CLIENTS: This Friday morning I fished with Brad Massey (U.S. Army retired) and his adult daughter, Avery, who is making a go of it in the Central Texas real estate industry. Both came out with me for the first time this spring to both catch fish AND to learn my approach to targeting hybrid striped bass using live shad. It was Brad’s intention on this morning’s trip to see what summertime tactics are required for consistency in June, July, August, and into September.
DATE: 02 August 2024 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 15 Aug. (AM & PM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Brad Massey and his daughter, Avery, caught and released 160 fish on the morning of August 2. This was the best result my clients have enjoyed since the start of the flooding and the resulting recovery from it, going back to mid-May.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: Fishing continued to be pretty solid by summertime standards. There was a reliable downrigger bite from first light and for about an hour hence. During that time we landed 10 legal white bass in under 20 feet of water prior to sunrise. As the sun rose, and shortly thereafter, we moved out to the 20 to 32 foot mark and continued downrigging, adding an additional 40 fish to the count. 12 of these were short.
After this dried up, we changed tactics and began to find bottom-oriented schools of fish which we could Spot-Lock on top of, keep consolidated with the splasher, and fish vertically for. We alternated presentations between MAL Minis and MAL Originals with chartreuse tails, depending on fish preference as observed on Garmin LiveScope.
We caught at three different areas in this manner, taking our count up to 103 fish. We made one final move and I was anticipating finding additional small fish, but we were pleasantly surprised that quality fish were using this area. I Spot-Locked in 26 feet of water and we had abundant fish out to our port side and beneath the boat. I directed Brad and Avery to use MAL Originals with a sawtooth method to catch those fish we saw within a cast length out to the port side of the boat as I kept an eye on Garmin LiveScope in downward mode. They did well fishing horizontally, adding bonus fish to our tally whenever a good group of fish moved under the boat. Those fish directly beneath the boat were caught with a smoking tactic.
Things begin to get pretty quiet around 10:30 AM. With 160 fish now landed, we called it a good morning and headed out.
LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons. We fished MAL Originals and MAL Minis vertically, and we used MAL Originals with a sawtooth method to fish horizontally for fish we saw staying put on side imaging. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 160 fish caught and released.
OBSERVATIONS:
1) Still not much topwater action observed.
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 …
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:10A
End Time: 10:30P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F
Elevation: 0.30 feet high and falling slowly with a 33cfs flow, resulting in a 0.04′ fall over the last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 85.4F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S9-10 through 9:30, with an abrupt shift to SW9-10 thereafter
Sky Condition: Wispy white clouds at 15% on a blue sky
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 4% illumination.
GT = 5
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
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