CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, August 12, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip for Benjamin Beal, the 13-year-old grandson of Sara Beal, who accompanied him and lent me a hand in helping Ben have a successful morning on the water.

As a an incoming seventh grade student in the Temple Independent School District, Ben does not return to classes until next week, although most of the rest of the Central Texas area resumes classes this week.

The fact that the summer vacation period has ended was quite evident this morning. The lake and parking lots look like a ghost town.

 

ABOUT “KIDS FISH, TOO!” TRIPS:  Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended just for the kids. They are considerably less expensive than standard trips ($195 for up to 2 kids vs. $295 for up to 2 adults; and more can be added), and typically go a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4-plus hours for standard trips.  On these trips, licensed adults who desire to do so often help me help the kids be successful by baiting hooks, untangling lines, resetting our downrigger spreads, etc. so the kids’ efforts are maximized, but, the adults do not fish themselves.

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 12 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Thursday, 21 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Sara Beal treated her 13-year-old grandson, Ben Beal, to a morning of fishing before he begins his 7th grade year starting next week.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: The “Sandy Sandwich” –  as close to an indestructible streamer as there is.  I terminate my Cork Rigs with these (right photo), and also use them as “teasers” on tandem rigs above slabs when the situation demands it.  They scored well today!

 

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We got going at 6:35 AM and found multiple large schools of bottom-oriented white bass in under 30 feet of water using side imaging. These fish were great candidates for a downrigging approach because, although they were bottom-oriented, they were also moving about frequently and quickly.

We got twin ‘riggers set up, both equipped with three-armed umbrella rigs terminated with #12 Pet Spoons.

Ben landed a pair of doubles, followed by a single. Five fish in about five minutes!

As I kept my eye out for a particular jet ski racing across the surface without navigation lights on while it was still fairly dark out, I spotted a disturbance on the surface quite some distance away. We brought the downriggers in, headed to that area, and, for the next 35 minutes or so, were able to catch white bass from surface feeding schools that popped up and quickly disappeared, but did so over and over again.

Now, I could not take advantage of this scenario with just any client who steps aboard the boat.  This requires both fast AND accurate casting skills.  Fortunately, Ben had both which enabled him to lob his Cork Rig w/ Sandy Sandwich streamer completely over any schools we found and work that bait from the far side to the near side of the school, and do so before they disappeared.

Ben wound up catching exactly 32 whites from these “popcorn“ schools before the unobscured rising sun brightened the nearly calm surface and drove these fish down for good.  The time was now 7:40.  Note: we caught 32 of our 65 white bass in the first hour — the low light period is definitely the most productive time to be on the water in this summer heat.

We then returned to the area I had been downrigging in, only to find these fish also had quit feeding. Since Ben had a good bit of fishing experience under his belt coming into the trip, I was not all that keen on switching over to sunfish any earlier than necessary. For this reason, I ran sonar off of a few points impacted by the light southerly wind. Fortunately, at two of these areas, my suspicion that fish would be present was confirmed by the appearance of additional “popcorn“ schools of white bass, as well as by sonar signatures.

I cranked up the splasher, and we used MAL Heavy Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope to catch another 23 fish at two different locations as we used a smoking tactic to precisely time the presentation of our lures in front of schools crossing beneath the boat.  This catch included 3 largemouth bass, 1 hybrid striper, and 19 white bass.

With about 30 minutes left in this 3.5 hour trip, I offered to take Ben up shallow to show him a method of sunfishing he was not already familiar with. He quickly put five fish in the boat, taking our grand total for the morning to exactly 70 fish caught and released using poles and floats to target shallow cover.

We wrapped up right around 10:20 AM as an outflow boundary from some storms in the Dallas area in the early morning hours began pushing cloud cover into our area and shifting the wind to a northerly direction.

 

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.85′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

 

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 12 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 0.85′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S1-3, shifting N5 at trip’s end

Sky Condition: Cloudless with a light blue sky thru 9:40, then 40% light grey clouds moved in from the NW

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 86% illumination.

GT = 55

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 016 thru 1792 – downrigging for 5 whites

Area 133 – 32 white bass on topwater w/ Cork Rigs

Area 1799, 1793, and vic B0017G – 23 white on smoked MAL Heavy Lures

Area 2126 – 5 sunfish on bait under floats

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