CLIENTS: This morning I fished with father and son team Tommy and Ryan Stinson. This was the Stinson’s first time out with me after being pointed my way by Mrs. Terri Covington, the queen of Belton real estate. Tommy works in operations in the manufacturing industry in Temple, and Ryan is in the banking industry. Flooding forced a postponement of this trip, but, that worked out for the better. Although we may have caught as many fish over the summer, we definitely would not have enjoyed it nearly as much as we did in this morning’s autumn-like conditions.
DATE: Monday, 09 September 2024 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 10-12, 16-19 Sep.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ryan Stinson and his dad, Tommy, with deepwater whites and blacks which shot up off bottom after their “smoked” MAL Lures this morning.
PHOTO CAPTION: We all watched this nice smallmouth shoot up off bottom in ~35 feet of water, overtake and then strike Tommy’s MAL Lure after running about 14 feet straight up to get it as viewed on Garmin LiveScope.
PHOTO CAPTION: This Lake Belton hybrid striped bass was mixed in with white bass and struck one of three Pet Spoons trailing behind an umbrella rig set at 24′ over a deeper bottom.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
What a pleasant morning to be outdoors, with a 55F start, a cloudless sky, and low humidity. We began our morning fancasting to scattered fish in under 15′ using MAL Originals, landing 4 fish and missing one more before the sun’s rays brightened the sky and pushed these fish down and out further.
We then retooled, got the downriggers going with the balls set at 24′ over a deeper bottom and wore out the suspended white bass until some distant topwater action got my attention. For variety’s sake, I chased these topwater fish, but the action ended by the time we made the run to them, so, I returned to the scene of the downrigging success and decided to Spot-Lock on bottom-oriented schools and work them with MAL Lures (Originals and Minis) smoked upwards off the bottom.
This turned out very well, helping us take our count to 81 fish landed by 9AM.
After a while, these fish started to trend small and thin out, so, it was time to move. I looked over two areas, only finding a few scattered fish on them. We picked up three whites at one of these two areas, and I passed on the other.
I looked for yet another area with similar depth and topography, and found yet another cooperative school on bottom. We finished up the trip here, staying on these fish for a full 50 minutes until the morning bite died. I found that the best quality fish would come first on the MAL Originals, then we could follow up with MAL Minis and continue to catch plentiful, smaller fish with that smaller bait.
In all, Ryan and Tommy landed 117 fish in right at 4 hours’ time.
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 #13 Pet Spoons. We smoked MAL Originals and Minis vertically. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 117 fish caught and released, including 1 smallmouth, 1 largemouth, 6 short hybrids, 1 drum, and 108 white bass
OBSERVATIONS:
1) No topwater action.
2) We fished on a continuing N. wind which swept in late Friday night and both cooled and dried the atmosphere. It also started water temps trending downwards.
3) Second consecutive trip finding bottom-oriented schools of white bass “camped out” for more than just a few minutes at a time. We were able to Spot-Lock on them, present to them, and draw responses repeatedly for up to 40 minutes at a time.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:35 AM on Saturday, September 7 , then again around 6:10AM on Monday, September 9…
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:45A
End Time:11:05A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F
Elevation: 0.85′ low and rising slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .03′ rise in last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 80.3F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: NNW7-11
Sky Condition: Light blue, cloudless skies all morning
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 33% 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