WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Friday morning, October 15, I fished with first-time guests Mike Hausen, and his dad, Tom Stanley, both living in the Austin area.

Tom is a retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer who spent his career in the armor branch (tanks), and Mike has had various roles in the auto business, from fixing cars to selling them, and more.  He’s now with a Honda dealership in Austin.

We enjoyed ideal, pre-frontal weather today and Mike and Tom’s 2-man fish count of 201 fish landed was a testament to that.

______________

My next three openings will be on 1, 2, and 6 December.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Mike Hausen and his dad, Tom Stanley were flexible as to the timing of their trip, and were willing to receive some coaching to make the most of their time on the water.  The father and son landed 201 fish under ideal, pre-frontal conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 15 October 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

This trip was originally scheduled for Saturday, 16 Oct.  However, when I saw the weekend weather forecast developing back on Wednesday and Thursday, I saw we would have perfect prefrontal conditions on Friday morning as the winds swung from S through W to the NW in advance of a very slow moving front.  Saturday would feature high north winds, clear skies, cool temperatures, and bright sun.  I contacted Mike and Tom to see if there was any way they could move their trip to Friday, and, fortunately, they were able.  Pre-frontal fishing is often short-lived with just a few hours’ worth of a “window” to catch fish, but, it typically can’t be beat as far as fast fishing and excellent results.

We fished four areas this morning.  In reality, we could have stayed and continued to catch fish at any one of these, but, I chose to move us after I felt the bite had gone just “past peak” in order that Tom and Mike could enjoy the full potential for continuous, fast action which this day brought with it.

We alternated between fishing the MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade/white tail) vertically and horizontally (with an MAL Heavy Lure with white blade/chartreuse tail).  My preference is for the vertical fishing because, when this is done in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope, my anglers stay engaged and the presence of fish on the screen gives them confidence.  However, fish do lose interest after they see the lure over and over again, and/or they move off chasing after shad, and the “sawtooth method” of horizontal fishing does a great job of catching as we wait for fish to return to directly under the boat.

Additionally, whenever a large school of white bass shows on side-imaging, I quickly change my clients over to targeting those fish.  This is accomplished by having 2 sets of rods at the ready — one set with a more limber action and softer tip for vertical work and another set with a stiffer tip and lighter braid for horizontal work.

There was not a single full minute during our 4 hours on the water when we had our lines in the water and there was not at least a handful of white bass showing on sonar.  The fish were just feeding hard everywhere we looked for them.  At times, fish would fill the lower two-thirds of the water column as the chased shad and our lures up off bottom in this pre-frontal frenzy.

At 11:15, our fish count stood at 175 fish.  I told the fellows we’d fish until 11:30 or 200 fish, whichever came first.  At 11:30, we’d boated 199 fish.  I told them if they didn’t mind continuing to fish while I cleaned up the boat a bit (something I normally do after clients depart), we could give it another 10 minutes (but, I had to get home to see my wife off to a lady’s church retreat!!).  By 11:40, #200 and #201 crossed the gunwale, and we sped off for home.  An awesome morning with two nice guys!

Of the 201 fish landed, 188 were white bass, with 3 blue catfish and 10 juvenile hybrid striped bass in the mix.

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 201 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Classic pre-frontal conditions today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  70F

Elevation: 0.93 feet low, 0.01 rise, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW7 at trip’s start, swinging thru WSW, then W, then WNW, the NW as the lead edge of cool air from the cold front moved in as we wrapped up our trip.  Here’s a nice graphic of the windshift by Channel 10 out of Waco:

Sky Condition: Decreasing clouds from 70% down to 10% over our 4 hours on the water.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 75% illumination.

GT = 15

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1671 – 12 fish on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area vic 525/526/B0116C/1822 – 81 fish on MAL Heavy (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically & MAL Heavy w/ white blade worked horizontally

**Area 1678 – 54 fish on MAL Heavy (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically & MAL Heavy w/ white blade worked horizontally

**Area B0186C  – 54 fish all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

 

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 #mepps

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Thursday afternoon, October 14, I fished with a mother and son, Criselda and Eric Linares, on a short afternoon trip on Lake Belton.

