CLIENTS: This evening, Thursday, 14 August, I fished an evening “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip for Dwayne Thomas Jr. (age 14) and his brother, Romel, (age 7). The boys’ five-year-old brother was supposed to join us, but wasn’t feeling well and didn’t make this trip. Accompanying the boys, and assisting me in making them successful, was their father, Dwayne Thomson Sr. Dwayne works as a military contractor in Southwest Asia and was home for just a few weeks to see the boys off to a new school year and get in a little fishing despite the following day being a school day.

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: Thursday, 14 August 2025 (AM)

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

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

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Romel (7), Dwayne Sr., and Dwayne Thomas Jr. with a few of the 42 fish the boys landed mainly by covering ground via downrigging in the August heat.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Romel had to take a snack break after battling this bruiser in.  This Lake Belton hybrid striped bass fell for a Pet Spoon trailing behind a 3-armed umbrella rig.

 

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

By far, our most successful tactic this evening was downrigging with Pet Spoons for white bass which were suspended through about 6:35 PM. The same fish then moved shoreward until contacting the bottom where we were then, from that point on, able to work downriggers just a few feet off bottom and continuing catching fish on the downriggers. In the first instance, we were running the balls between 25 and 26 feet deep for fish which were slightly deeper, and, by trip’s and we were running the balls as shallow as 14 feet deep for fish which were in 16 to 18 feet of water.

In both instances, we used three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 pet spoons to imitate the steadily growing young-of-the-year shad.

It will not be long now before the #13 Pet Spoon will be a more appropriate selection to imitate this forage fish size.

I did keep a sharp eye out for any sunset topwater action which might develop, but we spotted none, despite surface conditions which would have lent themselves to spotting such activity. I even went so far as to have everyone practice casting and retrieving a Cork Rig equipped with a “Sandy Sandwich“ streamer, but we did not get the opportunity to use these.

At one point, as I saw more and more fish moving shallow and sticking to the bottom, we threw MAL Heavy Lures out horizontally and worked them with a sawtooth method, but the schools were small, splintered, and moving so fast, this just was not as good as choice as the downrigging was.

When all was said and done, the boys landed 42 fish, including 2 largemouth bass, 3 hybrid striped bass, and 37 white bass, all of which were of legal size.

 

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.79′ 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: 5:15P

End Time: 8:35P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 93F

Elevation: 0.79′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 87.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE8-10.

Sky Condition: 20% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 67% illumination.

GT = 10

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

 

Area vic 2128 – 12 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area vic B0104C to 302 – 23 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area vic B0165C – 5 on downrigged Pet Spoons, 2 on MAL Heavy sawtoothed

 

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

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