2020 Fishing Reports | Fishing Report

FISH HARD, GIVE THANKS, EAT WELL — 151 FISH @ BELTON

November 27th, 2020November 27th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thanksgiving Day 2020, I fished with Dr. Paul Bednarz and Chad Connally, both of Crawford, TX. The two became friends as their sons participated on the same school sports teams through the years.

Originally, Paul was to be accompanied by his son, but the demands of high school football changed those plans earlier this week.

Paul is an orthopedic surgeon focused on adult foot and ankle maladies, and Chad works with heavy equipment doing pipeline and disaster recovery work.

Since we all had family gatherings to get to around midday, we kept this morning’s trip to right at 4 hours in length.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Chad Connally (left) and Paul Bednarz with a few of the white bass we landed on the first day of returning south winds following a short, mild cold front’s passage.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 26 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

This morning we encountered southerly winds which blew all day following a northerly blow the day before, and in advance of an incoming wet, mild cold front which slowly crept in overnight following this trip.

The fish fed today with average intensity right up to around 10:50, after which we saw a slowdown in the action.

We hit five areas this morning as we put together a catch of 151 fish. Our first area produced small fish almost exclusively, so, when the skies brightened a bit and the winds came up, I did not hesitate to move us after boating 30 fish, knowing we’d find cooperative populations of fish elsewhere.

At the second area we hit, I got the fellows trained up on Garmin LiveScope, and their results immediately improved as they were able to customize their retrieves to fish to individual fish sighted on the screen.

After boating 30 fish at our first stop, we took another 11 fish at our second stop, 31 fish at our third stop, 29 fish at our fourth stop, and 50 fish at our fifth and final stop. Every last fish was taken on the MAL Lure; today we went with all rods rigged with chartreuse lures.

After getting a little “assist” from gulls on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, the birds were a no-show today, so, all the fish we caught first had to be found via sonar while searching as slowly as my outboard will idle down to.

Thanks to fairly bright skies, the fish stayed on bottom and upwards only 3-4 feet from it and did not suspend heavily even as we created commotion atop them by working our lures, catching fish, etc.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 151 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird activity witnessed this morning. Multiple flocks of sand hill cranes could be heard and seen migrating slowly south as they rode the thermals.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Elevation: 0.82 low with a 0.05’ 24-hour drop and 34CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 63.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were SSE4-9 all morning

Sky Condition: Bright and clear due to the end of a cold front cycle playing out as night fell yesterday

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 87% illumination

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 473, 30 fish on MAL Lures; mostly small (SP)

**Area 2038, 11 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0150C, 31 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 1489, 29 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0190C, 50 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

COULDN’T GET ENOUGH — 277 FISH @ BELTON

November 26th, 2020November 26th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday afternoon, November 25th, I fished with first-time guests Jeff and Sue Madden and their twin 12-year-old sons, Cash and Cooper. The Maddens came down from Lewisville, TX, to gather in Salado for Thanksgiving with family and planned about a month ahead to do some fishing with me on Lake Belton the day before.

Because Jeff was pretty certain Sue would only come along if the weather cooperated, I suggested booking an afternoon trip, which they did.

All four of the Maddens really worked at catching fish the entire four hours on the water, and, thanks to weather conducive to a strong catch, they wound up boating 277 fish.

Toward the end of the trip, a request came in from a client to release their date with me on Saturday morning due to forecast damp, cool conditions. Jeff thought all of about 2 seconds and told me he’d take that slot!! So, I’ll be seeing at least him and the twins again on Saturday, rain or shine!

PHOTO CAPTION #1: The Madden family, from left, Jeff, Cooper, Cash, and Sue, with but a few of the 277 fish they landed during their 4-hour afternoon trip on Wednesday, Nov. 25th.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Mom (Sue Madden) landed our largest fish of the trip — a nice Lake Belton hybrid striped bass — on a correctly worked MAL Lure.

PHOTO CAPTION #3: White bass and hybrid stripers weren’t the only species feeding on the MAL Lure, as Cash discovered when this Lake Belton largemouth bass went for his.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (PM), 25 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Thankfully, the north wind which treated us well this morning continued blowing this afternoon, thus we did not encounter difficult, post-frontal, calm conditions.

