2023 Fishing Reports | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE FORAGE — 204 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 5th, 2023June 5th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, June 5, I fished with a crew of four from the Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen. This trip was coordinated by that organization’s president, Mr. Randy Rowley. Joining Randy were Bill Atkinson, Jim Magee, and Dusty Hunt, all club members.

Bill is a retired veterinarian, Jim is a retired Campus Crusade for Christ missionary, Randy is with Texas’ Health and Human Services, and Dusty works in the concrete cutting business.

I really appreciated Randy, as he is a detail-oriented person. He asked good questions and really laid the groundwork for his group to have a good outing as result of his pre-trip research and “due diligence”.

Here’s how the fishing went…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are July 10, 12, & 13 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen members (from left) Dusty Hunt, Randy Rowley, Bill Atkinson, and Jim McGee. This crew landed 204 fish on MAL Mini Rigs early and MAL Heavies late.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 05 June 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: This morning’s fishing broke down into two distinct parts. The first part involved gamefish pushing bait, most of which was young-of-the-year shad, to the surface in water under 20 feet deep while the light level was low and the cloud cover was 100% gray.

During this time we used MAL Mini rigs, and either sight-cast or counted these rigs down to no more than a four-count, and caught white bass consuming these small shad, the largest of which were perhaps 1.25 inches in length and about as large in diameter as a pipe cleaner.

The first group of fish we found included a majority of undersized fish, but after that, the mix was roughly 7 to 1 on legal versus under sized fish.

We found such fishing at two distinct areas, then, as the sun began to climb higher in the sky and burn off the gray cloud cover, this bite ended right at 8:04 AM.

The second chapter involved a distinctly different population of fish feeding on adult shad out in open water. These fish were holding at 16 to 20 feet down over a 32-foot bottom.

Occasionally, these fish would push bait all the way to the surface and expose their location, which allowed us to swoop in, catch fish by sight-casting, then, when they disappeared, by counting our lures down.

Once they sounded, we also found we could consolidate them by creating commotion with the splasher and our presentations, and by hooking and playing fish. As this happened, we were able to fish vertically using a smoking tactic both with and without the aid of Garmin LiveScope.

None of my crew had experience using LiveScope the way we used it this morning and that really seemed to be a treat for them. As was the case all week last week, the fishing began to taper between 9:40 and 9:50 and was over by 10:20.

This Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen’s crew landed exactly 204 fish this morning every last one of which was a white bass.

Bottom line: it was critical to watch and see what size shad the fish were feeding on, and then imitate that forage size via good lure selection.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 112 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Being prepared (i.e. with lures already selected and tied on) to imitate both juvenile shad and adult shad was key today. The wind shift to the north did not seem to impact the fishery versus the SSE to due S winds we had last week. Here is the water temperature profile I detected prior to sunrise:

0 feet, 78.6F
5 feet, 79.6F
10 feet, 79.9F
15 feet, 80.1F
20 feet, 80.1F
25 feet, 76.7F
30 feet, 71.2F
35 feet, 68.4F
40 feet 66.9F
45 feet, 65.5F
50 feet, 64.1F
55 feet, 63.2F
60 feet, 62.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 12.63 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.01′ drop over the past 72 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~78.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW5-6 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover until ~8:00, then rapidly dissipating to blue skies and 30% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 92% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0123C – 27 fish on MAL Mini rigs via sight-casting to surface feeders

Area vic 15576 thru 1411 – 37 fish on MAL Mini rigs via sight-casting to surface feeders & counting down to suspended fish

Area vic B02020G – 78 fish on a combination of smoking, sight-casting, and counting down MAL Heavies

Area vic B0129G – 89 fish on a combination of smoking, sight-casting, and counting down MAL

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

IMITATING ALL SIZES OF SHAD WAS KEY — 112 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 4th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning, June 2nd, I fished with first-time guests Mr. Joseph Schmidt from the Austin area, and his friend Patti Powell who lives in Belton.

Joseph practices general dentistry and has his own boat and a strong background in saltwater fishing; Patti is stepping back into real estate and arrived this morning already handling spinning gear well, which was a big help.

Here is how the fishing went…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are July 5, 10, & 11 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Joseph Schmidt and Patti Powell with a few of the 112 fish they caught and released using a variety of methods to imitate both the juvenile and adult shad which the gamefish were feeding on this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! Joseph landed two sets of triples as we covered water using downriggers while keeping an eye on sonar to find large concentrations of fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 02 June 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: We began at 6:15 AM in order to take advantage of any early topwater action which might materialize. There wasn’t much going on until just after the sun rose. Once it did, I spotted several pockets of topwater action. After observing yesterday’s substantial topwater feed, I came prepared this morning not only with small MAL Mini Rigs, but also with even smaller Cork rigs with small streamers to imitate the smallest of the newly hatched shad which so many of the white bass are now focused on.

We spotted our first school of open water white bass around 6:40, and they were definitely pursuing young-of-the-year shad. Both Joseph and Patti cast to the schools accurately as I kept the boat in range. They picked up their first 10 fish this way before this action died quickly.

I spotted a second group of fish, but there were already boats nearby, so we just bypassed that “boat show” and continued on to find our own fish.

The topwater action got quiet for a while, so, through 8:20, we used a combination of downrigging to cover ground and find fish (most of which were suspended around 16-22′) and, once we found an area which a greater than average density of fish, we’d stop, let the splasher work to draw the fish in, and work MAL Heavies vertically through them using a smoking tactic. We added 18 more fish to our tally in this manner.

Around 8:20, with partly cloudy skies and a gentle S. wind, open water surface feeding began with great numbers of white bass pursuing adult threadfin shad to the surface. We swapped back and forth between sight-casting when the fish were plentiful and nearby, showing themselves on the surface, using a vertical smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope when the screens lit up indicating fish moving beneath us, and a count-down tactic when we saw the majority of the fish out to the port or starboard side of the boat courtesy of side-imaging.

The action began to taper around 9:40, and by 10:15 things had throttled way back to the level they were at prior to 8:20.

We wrapped up right at the 4-hour mark with 112 fish landed, including 2 short hybrid stripers, 1 blue catfish, 1 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 107 white bass, of which ~8 were short.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 112 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Being prepared (i.e. with lures already selected and tied on) to imitate both juvenile shad and adult shad was key today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 12.64 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.00′ change over the past 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~78.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE3-5 at trip’s start, very slowly swinging to due S while maintaining the same velocity

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover until ~8:20, then rapidly dissipating to blue skies and 30% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 97% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0057G – 10 fish on Cork Rigs with fry imitator streamers

Area vic B0092G – 14 fish via downrigging to find & smoking MAL Heavies to catch

Area vic B0228G – 88 fish on a combination of smoking, sight-casting, and counting down MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

GO SMALL OR GO HOME – 169 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 2nd, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Thursday, June 1, I fished with first-time guests Bret, Grayson, and Bryson Necessary.

Brett is a civil engineer working for MW Builders, and the boys, ages 17 and 15 respectively, are working their way through high school.

Here is how the fishing went…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Grayson, Bret, and Bryson Necessary with a sampling of the white bass they caught and released from Lake Belton. Imitating young-of-the-year shad was critical as the fish are very focused on those small baitfish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 01 June 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: We got going at 6:15 AM this morning, anticipating a low-light top water feed.

Note that this is not the same sort of topwater as we had just a short week ago. That topwater at that time consisted of gamefish pushing adult shad, which were spawning, toward the shore and toward the surface to trap and eat them.

A rapid transition is now taking place with gamefish focused on the very small young of the year shad. These shad are generally located away from the bank and the fish feeding on them are much harder to visually detect, because the shad are so easily slurped in that they require very little effort on the gamefishes’ part to overtake and ingest. Thus, no, splashing, typically accompanies this sort of feeding.

I checked several areas before finding enough topwater action to keep us in business. Once located, I used a combination of drifting with the wind, repositioning with Spot-Lock, and the jogging function on my trolling motor to keep my three anglers within a reasonable casting distance of the schooling fish. Our 100th fish came over the side at 8:20 AM. These fish all came from a roughly 300 yard area.

These fish were all taken on the new MAL Mini Rig. This consists of a substantially downsized MAL Lure designed to imitate small, young-of-the-year baitfish. Ahead of the small MAL is a 3/4 oz. weight to provide enough heft to cast the rig out and beyond the feeding fish so the retrieve can be made through the entire school.

PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Mini, designed to imitate young-of-the-year shad, shown below three (of 8) shad regurgitated by a single white bass during this morning’s trip.

Once the gray, low cloud cover began to burn off, this feed ended fairly quickly. I looked around for remnant schools, found one area which gave up six more fish, then that chapter closed for good around 8:40.

As the sky brightened, but still with fully clouded skies, adult threadfin shad began to get forced to the surface out in open water. The fish chasing these we’re doing so more aggressively and throwing some spray up into the air which could be seen with a trained eye.

Additionally, occasional visits out over open water by blue herons gave the general location of this sort of action away. I hustled to the scene of the crime, and we were able to finish out the remainder of our trip at first racing MAL Lures vertically through fish suspended around 20 to 25 feet deep, then, after sonar revealed these fish were pulling up even higher in the water column, we began to cast MAL Heavies, and let them sink to a four count before retrieving.

Once the winds calmed a bit, and the skies brightened as the clouds thinned, we begin counting down further to six, then eight, then once the fish got back down as low as the 20 foot mark, the feed came to an end.

The action had just about cooled by 9:50 AM, and by 10:10 AM we decided to give downrigging a try as a “mop up“ effort. The fish were shut down hard enough by this time that the downrigging did not even produce. We called it a day right at 10:20 with 169 fish landed including two blue catfish, one largemouth bass, and the remainder of white bass.

TALLY: 169 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Generally speaking, fish are heavily focused now on young-of-the-year shad, thus, downsized baits are a must.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 12.64 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.01′ fall over the past 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~78.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE6 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover until ~8:20, then rapidly dissipating to blue skies and 30% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 91% illumination.

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0202C thru 1796 — 100 fish by 8:20AM on MAL Mini Rigs

Area 1795 – 6 fish on MAL Mini Rigs

Area vic B0092G – 63 fish on a combination of smoking and counting down MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

SHAD NETTING FUNDAMENTALS – 106 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 1st, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Wednesday, May 31, I fished with returning guests, Dr. Jason Locklin and his two oldest kids, Ava, age 17, and Morgan, age 15.

Jason is a professor at Temple College, and the two of us have not only fished together previously, but also had the opportunity to work together on a study comparing zebra mussel populations in Stillhouse Hollow and Lake Belton.

For sometime now, Jason has wanted to understand what it takes to both capture live shad, and then use them as bait for hybrid striped bass. This season, I chose not to pursue hybrid, both due to low numbers of legal size fish present as our Lake Belton hybrid program is rebuilding, and because I injured my left rotator cuff, thus making throwing a cast net impossible during the early part of the season.

Here is how the fishing went.…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Ava and Morgan Locklin with a few of the white bass they landed by sight-casting to surface feeding white bass with MAL Heavies, and by tightlining live shad off bottom.

PHOTO CAPTION: Ava Locklin with our best fish of the trip. This bluecat fell for a piece of cut live shad we fished amongst a spread of 5 other rods with live gizzards and threadfins.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 31 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Regardless of the whole shoulder thing, I told Jason I would try to figure out a way to at least show him the ropes this season. Unfortunately we had to wait for the kids to be done with school and, as a result, our shad spawn has since ended, so that meant capturing shad the hard way. We met up at 4:45 AM with both a traditional net and a tape net, and proceeded to collect enough bait before sunrise to see us through that portion of our trip dedicated to the pursuit of hybrid.

I covered topics I felt were critical for catching and keeping shad:

Cast net styles
Shad tank fundamentals (aeration, filtration, circulation, and insulation)
Water treatments
Sorting/transfer bucket use
Throwing methods
Deep water throwing vs. shallow water throwing
Bait net use
Filter material and cleaning

With a mix of threadfin and gizzard shad now in the bait tank, we got lines in the water just after first light around 6:25 AM.

We hit three areas getting set up and then allowing the baits and splasher to work their magic for about 25 minutes at each location. Although we drew strikes and landed two white bass, neither the strikes, nor the sonar signatures I saw led me to believe we were dealing with hybrid.

The night before this trip, suspecting that the shad and/or the hybrid might be difficult to come by at this point in the season, I asked Jason what he would like to do if we struggled in either regard, and he was open to pursuing other species in other ways.

As we headed to a fourth area to search for hybrid, I spotted some widespread surface activity and was pleased to see that the white bass were feeding on adult threadfin shad. I say “pleased”, because when these fish are feeding on young of the year shad, they are much more difficult to fool, as it is hard to find a lure small enough to imitate these tiny fish.

For about 45 minutes, Morgan, Ava, and Jason sight-cast on one side of the boat or the other, as I maneuvered the boat to keep them with in casting range of the surface feeding fish.

This trio put 68 fish in the boat and made quick work of it. The time was now 9:20 AM, and we had planned to wrap up around 10:20 AM, so we agreed to put in our final hour in pursuit of hybrid once again.

I surveyed a windblown point with sonar, saw activity, and got baits down quickly as everyone was now very familiar with the routine. We fished this area until the bait ran out and wound up with 36 additional fish, including 33 white bass, two blue catfish, and one largemouth bass .

Our grand total for the morning was 106 fish with 68 taken on the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail sight-cast and/or counted down, and an additional 38 fish taken on live threadfin and gizzard shad using essentially a Carolina rig, suspended vertically off the bottom terminated with a Kahle style hook.

We did not land a single hybrid, but still got to cover the approach to fishing live shad including:

Shad size
Shad location
Shad species
Hook choice
Hook positioning
Hook mono tags
Tightline setups
Rod holder positions
Bite detection
Bait clicker functions
Chumming

TALLY: 106 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: With two consecutive days without spawning shad activity despite ideal conditions, I believe “Shad Spawn 2023” is now complete; and, by the looks of the numbers of juvenile shad now showing up, it looks as if it was quite successful.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 4:45A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 12.63 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.04′ fall over the past 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~78.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE6-8 until ~9:20, then dropping to SE4-5

Sky Condition: Blue skies with under 10% cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 85% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1556 – 2 whites on live shad

Area vic 1519 – 68 white sight-casting to fish feeding on adult shad with MAL Heavies (all legal)

Area 297 – 38 fish on live shad (2 blue catfish, 1 largemouth bass, 35 white bass (all legal)

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

A VERY SHORT WINDOW — 64 FISH @ LAKE BELTON (PM)

June 1st, 2023June 1st, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday evening, May 30, I fished with the 10-year-old grandson of Dr. Bill Johnston, a retired Scott and White anesthesiologist.

Webb Johnston had a very short window to fish with me during his visit with his grandparents and all I had available during that window was an evening trip, which I normally do not offer this time of year.

Summertime evening bites tend to be very short (but intense), taking place in the last 75 minutes or so of light. It is difficult to have (kids, especially) out in high heat for 2.75 hours catching very little before the good fishing kicks in. Fortunately, a nice breeze helped tame the heat.

Here is how the fishing went…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Webb Johnston with a nice 4.75 pound Lake Belton hybrid striped bass taken on an MAL Heavy raced from the bottom toward the surface while observing LiveScope.

PHOTO CAPTION: Bill Johnston treated his grandson, Webb, to an evening fishing trip on Lake Belton. Webb landed a total of 64 fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 30 May 2023 (PM)

HOW WE FISHED:

The plan was for Webb to do all the fishing today as Bill took photos, videos, and helped me help Webb be successful. I explain to Webb that on most evenings on Lake Belton, the vast majority of the fish activity takes place in the last hour or so before dark.

This evening was no exception.

Since this was a “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip, it was scheduled for 3.5 hours. After about two hours, we had managed 17 fish, primarily by downrigging for suspended white bass which were locked in on young of the year shad.

Around 7:35, as the winds, which came up very suddenly around 4:45 PM as a thunderstorm to the northeast fell apart, died down we began to see many schools of white bass churning the surface chasing primarily after young of the year shad.

Using the new MAL Mini Rig to more closely imitate these small shad than the standard MAL Lure does, Webb proceeded to wear out the white bass, taking our final count up to 64 fish landed as the final fish came in the boat at 8:58 PM.

We got into a good rhythm where Webb stood next to me on my boat’s front casting deck; he would cast to a pod of fish, retrieve quickly to keep his lure up high in the water column, hook and land a fish, then hand that rod — with fish still attached — to me as I handed him an identical rod with the bail already centered and the bait hanging an appropriate distance below the rod tip, absolutely ready for casting.

I would unhook the fish, prepare the second rod, and wait on Webb to hook and land another, and so it went as the two of us worked very efficiently to keep him hooking and landing fish. As fun as this action was, and as appropriate as it was for a young man his age, most of these fish were yearling fish, many of which have already surpassed the 10″ minimum legal size. Perhaps 1 in every 8 or so was 12″ or better.

TALLY: 64 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 4:45P

End Time: 9P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 85F

Elevation: 12.59 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.30′ increase over the long Memorial Day weekend

Water Surface Temp: ~79F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE16 at trip’s start thanks to collapsing thunderstorms to the NE; then tapering back to SE6 by dark

Sky Condition: Blue skies with under 10% cloud cover all evening.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 76% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0019G – downrigging

Area 1766 to 1641 – topwater sightcasting

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THE HUMAN RAIN DELAY –64 FISH @ LAKE BELTON (AM)

May 30th, 2023June 1st, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, May 30, I fished with returning guests Marcus Mitchell, and Robert Butts, accompanied by a friend of theirs from church, Steve Wilson.

With the long Memorial Day weekend now passed, the lake traffic this morning was minimal and the weather pretty comfortable for late May, at least until late morning.

As conversation drifted from topic to topic, we discovered Steve was boyhood friends with Mike Hargrove. After announcing this, Steve then “teased us” by letting us know Hargrove became known in the sports world as the “human rain delay”. I’ll likewise tease you … look up “human rain delay” on YouTube!

Here is how the fishing went…
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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 28, & July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Robert Butts, Marcus Mitchell, and Steve Wilson with a few of the Lake Belton white bass they caught and released. The fishing was pretty easy in the first hour as fish popped shad on the surface under low light conditions, but got much tougher thanks to a lack of wind once the sun rose and brightened.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 25 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

I made our meeting time a bit earlier to account for the lack of cloud cover which was forecast today, and increasing day length. We met up around 6:20 and got right into fish forcing shad to the surface.

There was a mixture of young of the year shad and adult shed in this area. When presented with an option, I went with those schools pursuing adult shad, as that forage is much easier to imitate with lures. We kept up with the movement of the schools of fish for about an hour until the sun had risen high enough to sufficiently brighten the sky and pushed the fish down for good.

After that, fishing got pretty tough thanks to a lack of wind, or , at best, a light ESE breeze. We found pockets of fish here and there, most of which were suspended and chasing after young of the year shad. Although we did find a few collections of fish solid enough to stop and work vertically or horizontally for, most of the remainder of our catch of 64 fish came via downriggers.

After observing fish reaction to the downriggers wherein we passed numerous schools of fish with the downrigger balls set appropriately and still did not come up with fish, I decided to downsize from the #13 Pet Spoons I have been relying on thus far this spring to the smaller #12 Pet Spoon.

Our final tally of 64 fish consisted of 56 white bass and 8 hybrid, stripers, all of which were short.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 64 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 12.59 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.30′ increase over the long Memorial Day weekend

Water Surface Temp: ~78.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Puffing from the ESE at 0-4 all morning

Sky Condition: Blue skies with under 10% cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 76% illumination.

GT = 155

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area BG0020CH to 1073 to B0169G – 33 fish on MAL Heavies sight-cast & counted down

Area vic B0030G – 12 fish via downrigging to find them, then capitalizing on the find via smoking MAL Heavies

Area vic B0093G – 3 fish smoking MAL Heavies, then 6 more fish using downriggers to “mop up” after fish lost interest; these fish were suspended at 20-25 over a deeper bottom.

Area vic 1404 – 10 fish via downrigging to find them, then capitalizing on the find via smoking MAL Heavies (2 separate visits)

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

KIDS ARE CLIENTS, TOO! — 73 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 25th, 2023May 25th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, May 25, I ran a “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip with two young, returning guests, Koa Hanson, and his buddy, Jack Jereb, both of whom just ended their school year at the Belton Independent School District.

Both boys’ dads accompanied them. Jeremy Hanson and Michael Jereb helped me help the boys be successful by running crowd control, setting downriggers to depth, untangling lines, and unhooking any fish I couldn’t get to.

Here is how the fishing went…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 28, & July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Koa, front left, and Jack, front right, used a variety of tactics this morning to put together their 73 fish catch. They sight-cast, downrigged, worked MALs vertically, and worked MALs horizontally.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! Jack landed our first triple of the morning about 50 minutes into the trip.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! Hanson closed us out with a triple of his own about 10 minutes before we wrapped up.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 25 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going right at 6:30 this morning anticipating some early, shallow sight fishing, which has been present the last two mornings. This action did, indeed, materialize, but it did not last long, thanks to very limited cloud cover, permitting the skies to brighten very quickly this morning.

Although the fish did not push bait all the way to the surface very long, gamefish were still very much present and within 100 yards of the shoreline. We ran twin downriggers and kept the boys’ rods bent, and their dads constantly re-rigging to keep the boys in the action.

This chapter lasted a full two hours and allowed us our first 51 fish which included singles, doubles, and one triple for Jack as the boys landed a roughly 70/30 mix of white bass/short hybrid stripers.

Our go-to rig on both downriggers was a weightless, three-armed umbrella rig equipped with a trio of #13 Pet Spoons with color patterns which matched the spawning adult shad.

The last two hours was a good bit slower than the first two, thanks to brightening skies and fairly light winds. I found a small patch of fish on bottom in about 30 feet of water, but they showed little interest in a smoking tactic, so I switched the boys over to the sawtooth method, and had their dads make the long cast, then hand the rods over to the boys to execute the sawtooth retrieve. This put a few more fish in the boat where the smoking tactic had fallen short, as well as the first six fish from the final area we would try this morning.

This final area held fish, but the fish were far from enthusiastic. After the boys thoroughly covered the area with the sawtooth method, I decided to wrap up with a few downrigger runs over this area. During this time, Koa was able to land a triple of his own, and additional singles and doubles helped bring our final count up to 73 fish by the 3.5 hour mark at which I wrap up these child-oriented trips.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 73 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Strong threadfin shad spawning was observed this morning by 6:20A. “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance. The Franklin’s gulls are all but gone now.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 12.86 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.10′ increase over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~75.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: E5 for the first two hours, then backing off to E2-3 thereafter

Sky Condition: Blue skies with ~30% cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 30% illumination.

GT = 95

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area BG0020CH to 1073 to B0169G – 4 fish on MAL Heavies sight-cast & counted down, 46 fish downrigged

Area vic B0042G – 4 fish sawtoothing MAL Dense Lures

Area 1411 to 1403 – 6 fish sawtoothing MAL Dense Lures, 13 fish on downriggers

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

DADDY-DAUGHTER DATE DAY! — 86 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 24th, 2023May 24th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, May 24, I fished with the daddy-daughter team of Daniel and Brynn Jeanes of Temple, Texas.

Brynn‘s folks originally got a fishing gift certificate for her last Christmas and planned to fish over the holiday, but we encountered bad weather and had to put it off. It all worked out pretty well, as Brynn, now almost 12, recently completed her school year at Providence Preparatory School in Belton so her schedule was free, and, her dad was able to work some “banker’s hours” and join her for the fishing.

Here is how the fishing went…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 28, & July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Brynn and Daniel Jeanes with a few of the white bass they caught. The two sight-cast early, did some downrigging after that, then worked MAL Heavies vertically mid-morning, and wrapped up with some “sawtoothing” with MAL Dense Lures to put together their 86 fish catch.

PHOTO CAPTION: When you fish with a shad-imitating bait, there is no telling what you’ll catch. This 10.00-pound blue cat hit Daniel’s MAL Heavy on the fly!

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! Brynn landed three fish at once as we downrigged for aggressive whites and hybrid after they pulled off the bank and slowly headed for deeper water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 24 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going around 6:40 AM and headed right to some visible topwater action. Various year classes of white bass and some 13 to 14 inch hybrid striper had shad pinned into the rear of a cove and were working them over aggressively.

Brynn and Daniel sight-cast to these fish as long as they were on the surface, then, when they sounded, they continued casting and catching by using a countdown method, all with MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails.

After the fish moved offshore a bit more with the increasing ambient light level, I could see that they were pretty well scattered and suspended from 14 to 17 feet. We switched over quickly to downrigging and put singles, doubles, and a triple in the boat taking our count from 22 fish taken by sight-casting up to 39 fish.

During the middle two hours from roughly 8 AM to 10 AM I focused on what had produced well for us on Monday and Tuesday around the same point in the morning, and that was finding suspended fish in open water, getting them to congregate under the boat by using the splasher to create commotion, and then fishing them by racing MAL Heavy Lures through them using the smoking tactic.

Although this certainly produced for us again today, we did not see the fish school as densely nor react as aggressively as they had on Monday and Tuesday. When the most productive school we had drawn in with this approach gave up on us, we had a total of 63 fish in the boat.

With about 45 minutes left in the trip, I found an abundantschool of smaller white bass on a sloped bottom in about 23 feet of water. These would be the only fish we found on bottom all day. I have noted in the past that Lake Belton white bass often leave the bottom during periods of rising water, and I suspect we are seeing some of that behavior currently.

As we got Spot-Locked on top of these fish on bottom, they responded aggressively to a smoking tactic but quickly cooled off after we had boated the first three fish. Seeing this, I quickly switched Daniel and Brynn over to MAL Dense Lures and had them work sawtooth-style to put our final 23 fish in the boat by 10:55 AM.

Our final count this morning was 86 fish, including three blue catfish and a 50-50 mix of white bass and short hybrid striper. Eight of the white bass we landed today were undersized.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 86 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Moderate threadfin shad spawning was observed this morning ending around 6:50A, the, in an unusual occurrence, I spotted shad spawning around 11A along a ~200 yard stretch of shoreline. “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance. The Franklin’s gulls are all but gone now.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 12.76 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.14′ increase over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~74.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: E6 most of the morning, shifting and increasing to ENE8 around 10A

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 100% most of the morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 179 to B0019G – 39 fish on MAL Heavies sight-cast & counted down

Area B0224G – 173 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

AS STRAIGHTFORWARD AS IT GETS — 212 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 23rd, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, May 23, I’ve fished with returning guests, Joe Oliver, Larry Haines, and Larry Latimer, all joined by first-time guest, Brent Burkes from the Admissions Department at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton, TX.

