CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, October 21, I fished with a crew of five from Hartman pest control. Joining me were Monte Montanye, Michael Padgett, Justin Tatum, Jason Randolph, and Cory Matthews.

These five fellows represented quite a range of experience levels, so, I just kept things very straightforward, tried to explain the most essential elements of the tactics we would be using, and spelled out reasonable expectations given the season and the weather we were experiencing.

 

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 21 October 2025 (AM)

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

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   The Hartman Pest Control Crew, from left: Monte Montanye, Michael Padgett, Justin Tatum, Jason Randolph, and Cory Matthews.  This crew landed a full, 5-man limit of over 125 white bass.  There was very little variation on size, despite finding fish spread miles apart.  Most fell right at 11 inches, and every last one came on an MAL Heavy with silver blade and chartreuse tail worked vertically.

 

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Thanks to an incoming, dry cold front with wind velocity steadily rising through the four hours of this trip, we found fish particularly aggressive this morning.

Still, our first hour was a bit slow as the low light bite has really dwindled in the past week. Add to this some thin, low, gray cloud cover in the eastern sky, and we really did not have a significant brightening of the sky until about 8:30. From 8:30 until about 10:45 it was game on.

I found fish at all but one location I searched at this morning, and all of those populations I did find responded aggressively to a smoked MAL Heavy with silver blade and chartreuse tail.

My biggest challenge was simply getting everyone through the learning curve that all anglers new to using the MAL Lure go through. Fortunately, everyone was willingly coached. I was particularly impressed that Justin, with many years of tournament bass fishing experience under his belt, was able to adapt to some very different tactics this morning, including restraining his hook-setting when fish pursued and struck his lure.

When all was said and done, we had landed exactly 131 fish including a single largemouth bass, and exactly 130 white bass. Almost without exception, these fish were right at 11 to 11.25 inches — on the small side, but still legal.

At 10:45 I noticed a distinct let up in the white bass action, and from that point forward it was a slow fade to black. By 11:35 the fish were done.

RESULTS: 131 fish, all caught and released

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Belton is 0.59′ low with a 0.00 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 43 CFS.
2. Thanks to additional cooling over the weekend, and a reinforcing cold front today, the fish were even more aggressive than yesterday — the most aggressive I’ve seen so far this fall
3. The water temperature (surface) was at 77.0F.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken on Lake Belton around 6:40AM, Saturday, 18 October…

 

Compare to 2 PM, Sunday, 12 October …

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: Belton is 0.61′ low with a 0.01 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 43 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 77.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW10 at trip’s start, increasing steadily to NW16 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Low, thin, grey cloud cover in the eastern sky for about 40 minutes.  This pushed to the east and was replaced by a clear “bluebird” sky with the incoming, dry cold front

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 50

 

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