CLIENTS:  On Wednesday, October 15, I fished with returning guests — the Wise brothers.  Dave is a Minnesota resident who spends a good bit of time in Texas where his father, his brother Steve and his other brother, Tim, all live.

Steve follows my reports pretty closely and saw how this fall fishing has been slow to get started due to the extended warm, dry weather we’ve been having. He thought about booking later in the fall, but, Dave heads back to Minnesota in late October, so they decided to get this trip in today and, as a result, became just the second crew to land a legal limit of white bass since the Lake Belton dam closed in August, following the July 4th flooding event.

 

TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 15 October 2025 (AM)

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

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  The MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail was the ticket today.  It triggered very stubborn white bass to follow, overtake, and strike when history has proven slabs, soft plastics, spoons, and even Gulp! and live bait just won’t do the job. Check the “smoking” YouTube tutorial link below so see how we worked this bait.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing this morning was nearly identical to that which I experienced yesterday. This is not surprising since the weather this morning was also nearly identical.

I moved the trip start time back 10 minutes later since our first few minutes on the water yesterday were slow. We began the day downrigging and picked up three singles and a double on #12 Pet Spoons behind three-arm umbrella rigs fish on twin downriggers.  As soon as the sun was about to break over the eastern horizon, we moved to deeper water – between 35 and 44 feet — and began working MAL Heavy lures with chartreuse tails vertically for fish which are still behaving stubbornly thanks to still-warm water temperatures. I am simply letting my clients know what to expect so they don’t get frustrated or think their technique is bad when they get a high percentage of refusals from tightly schooled, bottom-oriented, fish.

So often, these fish would show up in strong numbers – – sometimes 50 to 80 fish in a school – – and only get excited enough to chase on the very first one or two vertical retrieves made through the school. Thereafter, even when they remained heavily congregated and directly beneath the boat, they would largely ignore our presentations.

To contend with this, we made some adjustments “on the fly” by 1) moving locations more frequently so as to encounter “fresh” fish, and 2) we really observed moving schools of fish on LiveScope and tried to get the lure running vertically right off the end of the several lead fishes’ noses (and not through the school or behind the school).

We stuck with this tactic through to the end of the trip save for a 10 or 12 minute window when some widely scattered white bass begin hitting on top water individually (just as they did yesterday at this time) during which time we took them on Cork Rigs with Sandy Sandwiches behind the corks.

By the time 11:35 rolled around the wind and the bite was fading fast.  By this time Steve and Dave had landed exactly 55 fish, including 53 white bass, of which only one was short, as well as one largemouth bass, and one smallmouth bass.

RESULTS: 55 fish, all caught and released

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Belton is 0.48′ low with a 0.02 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 43 CFS.
2. The white bass use of bottom seems to be increasing with each passing day as the water temperature continues to decrease, albeit very slowly.
3. The water surface temperature fell below 80F for the first time since the spring warmup this morning before sunrise.

 

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

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: Belton is 0.48′ low with a 0.02 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 43 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 79.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW6 at trip’s start, falling to NW1-2 in the final 45 minutes

Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 30% illumination.

GT = 55

 

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