CLIENTS: On Friday, Sept. 13, I saw that the north wind we’d had in place for 7 days was due to shift to the south. This usually helps the fishing, but also relocates fish. I wanted to stay on top of any fish movements, so, I took my wife on a morning scouting trip. Our intention was to check a lot of areas, catch no more than five fish in order to gauge activity level and size, then move on to the next area. Well, that effort resulted in 54 fish landed and multiple fish-holding areas identified. Just as I hopped in my truck to back down my trailer, I got a call. Long story short, Ariel and Paige Merhav were at Ft. Cavazos, visiting from Utah and wanted to go fishing. So, I met them back at Lake Belton at 4p, and we did a full 4-hour trip. He’s a firefighter, she’s a physician, and they were great anglers and great company.
DATE: Friday, 13 September 2024 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 17-19, 23-27 Sep.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Paige and Ariel Merhav landed 115 fish during their 4-hour evening trip on Lake Belton. This handsome smallmouth was the largest of the lot.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Paige and Ariel Merhav landed 115 fish during their 4-hour evening trip on Lake Belton. This handsome smallmouth was the largest of the lot.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Thanks to a bit of thin, high cloud cover and a nice, steady southerly breeze at 9-10 mph, we got right on fish this afternoon and stayed on them for a full four hours. Up until 7p, our fishing was focused on the increasing numbers of white bass beginning to occupy segments of the bottom which have not seen fish since the spring in as much as 50 feet of water.
We used one lure, one way to put 96 fish in the boat. That was the MAL Original with chartreuse tail. Ariel and Paige had lots of prior fishing experience, and that certainly helped them maximize their potential. Garmin LiveScope definitely placed a positive roll, as it showed when large schools of fish were moving in from the left or right so the two of them could time the rise of their lures correctly.
With about 20 minutes to go until dark, the fish count stood at 96, and we all wanted to break that 100 fish mark, but, the wind died and made the low-light period a bit tough (same thing is reported in my writeup from Sep. 10). After trying horizontal casting from a fixed position, I suggested we downrig in order to cover water and intersect with some of the patrolling schools of whites clearly showing on side-imaging. This worked out well. With two 3-armed umbrella rigs working 6 Pet Spoons, we put a final 19 fish in the boat coming as singles, doubles, and triples, thus ending the evening with 115 fish caught and released.
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 Pet Spoons. We smoked MAL Originals vertically. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 115 fish caught and released, including 2 smallmouth, 1 largemouth, 2 short hybrids, and 110 white bass
OBSERVATIONS:
1) The number of bottom-oriented schools of white bass encountered since the summertime patterns kicked which are “camped out” for more than just a few minutes at a time continues to increase steadily.
2) Second day of helpful southerly winds following 7 days of northerly winds.
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: 4P
End Time: 8P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 91F
Elevation: 0.97′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .02′ fall in last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 80.91F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S9-10 through 6:30P, then dropping off to S1-3
Sky Condition: Fair skies with high, thin, white cloud cover
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 73% illumination.
GT = 40
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area 811 through 1746 -19 fish downrigging #13 Pet Spoons
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