CLIENTS:  This morning, Wednesday, August 13, I fished a short “Kids Fish, Too!“ Trip with Gary Schmidt, his adult son, Matt, Gary’s adult daughter, Ashley, and Matt‘s son, five-year-old Rex Schmidt, all from Troy, Texas.

 

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.

TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 13 August 2025 (AM)

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

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

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   In the back row, Ashley, Gary, and Matt Schmidt all supported young Rex (age 5) as we employed several different methods to keep fish coming over the side of the boat for as long as Rex stayed engaged.

 

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 on nearly every cast today for as long as the fish stayed on top!

 

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I got a text from Gary about 30 minutes before we were due to link up that he’d experienced a flat tire. This cost us about 25 minutes in what has been a roughly 60 to 80 minute window of white bass activity just before, during, and after sunrise.  I was really concerned that we’d run out of “easy” fishing while young Rex was still ready for more, and risk having him become disinterested.

It all turned out just fine in the end, as we essentially drove straight to a pod of surface feeding fish I spotted shortly after leaving the dock on the lightly rippled surface of the lake.

I cut the outboard about 100 yards out from these fish, deployed the trolling motor, and trolled the rest of the way to these fish until we were within casting distance. I had two rods equipped with Cork Rigs terminated with “Sandy Sandwiches“ as the streamer behind the cork. We used this two rod system to keep Rex continuously reeling fish in.  After I made the cast beyond the fish and worked the Cork Rig through them to get a hook up, I then passed the rod off to Gary who helped Rex reel ’em in.  In the meantime, I fired out another cast, got another hookup, and kept pressure on the fish until Rex was ready to catch another.  Gary would pass me the rod with the fish still attached for me to release, and so it went.

At five years of age, Rex simply didn’t have the manual dexterity required to fully take advantage of this situation, so, we tried to set him up for success.

Rex stayed engaged for about 40 minutes and wound up catching exactly 20 fish in this manner.

Once it was clear that the fish had left the surface for good (thanks to a lack of cloud cover in the eastern sky), I moved on to an area which had been producing bottom-oriented, fish on downriggers of late. As was the case yesterday, once the fish left the surface, the feed really scaled back significantly.

We picked up one additional white bass on the downriggers with about 15 minutes’ worth of effort before I decided we needed to do something more engaging for Rex.

We put in another 30 minutes or so in pursuit of panfish up shallow.

Rex was able to set the hook pretty well using the telescoping pole I dedicated to this technique. He wound up landing a total of nine panfish, bringing his morning tally to 30 fish before everyone agreed he had reached his limit at about 8:40 AM.

Between changing things up every so often, the cool, northerly breeze, and a copious amount of Gummi Bears, young Rex made it close to two hours, which is pretty typical for kids his age.

 

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.81′ high with a 0.04 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: 7:05A

End Time: 8:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.81′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 86.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW4 increasing to NNW9 in under 2 hours.

Sky Condition: 80% grey cloud cover in the aftermath of light storm activity late yesterday afternoon coming in from the NW.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 77% illumination.

GT = 30

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic B0165C – 20 white on Cork Rigs/topwater

Area B0132C – 1 white on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area 492 – 7 sunfish on bait under floats

Area 499 – 2 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