After Wednesday night’s heavy rains associated with the passage of Hurricane Pamela, calm winds and the possibility of fog were called for in the morning.  I will avoid fishing in fog at all costs, so, we moved things around due to weather, and wound up fishing in the afternoon.

The afternoon bite on Belton tends to be shorter and weaker than the morning bite, so, we were going to get in a three hour trip instead of my usual four hour trip, but, traffic delays cost us an additional 25 minutes.  By the time Criselda and Eric made it aboard, we had about 2.5 hours of useful daylight to fish.

At this time, the combined total number of fish the two had ever landed in their lives was zero.  What happened over the next few hours is detailed below…

______________

My next three openings will be on 1, 2, and 6 December.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Criselda and Eric Linares (age 10) had never landed a fish before this evening’s trip on Lake Belton.   Their first fishing trip resulted in a catch of 93 fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (PM), 14 October 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

With no prior fishing experience on Crisela and Eric’s part, and limited time to work with, I searched for aggressive fish already in a feeding mode by gauging the height above bottom at which the fish I found with sonar were holding.  Fish very tight to bottom are typically a good bit tougher to catch than those holding 12-18″ off bottom.  Fortunately, thanks to humid, breezy conditions , we had lots of options to choose from when it came to locating fish, and I was able to follow through on this plan.

We wound up fishing five locations, each in exactly the same way.  All of our fishing was vertical this afternoon using the MAL Heavy in silver blade/white tail.  I did this mainly to avoid using the limited time we had in trying to teach two folks unfamiliar with casting how to do so.

We’d find fish, Spot-Lock on them, get lures down to them, begin working the lures vertically, and gauge fish response via Garmin LiveScope.  If the response was positive, we’d stay and catch until the fish lost interest and then would immediately move once the fish showed the first signs of letting up.  If the response was lackluster, we’d move immediately.

We landed 17 fish at our first stop, 21 fish at our second stop, 25 fish at our third stop, 8 fish at our fourth stop, and 22 fish at our final stop, for a total of 93 fish before the sun set and the fish quit.  All of our fishing was in ~34 feet of water.

At each stop, Criselda and Eric’s technique and fish-fighting abilities improved, and Eric, who was pretty quiet and stoic at first, came out of his shell and got excited about fishing, catching fish, holding fish, and riding in the boat.

By the time we parted ways back at the boat ramp parking lot, my two guests’ lifetime fish count had gone from zero to awesome in 2.5 hours flat!!

Of the 93 fish landed, 84 were white bass, with 1 smallmouth bass and 8 juvenile hybrid striped bass in the mix.

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 93 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The 2020 stocking of hybrid striped bass is really looking promising.  These should be to 3 pounds and 18″ by 2023.  They are routinely showing up at about 3-4% of my white bass bycatch just about everywhere I’m fishing on Lake Belton now.  This evening, they made up 8.6% of the catch.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 4:45P

End Time: 7:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  79F

Elevation: 0.94 feet low, 0.26′ fall, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: S7-9

Sky Condition: Clear skies all afternoon

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 65% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0016G – all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area vic 0154 – all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 1672/1815 – all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 1619 – all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area vic 0138 – all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

 

 

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 #mepps

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Wednesday, 13 October, I fished with Mr. Clay Earnshaw and his two sons, Jeffery and Wes, in celebration of Clay’s 62nd birthday.

Clay is a heavy equipment operator, Jeffery is a fire figher, and Wes is in law enforcement.

This trip was a surprise to Clay, as he was previously informed by the boys that they were taking him to go look at a boat to buy.  Evidently, Clay’s wife was also in on this.  The surprise was pulled off very well!!

The men would go on to land 199 fish during their 4-hour adventure.

My next three openings will be on 9, 17, and 30 November.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Jeffery, Clay, and Wes Earnshaw booked on a day with made-to-order weather.  The fish fed aggressively for four solid hours.  The MAL Heavy Lure worked its magic to the tune of 199 fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 13 October 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ve now had nine consecutive trips with over 100 fish caught.

