CLIENTS: On Monday, October 27, I fished with first time guest Ryan Selken. Ryan is retired from a career spent in and around welding. He’s recently come southbound from Iowa to serve as a US Army Corps of Engineers park volunteer at one of the several parks on Lake Belton.
Ryan has a well-appointed fishing boat, which, if you looked at it, you would guess was intended for walleye fishing. Since Ryan intends to be here through the spring, he wanted to try to greatly reduce his learning curve concerning pursuit of white bass on this reservoir with a sonar-intensive approach, so, he contacted me and we made plans which came together this morning.
TODAY’S DATE: Monday, 27 October 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 11 November 2025 (AM or PM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Ryan Selken, a native of Iowa, is visiting Texas until the spring and wanted to take advantage of the excellent open-water fall fishery we’ll see blossom in the forthcoming weeks. His best of 74 fish was a 14.00″ Lake Belton white bass (shown).
FIND THE LURES WE USED HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
The day began with some light, thin cloud cover, and a southeasterly breeze on the heels of a stormy weekend in which we saw 2.5 inches of rainfall with enough runoff generated to gently nudge both Belton and Stillhouse lake levels upwards a bit.
We began our morning finding fish in 18 to 22 feet of water, using side-imaging and down-imaging, parked atop those fish with Spot-Lock, and used the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail greatly aided by Garmin LiveScope to present to these fish, using a “smoking“ tactic. As the clouds thinned to zero, and the sun continued to climb, these shallow fish continued pushing deeper. We continued with our vertical tactics in 25 to 28 feet of water with continued success.
As it appeared that bite at that depth was about to dissipate, I did a brief demo on the downriggers at Ryan’s request just to show him how they function, as he had no prior experience with them. He took two doubles and a single on one downrigger using a three-arm umbrella rig equipped with #12 Pet Sooons. Several times I tried to get Ryan to connect with fish by casting horizontally and using a sawtooth tactic with the same MAL Heavy baits we had been so successful on going vertically. Unfortunately, the fish we found were typically moving so quickly, that they really did not lend themselves to being caught repeatedly with that tactic.
Around 10 AM I presented Ryan with a choice– – fishing where the fish are currently and catching them well, or fishing, where the fish will soon be showing up so as to be well-prepared for the next two months prior to the water temperature dropping below 60°F.
Ryan opted for the latter, so we moved to deeper, clearer water, and found fish and caught them, but also observed a greater reluctance in these fish to stay fired up for any length of time at all. We wrapped up at 11:30 with exactly 74 fish landed including 71 white bass, 1 hybrid, striped bass, and 2 largemouth bass. Ryan’s largest white bass went 14.00 inches — not bad for Lake Belton.
Over the course of the morning Ryan told me he felt much more confident in both his approach and in using his own electronics for having spent time together this morning.
RESULTS: 74 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE HORIZONTALLY USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
- Belton is 0.32′ low with a 0.35 rise in the last 72 hours thanks to rainfall on 24-25 Oct. USACE is releasing 43 CFS.
- Although fishing is much improved, we are still not anywhere near “peak” fall conditions. Perhaps the 28/29 Oct. cold front will help usher that in.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken on Lake Belton around 7AM, Monday, 27 October…
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:20A
End Time: 11:35A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F
Elevation: Belton is 0.32′ low with a 0.35 rise in the last 72 hours thanks to rainfall on 24-25 Oct. USACE is releasing 43 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 77F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: Light S5-7
Sky Condition: 70-80% grey cloud cover for ~75 minutes, then clearing completely
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 31% 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