This family of four put 277 fish in the boat in just under 4 hours thanks to a few factors. First, was the wind I’ve already mentioned. Second, everyone got the hang of using the MAL Lures early and executed the retrieve correctly and consistently. Third, because no one minded catching smaller fish and, instead, enjoyed the non-stop action they provided, we did not engage in time-consuming fish-hunting hoping to find areas holding larger fish (thus, we did not leave fish to find fish).

We fished only four areas, and the Maddens put their 100th fish in the boat by 2:32PM, just over an hour into our trip.

Jeff and the boys were very enthused with the “video game-like qualities” of the Garmin LiveScope, and it kept their attention, helped them focus, and helped them be efficient with their retrieves.

Everything really came together well this afternoon and it was very gratifying to be able to give a family the experience which the Maddens got this day on Lake Belton.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 277 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Although I feared the north winds would go calm during our time on the water, they kept right on blowing, and the fish kept right on biting well, right up to sunset, when they quit abruptly.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30P

End Time: 5:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Elevation: 0.82 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour rise, and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NW8 at trip’s start, tapering down to NW4 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue skies in the wake of last night’s cold front passage

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous at 80% illumination

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1000, 66 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 409, 64 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0070C, 132 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 694/968, 15 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

LIKE “BLUE FORCE TRACKER” FOR FISH – 183 FISH @ BELTON

November 25th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, November 25th, I fished with returning guests Jerry Saikley, Mike Giganti, and Jeff Burns. Joining me for the first time was a co-worker of Jeff and Jerry’s, Justin Brown.

These fellows all know one another through the work Jeff, Jerry, and Justin do on West Fort Hood.

As I introduced everyone to Garmin LiveScope, Mike observed that, “This is just like Blue Force Tracker for fish!”.

He was referring to a GPS-based military system called “Blue Force Tracker” which allows commanders to track the location of friendly (and enemy) forces on a monitor, the appearance of which looks much like the Garmin monitors strapped to the starboard gunwale of my boat.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Jerry Saikley coordinated this morning’s trip for three of his buddies, Justin Brown, Mike Giganti, and Jeff Burns. He took our largest fish of the trip — a nice 3.75 pound hybrid striped bass.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Mike Giganti took this nice hybrid which rocketed off bottom to overtake his MAL Lure as it rose through the water column toward the surface.

PHOTO CAPTION #3: Mike Giganti, Jeff Burns, Jerry Saikley, and Justin Brown each with a pair of some of the larger white bass we landed this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 25 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing was pretty cut-and-dried this morning. The fish were very active through 9:35AM, then geared down a notch, then knocked off at 11:10AM.

Thanks to the passage of a cold front overnight, the fish were very aggressive and were willing to rise into the water column up off the bottom a greater distance that they have been under non-frontal weather conditions.

We fished two areas before some light bird action got going, then spot-hopped as indicated by gulls for a full 90 minutes thereafter. In both areas we fished before getting up under the birds, we encountered an unusually high number of small fish (this year’s crop).

The fish we caught under the birds and at two locations without birds after the birds stopped working at 9:17AM, were of a better size mix.

The MAL Lure really shone today — it was super effective on both bottom-hugging and suspended fish, minimal tangling, high hook to land ratio, and easy to work. We caught 100% of our fish on MAL Lures this morning,. The fellows were so impressed with the lures (after experiencing average fishing on slabs they’ve been using in their own fishing efforts), that they purchased lures from me “off the tailgate” from a ziplock bag I keep just for such occasions.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 183 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: For the second day in a row, and during the mid-morning period, a flock of gulls, numbering ~2 dozen, pointed the way to active white bass over open water.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 50F

Elevation: 0.82 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour rise, and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NW13 at trip’s start, tapering down to NW8-9 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 80% grey cloud cover at trip’s start, quickly clearing to cloudless in the wake of last night’s cold front passage

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous at 80% illumination

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0196C, 5 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 354, 48 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Areas 1390/1866, 2038/953, then 2038 – 80 fish on MAL Lures with “short hops” in and around these 3 areas as indicated by gulls (SP)

**Area B0150G, 16 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 097, a final 34 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

MOMS & SONS DAY — 175 FISH @ BELTON

November 24th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning, November 24th, I fished with contingents from the Van Riper clan and the Howley clan.

The patriarch of the family, George Van Riper, a U.S. Army veteran who resides in Harker Heights, loves fishing, owns his own boat, fishes our local reservoirs routinely, and has fished with me on numerous occasions.

