HIGH ON ACTION; LOW ON VARIETY — 86 FISH

CLIENTS: On Tuesday evening, July 30, I fished with long-time client Steve Niemeier, his daughter, Emily Haberer, and Emily’s daughter, Zoey Haberer, age 9 — three generations aboard.

 

DATE: 30 July 2024 (PM)

 

NEXT OPEN DATES: Thursday, 01 Aug. (PM), 07 Aug. (AM), 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Emily and Zoey Haberer, and Zoey’s grandfather, Steve Niemeier with Lake Belton white bass taken exclusively via downrigging on this very windy and warm late July Texas evening.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

 

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:  It was truly a “one trick pony” kind of night … downrigging accounted for every last one of the 86 fish Steve and his crew landed.  Although I saw three distinct schools of fish I felt might be good candidates for working a lure horizontally through, these fish were so mobile that by the time I could get the boat set, rods to everyone, and begin presentations, the fish were long gone.  Later, near dark (and well after sunset), some hard-to-see topwater action broke out in the heavy chop.  Unfortunately, this action was from very small white bass feeding on threadfin shad which were about 1 1/8″ long.  I opted to keep right on downrigging near bottom to continue to target larger fish.

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

TALLY: 86 fish caught and released, including: 65 legal white bass, and 21 short white bass.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Spare topwater action consisted of very small whites feeding on small baits.

2) Better quality fish were holding tight to bottom.

3) USACE stopped running water through the dam for the first time since May’s flooding on 26 July; since then fish have been more likely to use bottom, and have begun using bottom at greater depths versus when a high flow was running.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:15AM on July 25 …

0 feet 86.2F
 5 feet 86.7F
10 feet 86.7F
15 feet 86.1F
20 feet 85.9F
25 feet 85.9F
30 feet 85.9F
35 feet 85.3F
40 feet 84.5F
45 feet 82.9F
50 feet 81.5F
55 feet 80.7F
60 feet 79.6F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15P

End Time: 8:50P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 96F

Elevation: 0.50 feet high and falling slowly with a 33cfs flow, resulting in a 0.05′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 85.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S13-14 all morning

Sky Condition: Partly cloudy with 60% white-grey cloud cover on a white sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 25% illumination.

GT = 35

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic 133 to B0018G to 1070 – 86 white bass 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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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