This morning’s fishing was fantastic from start to finish.  The weather was just right.  The wind was up and out of the south, the air had a heavy, humid feel to it, we had grey cloud cover letting just enough sun through that you still needed to squint a little without shades on, and barometric pressure was low thanks to the remnants of a hurricane from Mexico’s west coast passing slowly over Central Texas.

As I awaited my clients’ arrival, there was much greater than normal topwater fish activity randomly occurring around me as rough fish, game fish, and forage fish all were visibly active there.

Within minutes of launching we were on top of fish in about 20 feet of water.  Given how tightly bunched up these fish were, we went vertical with MAL Heavy Lures in silver blade/white tail.  We landed our first 40 fish in under 40 minutes.

As the morning moved along, our conditions stayed solid until the sun broke through briefly around 10:30.  Up to that point we fished four additional areas, all with excellent results.  By 8:46 our fish count increased to 76 at the second area we fished; we added just 6 more fish by 9:06 at the third stop; we increased the tally to 102 by 9:38 at the fourth area we tried, then piled ’em on, taking our tally to 175 at our next-to-last stop by 10:30.

This was the only area at which I found enough fish scattered along the bottom sufficient to make horizontal work worth it.  We landed about 40% of our fish here using the sawtooth horizontal method, and the remainder came vertically.  As the fishing here stopped producing quality fish, we left the fish biting to roll the dice and try to finish up with a few more quality fish.

At 10:30, the sun peeked out. That sun killed the bite for about 15 minutes, then, as cloud cover returned, the bite resumed until the morning feed ended around 11:30.

Our sixth and final stop did produce a better ratio of quality fish.  We landed a final 24 more fish as the morning bite died hard right around 11:30, taking our final total to 199 fish.

As happens each year around this time, the number of small fish in the catch tends to increase over spring/summer results, and we are definitely beginning to see this.  I suspect this is because the “young-of-the-year” white bass have now grow sufficiently to be attracted to shad roughly the same profile/length as the presentations white bass anglers typically use (jigs, slabs, spinners, tailspinners, etc.).  These fish have obviously been present since they were spawned, but were not yet eating that large of prey.

Of the 199 fish landed, 190 were white bass, with 1 largemouth bass and 8 juvenile hybrid striped bass in the mix.

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 199 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The 2020 stocking of hybrid striped bass is really looking promising.  These should be to 3 pounds and 18″ by 2023.  They are showing up at about 3-4% of my white bass bycatch just about everywhere I’m fishing on Lake Belton now.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  74F

Elevation: 1.20 feet low, 0.04′ fall, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13-16

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies all morning

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 54% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0006G – 40 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 788/0190 – 36 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area vic B0179C – 6 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 381; 22 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area vic 165; 40% on MAL Heavy Lure (white blade/chartreuse tail), 60% on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 409; 24 fish with 3 taken horizontally

 

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 #mepps

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, October 12, I fished with returning guests Brian Parker and Lucindy Packer, accompanied by first-time guests Mike and Kay Rush, Brian’s sister and brother-in-law, all from out west of the Waco area.

Despite the wind and rain, these hearty souls landed 138 fish during their 4-hour trip.  This was our 8th consecutive trip tallying 100 or more fish, thanks to cooling of the reservoir, leading to a breakdown of the thermocline.

My next three openings will be on 9, 17, and 30 November.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Mike and Kay Rush, Lucindy Packer, and Brian Parker, all with double fistfuls of fish taken vertically on MAL Heavy Lures (silver blade, white tail) under heavily overcast/light rain conditions on stiff SE wind.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 12 October 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ve now had eight consecutive trips with over 100 fish caught.

The 180-degree change in wind and weather in such a short time (since yesterday’s cold-front conditions) definitely impacted fish location and behavior this morning.

