CLIENTS: This past Thursday morning, I fished with Mostafa K., a single young man in his late twenties working as an accountant for a construction firm in the DFW area. Since he is able to work remotely for a portion of his workweek, he took Thursday off, headed south to visit his family in the Austin area, and came out with me on this Thursday morning before putting in a few more hours on Friday. Mostafa has fished with me several times before.
DATE: Thursday, 29 August 2024 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 10-12 Sep.
PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Original did a great job imitating the size, shape, and color of the mature threadfin shad the quality fish we found in the early part of this morning’s trip were feeding on. The shad in the photo was regurgitated by one of the white bass my client landed.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Since our Central Texas lakes reopened in early July and after the USACE stopped running water through the dam, the fishing has become very consistent. Essentially, a fairly shallow bite for quality fish is taking place from first light and until the sun has been shining directly on the water for about 20 minutes (a total of about 80 minutes of fishing time), after which, fish move deep, scatter, and suspend. Once this dispersal takes place, the majority of my catch then is made up of small fish, most sub-legal, and the catch rate drops off.
This morning was no exception. We found fish via downrigging, caught them well and, on occasion, stopped to fish vertically or horizontally as the downrigging took us over larger concentrations of fish and/or side imaging revealed larger concentrations of fish to the port or starboard. This fishing took place from about 6:45A to about 8:00A and then quickly ended as the sun’s direct rays began to brighten the water and warm the air.
From this point on, we searched for white bass and shad with all forms of sonar, Spot-Locked atop the fish we found, used the splasher to draw them in and keep them near, and worked MAL Minis very quickly upwards off bottom with a smoking tactic to catch the rest of our fish.
Remember, with these MAL Minis, if you don’t feel the blade spinning as you work it upwards, bend the shaft a bit at a time until it begins to “kick in”.
Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with #12 & #13 Pet Spoons. We smoked and sawtoothed with MAL Originals for heavily schooled and fairly stationary fish. We smoked MAL Minis in the latter half of the trip suspended fish drawn in by the splasher. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 72 fish caught and released, including 3 freshwater drum, and 69 white bass.
OBSERVATIONS:
1) No topwater action observed.
2) Best quality fish came in the first 80 minutes; mainly smaller fish thereafter.
3) Spotted the first flock of migratory teal of the fall on Lake Belton
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:25 AM on Monday, August 26 …
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:15A
End Time: 10:50A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F
Elevation: 0.68′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 87.1F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SE4
Sky Condition: 35% white cloud cover increasing to 75% and going gray in advance of rain coming in after dark.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 19% illumination.
GT = 0
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