CLIENTS: This morning I fished with first-time guest Al Edwards from the San Antonio area. He chaperoned his grandson, 11-year-old Zach Holbrook, who is visiting for the summer from the “wine country” of Oregon, in the Willamette River valley. This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip, so, only Zach did the fishing.
DATE: Tuesday, 06 August 2024 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)
PHOTO CAPTION: With the Lake Belton waterfall as a backdrop, I took this photo of Al Edwards and his 11-year-old grandson, Zach Holbrook, with a few of the white bass Zach landed under tough, windless conditions.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: With very hot, dry, high-pressure weather sitting right on top of Central Texas, there was no wind all morning. This typically does not bode well for white bass fishing, and, this morning was no exception. There was a weak low-light bite through around 7:50A, then it got to be like pulling teeth. I began not “feeling the love” early on, so, after we capitalized on the low-light bite via downrigging with Pet Spoons, and then gave smoking MAL Minis a try with little success, I switched Zach over to panfishing in shallow water to keep the fish coming over the side without much time going by between fish.
With 40 fish under his belt by around 9:30, we started heading back the way we came, but, I told him I’d like to try one area to see if we could land a double or a triple (2 or 3 fish landed simultaneously on downrigged 3-armed umbrella rigs). I changed all the baits over to small, #12 Pet Spoons and we go down to business. First fish was a single, next fish was a single, then a triple, then another single, followed by a double and two more singles. Ten fish to round out the morning, all taken in about 20 minutes’ time.
LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 & 13 Pet Spoons. We fished MAL Minis vertically, and we live bait under slipfloats for panfish up shallow. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 50 fish caught and released.
OBSERVATIONS:
1) Hot, dry, high pressure weather led to windless conditions and tough white bass action today.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 5:50 AM on August 5 …
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:10A
End Time: 10:10A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F
Elevation: 0.04 feet high and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow, resulting in a 0.03′ fall over the last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 87.2F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning
Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 4% illumination.
GT = 20
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