Areas which had been producing consistently over the past three weeks offered slim pickings this morning, forcing me to find fish in new locations.  Also, despite solid fishing using horizontal tactics all summer and up through yesterday morning, the fish this morning wanted only a vertical presentation.  Of the 138 fish we landed, only 6 came on the attempts we made at fishing the sawtooth method.

I also noted that the fish that made up our catch this morning were, on average, smaller than on any of my previous seven trips made since turnover.

We fished five locations this morning, all in 28 to 36 feet of water.  We sampled several other locations which held fish, but found those fish disinterested, so, instead of wasting time hoping they would turn on, we kept moving and sampling (with lines in the water and Garmin LiveScope playing) until we found cooperative fish.  Aggressive fish would actually swim up off bottom to “greet” our lures as they fell.  Less aggressive fish would remain on bottom, but follow our lures upwards as we retrieved our MAL Heavy Lures through the water column.

Of the 138 fish landed, 130 were white bass with 2 freshwater drum and 6 juvenile hybrid striped bass in the mix.

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 138 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: More teal and coots continue to filter in and, around 8:45, a large flock of migrating laughing gulls numbering about 70 birds flew over the lake from W to E, but passed on.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  68F

Elevation: 1.16 feet low, 0.02′ fall, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE11-16

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with scattered, light rain showers all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 43% illumination.

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0100G – 42 fish under low-light conditions; many suspended smallish fish moving horizontally; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 327/B0003G – 14 fish; all but 4 on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 1675/1815 – 55 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 409/0148 – 15 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 1678 – 12 fish; all but 2 on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

 

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 #mepps

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Monday, October 11, I fished with first time guests Steve Miller, his friend, Kay Ingraffia, and Steve’s brother, Greg Miller, all from the Buda, TX, area.

Steve and Greg have their own boat and routinely pursue white bass and full-blooded striped bass on Canyon Lake, primarily using downriggers.  They’ve followed my reports for a while and have purchased my MAL Lures and wanted to try to tie everything together, including the all-important location piece of the puzzle, this morning.

They landed 130 fish during their 4-hour trip.

My next three openings will be on 9, 17, and 30 November.  Weekday mornings are always best.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Steve Miller, Kay Ingraffia, and Greg Miller with a brace of white bass taken on MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) using a sawtooth tactic early in the trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 11 October 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ve now had seven consecutive trips with over 100 fish caught.

The big question hanging over this morning’s efforts was “What has the cold front done to the fishing?”.

Overnight, from roughly 10:30 pm to midnight, a cold front swept through Central Texas from west to east, dropping the air temperature from the high 70s around sunset to 59F at sunrise.  A half-inch of rain fell area wide, and the strong southerly winds that blew all day Sunday shifted suddenly from the NNW with the line of passing storms.

There are a lot of opinions and literature out there about how cold fronts impact fishing.  My observation concerning white bass is this:  the time from a cold front’s arrival (and accompanying wind shift thru the west and to the north) and until the winds peak and then plateau, and just before the winds begin to decrease, will produce solid fishing.  As soon as the winds begin to decrease after a front’s passage, white bass fishing typically gets very tough until the south wind begins to blow again.

This tracked true this morning. There were 7-9 mph NNW winds in the wake of the cold front’s passage this morning, all morning.  These winds went slack very quickly around 11:15AM, at which time the bite died quickly.  Otherwise, the fish displayed about the same level of interest as they did with Saturday’s southerly winds and stable weather.

We landed 35 fish in our first two hours working MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) in 26-38 feet of water as side-imaging revealed large schools of fish spread along the bottom and patrolling in the lower light conditions.

Our final two hours produced another 95 fish as the winds peaked at NNW9.  During this time we transitioned out to slightly deeper 40-45 foot water, and alternated between working MAL Heavy Lures vertically (white tail, silver blade) when Garmin LiveScope indicated fish were stacked/passing beneath us, and casting horizontally using a sawtooth method with MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) when the side-imaging revealed heavier concentrations to the port or starboard side of the boat.

Of the 130 fish landed, 128 were white bass with 1 largemouth and 1 juvenile hybrid striped bass in the mix.

