which we were then trolling. Jay then volunteered that he thought he might just be able to get to that speed and hold it in his pedal-type kayak, depending on how hard he’d worked the day before and how many tacos he’d had for dinner!

Here’s how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ken Powell and Jay Florence worked at it for 4+ hours and put together a 2-man catch of 81 fish primarily “smoking” MAL Heavy Lures from the bottom upwards.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 13 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

We were all hoping that the cold front, which had been forecast earlier in the week to enter into Central Texas air space this morning, would come to fruition. But, as it turned out, with every subsequent forecast update, the cold front’s arrival was pushed further back. We saw only southeasterly winds shifting to the south, and then just slightly west of south during our time on the water with no northerly influence at all.

For the fourth morning in a row, the skies were heavily clouded with gray clouds, thus eliminating the chance of topwater action occurring. We began the day successfully downrigging, but did so only as long as necessary before transitioning to vertical tactics once fish began to show up and feed on the bottom. We boated 19 fish via downrigging using three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons.

Once fish began showing on bottom, we began using MAL Lures vertically and continued in that manner for the remainder of the trip.

We hit four distinct areas, each in 27 to 32 feet of water, after sonar revealed a spattering of white bass in these areas. At no time today did we find large collection of white bass massed together tight to the bottom as was the case on Wednesday and Thursday.

When we identified white bass in an area, we put the trolling motor on Spot-Lock, used Garmin LiveScope to keep track of our baits and fish response to them, and wound up putting a grand total of 81 fish in the boat for Ken and Jay by 11:30.

Based on recent reports from clients of mine on both Lake Texoma and Lake Buchanan, I experimented with something this morning. After catching fish during their usual frenzied display of interest when we first arrived and began catching fish on MAL Lures, as those fish began to show less interest in the MAL Lures, I dropped a Bladed Hazy Eye Slab (white, 5/8 ounce) down to the still present fish and “eased” this lure up off the bottom slowly but steadily at a rate of rise slower than that which the MAL Lures were being retrieved at. This accounted for a few more fish today – – enough that I will keep a set of rods on the boat rigged to do this tactic with my more experienced clients going forward and see if this behavior was the exception, or the rule

As we wrapped up at just a little over the four hour mark, a gray cloud deck was moving in from the west, indicating our cold front would arrive in the next few hours. Indeed, lows tomorrow morning are forecast to be in the high 50s or right at 60° versus 74° this morning. Our tally of 81 fish included 2 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 76 white bass of which about 70% were of legal size.

TALLY: 81 fish caught and released.

Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: For the fourth consecutive day, no topwater action materialized thanks to a very slow brightening of the morning skies under thick, grey cloud cover.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 18.89 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 75.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5-6 for ~3 hours, shifting to SSW in the final hour

Sky Condition: Grey cloud cover at 100% thru 9:45A, then clearing to 50% white clouds on blue sky for about an hour, then clouding up again as a dry cold front approached from the west.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0234G thru 1356 – downrigging for 19 fish

Areas 1356, 354, B0238G, and B0056G – smoking MAL Heavies for 62 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

SOLDIER’S SONS GOT ‘ER DONE — 69 FISH @ BELTON

October 12th, 2023October 12th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, October 12, I conducted the seventh SKIFF trip of the 2023 season providing a fishing trip at no charge to the family of U.S. Army Colonel Charles Ausman.

Mrs. Denise Igo, who herself was once served by the SKIFF program, kindly made the Fort Cavazos community aware of the free trips I was offering to military children separated from their parents by military duty this week during the Killeen Independent School District’s fall break via her Fort Cavazos Area Events Facebook page.

The boys’ mom, Jessi Ausman, contacted me after seeing this Facebook post, and arranged for the oldest three of her four boys to come out fishing with me this morning. I hosted Jameson (10), Will (9), and Sampson (7) for a 3.5 hour trip on Lake Belton. The boys father is a logistician currently deployed to southwest Asia.