Nearly two months ago, knowing the Thanksgiving timeframe is a busy week for me, George set this trip up for his daughter, Nancy Howley, his daughter-in-law, Kim Van Riper, Nancy’s boys, Kaden and Jacob, and Kim’s son, Gregory.

Nancy is a public school teacher, and Kim is into real estate. The boys are doing the best they can with a COVID-impacted school year.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: This was Tuesday morning’s (slightly damp) crew — from left, Kim & Gregory Van Riper, and Kaden, Jacob, and Nancy Howley.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Kim gives Gregory a hand hoisting this 8-pound blue catfish which consumed Gregory’s MAL Lure near bottom in about 46 feet of water, no doubt attracted by the falling bits of shad regurgitated by the white bass we were catching.

PHOTO CAPTION #3: This young man, Kaden Howley, is a fishing machine. He did not snack, he did not banter, he did not take a leak … he just stood in one spot in the middle of the starboard gunwale all morning and flat caught fish after fish after fish. He was as excited about his last fish as he was about his first fish (after 4 hours of catching!!) This is our 100th fish of the morning, caught by Kaden, at exactly 9:28AM.

PHOTO CAPTION #4: Jacob Howley with our one and only hybrid striped bass of the morning. This 3.75-pounder came out of 43 feet of water and was among the first fish to strike as we arrived at a new location.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 24 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

For the second day in a row, we were blessed with grey skies and wind — and, unlike yesterday’s NE breeze, this morning’s wind blew from the SSE. Overnight we experienced warming and increased humidity in the atmosphere as the overnight temperature rose from 59 at sunset to 61 at sunrise.

Anytime we have wind and cloud cover, I get pretty giddy about having folks – especially kids – on the boat.

Before we left the dock I gave my MAL Lure demo, then had each person demo it right back to me to be very sure everyone knew what to do when we found fish. This pays off when, instead of having to coach out bad technique as we are fishing, that coaching can be done before risking the loss of fish.

With everyone “MAL-qualified”, we set out to find fish. It did not take long, in fact, I was surprised at how quickly I found fish given that the skies were pretty “murky” with dark cloud cover and a light drizzle falling at the time.

We fished 3 general areas this morning with the first and last stops seeing moderate action, and our middle stops (accounting for the middle two hours of the trip) producing the lion’s share of the fish.

At long last we were aided by gulls this morning. A small flock of ring-billed gulls began to circle and pluck shad from the surface over top of actively feeding white bass in over 40 feet of water.

We “short-hopped” in an area perhaps 2-3 acres in size to stay on these fish, all the time working 5 MAL Lures with a smoking retrieve to keep fish coming over the side and keep the commotion generated near bottom going so as to feed the “chain reaction”.

Between 11AM and 11:15AM, the action died hard, the winds picked up to over 14mph, and it looked like a good dose of rain was going to fall once again. At this point only the moms and Kaden were fishing, when Kim gave me the “let’s call it a good morning” sign and we headed in with exactly 175 fish landed.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 175 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: During the mid-morning period a small flock of ~8 gulls helped us find very active white bass feeding on bottom as they picked off dead and crippled shad driven to the surface by the most active feeders in these white bass schools.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Elevation: 0.83 low with a 0.04’ 24-hour fall, and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 64.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were SE11-14 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover with sporadic light rain throughout the morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous at 72% illumination

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0012C, 18 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Areas B0052G, BG0026, 1392, and B0058G, 141 fish on MAL Lures with “short hops” in and around these 4 areas as indicated by gulls (SP)

**Area B0059G, a final 16 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

50F IS SHORTS-WEATHER, RIGHT? – 155 FISH @ BELTON

November 24th, 2020November 24th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday morning, November 23rd, I fished with returning guest Rick Snelgrooes of Liberty Hill, TX, his son Sean, Sean’s buddy from Orange Co., CA, Grant King, and Rick’s nephew-in-law, Tim Webster, from Ft. Collins, CO.

As I watched my crew make their way from the parking lot to the courtesy dock, my first comment was (only half-jokingly), “It looks like someone didn’t get the email.”

It was 50F and cloudy with a northeasterly breeze blowing, and Tim was wearing shorts and a hoodie. I had on 5 layers on my torso. I expressed my concerns but, Tim insisted he’d be okay, sharing that he occasionally golfs with snow falling up in Colorado.