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 130 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Spotted the fall’s first ring-bill gull (just one!) and the first pair of loons which evidently rode down on the cold front.  Plenty of monarch butterflies showing up, too.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  59F

Elevation: 1.14 feet low, 0.02′ rise, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW7 at sunrise, slowly increasing to and peaking at NNW9, then going slack around 11:15

Sky Condition: Clear, “blue bird” skies

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 32% illumination.

GT = 53

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 085/812 – 29 fish on our first stop under lowest light conditions; all sawtooth

**Area B0155C/B0156C – 6 fish as fish transitioned away from shallow water with rising light level; all sawtooth

**Area 1269 – excellent bite with peak wind conditions; 79 fish in ~90 minutes both vert. and horiz.

**Area 995/684 – bite died here along with the wind; a final 16 fish, all vertical

 

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 #mepps

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Saturday, October 9th, I fished Lake Belton for this season’s ninth SKIFF program fishing trip offered specifically to military kids and teens.  Joining me were Logan Sinks of Belton, and Drake Adams of Killeen.  The two friends are both 15 years of age.

SKIFF is an acronym for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. It is a program now in its 12th year, sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers, and supported by individuals and entities, all of whom desire that kids separated from a parent by that parent’s military duty, be given an opportunity to experience the outdoors through fishing during that time of separation, free of charge.  The program offers a time of respite for the home-front parents who may need a short break from single-parenting.

Logan’s dad, U.S. Army Master Sergeant David Sinks, is currently deployed to Camp Humphries in South Korea.  He has served for approximately 17 years and is in the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) field.  Drake’s step-father, Sergeant First Class Richard Rodriguez, is an Apache attack helicopter mechanic.  He has served for 21 years and was most recently deployed to South Korea, as well.

My next few openings will be on 9, 16, and 17 November.  Weekday mornings are always best.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Logan Sinks and Drake Adams landed 136 fish this morning, including 130 white bass, 4 juvenile hybrid striped bass, and 1 freshwater drum.  All fish were taken on the MAL Heavy lure, primarily with a vertical retrieve.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 09 November 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ve now had six consecutive trips with over 100 fish per trip.

I’ve been off the water for a week on the annual home-building mission trip to Juarez, Mexico, I make each October with some folks from my church.  We returned around 6:45PM last night, I got a few winks of sleep and then got prepped to receive the boys for 7AM.

The fish were still in the same places doing the same things at the same times as when I last fished on 30 September.

The early morning, low-light bite was weak, with the energy level of the fish rising with light and wind as the morning moved on.

By 9:40, we’d landed 31 fish — 4 via a horizontal “sawtooth” method, and the rest via a vertical tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.  It was at this time that the wind ramped up sharply from about SSE8 to SSE13.  With this increase in wind came an increase in fish activity.

From 9:50 to 10:30, we more than doubled our catch, landing exactly 70 more fish in this 40-minute span, taking our tally to 101.  At the first hint that the bite at this location was starting to wane, I made a final move to a similar area.

From 10:35 to 11:00 we landed an additional 35 fish in those 25 minutes for a grand total of 136 fish boated.

Our primary means of catching this morning was to find fish holding tight to bottom, Spot-Lock on them, work MAL Heavy Lures (white tail, silver blade) vertically up off bottom to about the top of the lower third of the water column, then drop them back while all the time viewing Garmin LiveScope to gauge fish response, and to know when to reel and when not to reel.

The boys got the hang of this quickly, were willing to be coached to smooth out some of the “rookie mistakes” they made with their presentations, and their result benefited handsomely.

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 136 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Since I’d been off the water for a week, I wanted to check the temperature profile at depth.  Here are the results … there is no longer any thermal stratification:

0 feet 78.8F
5 feet 79.1F
10 feet 79.2F
15 feet 79.2F
20 feet 79.2F
25 feet 79.2F
30 feet 79.2F
35 feet 79.2F
40 feet 79.2F
45 feet 79.2F
50 feet 79.2F
55 feet 79.2F
60 feet 79.2F
65 feet 79.1F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  64F

Elevation: 1.12 feet low, 0.03′ drop, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5 at sunrise, increasing to SSE13 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Skies were 40% clouded at sunrise, decreasing to 10% by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 13% illumination.

GT = NA

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 812 – a few shallow fish in 24-26′

**Area 1374 & 1274 – fish were present, but not aggressive; caught a few and moved on

**Area 714 – fish were present and were more aggressive than they had been to this point, but most fish were smallish; moved on by 9:30 with 31 fish landed

**Area 1392/2053 – excellent vertical bite; 70 fish in 45 minutes

**Area B0099G – excellent vertical bite; 35 fish in 25 minutes

 

 

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 #mepps

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Thursday, September 30, I fished on Lake Belton with returning guests Larry Brewer and Blake Hoekstra, accompanied by first-time guest Chris Zwern, Larry’s son-in-law.

Larry has been a long-time fixture in the Austin area HVAC business for decades, Blake is a retired accountant, and Chris is working in the medical equipment segment of Siemens in the Houston area.

The fishing is great and will only get better with the arrival of additional cold fronts.  If you’d like to get in on this fantastic fall fishing, let me know sooner than later.  I can introduce you to the multiple tactics I’ve developed for using the MAL Lure, as well as advanced use of sonar to find and catch fish.

My next few openings will be on 11, 12, & 13 October.  Weekday mornings are always best.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Larry Brewer, Blake Hoekstra, & Chris Zwern, all with healthy Lake Belton hybrid striped bass taken on MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) in ~42 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 30 September 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ve now had five consecutive trips with over 100 fish per trip.  Of these, this morning’s start was the slowest thanks to bright skies (albeit with a haze), and lack of wind.  These conditions persisted until 8:40.  The wind ratcheted up and the skies grew quickly overcast at the same time in about a 20 minute span.  By 9A, it was game-on.

We fished a few areas prior to 9A, just scraping a few fish here and there.  At 9A, the fish began to chase bait clear up to the surface, occasionally breaking water, a handful of Forster’s terns began working around us, and sonar (2D, DI, & SI) all started to load up with fish.  We fished three areas, all with the same approach.

We fished vertically when the fish were aggressive, and quickly changed over to horizontal tactics when the action cooled a bit.  I keep two separate sets of rods on the boat for each tactic so I can collect up what we’re not using as I distribute the rods we will be using, and change everyone over to a new tactic in about 30 seconds.  This preparation puts more fish in the boat than otherwise.

When the fish were piled up under us, we’d use the MAL Heavy with silver blade/white tail to crank up through them and watch their reaction via Garmin LiveScope.  The higher the fish suspend, the more prone they are to striking.  I therefore coach my clients to pay particular attention to those high-riding fish and attempt to “lead” them as they retrieve their lures past those fish.

When the “haystacks” of fish thinned out, but side imaging showed them patrolling around us, we’d cast horizontally and work MAL Heavy Lures with white blades/chartreuse tails along the bottom using a sawtooth tactic.  The rod and reel combo I use for this is different that the combo used for the vertical work in that the spool diameter is greater and the gear ratio is higher, resulting in a faster moving lure (given an equivalent handle turn speed).

We have abundant rains moving in Friday and Saturday, then the autumn’s second cold front due in Sunday.  That cold front should cement the turnover process, opening the floodgates to fantastic fall fishing a bit earlier than the late October date at which it normally occurs.  Can’t wait!!!

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 107 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Found fish down as deep as 53′ yesterday — deepest fish I’ve found since late May/early June.  The foul, septic odor which often accompanies the fall turnover can be detected now and then as this process begins.  3 terns helped point the direction we needed to “short hop” in as the bite slowed at our 2nd and 4th stops.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  73F

Elevation: 1.01 feet low, no elevation change overnight, 72 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE3-4 until around 9A; then increasing as clouds moved in from the SE to SE9-11

Sky Condition: Skies were hazy but cloud free until ~9A, then became 100% greyed over from then until trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 36% illumination.

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1275/086 – fishing was slow until we moved to this location, and was slow here, too, until wind/clouds positively impacted the fishing; 47 fish landed here, incl. 3 of the 4 legal hybrid we caught.

**Area 1298 – plentiful, but small, white bass here.  We landed 19 in short order and moved on while they were still biting.  3 short hybrid in the mix.

**Area B0040G, from the waypoint to the breakline with fish carpeting bottom.  41 fish here, including 1 legal hybrid and 1 mature drum.

 

 

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 #mepps

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Wednesday, September 29, I fished on Lake Belton with returning guest Gary Davidson of Kerrville, TX, and his friend, Ken Cox, of Boerne, TX.

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, September 28, I fished on Lake Belton with Gerry Collier and his son, Geoff, who is in for a visit from Tucson, AZ.

Gerry works in the supply field for Baylor Scott & White and has been out with me for an on-the-water sonar training previously.  Geoff manages a Jiffy Lube store back in Arizona.  He drove about 13 hours with his German shepherd just to spend some downtime with his folks, enjoying Texas BBQ and beer for a few days.

When I had an unanticipated opening on my calendar, I posted about it on Facebook over the weekend, and Gerry was the first to give me a holler as the opportunity jived perfectly with his son’s visit.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Gerry Collier with a 4.25 pound hybrid taken on the MAL Heavy in silver blade/white tail from out of 42′.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Gerry and Geoff Collier with a sampling of the white bass catch.  Horizontal “sawtooth” tactics worked best when the bite was tough prior to the shift/increase in wind around 9A; after that, a vertical presentation drove ’em wild.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 28 September 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Although still quite solid, the fishing was a little different and a bit slower than yesterday, thanks to a near cloudless, near windless start to the morning.  With lack of cloud cover, the skies brightened quickly and just about eliminated any low-light shallow bite.

We didn’t catch but a few fish in under 25 feet this morning.  After about 40 minutes on the water, a solid bite developed out in 30-32 feet of water allowing us to begin catching with regularity for the first time this trip by casting MAL Heavy Lures out horizontally and retrieving the back with a sawtooth method.  This would remain our staple presentation through 9:30AM.

On occasion, we’d see a “hot” school of fish pile up directly under the boat and show a willingness to chase vertically, but, this was often short-lived, after which we’d switch right back to the horizontal work.

About 9AM, a wind shift and wind increase took place which, by 9:30AM, turned the fish on very well for another full 90+ minutes.  By 9:30, we’d pieced together a catch of 74 fish, including 2 legal hybrid, 3 drum, and 69 white bass.  From 9:30 to 11:25, we landed another 60 fish.  These fish were much, much more aggressive, with 100% of them falling to a vertical retrieve using the MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade and white tail.  This catch of 60 included one more legal hybrid, two more drum, and 4 juvenile hybrid (from last year’s stocking, which is a welcome sight!!).

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 134 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Fishing was a bit tougher today than on the past two outings, but still well ahead of the grind-it-out summer fishing we’ve experienced since June.  Today’s less enthusiastic fishing was driven by a lack of cloud cover and a lack of wind well into the morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 11:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  68F

Elevation: 1.09 feet low, .04 foot fall, 72 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE1-4 through 9:10, then increasing to S9 for the rest of the morning

Sky Condition: Skies were cloudless through 9AM, then 20% white cloud cover on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 55% illumination.

GT = 15

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  812 – shallowest action, albeit pretty weak this AM

**Area  B0098G – the catch of a single via downrigger led us to find a nice group of fish feeding actively in the lower half of the water column here; we fished vert. and horiz. to capitalize.

**Area 1791/B0155C –  Vertical & horiz. MAL Heavy work

**Area  V1275 – this is where we were when the wind shifted and increased and the bite began to improve rapidly.

**Area 714 – final ~2 hours of the trip here for a final 60 fish, all vertical with LiveScope and MAL Heavy in silver blade/white tail.

 

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 #mepps