Joe and Brent first got to know one another when Joe coached Brent in high school football up in Hillsborough, Texas. Joe, Larry, and Larry are buds from “way back” — from well before written records were common 😉

A little wrinkle in the weather overnight really gave the fishing a bump today.

Here is how the fishing went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 28, & July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Larry Lattimer, Joe Oliver, Brent Burkes, and Larry Haines teamed up for a 212-fish morning on Lake Belton

PHOTO CAPTION: The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s own Brent Burkes landed this aggressive blue catfish. We stood side-by-side and watched this fish surge about 3 feet forward and upward toward Brent’s MAL Lure which at that time was rising through about the 20′ level over a 40+ foot bottom. This was one of three bluecats which went for our moving baits this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 23 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing was about as straightforward as it gets this morning. Bottom line: this foursome put 212 fish in the boat in four hours flat and did it while fishing just one lure at each of two locations.

Under low light conditions, I spotted a mix of white bass and short hybrid stripers busting shad on the surface within about 100 yards of the shoreline along a slow, tapering bank. I believe these gamefish picked up on the shad as they left the bank after spawning as the slowly brightening sky brought the spawn to a close this morning.

I put all four men abreast of one another on either the starboard or port side of the boat for safety’s sake, and then had them cast perpendicular to that side of the boat straight out to the fish which were routinely churning the surface, forcing adult shad to skip out of the water regularly.

Although many anglers would have chosen to throw a topwater, I have discovered these fish breaking the surface are but the tip of the iceberg. For every one white bass on the surface, I assume there are 15 to 20 or more beneath the surface. For this reason, I had everyone throw MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails to match the size & appearance of these spawning adult shad. Depending on what I was seeing on the surface and on sonar, I would let the fellows know whether to retrieve the lure immediately after it hit the surface, or to do a four-count or six-count, just letting the lure sink a little bit deeper before beginning the retrieve.

We boated a total of 39 fish before the sun got up high enough to push these fish downward in the water column, and outward from the shoreline, thus killing this bite.

After this nearshore bite wrapped up, I spent about 20 minutes doing some looking on the slightly rippled surface under significant cloud cover for any sort of natural sign giving away fish location. After not seeing much, I went to investigate the general area where I’ve finished up yesterday’s morning trip.

I encountered fairly well congregated fish suspended up off the bottom and to within 20 feet of the surface over about a 40 foot bottom. These fish were within about 200 yards of where I had last contacted the fish yesterday.

From around 7:40 to 10:40, we sat on one spot and landed the balance of our 212 fish using MAL Heavies with the vertical “smoking“ tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. Of the 173 fish we took here, one was a largemouth bass, three were blue catfish, and the remainder were white bass, of which only 11 were short.

As the light ripple on the surface died down and the cloud cover began to clear simultaneously, our bite began to drop off right around 10 AM. We called it a good morning before the action completely died at 10:40, but were still pulling fish now and then even at that time.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 212 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Light threadfin shad spawning was observed this morning, ending about 25 minutes before sunrise. “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance. Here was the water temperature profile taken on 22 May:

0 feet, 76.3F
5 feet, 77.1F
10 feet, 77.4F
15 feet, 77.4F
20 feet, 76.6F
25 feet, 73.8F
30 feet, 71.2F
35 feet, 68.4F
40 feet, 66.4F
45 feet, 65.0F
50 feet, 63.9F
55 feet, 62.4F
60 feet, 61.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Elevation: 12.90 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.06′ increase over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~76.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW at 5-6 most of the morning, then slacking off as the sky brightened beginning around 10A

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 100% gradually brightening to 30% white clouds on blue sky by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 179 to B0019G – 39 fish on MAL Heavies sight-cast & counted down

Area B0224G – 173 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com