With that, we headed out to hunt for fish.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: This was Monday morning’s crew, from left: Rick & Sean Snelgrooes, Grant King, and Tim “The Man in Shorts” Webster.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Tim took this nice 8-pound bluecat in ~47 feet of water. Most of Tim’s prior experience has been fishing in saltwater on the Texas coast, or pursuing trout in Colorado and Wyoming streams. He was a quick-study and picked up on the MAL Lure tactics easily.

PHOTO CAPTION #3: Sean came up with a deep-water smallmouth from the same area where we picked up the bluecat. An abundance of shad had all sorts of fish pulled into this area.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 23 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite having fished my entire life, I still get excited when we get a combination of grey cloud cover and wind, just knowing that feeding fish are out there to be found. This morning, although the winds had an easterly component, it was still moving the water, and the grey cloud cover stuck around all morning.

Since I’ve fished nearly every day but Sundays and Thursdays since returning from Alaska in mid-September, I was able to compare/contrast today’s fishing which was influenced by an easterly wind, with the fishing on days with wind from other directions. I found that although the fish were willing to bite, they would “flare up” soon after we got our presentations down to them, go strong for a short while, then cool off more quickly than with a southerly or westerly wind. Thus, in today’s 4-hour trip, we moved a bit more (6 stops in all), whereas I’ve been able to put together a solid 4-hour trip with just 3-5 stops under more favorable wind conditions.

I also noted that we had more fish “pass” on our lures as they cruised by, thus having to “work” harder to catch a given number of fish.

Once again, 100% of our catch was taken on the MAL Lure this morning, in fact, I didn’t even bring any other rods as I was very certain that without a major change in weather and with the water temperature remaining stable, the fishes’ interest in the MAL Lure would continue.

In all, we landed 155 fish by using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. Once everyone got the fundamentals of the MAL Lure retrieve down, I then introduced LiveScope to make them more efficient by seeing/knowing when to retrieve short and when to retrieve long, based on fish reactions to their presentations.

It was a good day and, to my surprise, Tim’s lips did not have a notably blue tint to them by the time he was ready to wrap them around some Miller’s Smokehouse fare following the trip.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 155 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird activity witnessed today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 50F

Elevation: 0.80 low with a 0.03’ 24-hour fall, and 30 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 64.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NE5-6 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous at 63% illumination

GT = 120

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0103C, 55 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 717, 14 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0053G, 24 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0057G, 12 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 606,19 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 1945, 31 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

FORMULA ONE FISHING – 151 FISH @ BELTON

November 23rd, 2020November 23rd, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning I conducted a father-and-sons trip on Lake Belton. Due to his employment with a certain government agency, that father requested that his photo and all of the names be kept out of social media. We’ll just call him Mr. R.

The boys, ages 10 and 12, had fished with me previously on a Kids Fish, Too! trip back in the summer of 2019, during which time their dad helped me help them. Given the extra year of maturity, and the prior experience the boys now had under their belts, dad fished right alongside the boys this go-round and ramped up the level of competition.

Somewhere around 9:30AM (and fish number 90 or so), we discovered we had a common interest in Formula One racing. I’ve never done more than watch races on YouTube, but Mr. R. has been to about 50 races in person through the years, including several at the F1 track in Austin.

Just to put it in perspective for me, Mr. R explained how the entire cost of a NASCAR car (call it $100,000) would perhaps buy the braking system on an F1 car (valued at around $10.5 million).

Mr. R thought once to groom his sons to be F1 drivers, but, unfortunately, they got their build from their dad and it soon became clear they would quickly outgrow the small driver’s seat made for the thin F1 drivers. But, hey, both boys fit very nicely in my center-console — just sayin’!

PHOTO CAPTION #1: With grey cloud cover and enough wind to ripple the surface, Saturday’s bite was on. We landed white bass, largemouth, and even one smallmouth buffalofish.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Little brother … big fish!

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 21 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

If you follow my reports, you know that grey skies and wind are my “confidence conditions”. I just know when these two atmospheric conditions mix, it’s gonna be good.

Despite the cloud cover preventing a sudden brightening of the skies as we would have on a less cloudy day, the fish got right to feeding this morning and fed until abruptly stopping right around 11:10A.

During our 4 hours on the water, we fished just four areas, catching 30 fish at our first stop, another 27 fish at our second stop, 71 fish at our third stop, and a final 23 fish at our last stop.

