CLIENTS:  This morning, Wednesday, July 16, I welcomed to returning guests aboard as we continued our effort at fish collection in support of a study being conducted by Temple College which will compare and contrast the white bass populations on Lake Belton and on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.  Joining me this morning doing the fishing was Mr. Otto Riedel and Mr. Dwight Stone, both from the Georgetown, Texas, area.  Also aboard were student researchers Caleb Fry and Caroline Vanderburg.

ABOUT THE WHITE BASS STUDY: This study takes place from April 2025 through April 2026. On one designated day each month during that timeframe, anglers will assist in collecting white bass from Belton and from Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir using traditional rod and reel tactics.  All fish will be released. Those participating will receive a $50 discount per trip. The dates remaining open are as follows:

 

August 2025:                    14^th Thursday – Belton – OPEN

September 2025:             20^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN

October 2025:                  18^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 25^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

November 2025               8^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 15^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

January 2026                     17^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN

February 2026                  14^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 21st Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

March 2026                      11^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN / 12^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

April 2026                          15^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN / 16^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 16 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 04 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 13 September (AM)

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Dwight Stone and Otto Riedel captured over 100 Lake Belton white bass this morning — each one was weighed and measured in an ongoing study comparing white bass populations in Lake Belton with those in Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.

 

FIND CORK RIGS & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

For a second day in a row, we enjoyed an obscured sunrise and a sky with mostly cloudy conditions all morning, as well as a gentle south-southeasterly wind enough to make it comfortable to be outside and to ripple the surface, thus reducing the amount of penetrating light.

These conditions kept the white bass feeding well all morning. We successfully employed three tactics.

Early on, when the fish were in the shallowest water they would be in all morning, we used MAL Heavy Lures with a sawtooth tactic, fishing these lures horizontally.

Once the sun rose and brightened the skies, the fish moved out deeper. We continued using the sawtooth method successfully, and also mixed in some vertical smoking each time Garmin LiveScope (which I left operating continuously) indicated a heavy congregation of fish had moved directly beneath the boat.

Once the sawtooth method and smoking method began to get ignored, I felt it was time to cover ground horizontally, using our third successful tactic of the morning. We downrigged through to the end of the trip using a pair of downriggers, each equipped with a three-armed umbrella rig, with #12 Pet Spoons on the business end of those umbrella rigs.

We caught fish continuously, coming in the form of singles, doubles, and triples with fish ranging from two itty-bitty white bass in this year’s year class, all the way up to our largest between 14 1/2 and 15 1/4 inches with a majority of the fish somewhere in between.

This morning, the worsening topwater trend finally bottomed out, as I spotted no top water feeding by white bass whatsoever at any point in the morning.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Lake Belton was still rising thanks to multiple rounds of flooding rains which began on July 4.  USACE is now releasing over 3,000 CFS to stem the tide.  I hope we’ll see our first drop in the next day or two.  We gained another 0.25′ overnight.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 8.10′ high with a 0.25′ rise in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 3052 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S6 increasing to S11

Sky Condition: Mostly cloudy skies and large banks of clouds moved along by the wind prevented direct sunlight from striking the water’s surface this morning for any significant length of time.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 65% illumination.

GT = 5

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic  B0014G (on slope toward deep water)  – 22 whites, 1 hybrid on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 0186 – 10 fish on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area B0171C  thru B0293G – 72 fish downrigging twin umbrellas, each with three #12 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