2023 Fishing Reports | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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Three Generations in “Fishing Heaven” — 107 Fish @ Belton

October 20th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, October 20, I fished with three generations of Connally men. James Connally is a retired Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game warden captain who resides in Belton. His son, Michael Connally, is an orthopedic surgeon based in Bryan/College Station, and Michael’s son, Case, is almost 9 years old, and is working his way through the third grade this year.

We caught ’em pretty hot and heavy this morning. At one point, Case, who experienced the most productive trip of his life thus far said it was like “fishing heaven”!

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 Oct. 26 & 30, Nov. 2 & 6

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mike, James, and Case Connally with a few of the 107 fish they landed during their 4-hour morning trip on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: As we wrapped up the trip this morning an approached the shoreline, a massive hatch of aquatic insects was underway. This is what the boat looked like … there had to be millions of these things!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 20 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

NOAA was spot-on today with their wind and weather forecast. They called for southwesterly winds to swing through the west and then northwest as a mild front pushed in around 11:15 AM. We had no cloud cover this morning as this dry front approached.

Although the fish were not truly “on fire”, they bit consistently from start to finish this morning and are definitely beginning to relate to the bottom and school up into large groups thanks to the slow but steady decline in water temperature.

We spent our first hour downrigging for suspended white bass and hybrid striper which were holding between 15 and 20 feet below the surface over deeper water. We took these fish using three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons.

Fish were caught as singles, doubles, and one triple, allowing us a downrigger catch of 24 fish before the skies brightened sufficiently to push the fish further down into the water column and to bottom.

From around 8:30 AM and until we wrapped up around 11:40 AM, all of our fishing involved using MAL Heavies with chartreuse tails fish vertically with a smoking tactic for an additional 83 fish.

While I could find no fish deeper than about 30 feet last week, fish and shad were routinely found down to 35 feet today, again, thanks to the slowly cooling water.

Our catch of 107 fish consisted of five largemouth bass, six hybrid striped bass, one freshwater drum, and 95 white bass.

TALLY: 107 fish caught and released.

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

OBSERVATIONS: Osprey, coot and teal numbers are increasing daily; I have now spotted the first multi-bird flock of gulls since spotting a single back on Saturday, 14 Oct.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Elevation: 18.99 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: WSW6 at sunrise, shifting to W by 9A, then going slack briefly for about 20 minutes prior to the start of a NW breeze at 9 mph around 11:15A

Sky Condition: Light blue skies; 0% cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 32% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0233G to B0231G – downrigging for 24 fish

Area 1486/953, 2059, 1290/B016G, B0181G, B0090C – smoking MAL Heavies for 83 fish

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 Little Father-and-Son Time — 72 Fish @ Lake Belton

October 14th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, October 14th, I welcomed aboard first-time guests Jason and Gregory for a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip intended mainly to introduce Gregory to fishing and give father and son some time together outdoors while giving mom, Rachelle, a little break from stay-at-home “momming”.

Neither father or son had ever been fishing before.

“Kids Fish, Too!” trips are specifically for kids in that they cost less than adult trips, go for a shorter period of time than adult trips, and include a greater variety of tactics to cater to kids’ shorter attention spans.

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 Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: Fishing newbies Jason and Gregory (age 5) enjoyed ideal conditions today as an incoming cold front spurred the fish to feed long and hard this morning. The pair landed 72 fish in under 3.5 hours with no prior experience under their belts! We fished until little Gregory wore out!

PHOTO CAPTION: We downrigged early for suspended fish, then worked MAL Lures from the bottom, upwards during the late morning for fish holding tightly to bottom.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 14 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite my boatmates’ lack of prior experience, they did very well today because 1) they were willing to be coached, and 2) the incoming cold front had the fish feeding in overdrive this morning.

Not only did father and son land 72 fish on their first-ever fishing trip, they did it in just 3.25 hours and while fishing only two distinct areas.

This trip broke down neatly into two parts. Part one involved downrigging for white bass and hybrid striped bass under low-light conditions from 7:25 until around 9AM. We used 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons on twin downriggers to present six baits at any given time.

I used down-imaging and 2-D sonar to estimate the depth at which these suspended fish were holding, and ran our baits at, or as much as 2 feet above, these fish.

Jason and Greg put 30 fish in the boat via downrigging, including two sets of triples, and multiple doubles and singles. The three legal hybrid landed today all came on downriggers during this time.