ABOUT SKIFF: This fishing trip, like all SKIFF trips, was provided to this military family at no charge. This program began in May of 2009. It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with, namely The McBride Foundation and Subaru. S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing. SKIFF trips are also provided, free of charge, to Gold Star families who have lost their service member while he or she was on active duty. In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents are bona fide disabled veterans. I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Cavazos in Bell County, TX, year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

Here is how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jameson, Will, and Samson Ausman and a few of the 69 fish they landed on their Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Samson was curious just what it feels like to the fish when we “lipped” them to lower them back to the water prior to releasing them. Well … he found out!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 12 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

Once again, we had a warm, humid, 100% cloudy sky this morning. The temperature at sunrise was around 64°. These cloudy skies just about guarantee that no topwater bite will take place, and that was the case this morning. Having been through the same scenario earlier this week, I came prepared to downrig for suspended fish during the low light period with plans to find heavily schooled fish on bottom and fish for them later in the morning under brighter sky conditions.

We enjoyed great success as the boys took turns landing fish on the two downriggers I ran simultaneously, each equipped with a three-armed umbrella rig outfitted with #13 Pet Spoons for a total of six baits in the water. We caught 21 fish by downrigging.

As the skies brightened, activity along the bottom steadily increased as witnessed on down-imaging. When that activity had grown sufficiently, I switched the boys over to fishing MAL Originals with chartreuse tails to take advantage of these concentrations of bottom-oriented fish. The boys all got the hang of using the smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope fairly quickly, and that is what we stuck with for the remainder of the trip.

By the time mom returned for the boys around 10:50 AM, the boys had amassed a catch of 69 fish which included hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, freshwater drum, and white bass.

TALLY: 69 fish caught and released.

Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: For the third consecutive day, no topwater action materialized thanks to a very slow brightening of the morning skies under thick, grey cloud cover.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 18.91 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 75.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12-14 all morning

Sky Condition: Thick, grey cloud cover at 100% all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 5% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1356 thru B0234G – downrigging Pets for 21 fish

Area B0233G- 16 fish smoking MAL Originals

Areas 1469, B0237G, B0235G, and B0236G – a combined catch of 32 fish at these three areas, all via smoking MAL Originals

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 Morning Allowed for Both — 105 Fish @ Belton

October 11th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, October 11, I fished with Mr. David Furnace of Salado, Texas.

David did an on-the-water sonar training session with me back earlier this summer, and after returning from his summer place up in Michigan, booked a fishing trip with me now that the weather has moderated, and the fishing has begun to pick up.

David’s concern was more with the approaches I take to finding fish, than actually catching fish. Fortunately, this morning allowed for both.

Here is how the fishing went…
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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: David Furnace arrived loaded with questions and ready to learn this morning. We went over multiple tactics and detailed the blended use of multiple sonar technologies during our 4+ hour morning trip which yielded 105 fish.

PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Heavy with white tail accounted for 86 of our 105 fish this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 10 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

For the second consecutive day, the skies brightened slowly through grey, cloudy skies. This morning’s skies were completely greyed over from before sunrise through to the end of the trip. Yesterday’s cloudy conditions lead to a near total lack of topwater action, and this morning was similar in that regard. Although we saw a handful of schooling fish, they were so widespread, and appeared so infrequently that we did not focus on them.

As I looked over multiple areas where topwater action has been occurring, I found abundant, suspended fish present along with an abundance of bait. This screamed out for a downrigging approach, and that is exactly the approach we took. I explained each step of the downrigging process, as well as how the various components of the downrigging set-up function to David.

We quickly got to downriggers in the water, each equipped with a three-armed umbrella rig sporting #13 Pet Spoons as the baits. With two rods and six baits in the water, things started happening very quickly for us. In no time, we had boated multiple singles, multiple doubles, and a triple, taking our count to 14 fish before the area we were focused on became so saturated with fish that I felt downrigging would no longer be our most efficient option.

I quickly put the downrigging gear away and changed over to fishing MAL Heay Lures vertically, using a splasher to draw fish to us, consolidate them beneath the boat, and make them more readily caught.

Fish were present primarily in the lower third of the water column, and were moving at a fast pace, parallel to the bottom, indicating they were patrolling and actively chasing bait. With the help of Garmin LiveScope, we quickly took our fish count to 41 before taking a break to give topwater another consideration. Over a 1/8-mile area, three ospreys were working pretty intently, and diving occasionally. As we arrived in that area, we found widespread, sparse surface activity, which was not going to lend itself well to throwing topwaters. Sonar revealed ample fish on bottom in the same area, so we returned to smoking MAL Heavies in conjunction with LiveScope, and took our count to 70.

