CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, August 19, I fished with returning guests Joshua Goodnight and Frank Ruiz.  Despite knowing the fishing has been slow and that August is tough, they wanted to go forward with this trip to understand why fishing is tough at this time of year and see some approaches to catching fish despite the conditions.

 

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 19 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 25 August (AM) 

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

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Joshua Goodnight and Frank Ruiz landed the majority of their fish during a short window of topwater action.  The heat, lack of wind, and bright sun shut the fishing down minutes after the sun rose.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  33 of our 37 fish came on topwater in the first 40 minutes of the trip and were caught on Sandy Sandwich streamers worked with a Cork Rig.  After that … crickets!  Here, the Sandy Sandwich is shown between two of the partially-digested, young-of-the-year threadfin shad regurgitated by the fish Frank and Joshua landed.

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 went into the trip, knowing it was going to be tough thanks to an unbroken string of hot August days, nearly windless conditions, and only light cloud cover.

Thankfully, there was some low-light top water action during the 20 minutes either side of sunset. Both fellows really got the hang of working their Cork Rigs equipped with “Sandy Sandwich“ streamers and put a total of 33 white bass in the boat before the rising sun with its increasing intensity put the fish down for good.

From that point on it was very tough with only occasional “popcorn“ schools of white bass showing briefly on the surface scattered far and wide. Frank and Joshua wound up catching four additional fish.

These came from areas where sonar indicated an abundance of bait with some scattered game fish located in the vicinity. In these areas, we got the splasher working to consolidate fish beneath the boat and worked MAL Heavy Lures vertically through these fish with a smoking tactic. The fish that bit were mostly from suspended, fast-moving, patrolling schools of white bass. Those fish which were by themselves and/or bottom-oriented tended to either ignore the baits altogether, or just respond by following slowly behind the baits, but never aggressively overtaking them.

Seeing the writing on the wall this morning, we wrapped up at the three hour mark with 37 fish landed and not a whole lot of hope for improvement short of a change of weather as fall approaches.

 

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.52′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

 

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 19 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 9:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.52′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNE0-2

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

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 80

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

 

Area 1544 thru B0279G – 33 of our 37 fish taken in this span of water under low-light conditions on Cork Rigs/Sandy Sandwich streamers

 

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