Fishing was exactly the same at each location: get MAL Lures to the bottom once the boat was in a steady hover atop fish we’d found via sonar, and work those lures upwards with a “smoking” tactic (with speed modified for the mid-60 degree water temperature). At our second stop, I layered in the Garmin LiveScope and my crew went from being “hunters” to being “snipers”, actually singling out individual fish and working them until they either fell for the lure or turned away.

We landed exactly 151 fish this morning, including 1 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth buffalo, and 149 white bass.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 151 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird activity witnessed today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 0.79 low with a 0.0’ 24-hour change and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 64.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were SSE5-6 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 43% illumination

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0054G, 30 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 305, 27 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0050G, 71 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0052G, 23 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

GETTIN’ OLD AIN’T FOR WIMPS – 44 FISH @ BELTON

November 22nd, 2020November 22nd, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday afternoon, November 20th, I fished with Mr. David Doell and his long-time fishing buddy, Warren Forkin, both U.S. Army veterans.

David contacted me about three weeks ago and let me know he had a “special request”. He wanted to go fishing with Warren, but due to some health concerns, they couldn’t tolerate too much wind, too much cold, and, there was also a concern about embarking and disembarking the boat. Finally, David only wanted to stay out for about 2 hours.

I told David I’d try my best to find a set of forecast weather conditions which would allow us to consider all of those things and still catch fish. By this past Monday it was clear that the weather would likely be stable enough through the week that we’d be able to fish (and catch) today, and, that turned out to be the case.

I met the fellows at the Arrowhead ramp, as it is the only one that has a nice sidewalk from the parking lot to the courtesy dock without stairs to climb.

I teased David a little once he and Warren were aboard about how he started a lot of his statements with the phrase, “When you’re our age …”. So, at some point I asked exactly how old he and Warren were. Both fellows are 78 this year.

I then told them a story about celebrating my mom’s 70th birthday with her at the Olive Garden restaurant in Killeen. The whole family was gathered around and, when the salad and bread sticks arrived, my mom asked me to pray for our meal. I told her I’d gladly do that, but, before that, I wondered if she had any words of wisdom for her family, given her age and life experience.

Mom thought for half a second and said, “Kids, let me tell you, gettin’ old ain’t for wimps! Now, Robert, would you please pray for us.”

PHOTO CAPTION #1: This was my Friday evening crew — 78-year-old U.S. Army veterans David Doell (left) and Warren Forkin.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: This was the fish we ended the trip with. David and Warren wanted to end on a good note, so we wrapped it up after Warren got this one in the boat.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (PM), 20 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Since David and Warren only wanted to stay out for about 2 hours (I normally run 4-hour trips), I started us a bit later than normal so as to have us fishing in the “heart” of the afternoon’s bite, which lately I’ve found to be in the middle 2 hours of the last 4 hours leading up to sunset (thus, about 2:30 to 4:30PM).

Although the conditions were not ideal (I’d have preferred more wind and more cloud cover), they were what David and Warren could tolerate. We found fish in three separate areas, catching 19 fish at our first stop, 18 fish at our second stop, and a final 7 fish at our last stop.

Each location was in 42-49 feet of water, and we used a “smoking” retrieve with MAL Lures at each location to catch the fish we landed.

Things were going very well at the third stop we made when Warren’s rod bent more deeply than white bass usually bend it, and his line began going out away from the boat (whereas white bass typically stay pretty straight up under the boat). As David and I looked on, a nice largemouth bass cleared the water trying to shake Warren’s MAL Lure. We landed that fish, and took a photo of Warren holding it. It was exactly 4:15P. As I prepared to get back to fishing, David told me he thought it’d be a good idea to end on a good note with Warren catching a nice bass. So, with that, we left the fish still biting, packed it up, and headed back to the dock. Our tally of 44 fish consisted of 43 white bass and 1 largemouth bass.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 44 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird activity witnessed today. We just need more cold weather and north winds to push these migratory fish-eaters south.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 2:30P

End Time: 4:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 0.79 low with a 0.02’ 24-hour drop and 20 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 64.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were SSE5-7 all afternoon

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 33% illumination

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 344, 19 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 1012, 18 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 150; 7 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

CAST AND BLAST – 174 FISH @ BELTON

November 21st, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, November 20^th, I fished with returning clients Jim Downing, Gary Hanneman, and Sally Hardeman.

Jim lives in the Killeen area, Gary lives “out in the county” in Coryell Co., and Sally has retired to Sun City in Georgetown. Of the three, Jim has been out with me the most, and was the one who coordinated everything for this trip on what would turn out to be a “cast and blast” weekend for him.

