CLIENTS:  On Tuesday, October 14, I fished a father-and-son trip for Vince and Noah Perez of Killeen.  Vince is a U.S. Army noncommissioned officer with 23 years of service, primarily in transportation. He was back in the US for a short stint of leave from his current posting in Kaiserslautern, Germany.  Noah, age 15, is a student at one of the high schools in Killeen where he takes part in both marching band as a French horn player, and in ROTC.

 

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 14 October 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 28 October 2025 (AM or PM)

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Noah and Vince Perez took advantage of a short window of military leave afforded Vince from his post at Kaiserslautern, Germany, to do some fishing before he heads back to the grind in less than a week.  These fellows landed the first full, two-man limit of white bass I’ve had come aboard since the Lake Belton dam was shut in early August following the July 4th flooding event.

FIND THE LURES WE USED HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We got going this morning at 7:10, but the fish didn’t get going until about 7:40 AM. I’m finding that as this very slow developing fall cool down is kicking in, the morning low light bite is not nearly as dependable as it had been through the heat of the summer.

We picked up nine white bass while trolling twin downriggers equipped with #12 Pet Spoons on three-armed umbrella rigs. Once the sun was about to break over the eastern horizon, this bite dried up quickly. For the next 90 minutes or so, we covered three different areas, both finding the same fishing scenario and presenting our baitss in the same way at them. Fish were holding tight to the bottom in fairly small schools of less than 30 individual fish, and would respond briefly to MAL Heavy lures with chartreuse tails worked vertically.

We found a couple of keys to getting hit consistently. First, we made sure the presentation was made in front of the fish, as the school was approaching. Second, it was helpful to get the MAL Lure’s blade spinning as close to the bottom as possible, then idling back the retrieve speed for the remainder of the retrieve.  Hence, if with a short, sharp half-turn of the reel’s handle you could get the blade spinning, you’d want to turn no more than that before slowing down to the presentation speed.

This fishery seemed to die when the light but consistent north-northwest wind we had enjoyed up to this point died, and it became just shy of glassy calm with a bright, cloudless sky.

It was around this time that, in the distance, I spotted an osprey making repeated diving attempts. I moved us over to the scene of the crime and found individual white bass attacking large shad over an area roughly 3 acres size. These fish were not working together in schools, and the surface was not disrupted by the kind of activity you would be accustomed to seeing in the summertime. Rather, single fish or making single, round sets of ripples on the surface as they came up and fed on the shad one at a time. At first, I put Vince and Noah up on the front deck with me running the trolling motor to chase after these fish while throwing the MAL Heavy out horizontally and counting it down to a six count. That worked, but I felt with all the activity in the area, we should be doing better.

Hence, I got back on sonar, found a nearby large group of whites on bottom, Spot-Locked atop them, and went back to working the MAL Heavy with a smoking tactic vertically. These fish, which were much more turned on than those we had found previously, cooperated quite well. The fish bit right up through 11:10, but quit working the surface as of about 10:45 AM. When all was said and done, this father and son team wound up catching 57 fish including 54 white bass and three hybrid stripers. This was the first two-man white bass limit I’ve had come aboard since after the gates were shut on the dam, following the release of the accumulated flood water from the July 4th flooding event.

Things are definitely picking up now as we see a net loss of water temperature with each passing day.

RESULTS: 57 fish, all caught and released

 

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is 0.46′ low with a 0.02 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 43 CFS.  The white bass use of bottom seems to be increasing with each passing day as the water temperature continues to decrease, albeit very slowly.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken on Lake Belton around 2 PM, Sunday, 12 October …

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: Belton is 0.46′ low with a 0.02 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 43 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 80.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW1-5 all morning

Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 40% illumination.

GT = 5

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

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