During this time I had an opportunity to demonstrate the sawtooth method, so, David now had three techniques under his belt.

After these fish cooled off, we checked out a third area which had produced well at around the 9:30 time frame on Monday. After a little looking, we found a small area in 32 feet of water carpeted with fish and sat on them, again smoking MAL Heavies, aided by LiveScope. We took our count to exactly 100 and left them biting so as to introduce David to one final tactic.

For that one final on the water lesson, I took David to an area where I’d viewed abundant blue catfish in 32 to 34 feet of water on yesterday‘s trip . These fish were still present, so we used Catfish Plumbs baited with two different kinds of prepared baits to tempt these fish. We spent our final 30 minutes working for these blue cat and landed five which represented about 50% of the strikes we experienced.

We wrapped up the trip with exactly 105 fish landed, including five blue catfish, two short hybrid, striper, two freshwater drum, and the balance (96) white bass with about 25% of them being short fish.

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released.

Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: With cloud cover and breeze all morning, a long-sleeved shirt worn all morning was comfortable for the first time in a long time!

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 710A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 18.85 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 75.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 10% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0032C thru B0231G – downrigging for 14 fish

Area vic B0231G – 27 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic B0185G – 29 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic B0037C – 30 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0069G to 344 – 5 bluecat on Catfish Plumbs

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

FISH STRONG!! — 28 Fish w/ the Strong Brothers

October 10th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, Oct. 10, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with brothers Jameson and Declan Strong of Fort Cavazos.

The Killeen ISD has a week-long Fall Break this week, and the boys’ mom, Niki, coordinated the trip just for the boys, with dad coming along as a non-fishing chaperone.

As it turns out, their dad, Rick, is a fellow West Point graduate from the Class of 2000; he’s been on active duty for 20 years and now serves with the U.S. Army’s III Corps — “America’s Hammer”.

Here is how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Declan, Jameson, and Rick Strong with the boys’ first two legal fish of the morning — a matching pair of hybrid striped bass right at 19-20″ and just over 3 pounds.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 10 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

Now that incoming cold fronts are beginning to become a roughly weekly occurrence, I anticipate the “boom-bust” cycle to play out with fishing peaking as cold fronts roll in, then bottoming out as the winds go slack under post-frontal conditions, then hovering somewhere around average in the lulls between fronts.

Today we experienced one of those lulls. The returning warmth and humidity brought in cloud cover which killed the morning’s topwater bite and got things off to a later start as compared to the brighter, cloudless mornings of late. Most of our fish were caught in the first two hours with the last half of the trip being much tougher.

Our first bit of success came where I’d been encountering consistent topwater action, but, this morning the fish were hunkered down between 15-30 feet and we had to downrig for them. We put 9 fish in the boat at the first area we fished, including two legal hybrid, running twin downriggers, each equipped with three #13 Pet Spoons for a total of six baits in the water.

We moved on as the sun brightened the increasingly cloudy sky and found active white bass in about 32 feet of water within 100 yards of the same topography which gave fish up to a smoking tactic yesterday. These fish went crazy for a smoked MAL Heavy with white tail, but only for about 25 minutes.

Once these fish grew disinterested, it was like they spoke for the entire population! I found several groups of fish in multiple locations thereafter, but getting them to give more than a half-hearted follow took an act of Congress.

We went back to downrigging in our final 50 minutes on the water and picked up a few more white bass from small groups scattered about, but really did not find any additional, aggressively feeding white bass.

Despite what to me was a so-so trip, the boys were ecstatic to catch what they caught and I am hopeful that the next time the Army sends their dad “down range” they will return for a SKIFF trip with me. They stayed focused and enthusiastic the entire time.

Our final tally was 28 fish today. This included 5 hybrid (2 legal), 2 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 20 white bass (17 legal).

TALLY: 28 fish caught and released.

Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Things were pretty subdued this morning. I saw no deer feeding, no flying ospreys, no feeding blue herons, and no bait nor gamefish working the surface.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 18.83 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE6-9 all morning

Sky Condition: Grey clouds on a light blue sky at 70%, increasing to fully clouded over by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 16% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0220G thru BHYD07 – 9 fish via downrigging

Area vic B0037C – 11 fish smoking MAL Heavies

Area vic B0229G – 8 fish scattered throughout this area taken 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