With the weather essentially unchanged all week, the fish and the fishing was pretty predictable. The only variation on the theme today was the cloud cover. We had thick, grey cloud cover with light fog as we met at 7:30, but, the fog quickly dissipated, and the cloud cover still allowed for a brightening of the atmosphere, which, in turn, triggered the fish to begin feeding just a tad later than earlier in the week.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: This was my Friday morning crew, from left, Gary Hannemann, Sally Hardeman, and Jim Downing.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: That’s Jim’s cousin, whom he calls “Aunt Sally” from down at Sun City in Georgetown. I didn’t notice until posting this photo that she wore her floral purse all during our trip — very classy!!

PHOTO CAPTION #3: This was the “cast” part of Jim’s weekend …

PHOTO CAPTION #4: …and this was the “blast” part of Jim’s weekend at Gary’s ranch — a nice 11-point buck.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 20 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Since conditions were solid, complete with grey cloud cover and a southerly wind, I passed on marginal fish activity and I also left productive areas to find more productive areas once the catch rate at such an area began to drop.

In this way, we were able to fish 6 distinct areas, and experienced a typical normal or “bell-shaped” curve of activity at each, with a quick ramp up of activity as soon as our lures first appeared at bottom, followed by a sustained peaking of the fish action, and ending with a tapering back to slow fishing.

Thanks to the water temperature, which has stalled in the mid-60s, the use of moderately paced tactics is still paying big dividends. Every one of the 174 fish we landed was taken on a vertically worked MAL Lure (we used white and chartreuse interchangeably) reeled up off bottom with a steady cadence.

In addition to the white bass, which made up the lion’s share of our catch, we also landed 3 legal hybrid striped bass, 2 freshwater drum, 1 largemouth bass, and 1 flathead (yellow) catfish.

The Garmin LiveScope added a significant percentage to our catch today in that beyond those fish holding on the bottom, LiveScope revealed small groups of suspended fish moving more quickly in a horizontal band beneath the boat. Instead of stopping our retrieve when it was clear that no bottom-oriented fish were chasing, we’d keep right on reeling a few handle turns beyond these suspended fish to see if they would react and chase. More often these fish, which were likely on patrol for food already, would respond positively by chasing and striking.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 174 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird activity witnessed this morning. We just need more cold weather and north winds to push these migratory fish-eaters south.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 0.79 low with a 0.02’ 24-hour drop and 20 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 64.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were S9-12 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies with light fog pre-dawn, followed by ~3 hours of continued grey clouds with slow clearing beginning around 10A. 70% white clouds by trip’s end.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 33% illumination

GT = 63

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0012C; 20 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 354; 8 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 1012; 32 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 1007; 40 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0055G; 30 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0052G; 44 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

VETERANS IN THE WAR ON FISH – 244 FISH CPR’d @ BELTON

November 18th, 2020November 18th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, November 18th, I fished with U.S. Air Force veteran Steve Gates, a former F-4 Phantom pilot, and U.S. Army veteran Brian Pedersen, a forum armor branch officer.

The two fish and hunt together in and around Choke Canyon Reservoir, near San Antonio.

Steve also heads up to Alaska and works operations for Adventure Alaska, a hunting and fishing operation on Prince of Wales Island, about 3-4 months out of the year most years (www.FishOrHunt.com).

The fellows shared that they both do well on white bass in the spring and on into the summer, but the deep water, cool season fishery is something they’d hoped to improve on.

Steve has a new Ranger boat on the way and also wanted to check out the array of sonar on my own boat in order to narrow down makes and models which would suit his own multi-species pursuits, so, in addition to catching fish, I also intentionally pointed out what I was (and wasn’t) seeing on sonar which led us to fish on certain areas and pass on others.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Steve Gates with an early morning hybrid striped bass taken from 43′ on a MAL Lure in chartreuse.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Brian Pedersen with out single largest white bass out of 237 landed; this baby went just over 14″ and also came on a chartreuse MAL Lure.

PHOTO CAPTION #3: White bass were plentiful this morning; whenever we found them, there were plenty to go around. Four separate stops made the entire 4-hour trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 18 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing was nearly “cookie cutter” as compared to the day before, only better, as we had winds from a definite direction (SSE) which constantly strengthened (from 2 – 12 mph) over the course of the trip.

