2023 Fishing Reports | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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AN EXTREME CASE OF BEGINNER’S LUCK — 44 FISH @ BELTON

July 17th, 2023July 17th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, July 17, I fished with mother-daughter team Julee and Claire Manley .

This trip was a Mother’s Day gift from Claire to her mom.

Both ladies are local folks, having grown up here in Central Texas. Claire recently began working in the medical field as a certified physician’s assistant after graduation from Texas A&M, and Julee, a University of Mary Hardin-Baylor grad, has been an educator for many years now, now serving as a public school principal

Neither lady had ever fished before nor had any prior experience with baitcasting gear nor spinning gear, so job number one was to get them trained up.

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 31 & August 21 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: That’s Julee Manley and her daughter, Claire Manley, cashing in Julee’s most recent Mother’s Day present — a fishing trip with her daughter the day before Julee heads back to work as a public school principal.

PHOTO CAPTION: Claire experienced an extreme case of beginner’s luck this morning landing three sets of triples — three fish at the same time on a single 3-armed umbrella rig!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 17 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Overall, the fishing this morning was a good bit tougher than that which I experienced on Belton last week. There was no lowlight/sunrise topwater action, and very little such action at any other point in the morning.

The topwater action, although inconsistent, sure does make things easier, as you know both exactly where the fish are, and that they are aggressively feeding.

Lacking that, we had to more slowly comb over areas using sonar. When I found fish, we either downrigged for them if they appeared scattered, or Spot-Locked and began using a sawtooth method with white-tailed MAL Heavy Lures if they were more tightly grouped and on or near bottom.

We managed to put together a fair catch by constantly alternating between the downrigging technique and the sawtooth method. By the time the fish began to shut down around 10:10, the ladies had landed a total of 44 fish, including 3 hybrid striped bass (all short), 2 freshwater drum, and 39 white bass, all of which were of legal size.

TALLY: 44 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the Smoking Method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

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

OBSERVATIONS: Much reduced topwater activity this morning, with next to no activity right at first light/sunrise, all in stark comparison with the first half of last week.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 14.45 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW8-9 thru 9A, then bumping up to SSW11-13

Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover cover

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT: That brown, flat line at 0% in the third segment down in the graph below is our chance of precipitation; unfortunately, it stays flat until midday Sunday.

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 814 – downrigging for scattered, small schools of white bass in low-light conditions with fish at 16′ deep and balls set at 10-13.

Area vic B0030G – downrigging w/5′ bottom tracking in 20-30′ leading to use of sawtooth method to capitalize on what we’d found

Area vic B0031G – downrigging w/5′ bottom tracking in 20-30′ leading to use of sawtooth method to capitalize on what we’d found

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

TROPHY WHITE BASS!!! – 93 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

July 14th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: I had three generations of the Oliver clan aboard this morning. Papa Joe Oliver was accompanied by his two adult sons, Corey and Thomas, and Corey had his three kids along — Cullen & Presley (13-year-old twins), and 11-year-old Harper.

Joe resides in Belton and is a retired public school educator, coach, and administrator, Corey lives in Utah and is employed by Cricut which makes smart cutting machines that work with an app to help design and personalize items with text and artwork, and Thomas is a special education teacher, working with developmentally delayed high-school aged kids on functional academics.

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 31 & August 2 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Thomas Oliver with his trophy white bass — a 16 3/8″ monster; this is the white bass equivalent of a 10-pound largemouth bass — a fish of a lifetime.

PHOTO CAPTION: The Oliver Clan – from the left: Thomas, Presley, Joe, Harper, Corey, and Cullen

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 14 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

With three consecutive 100-fish days coming off of Lake Belton this week, it was a tough decision for me to move this crew over to Stillhouse, but when I considered all of the factors, the choice was clear.

We were, once again, due to have stiff, 14-15 mph SSW winds which would make casting tough. A lot of the white bass we took and Tuesday and Wednesday came on topwater, which requires 1) that the fish be spotted, and 2) that everyone can cast long and accurately. With a full boat of 6 anglers and the 3 kids being pretty inexperienced casters, I felt going to Stillhouse where we could make a morning of downrigging and fishing MAL Lures vertically would be our best bet.

As we started out, there was a persistent bank of grey clouds in the east which hindered the normal morning brightening process, as well as the fishing.

We managed 15 white bass coming as singles, doubles, and one triple under these grey skies, then headed back in briefly for a nature break. As we got back out on the water, the sun was just beginning to burn off that bank of clouds and the fishing began to improve.

The majority of our fish came from an area perhaps 200 yards in diameter as white bass chased hard after threadfin shad in the lower third of the water column in around 40 feet of water.

Once I saw these fish on sonar, we Spot-Locked on them and had all six rods working MAL Heavy Lures with white tails vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope using a “smoking method”. For a good 20-25 minutes there was not a time when at least one person did not have a fish on; at times we had 3 or 4 rods bent simultaneously.

Once these fish cooled off a bit, they were still present, but no longer in the mood to chase very hard or very far vertically. I worked with each of the kids, one-by-one, to explain how to cast and execute the “sawtooth method”. I spread everyone out with as much elbow room my 22′ gunwale would allow, always with everyone either on the port or starboard side for safety during their backcast.

The fish just fell over themselves to track down these MAL Lures, and we took our tally up to 83 fish landed by the time the feed began to wane. It was now right around 10A, and, with the kids’ hands all pretty sore and cramping by this time, downrigging seemed to me to be our best option to close out the trip.

We put the ‘riggers down — one equipped with #12 Pet Spoons and the other with #13 Pet Spoons. We took additional singles, doubles, and one more triple for a total of 10 more fish to bring our morning’s final count to 93 fish.

It was during this final round of downrigging when Thomas’ trophy fish fell for a #13 Pet Spoon with silver prismatic body and a yellow feather-tail. That fish came in with another, smaller white bass as a double. That fish measured 16 3/8″ and appeared in great shape (a football shape!!).

TALLY: 93 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the Smoking Method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

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

OBSERVATIONS: The start of activity was delayed somewhat this morning due to a persistent bank of grey clouds in the eastern sky; once they thinned out and then burned off, the fish began feeding hard.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 10:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Elevation: 14.84 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW8-9 thru 9:20, then slowing tapering up to SSW13

Sky Condition: 60% grey cloud cover at trip’s start, clearing to <20% white cover by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 10% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic SH0228G through 872 – early downrigging for scattered, disinterested fish under darkened skies; 15 fish

Area SH0063G to Area 911 – best action of the morning after skies brightened; 68 fish on MAL Heavies, then mopping up with downrigged Pet Spoons for 10 additional fish at trip’s end as the action began to fade

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

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT “ASSUME” – 101 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

July 13th, 2023July 13th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, July 13th, I fished with a crew of four returning guests, including Mr. Larry Brewer, his good friend, Blake Hoekstra, Larry’s son-in-law, Chris Zwern, and Larry‘s grandson, Eymon McCormick.

Larry is a living legend in the Austin area HVAC world, Blake retired from accounting, Chris works for a medical imaging company, and Eymon is employed at a video gaming company after recently graduating from 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 31 & August 2 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From the left, that’s Larry Brewer, Blake Hoekstra, Eymon McCormick, and Chris Zwern. That white bass Chris is holding went 15 3/8″ and was in great shape.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 13 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

As I sat on the bow of my boat awaiting my crew’s arrival, I was elated that the 14 to 15 mph southwest wind forecast to blow all day today had not yet materialized. Rather, the wind was only blowing at about 8 to 10. Assuming that the white bass we’re going to feed aggressively on topwater under low light conditions once again (at they did like clockwork for the last several days), I just knew that they would be much easier to spot than in yesterday’s wind-blown tempest.

Well, you know what they say about ass-u-me…

Despite ideal spotting conditions, there was very little topwater action this morning, and what action did materialize was both weak, and short-lived.

By 7:30 AM, when over the past few days we’d had 20 or 30 fish in the boat already, we had landed only five at that point this morning.

Around 7:45 AM, the situation began to improve. I spotted a handful of white bass feeding on the surface atop an underwater anomaly. I swung in for a better look, and sonar really lit up.

I positioned the boat so that Spot-Lock would hold us about a cast’s length away from, and parallel to, the fish I found. I then put everyone on the starboard side, equipped with MAL Heavy Lures with white tails, and had them cast long and work these baits back with a sawtooth method.

Whenever the fishing got slow, I would move us a cast’s length into the wind, thus allowing us to cover this underwater feature very thoroughly.

After this area slacked off, I went to another, similar area, found fish there, positioned the boat in similar fashion, and continued working MALs with a sawtooth tactic. By the time these fish quit our tally was up to 88 fish and the time was 9:45 AM.

Having observed over the last two days how the fishing really began to tail off around this time of the morning, I told my crew that if we were going to hit 100 fish around the 4-hour mark, I felt we would need to downrig for them. Downrigging allows for a lot of ground to be covered very efficiently, thus weeding out the few still active fish amongst a majority of inactive fish.

We got both downriggers working, both equipped with three armed umbrella rigs. I ran #12 Pet Spoons with silver bodies and white feather tails on one downrigger, and #13 Pet Spoons with silver prismatic bodies and yellow feather tails on the other.

We scoured an area which sonar showed had quite a number of both suspended and bottom-oriented white bass present. After several rounds of singles and doubles, fish numbers 100 and 101 came aboard as a double which Eymon reeled in to close out this successful trip at exactly 10:25 AM.

Of the 101 fish landed today, we had 1 legal hybrid, 6 short hybrid, 4 freshwater drum, 1 smallmouth bass, and 89 white bass, of which only 2 were short.

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the Smoking Method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

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

OBSERVATIONS: Here was the water temperature taken the morning of 12 July:

0 feet, 84.5F
5 feet, 85.5F
10 feet, 85.5F
15 feet, 85.6F
20 feet, 85.5F
25 feet, 83.8F
30 feet, 76.1F
35 feet, 72.1F
40 feet, 68.8F
45 feet, 66.3F
50 feet, 65.0F
55 feet, 64.3F
60 feet, 63.1F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 10:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Elevation: 14.22 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW9-10 thru 8:30, then slowing tapering up to SSW13

Sky Condition: <10% white cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 17% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1937 – very light topwater activity through 7:30 – 5 fish

Area vic 1591 – consistent action on sawtoothed MALs

Area vic B0030G – consistent action on sawtoothed MAL’s, with ‘rigging to “mop up” as fish got reluctant

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

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING – 100 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

July 12th, 2023July 12th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, July 12th, I fished with first time guests Jon and Jayden Stilley from Belton, Texas.

This father and son team had been anticipating this fishing trip since last October when Jayden received a fishing gift certificate from his parents for his 14th birthday.

Although wind and white bass fishing typically go hand-in-hand, this morning, we had a little too much of a good thing (and it wasn’t the white bass!).

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 31 & August 2 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Despite wind and whitecaps, father and son team Jayden and Jon Stilley stuck with it for a full four hours and landed exactly 100 fish this morning using a combination of sight-casting, downrigging, and horizontal casting tactics.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 12 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going at 6:15 AM, and, after explaining our approach for the morning, we began closely studying the lake’s windblown surface for any evidence of topwater feeding. To see white bass as they feed on the young of the year shad in a strong wind is difficult, at best. Even with a trained eye, I struggled to see what I was looking for. Although we found fish on topwater, I’m sure there was much more out there that went undetected as the winds were right at 13 mph with small whitecaps making the task of spotting fish that much more difficult.

We encountered two distinct groups of topwater feeding fish both within about a half mile of each other, and, by 7:30 when the topwater feed in this area quit, Jon and Jayden had landed 27 fish.

Although mature shad could be seen leaping from the water on occasion, the vast majority of these white basses’ diet was much smaller, young of the year shad. We verified this by observing what the fish we landed were regurgitating. Although the MAL Mini would have been my first choice for both fellows this morning, the wind made this light lure very difficult to throw.

John stuck with the MAL Mini a majority of the time, while Jayden used the MAL Heavy with white tail to gain the distance he needed to get to the white bass as they showed themselves on the surface.

After this area settled down, I spotted white bass relating solely to shad in deep, open water (60+ feet”. This particular group was feeding on larger shad, roughly 2.25 inches in length. This made our job of fooling these fish much simpler. Both Jon and Jayden took fish consistently on the MAL Heavy with white tail until these fish gave up at around 8:37 AM. Our count now stood at 64 fish.

For the final leg of the trip, with topwater action now completely done, I began using downriggers to find fish, either suspended or near bottom, with the intention of smoking for them, and\or using a sawtooth method for them, if they showed in great enough numbers, and were aggressive toward the downrigged baits.

This approach actually worked out perfectly. After two consecutive, successful passes over an area about 24 feet deep, the white bass numbers and activity level convinced me these could be caught more efficiently with a sawtooth method.

We quickly retooled, and with the boat now on Spot-Lock, I had Jon and Jayden cast perpendicular to the starboard side and work their lures back to the boat using a sawtooth method. They ran our tally up to 97 fish by 9:55 AM. With plans to wrap up around the four-hour mark, I told them that if we did not hit 100 fish by 10:05 AM, we would begin downrigging once again until we’d hit 100 fish.

10:05 AM came and went with no more fish landed, so, we put the downriggers back out and came up with a single for Jayden, then a single for Jon, followed by a final single for Jon. We put the 100th fish in the boat right at 10:19 AM and called it a great morning right then.

Of our 100 fish catch, 5 were undersized hybrid striper, 3 were just-legal largemouth bass, and the remaining 92 fish were all white bass with just a handful of those being short.

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the Smoking Method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

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

OBSERVATIONS: Topwater action ended at 8:37AM. Here was the water temperature profile this morning:

0 feet, 84.5F
5 feet, 85.5F
10 feet, 85.5F
15 feet, 85.6F
20 feet, 85.5F
25 feet, 83.8F
30 feet, 76.1F
35 feet, 72.1F
40 feet, 68.8F
45 feet, 66.3F
50 feet, 65.0F
55 feet, 64.3F
60 feet, 63.1F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Elevation: 14.16 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW12-14 all morning

Sky Condition: <10% white cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 25% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0153G – topwater sightcasting for 1.25 hours to very finnicky, fast-moving fish — covered 1/2 mile during this time. 27 fish

Area vic B0206G – open water sightcasting to white feeding on mature shad. 33 fish

Area vic 1974 – downrigging leading to sawtoothing with MAL Heavies, then back to downrigging. 40 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

OLD SALTS HIT FRESHWATER — 104 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

July 11th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, July 11th, I fished with first time guests Rob Pasichnyk, and his friend, Ralph Owen.

Both men have lived in this area for many years, and first got acquainted when Ralph was working as a contractor renovating a facility in where Rob was employed.

With both men having previous saltwater fishing experience and being capable casters, I chose to take them to Lake Belton, hoping they could put those casting skills to work on fish feeding on top water.

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 31 & August 2 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ralph Owen and Rob Pasichnyk pulled out the full summer arsenal to capture a total of 104 fish this morning: sight-casting, smoking, sawtoothing, and downrigging.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 10 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

By the time our four hours had come and gone, Rob and Ralph employed every summertime trick in the book to put their 104 fish catch together. We sight-cast to fish on top, we downrigged for suspended fish, we used MAL Lures with a smoking retrieve for heavily congregated, suspended fish, and we cast horizontally using MAL Lures with a sawtooth tactic to catch fish which were spread horizontally on and near the bottom.

I was a bit concerned about this morning’s wind velocity as it was blowing hard around 4:15 AM when I woke up to prep for the trip. As forecast by NOAA, however, the wind speed cut back significantly to just 8 or 9 mph and stayed there for the first two hours or so after sunrise.

We caught our first 37 fish this morning in under an hour as large schools of white bass forced young of the year shad to the surface and fed on them in a number of locations. The “nervous water“ they produced when feeding like this was the giveaway to their locations.

Given that these fish were feeding on such small bait, I equipped both Rob and Ralph with long, light action, St. Croix Panfish Series rods, coupled with large arbor reels and light braid to be able to maximize casting distance on standalone MAL Mini Lures.

When the top water died at this location, we moved to yet another area where topwater action was still going on. We fished these fish in much the same way, except that when they left the surface, we retooled with MAL Heavy Lures and continued picking up fish using a sawtooth method.

Once this top water action dried up for good, we switched back-and-forth between downrigging to find fish, and then taking advantage of what we’d found by either smoking or sawtoothing MAL Heavy Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

As we wrapped up at 10:15, it was still quite comfortable out thanks to some high, gray cloud cover which had moved into the area right after the topwater action died, and thanks to a now 10 to 12 mph breeze blowing from the SSW.

Of the 104 fish caught today, four were short hybrid stripers, one was an 18-inch, 3-pound hybrid striper, two were freshwater drum, and the balance were white bass with the five largest approaching the 14 inch mark.

TALLY: 104 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the smoking tactic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

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

OBSERVATIONS: Topwater action ended at 8:10AM.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Elevation: 14.1 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW6-12 all morning

Sky Condition: Thin, grey cloud cover made the latter half of the trip bearable

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 35% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 814 – 37 fish via sightcasting with MAL Minis

Area vic 483 – 23 fish via sightcasting Minis, then sawtoothing MAL Heavies once the fish left the surface

Area vic 1738 – downrigging leading to smoking

Area 1608 thru B0030G – downrigging leading to smoking/sawtoothing

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

In-Fisherman Brought this Fisherman In – 38 Fish @ Stillhouse

July 10th, 2023July 10th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, July 10th, I fished with first time guest Mike Brunsvold from Comfort, Texas, in the Texas Hill Country.

Mike, a fairly new subscriber to In–Fisherman magazine, saw my article about fishing for white bass using the MAL Lure with various tactics in this month’s issue which arrived in some mailboxes back in June. My approach intrigued him, and he wanted to see everything firsthand.

Mike is 83 years old and is in incredible shape. He retired twice. Once after serving 20 years in the United States Air Force, and then again after 20 years as a dental instructor at the University of Texas in San Antonio.

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 31 & August 2 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Mike Brunsvold, age 83, booked a trip with me specifically to put into practice the methods described in my most recent In-Fisherman magazine article entitled “In-Line for White Bass”. He landed 38 fish during his 4-hour trip on this hot July morning on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.

PHOTO CAPTION: This was the article which piqued Mike’s curiosity.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 10 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Being a little unsure of finding his way for the first time to the boat ramp under cover of darkness, Mike arrived really early, but, that gave us some time to chat about the techniques before we needed to put them into use, and allowed Mike to ask a number of questions that he had formed after reading the article.

Once 6:35 rolled around, it was getting light enough for the food chain to start cranking up, and we headed on out to the fishing grounds. The approach I had described to Mike was exactly what we followed this morning. We downrigged in order to find productive water, gauge fish activity level, and catch fish, then, if abundant numbers of active fish were present, we would work them vertically at first using a smoking tactic, then follow up with a horizontal sawtooth tactic thereafter.

As we got downrigger lines in to begin this process, Mike came up with a triple right off the bat. The two largest fish in the triple are shown in the photo above, hence the absence of direct light on those fish. Later, he would come up with yet another triple.

Interspersed in the downrigging effort were three bouts of stopping atop fish with Spot-Lock and fishing for them both vertically and horizontally. Of the two approaches this morning, the fish showed a very definite preference for the horizontal tactic. Although I could get fish to stack up readily beneath the boat with the splasher and the commotion we made while fishing vertically, they just did not get as enthusiastic as they do at other times about the smoking tactic this morning.

When 10:30 rolled around, Mike, let me know he needed to scoot to get back home to his wife, of whom he is the primary caretaker. Along the way, we discussed how Mike might be able to take some of these techniques I have developed and adapt them to the waters he fishes, and with the equipment he fishes with.

Our final count of 38 fish included one freshwater drum, and 37 white bass, 100% of which were of legal size with multiple fish surpassing 14 inches.

TALLY: 38 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the smoking tactic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

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

OBSERVATIONS: Light largemouth bass schooling activity on topwater peaked as the winds began to ramp up around 8:10A.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 14.60 feet low, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S5-7 all morning

Sky Condition: Light blue skies with zero cloud cover

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 45% illumination.

GT = 75

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Downrigging from vic S0120C thru SH0223G with stops atop concentrations of fish mixed in

Stopped to “smoke” & “sawtooth” white bass found via downrigging at Areas: vic 1423, vic SH0059C, and vic SH0235G

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

MILITARY KIDS FISH FOR FREE — 74 FISH w/ THE SMITH KIDS

July 6th, 2023July 6th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, July 6th, I conducted the third Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip of the 2023 season.

Joining me today were Mrs. Janea Smith and her two boys, Alex (age 14) and Corbin (age 7).

The boys’ father, a U.S. Army veteran who served in the military intelligence branch, passed away unexpectedly in January of this year at the age of 47.

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. 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 to 4 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

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 24 & 31 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Alex Smith holds the third Stillhouse Hollow white bass exceeding 15″ to come aboard this week alone. Alex caught the fish using an MAL Heavy with white tail fished with a sawtooth method in around 34 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Corbin, Janea, and Alex Smith with a pair of fish we took early on in the trip. In the summer months, I don’t place fish taken from deep, cool water in the warm water of the livewell for photos later on as they tend not to do well.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 06 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

First, I’ve got to hand it to the boys’ mom, Janea. Not only is she raising two boys on her own with all the every-single-day demands that come with that, but, she had the boys up and arrived early despite their 5AM wakeup in the midst of a lazy summer-break non-routine!

Alex was already familiar enough with both casting and spinning gear to “validate” my normal introduction, but Corbin definitely benefitted from it.

Once the mini-lesson on how to retrieve their baits was complete, we set out to hunt fish. We started off with downriggers down to help search out active fish. Before we could get the second downrigger set out for Alex, Corbin’s ‘rigger went off with a double. We routinely took singles and doubles over the next 75 minutes or so until we’d tallied 18 fish and found our first large, somewhat stationary group of fish on sonar.

We quickly transitioned the boat from downrigger fishing to presenting MAL Lures by bringing the downriggers in and swinging the boom-arms out of the way, Spot-Locking atop the fish, putting the Garmin LiveScope tranducer pole in the water and firing up the Garmin monitor, putting MAL Heavy-equipped rods in the kids’ hands, and then letting these baits down to bottom to effect a “smoking” retrieve in an attempt to get these fish to chase, overtake, and strike these baits. Then, when the LiveScope revealed that the fish beneath the boat were waning, I checked H’bird side-imaging to see which side of the boat (if any) held additional fish. If we saw fish, we worked our baits on that side of the boat horizontally with a sawtooth method.

So it went — we downrigged to find fish and then used MAL Heavies vertically & horizontally to take advantage of what we’d found until the fish finally gave up around 10:25. During this time, we found a total of three large, fishable schools of fish to park over and present to.

By the time four hours had come and gone, my crew landed 74 fish including 72 white bass and 2 largemouth bass. Of this catch, only 1 white bass was “short” with yet another TPWD “Big Fish” — a white bass over 15″ — landed by Alex.

TALLY: 74 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the smoking tactic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

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

OBSERVATIONS: Minor largemouth bass schooling activity observed. Here is the temperature profile measured on Stillhouse on 03 July:

0 feet, 85.9F
5 feet, 86.2F
10 feet, 86.4F
15 feet, 86.4F
20 feet, 86.4F
25 feet, 85.9F
30 feet, 79.4F
35 feet, 72.7F
40 feet, 69.0F
45 feet, 66.3F
50 feet, 64.7F
55 feet, 62.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 10:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 14.37 feet low, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S8-11 all morning

Sky Condition: Light blue skies with 50-60% white cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 87% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Stopped to “smoke” white bass at Areas: vic SH0059G, vic SH0041C, and vic SH0222G – used MAL Heavy w/ white tails after finding fish in these areas with sonar and downrigging

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

Fishin’, Floatin’, & Fireworks — 70 Fish with Pops & Mimzy

July 5th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, July 5th, I fished with three (of the four) granddaughters of John and Ellen Agan (Pops & Mimzy) — twins Zoe and Nora, age 10, and their 8-year-old sister, Sena. The girls had come in for a week from their home in Sugarland, Texas, to visit with their grandparents, and that visit included this morning‘s fishing trip, as well as fireworks, some floating around in the pool, playing with cousins, and more.

John and Ellen were super folks; John has been in the banking business in Temple for many years, and Ellen is a retired physical therapist — the two of them were there to help me help the girls be successful and did a great job at that.

After taking the day off from fishing and conducting only a morning sonar training yesterday to avoid crowded holiday fishing conditions, we returned to a nearly empty lake and plenty of peace and quiet this morning to conduct this “Kids Fish, Too!” trip, just for the girls.

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 24 & 31 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Sena, John, Zoe, Ellen, and Nora Agan with a trio of quality Stillhouse white bass. The girls caught & released a total of 70 fish during their 3.5-hour “Kids Fish, Too!” trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 05 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Before we put lines in the water to catch fish, I did a dry run with each of the girls on how to use spinning rods and reels to fish the MAL Heavy Lure using a “smoking“ tactic. After very little practice, all three got the hang of smoothly reeling their bait up off the bottom while getting the spinner’s blade spinning early in the process. Once that was accomplished, I showed them how to hold and handle the casting rods we would be using for downrigging, and then we were off in pursuit of fish.

We employed what I have found is a tried, true, and consistent summertime producer for white bass, which is to use downriggers to both find fish and catch a few, then, use the information gathered while downrigging to fish vertically using MAL Lures for heavily concentrated fish first encountered while downrigging.

Over the course of the morning, we encountered three solid groups of fish, which, based on their appearance on sonar, and the fact that they aggressively chased and bit our downrigging set, led me to believe we could stop atop them using Spot-Lock and catch them vertically. All three of these attempts panned out and, when everything was said and done, the girls wound up catching exactly 70 fish, including 68 white bass and two largemouth bass. Both largemouth were legal, and only one of the 68 white bass was short.

For our downrigging, we used three-armed umbrella rigs with each of the leaders terminated with a #12 Pet Spoon, and as we smoked from a hovering position while using Garmin LiveScope, I had MAL Heavies with white tails tied on all of the girls’ spinning outfits.

As is typical for summertime on Stillhouse, the quality of the white bass far exceeded the quality of white bass at Lake Belton, however, there was next to no topwater action, thus, all fish had to be ferreted out using sonar, especially dialed-in side-imaging.

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the smoking tactic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

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

OBSERVATIONS: No schooling largemouth bass or white bass activity observed. Here is the temperature profile measured on Stillhouse on 03 July:

0 feet, 85.9F
5 feet, 86.2F
10 feet, 86.4F
15 feet, 86.4F
20 feet, 86.4F
25 feet, 85.9F
30 feet, 79.4F
35 feet, 72.7F
40 feet, 69.0F
45 feet, 66.3F
50 feet, 64.7F
55 feet, 62.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 14.30 feet low, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S8-11 all morning

Sky Condition: Light blue skies with 60-70% white cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Downrigging from vic S0120C thru SH0223G with stops atop concentrations of fish mixed in

Stopped to “smoke” white bass at Areas: vic SH0223G, vic SH0120C, and vic SH0228G – used MAL Heavy w/ white tails

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

PLEASE BRING THE LIMO AROUND — 100 FISH

July 3rd, 2023July 3rd, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, July 3, I fished with returning guests Larry Miller, his grandson, Cameron (Cam) Miller, and two grandsons of Larry’s brother-in-law, Don Bousquet — Hudson and Townes Slimp. Cam and his grandfather traveled in from Louisiana, and the Slimp boys reside in Salado.

This entire crew has fished with me previously, but this was the first hot weather trip we’ve done together.

I tried to keep this crew posted on our progress by announcing every tenth fish we landed. As an incentive, Larry told the boys that if they hit a certain number, and if he hit the lottery, he’d get them whatever car they wanted. Well, Hudson wanted a Corvette, and then a Lamborghini was mentioned, but, when it came to little Townes, he said he wanted a limo. I told him that was very good “out of the box” thinking — whereas the older boys wanted fancy cars they’d have to drive and fuel up themselves, he requested a car which would come with a driver to do all the work for him!!!

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 24 & 31 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Hudson Slimp, Cam Miller, Townes Slimp, and Larry Miller. This crew landed exactly 100 fish during their 4-hour morning trip on Stillhouse Hollow.

PHOTO CAPTION: Cam Miller qualified for a TPWD “Big Fish” Award by landing this white bass which exceeded 15″ in length. The actual measurement on this fish was 16.75″ and it was in great shape with a very girthy body.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 03 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

This morning, I chose to move things over to Stillhouse, anticipating a real holiday zoo over on Lake Belton. Although there were plenty of anglers out on the water, the vast majority were after largemouth bass up shallow, so, I was still able to get to the areas I wanted to get to with my clients.

We used downrigging as a tool to find fish, catch them, and gauge their activity level, then when we found abundant, aggressive fish, we switched over and used vertical (“smoking”) tactics and horizontal (“sawtooth”) MAL Lure tactics to take advantage of what we’d found.

As the morning moved on, everyone got better at transitioning from one tactic to the other and back again so we had very little downtime between discovering active fish with a downriggers and presenting to them with a MAL Lures.

On the downriggers, I was running three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 Pet Spoons. The MAL Lures I chose today were MAL Heavies with white tails now that the spawn is over and threadfin shad coloration is beginning to fade.

I had told the Slimp’s dad, Guy, that we would be back between 10:30 and 10:45. At exactly 10:20 AM, we had 90 fish landed. I told everyone we would give it until 10:30 or 100 fish which ever came first.

With a little time pressure now on them, the boys buckled down and really paid attention to their technique and to the sonar screens. At exactly 10:30 AM, our 100th fish came over the gunwale. Of those 100 fish landed, 99 were white bass, all of which were legal, in addition to one largemouth bass.

Two of the fish landed today earned the boys TPWD Big Fish certificates which will count toward Elite Angler status in the future. Cam took a 16.75 inch white bass, and Townes caught a 16.125 inch white bass. These were very impressive and healthy looking magnum whites.

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released.

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

OBSERVATIONS: Next to no schooling largemouth bass activity observed. Here is the temperature profile measured on Stillhouse on 03 July:

0 feet, 85.9F
5 feet, 86.2F
10 feet, 86.4F
15 feet, 86.4F
20 feet, 86.4F
25 feet, 85.9F
30 feet, 79.4F
35 feet, 72.7F
40 feet, 69.0F
45 feet, 66.3F
50 feet, 64.7F
55 feet, 62.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Elevation: 14.19 feet low, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S6-8 all morning

Sky Condition: Light blue skies with 30% white cloud cover

Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Downrigging from vic 1423 thru SH0033G with stops atop concentrations of fish mixed in

Areas vic 1423, SH0031G, 889, vic 867, & vic SH0033G – Smoked for whites w/ MAL Heavy w/ white tails

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