By around 9AM, the sky was much brighter, and the suspended fish began to push down to bottom.

I then transitioned Jason and Greg to using MAL Lures presented vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. We found fish in ~32 feet of water, so, I put MAL Heavies on (with chartreuse tails) to increase the sink rate.

Once Jason got the hang of cranking the spinning reel’s handle hard and fast on the first crank in order to get the MAL Lure’s blade spinning quickly, he was off to the races.

Little Gregory was hoping against hope for 1) a salmon, and 2) an alligator gar, but those were not in the cards this morning 😉

We left a bit before the 3.5 hours which I normally conduct “Kids Fish, Too!” trips for because, despite sharing with his dad early in the morning that he’d like to stay until he caught 20 million fish, Gregory began to wane around fish #64. Still, hanging for 3.25 hours is a good bit longer than the vast majority of 5-year-olds I’ve had aboard have stayed engaged.

In all, the pair landed 72 fish including 12 hybrid striped bass (3 legal), and 60 white bass (57 legal).

TALLY: 72 fish caught and released.

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

OBSERVATIONS: I’m afraid we’ve seen the last of the topwater for 2023. The previous four days of cloud cover yielded no topwater action, and this morning, under ideal, sunny conditions, there was very little action — not nearly enough to focus on, even if I’d had experienced casters aboard.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 18.99 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 74.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: N13-15 all morning

Sky Condition: Clear “bluebird” skies

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0234G thru B0233G – downrigging for 30 fish

Area B0235G – smoking MAL Heavies for 42 fish

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

TACO-POWERED TROLLING — 81 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

October 13th, 2023October 13th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, October 13, I fished with returning guest, Ken Powell, from near Lake Buchanan, joined by first time guest Jay Florence, from Odessa, Texas.

After working as a welder in the oil industry, Jay now has his own lawn care business which allows him more time with his twin 14-year-old sons. Ken retired some years ago from coaching high school football.

Jay does a lot of fishing from a kayak. As we were trolling for white bass with downriggers, the topic of ideal trolling speed came up. I told Jay and Ken that I thought maintaining a speed of ~2.6 mph was ideal; that happened to be the speed at which we were then trolling. Jay then volunteered that he thought he might just be able to get to that speed and hold it in his pedal-type kayak, depending on how hard he’d worked the day before and how many tacos he’d had for dinner!

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 Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ken Powell and Jay Florence worked at it for 4+ hours and put together a 2-man catch of 81 fish primarily “smoking” MAL Heavy Lures from the bottom upwards.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 13 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

We were all hoping that the cold front, which had been forecast earlier in the week to enter into Central Texas air space this morning, would come to fruition. But, as it turned out, with every subsequent forecast update, the cold front’s arrival was pushed further back. We saw only southeasterly winds shifting to the south, and then just slightly west of south during our time on the water with no northerly influence at all.

For the fourth morning in a row, the skies were heavily clouded with gray clouds, thus eliminating the chance of topwater action occurring. We began the day successfully downrigging, but did so only as long as necessary before transitioning to vertical tactics once fish began to show up and feed on the bottom. We boated 19 fish via downrigging using three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons.

Once fish began showing on bottom, we began using MAL Lures vertically and continued in that manner for the remainder of the trip.

We hit four distinct areas, each in 27 to 32 feet of water, after sonar revealed a spattering of white bass in these areas. At no time today did we find large collection of white bass massed together tight to the bottom as was the case on Wednesday and Thursday.

When we identified white bass in an area, we put the trolling motor on Spot-Lock, used Garmin LiveScope to keep track of our baits and fish response to them, and wound up putting a grand total of 81 fish in the boat for Ken and Jay by 11:30.

Based on recent reports from clients of mine on both Lake Texoma and Lake Buchanan, I experimented with something this morning. After catching fish during their usual frenzied display of interest when we first arrived and began catching fish on MAL Lures, as those fish began to show less interest in the MAL Lures, I dropped a Bladed Hazy Eye Slab (white, 5/8 ounce) down to the still present fish and “eased” this lure up off the bottom slowly but steadily at a rate of rise slower than that which the MAL Lures were being retrieved at. This accounted for a few more fish today – – enough that I will keep a set of rods on the boat rigged to do this tactic with my more experienced clients going forward and see if this behavior was the exception, or the rule

As we wrapped up at just a little over the four hour mark, a gray cloud deck was moving in from the west, indicating our cold front would arrive in the next few hours. Indeed, lows tomorrow morning are forecast to be in the high 50s or right at 60° versus 74° this morning. Our tally of 81 fish included 2 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 76 white bass of which about 70% were of legal size.

TALLY: 81 fish caught and released.

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

OBSERVATIONS: For the fourth consecutive day, no topwater action materialized thanks to a very slow brightening of the morning skies under thick, grey cloud cover.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 18.89 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 75.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5-6 for ~3 hours, shifting to SSW in the final hour

Sky Condition: Grey cloud cover at 100% thru 9:45A, then clearing to 50% white clouds on blue sky for about an hour, then clouding up again as a dry cold front approached from the west.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0234G thru 1356 – downrigging for 19 fish

Areas 1356, 354, B0238G, and B0056G – smoking MAL Heavies for 62 fish

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

SOLDIER’S SONS GOT ‘ER DONE — 69 FISH @ BELTON

October 12th, 2023October 12th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, October 12, I conducted the seventh SKIFF trip of the 2023 season providing a fishing trip at no charge to the family of U.S. Army Colonel Charles Ausman.

Mrs. Denise Igo, who herself was once served by the SKIFF program, kindly made the Fort Cavazos community aware of the free trips I was offering to military children separated from their parents by military duty this week during the Killeen Independent School District’s fall break via her Fort Cavazos Area Events Facebook page.

The boys’ mom, Jessi Ausman, contacted me after seeing this Facebook post, and arranged for the oldest three of her four boys to come out fishing with me this morning. I hosted Jameson (10), Will (9), and Sampson (7) for a 3.5 hour trip on Lake Belton. The boys father is a logistician currently deployed to southwest Asia.

ABOUT SKIFF: This fishing trip, like all SKIFF trips, was provided to this military family at no charge. This program began in May of 2009. It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with, namely The McBride Foundation and Subaru. S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing. SKIFF trips are also provided, free of charge, to Gold Star families who have lost their service member while he or she was on active duty. In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents are bona fide disabled veterans. I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Cavazos in Bell County, TX, year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

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 Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jameson, Will, and Samson Ausman and a few of the 69 fish they landed on their Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Samson was curious just what it feels like to the fish when we “lipped” them to lower them back to the water prior to releasing them. Well … he found out!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 12 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

Once again, we had a warm, humid, 100% cloudy sky this morning. The temperature at sunrise was around 64°. These cloudy skies just about guarantee that no topwater bite will take place, and that was the case this morning. Having been through the same scenario earlier this week, I came prepared to downrig for suspended fish during the low light period with plans to find heavily schooled fish on bottom and fish for them later in the morning under brighter sky conditions.

We enjoyed great success as the boys took turns landing fish on the two downriggers I ran simultaneously, each equipped with a three-armed umbrella rig outfitted with #13 Pet Spoons for a total of six baits in the water. We caught 21 fish by downrigging.

As the skies brightened, activity along the bottom steadily increased as witnessed on down-imaging. When that activity had grown sufficiently, I switched the boys over to fishing MAL Originals with chartreuse tails to take advantage of these concentrations of bottom-oriented fish. The boys all got the hang of using the smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope fairly quickly, and that is what we stuck with for the remainder of the trip.

By the time mom returned for the boys around 10:50 AM, the boys had amassed a catch of 69 fish which included hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, freshwater drum, and white bass.

TALLY: 69 fish caught and released.

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

OBSERVATIONS: For the third consecutive day, no topwater action materialized thanks to a very slow brightening of the morning skies under thick, grey cloud cover.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 18.91 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 75.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12-14 all morning

Sky Condition: Thick, grey cloud cover at 100% all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 5% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1356 thru B0234G – downrigging Pets for 21 fish

Area B0233G- 16 fish smoking MAL Originals

Areas 1469, B0237G, B0235G, and B0236G – a combined catch of 32 fish at these three areas, all via smoking MAL Originals

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 Morning Allowed for Both — 105 Fish @ Belton

October 11th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, October 11, I fished with Mr. David Furnace of Salado, Texas.

David did an on-the-water sonar training session with me back earlier this summer, and after returning from his summer place up in Michigan, booked a fishing trip with me now that the weather has moderated, and the fishing has begun to pick up.

David’s concern was more with the approaches I take to finding fish, than actually catching fish. Fortunately, this morning allowed for both.

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 Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: David Furnace arrived loaded with questions and ready to learn this morning. We went over multiple tactics and detailed the blended use of multiple sonar technologies during our 4+ hour morning trip which yielded 105 fish.

PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Heavy with white tail accounted for 86 of our 105 fish this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 10 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

For the second consecutive day, the skies brightened slowly through grey, cloudy skies. This morning’s skies were completely greyed over from before sunrise through to the end of the trip. Yesterday’s cloudy conditions lead to a near total lack of topwater action, and this morning was similar in that regard. Although we saw a handful of schooling fish, they were so widespread, and appeared so infrequently that we did not focus on them.

As I looked over multiple areas where topwater action has been occurring, I found abundant, suspended fish present along with an abundance of bait. This screamed out for a downrigging approach, and that is exactly the approach we took. I explained each step of the downrigging process, as well as how the various components of the downrigging set-up function to David.

We quickly got to downriggers in the water, each equipped with a three-armed umbrella rig sporting #13 Pet Spoons as the baits. With two rods and six baits in the water, things started happening very quickly for us. In no time, we had boated multiple singles, multiple doubles, and a triple, taking our count to 14 fish before the area we were focused on became so saturated with fish that I felt downrigging would no longer be our most efficient option.

I quickly put the downrigging gear away and changed over to fishing MAL Heay Lures vertically, using a splasher to draw fish to us, consolidate them beneath the boat, and make them more readily caught.

Fish were present primarily in the lower third of the water column, and were moving at a fast pace, parallel to the bottom, indicating they were patrolling and actively chasing bait. With the help of Garmin LiveScope, we quickly took our fish count to 41 before taking a break to give topwater another consideration. Over a 1/8-mile area, three ospreys were working pretty intently, and diving occasionally. As we arrived in that area, we found widespread, sparse surface activity, which was not going to lend itself well to throwing topwaters. Sonar revealed ample fish on bottom in the same area, so we returned to smoking MAL Heavies in conjunction with LiveScope, and took our count to 70.

During this time I had an opportunity to demonstrate the sawtooth method, so, David now had three techniques under his belt.

After these fish cooled off, we checked out a third area which had produced well at around the 9:30 time frame on Monday. After a little looking, we found a small area in 32 feet of water carpeted with fish and sat on them, again smoking MAL Heavies, aided by LiveScope. We took our count to exactly 100 and left them biting so as to introduce David to one final tactic.

For that one final on the water lesson, I took David to an area where I’d viewed abundant blue catfish in 32 to 34 feet of water on yesterday‘s trip . These fish were still present, so we used Catfish Plumbs baited with two different kinds of prepared baits to tempt these fish. We spent our final 30 minutes working for these blue cat and landed five which represented about 50% of the strikes we experienced.

We wrapped up the trip with exactly 105 fish landed, including five blue catfish, two short hybrid, striper, two freshwater drum, and the balance (96) white bass with about 25% of them being short fish.

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released.

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

OBSERVATIONS: With cloud cover and breeze all morning, a long-sleeved shirt worn all morning was comfortable for the first time in a long time!

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 710A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 18.85 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 75.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 10% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0032C thru B0231G – downrigging for 14 fish

Area vic B0231G – 27 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic B0185G – 29 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic B0037C – 30 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0069G to 344 – 5 bluecat on Catfish Plumbs

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

FISH STRONG!! — 28 Fish w/ the Strong Brothers

October 10th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, Oct. 10, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with brothers Jameson and Declan Strong of Fort Cavazos.

The Killeen ISD has a week-long Fall Break this week, and the boys’ mom, Niki, coordinated the trip just for the boys, with dad coming along as a non-fishing chaperone.

As it turns out, their dad, Rick, is a fellow West Point graduate from the Class of 2000; he’s been on active duty for 20 years and now serves with the U.S. Army’s III Corps — “America’s Hammer”.

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 Oct. 23, 24, & 26

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Declan, Jameson, and Rick Strong with the boys’ first two legal fish of the morning — a matching pair of hybrid striped bass right at 19-20″ and just over 3 pounds.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 10 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

Now that incoming cold fronts are beginning to become a roughly weekly occurrence, I anticipate the “boom-bust” cycle to play out with fishing peaking as cold fronts roll in, then bottoming out as the winds go slack under post-frontal conditions, then hovering somewhere around average in the lulls between fronts.

Today we experienced one of those lulls. The returning warmth and humidity brought in cloud cover which killed the morning’s topwater bite and got things off to a later start as compared to the brighter, cloudless mornings of late. Most of our fish were caught in the first two hours with the last half of the trip being much tougher.

Our first bit of success came where I’d been encountering consistent topwater action, but, this morning the fish were hunkered down between 15-30 feet and we had to downrig for them. We put 9 fish in the boat at the first area we fished, including two legal hybrid, running twin downriggers, each equipped with three #13 Pet Spoons for a total of six baits in the water.

We moved on as the sun brightened the increasingly cloudy sky and found active white bass in about 32 feet of water within 100 yards of the same topography which gave fish up to a smoking tactic yesterday. These fish went crazy for a smoked MAL Heavy with white tail, but only for about 25 minutes.

Once these fish grew disinterested, it was like they spoke for the entire population! I found several groups of fish in multiple locations thereafter, but getting them to give more than a half-hearted follow took an act of Congress.

We went back to downrigging in our final 50 minutes on the water and picked up a few more white bass from small groups scattered about, but really did not find any additional, aggressively feeding white bass.

Despite what to me was a so-so trip, the boys were ecstatic to catch what they caught and I am hopeful that the next time the Army sends their dad “down range” they will return for a SKIFF trip with me. They stayed focused and enthusiastic the entire time.

Our final tally was 28 fish today. This included 5 hybrid (2 legal), 2 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 20 white bass (17 legal).

TALLY: 28 fish caught and released.

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

OBSERVATIONS: Things were pretty subdued this morning. I saw no deer feeding, no flying ospreys, no feeding blue herons, and no bait nor gamefish working the surface.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 18.83 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE6-9 all morning

Sky Condition: Grey clouds on a light blue sky at 70%, increasing to fully clouded over by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 16% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0220G thru BHYD07 – 9 fish via downrigging

Area vic B0037C – 11 fish smoking MAL Heavies

Area vic B0229G – 8 fish scattered throughout this area taken 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

SERVING THOSE WHO SERVE — 54 FISH @ BELTON

October 9th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Columbus Day, October 9, I conducted the season’s seventh SKIFF trip, treating Miss Aaliyah Smith (age 9) to both her first-ever fishing trip, and her first-ever boat ride.

Aaliyah‘s uncle, Daniel, is her father figure with whom she resides. Daniel Roybal is a Staff Sergeant (E-6) in the US Army, serving with the 2–12 Cavalry “Thunderhorse” unit on Fort Cavazos. He is currently separated from his family on assignment at a truck driver training course. SSG Roybal has been in the military for 10 years.

Aaliyah was accompanied by Daniel’s wife, Dyana Roybal — Aaliyah’s aunt.

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 Oct. 12 (AM and PM), 23, & 24

PHOTO CAPTION: Smallmouth bass like this one, as well as largemouth bass and hybrid stripers were mixed in on this morning’s topwater feeding. The Cork Rig with a streamer selected to match the forage produced well.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! These three white bass all hit Aaliyah’s three-armed umbrella rig simultaneously right around 10:30A as we were wrapping us, allowing us to end the trip on a positive note!

PHOTO CAPTION: We took the majority of our catch — 32 white bass and 2 drum — by smoking the MAL Heavy Lure (with white tail) upwards off the bottom aided by Garmin LiveScope.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 09 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite it being both Columbus Day and the first day of a weeklong fall break for the nearby Killeen Independent School District, the lake had very light traffic this morning. We fished a full 3.5 hours from 7 AM through 10:30 AM and only saw a handful of other boat, all of which kept a courteous distance from us.

From around 7:20 and until right at 9:00, a light topwater bite took place. The gamefish were schooled together in small wolf packs and were herding shad to the surface and feeding on them briefly here, there, and everywhere over about a half-mile span.

It was interesting to note that of the 16 fish we landed during this time, half were other than white bass. Our catch included three largemouth bass, one smallmouth bass, and four short hybrid stripers, along with 8 legal white bass. All of these fish were taken on a Cork Rig with a streamer selected to match the size of the forage.

As the sun brightened and the wind speed stayed low, the topwater action tapered to an end by 9A. Having taken a temperature reading at 5 foot intervals to the bottom in 50 feet this morning, I saw that these past several days with air temperatures less than the lake’s surface temperature had a significant cooling effect on the temperature profile. Noting where the thermal break was this morning at 35 feet, I took a look on a few bottom features where the bottom was at that 35-foot depth or just a bit shallower.

The very first location I searched was loaded down with white bass. Aaliyah and I stood side-by-side on the starboard gunwale and smoked MAL Heavy Lures with white tails from the bottom upwards through these fish which were in a 5 foot thick band in the lowest part of the water column.

We took our fish count from 16 up to 50 in just under an hour’s time. Were it not for Aaliyah‘s hand and wrist getting tired, we would likely have stayed on those fish through the end of the trip.

Instead, I wrapped up the trip by introducing her to downrigging. We moved to another location and looked in the same favorable depth band and found another, albeit, much more sparsely organized, group of fish to downrig for.

We used a single, three1armed umbrella rig equipped with #13 Pet Spoons with prismatic silver tape, and yellow tails, and used the downrigger on bottom-tracking to keep the baits about 3 feet off of bottom, regardless of the bottom’s contour.

We picked up a single white bass, continued trolling, and as we did, spotted a large group of whites holding tight to the bottom, as viewed on the portside side-imaging.

I waypointed these fish, and then U-turned to go back over them with the downrigger. This resulted in a triple– – Aaliyah caught three fish simultaneously on one rod. It was now right at 10:30 and we decided to end then on that positive note.

Our tally for the morning was 54 fish all caught and released. That count included three largemouth bass, one smallmouth bass, four hybrid striped bass, two freshwater drum, and 44 white bass of which 43 were of legal size.

TALLY: 54 fish caught and released.

Find the Cork Rig & MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: As of ~6P on Friday, 06 Oct., the air temp. dropped below the surface temp. of Lake Belton, and then stayed below the water temp. until around noon today, Monday, 09 Oct. — that is the longest cooling spell we’ll have had to date and has gotten things moving along toward turnover!!

Shown below is the water temperature profile this morning (09 Oct.) versus last Monday (02 Oct.):

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 18.77 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SW0-4 all morning

Sky Condition: Clear, post-frontal “bluebird” skies

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 24% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0220G thru BHYD07 – 16 fish sight-casting with Cork Rigs

Area 1290 – 34 fish smoking 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

ROOKIES NO MORE!!! — 61 Fish w/ the Pokluda Boys

October 7th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, 07 Oct., I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with the Pokluda family from just outside of Waco.

Both Texas natives, Skylar works in medical software sales, and Craig is self-employed running his own land/brush clearing & mulching business; see: https://www.pokludalandservicesllc.com/

Parents come with the mindset of helping me help the kids be successful, and the parents of Wilder (age 6) and Rawley (age 4) did just that. Craig and Skylar made sure the boys were well-dressed for the cool, breezy morning, and played a huge roll in seeing to it that the boys’ first experience in fishing from a boat went well.

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 Oct. 11-12 (AM), Oct. 12 (PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Back row: Craig and Skylar help their boys (from left), Wilder (6) and Rawley (4) hoist two of the 61 fish the boys reeled in this morning before both the fish and the boys gave out around 9AM. These 19″ hybrid were 2 of the 7 hybrid the boys caught, with the others not quite reaching the 18″ mark yet.

PHOTO CAPTION: As the incoming cold front’s northerly winds built to a peak, the fishing really took off this morning with gamefish really charging hard after bait in quite a number of areas. We saw even more action than we could get to and fish!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 07 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

The fishing was pretty straight-forward this morning. We downrigged for a very short while as the fish were getting going, allowing us a triple for Wilder and a single for Rawley. Once it brightened a bit, we observed osprey and blue heron action atop surface-feeding fish which were very difficult to distinguish in the chop and whitecapping waves created by the stiff north wind. The action was so well-disguised that numerous weekend anglers simply cruised right by it.

Once we saw a solid school of fish pushing shad to the surface, I used the outboard to get within about 80-100 yards, then used the trolling motor only to close the final gap upwind of the fish, then placed the trolling motor on Spot-Lock.

Craig and I cast Cork Rigs to the fish downwind to extend our casting range and keep a buffer between the fish and the boat to avoid spooking them. These Cork Rigs were equipped with hand-tied streamers I selected to exactly match the size of the nearly fully grown threadfin shad the white bass and hybrids were gorging on.

Craig and I worked the baits, hooked the fish, and then handed the hooked fish off to the boys to reel in as they enjoyed the fight. With the high winds and the boys’ zero prior experience, this was the extent to which I felt the boys could safely participate and strike a balance between engagement and success.

The fish we were on left the surface and began to wind down around 8:50AM. By 9AM, I had downriggers back down for a short while to “mop up”, allowing us a final two additional fish before the fish shut off. By this point, the boys had both had about all the fishing they could take in one dose. Craig and Skylar wisely concurred that it was time to wrap it up.

Of the 61 fish landed today, 3 were legal-sized largemouth up to 2.75 pound, 2 were legal-sized hybrid at 19″, 5 were sub-legal hybrid, and the remaining 51 were legal-sized white bass.

TALLY: 61 fish caught and released.

Find the Cork Rig here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: As of ~6P on Friday, 06 Oct., the air temp. dropped below the surface temp. of Lake Belton, and is forecast to stay below the water temp. until around noon on Monday, 09 Oct. — that is the longest cooling spell we’ll have had to date and will get things moving along toward turnover!!

The water temperature profile shown below was taken on 02 Oct.

0 feet, 81.5F
5 feet, 82.6F
10 feet, 82.9F
15 feet, 82.9F
20 feet, 82.6F
25 feet, 81.7F
30 feet, 81.1F
35 feet, 78.8F
40 feet, 71.6F
45 feet, 66.8F
50 feet, 64.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:55A

End Time: 9:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 18.65 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 80.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE 14-17 all morning with higher gusts in the first hour

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

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 41% illumination.

GT = 70

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1171 – 4 fish downrigging with Pet Spoons

Area vic B0200C – 26 fish sight-casting with Cork Rigs

Area from vic B0191G to 1,000 feet upstream from there – 29 fish sight-casting with Cork Rigs, then 2 final 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

Alpha Troop, 1/9 CAV … Present … Fish!!! — 43 Fish w/ Vietnam Vets

October 4th, 2023October 4th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, 04 October, I fished with three Army buddies, all Vietnam veterans in their mid-70s, and all Army aviators who flew with Alpha Troop, 1/9 Cavalry.

Rick Pierce (Alabama) , Ted Currier (Pennsylvania), and Mike White (North Carolina) all either flew or drove in from out of state to gather near Fort Cavazos with about 50 other service members from their unit (not including family members) for a military reunion formally celebrated together this coming Saturday.

A fourth friend, George Abernathy, originally coordinated this trip, but a knee replacement prevented his attendance this year.

In years past, the men have had a “friendly competition” in which a big fish trophy goes home with the winner. So, this morning, everyone was bent on landing the largest (longest) fish of the trip.

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 Oct. 11-12 (AM), Oct. 12 (PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rick Pierce, Mike White, and Ted Currier. Although the picture doesn’t do it justice because Mike is standing a bit further back than the others, his 17″ bluecat eclipsed the other 42 fish length-wise, thus ensuring the “Big Fish Trophy” will reside at his house until next year’s reunion.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 04 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

This morning’s murky skies got things off to a slow start and really caused the topwater action to scale back substantially versus what we saw earlier this week, in fact, we only saw two brief episodes of topwater action all morning.

So, with topwater essentially off the table, we searched for schools of bottom-oriented white bass and found them in 20-27 feet of water in the lower third of the water column.

Only two areas produced any numbers of fish for us, with the best run of the morning coming around 10A to 10:40A (a good bit later than during our recent run of cloudless days).

When the fish fired up, they came hard after the MAL Heavies with white tails I had tied on for everyone. The men “smoked” these from the bottom upwards, aided by Garmin LiveScope so they would know when to keep reeling as fish chased their lures upwards.

I did a bit of downrigging whenever I spotted more scattered fish on flatter terrain, but that only produced a spattering of fish this morning.

I suspect we’ll not see consistent fishing now until turnover takes place. With an extended run of cool mornings and the promise of an abundance of rain later this week, we may see turnover by mid-month. Folks, it can’t come soon enough!

Of the 43 fish landed today, 2 were bluecats, 1 was a freshwater drum, and the remaining 40 were white bass.

TALLY: 43 fish caught and released.

Find the Cork Rig & MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: The water temperature profile shown below was taken on 02 Oct.

0 feet, 81.5F
5 feet, 82.6F
10 feet, 82.9F
15 feet, 82.9F
20 feet, 82.6F
25 feet, 81.7F
30 feet, 81.1F
35 feet, 78.8F
40 feet, 71.6F
45 feet, 66.8F
50 feet, 64.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 18.55 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 81.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6-10 all morning

Sky Condition: 70% grey cloud cover on a white sky.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 70% illumination.

GT = 75

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 2029 – Smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic 1411 – 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