With two experienced anglers on board, I essentially provided a quick tutorial and then let them get right down to catching without having to do much coaching or polishing of their techniques whatsoever.

Like most folks new to working the MAL Lure, the tendency to try to set the hook upon feeling a strike would be a bit difficult for these fellows to overcome (the longer you’ve fished, the harder this is), but, the main thing of getting the spinner blade spinning in a short vertical span was mastered by both fellows right off the bat.

We fished only four distinct locations this morning, and the fish activity followed a normal, bell-shaped curve, getting started in the first hour, building to a peak in the middle two hours, and then falling off to nothing by the end of the fourth hour.

We worked the MAL Lures in a “plain Jane” vertical retrieve the entire time on the water, save for about 10 minutes of experimentation with slabs at the very end of the trip so the fellows had a glimpse of what will be required to continue to catch fish when (or if) the water temperatures fall into the 50’s.

For their efforts, Steve and Brian landed 244 fish, including 2 hybrid striped bass, 2 largemouth bass, 3 freshwater drum, and 237 white bass, of which only a handful were sub-legal (under 10″).

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 244 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Still no helpful bird activity in any amount after just 2 days of minimal assistance 2 weeks ago. I think it just hasn’t been cold enough long enough to get the birds pushed down here and get the fish oriented on suspended bait quite yet. What gulls are present are preoccupied chasing loons.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 39F

Elevation: 0.74 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour rise and 35 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 63.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were SSE2 at sunrise, slowly tapering up to SSE12 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Cloudless

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 15% illumination

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0022C; 12 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0042C; 51 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0052G; 139 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0151C; 42 fish on MAL Lures/Hazy Eye Slab (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

ELECTRIC TRAIN MONEY — 119 FISH @ BELTON

November 17th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, November 17th, I fished with Dr. Jim Wood of McGregor, TX, and a friend of his, Chad Tarvestad.

Jim was on my standby list in the event I had a postponement/cancellation. The fellow I was due to provide sonar training to today had equipment issues, so, Jim jumped on the opening.

Jim’s medical specialty is wound care — a field he is ‘slowly retiring’ from. He’s also a model train enthusiast. So, when I asked him how many days a month he’s now working, he told me “about three”, and I observed that that was just enough for “electric train money and then some”. He chuckled, and agreed.

Chad is a U.S. Army veteran originally from North Dakota.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: From left: Dr. Jim Wood and Chad Tarvestad with a portion of their 119 fish catch made on vertical presentations this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 17 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

After cancelling a trip yesterday due to “textbook” post-frontal conditions (cold, calm, clear), we were due to have a bit more wind today, about which I was encouraged.

I moved our start time back to 7:30AM, and allowed the sun to rise and begin to fully shine on the water before we began hunting fish.

Our first area searched was a bust. The second area produced fish from out of 43 feet of water. We used MAL Lures worked vertically to put our first 38 fish in the boat, all of which were white bass.

Our next stop, made with a gentler breeze now blowing, gave up another 25 white bass from out of 52 feet of water, also on MAL Lures worked with a moderate cadence.

As we kept fishing, the wind kept dying. Our third area gave up 18 fish; our fourth area gave up 29 fish, and the last area we hit gave up a final 9 fish.

We watched the wind go out of the fishes’ sails at that final spot we hit as the fish perked up as soon as we let our baits down, but then, after just 3 fish caught, the interest level dropped off with fish either half-heartedly chasing our baits, or not chasing them at all.

After having experienced this “end of the morning feed” routine the fish have been doing around 11-11:30AM, I came prepared with small slabs (3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks attached) to try a finesse presentation if/when the fish reached this point.

We put our final 6 fish in the boat using this “easing” tactic, but it was painfully slow fishing. By 11:40, the fish were done.

Total catch was 119 fish, (1 drum, 118 white bass) of which 113 were taken on the MAL Lure, with the remaining 6 taken on the Hazy Eye Slab w/stinger.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 119 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 34F

Elevation: 0.71 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour rise and 35 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 64F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were WNW at 12 at sunrise, slowly tapering to near calm by 10:05A, then shifting SE1-3 thereafter.

Sky Condition: Cloudless

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 7% illumination

GT = 75

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0201C; 38 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0151C; 25 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 561; 18 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0050G; 29 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic B0150C; 9 fish on MAL Lures/Hazy Eye Slab (SP)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec