CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, July 26, I fished with a trio from the north Austin area.  Mr. Wes Stearns came along as a non-fishing parent to help me help his son, Knox, and Knox’s buddy, Mason Salas, be successful.  Wes and Knox have been out with me previously, but during the cool months, so, today’s hot weather tactics were new to them.

DATE: 26 July 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: Monday, 29 Jul. (AM), and Thursday, 01 Aug. (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Wes Stearns, Mason Salas, and Knox Stearns with a few of the quality Lake Belton white bass we took early on in the trip as the boys sight-cast to fish feeding on the surface as just the lightest of breezes rippled the lake before sunrise.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:  Ever since the flow of water through the dam was significantly reduced, the fishing has followed a very definite morning pattern, with quality fish moving briefly shallow to feed, occasionally doing so near or on the surface (especially before and after the full moon), then quitting within ~70 minutes of starting.  Getting going early (well before sunrise) has been the key to cashing in on this, mainly via downrigging to both cover water and to keep baits precisely positioned.

Today, now five days after the full moon, I began to see some topwater action here and there after it all but disappeared.  This morning, we downrigged and put nice legal white bass in the boat before some topwater action broke out.  The boys then sight-cast for about 40 minutes, adding 31 more legal fish to our count.

After the topwater died, we went right back to downrigging, albeit in deeper water, adding a final five legal whites to the count before these fish shut down.  From this point on, we found an abundance of fish, but all of them were short.  Regardless, the boys enjoyed “smoking” their MAL Mini lures up off bottom thru these fish and watching them respond on Garmin Live Scope.  They added 88 white bass, 1 short hybrid, and 1 freshwater drum to our tally before this bite died.

We wrapped up with one more brief round of downrigging, picking up a triple, before heading in at 10AM.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  The white bass we landed on downriggers all struck #12 & #13 Pet Spoons attached to 3-armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at.  Fish taken via sight-casting, and fish taken on the smoking tactic were all caught on MAL Minis. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 138 fish caught and released, including 136 white bass  (91 short, 45 legal), 1 short hybrid, and 1 freshwater drum

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Topwater action bounced back today, 5 days after the full moon.

2) Early downrigged fish showed a preference for the #13 Pet Spoon, and those fish taken via sight-casting regurgitated shad closer in size to the #13 Pet Spoon.

3) USACE stopped running water through the dam for the first time since May’s flooding.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:15AM on July 25 …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:10A

End Time: 10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.75 feet high and falling slowly with a 33cfs flow, resulting in a 0.04′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 83.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NE breeze under 6mph all morning

Sky Condition: Light fog gave way to

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 68% illumination.

GT = 25

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

CLIENTS: This past Wednesday morning I was joined by the Rowe family from Killeen.  Melvin and Leslie Rowe came as non-fishing participants while their sons, Elijah (11) and Braylon (15) fished.  This was actually our second attempt at making this come together.  With both local lakes flooded back in May, the Rowes agreed to meet me at Lake Georgetown, instead.  We no sooner started fishing than an unexpected rain, complete with cool wind gusts, pushed us back to the ramp and forced a reschedule.

DATE: 24 July 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: Monday, 29 Jul. (AM), and Thursday, 01 Aug. (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Elijah and Brayton Rowe of Killeen with four fistfuls of white bass they worked for this July 24th morning on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:  This morning’s trip broke down into three parts:  low-light downrigging for shallow fish, shallow water panfishing, and mid-morning downrigging for suspended fish.  For going on two weeks now, the best action for quality fish took place before and at sunrise; after that, the bite get beyond tough for “keeper” sized white bass.  Oh, about that “first time for everything” … well, Mr. Eli was the first client I had go over the side of my boat since I brought it home new from New Hampshire in January 2016.  One second he was sitting on the gunwale as we trolled along, the next second he was in the water after losing his balance.   As a guide, you never want this to happen, but, being prepared for when it does makes all the difference.  Eli’s life vest kept him afloat, the spare set of clothes and towel I keep aboard helped him get comfortable after drying off, and were were able to “continue the mission” unscathed, despite the mishap.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  The white bass we landed on downriggers all struck #12 Pet Spoons attached to 3-armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at.  Panfish were all taken under floats on bait. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 77 fish caught and released, including 31 white bass  (12 short, 19 legal), and 46 panfish

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Zero topwater action this morning, which wasn’t surprising given we had some fog following yesterday’s rains.

2) All fish were taken in under 21′.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 10AM on July 17 …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 0.83 feet high and falling slowly with a 325cfs flow, resulting in a 0.02′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW breeze at <5 all morning

Sky Condition: Light fog gave way to

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 87% illumination.

GT = 30

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

CLIENTS: This past Tuesday evening I was joined by the Winkel family from the Lake Palestine area.  They came so their 15 year old daughter could show livestock at the Cadence Bank Center.  Jordan and Kristina chaperoned their two younger kids, James (7), and Tony (6).  With an atypical low pressure weather system causing cool, wet weather, our plans to fish from dawn forward were rained out, so, we backed off about 3 hours from dusk and went fishing in the evening.

DATE: 23 July 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: Monday, 29 Jul. (AM), and Thursday, 01 Aug. (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Kristina, James, Jordan, and Tony Winkel with a few of the white bass the boys caught on this evening trip rescheduled from the morning due to unusually cool, rainy weather in late July.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:  With two recent evening trips now conducted in the last week, I’ve found the evening white bass bite is atypically longer than the morning bite.  We found quality fish schooled and willing to rise up off bottom and strike horizontally moving lures as early as 6:45P, right on through to dark (well after sunset).  We began this trip downrigging the mouth of a windblown cove (w/ wind from ENE) and landed 8 short white bass suspended around 21′.  We took a short break from downrigging to show Jordan how I rig up to catch panfish in shallow water, resulting in a catch of 8 fish.  From that point on, we stuck with the downrigging approach from 6:45 to 8:45, catching quality white bass consistently.   I did note that, on multiple occasions, I ran well-placed baits over active fish and got ignored, which has definitely not been the case up to now.  Don’t know if the full moon or low pressure, or both (or neither LOL!) might be driving that.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  The white bass we landed on downriggers all struck #12 Pet Spoons attached to 3-armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at.  Panfish were all taken under floats on bait. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 67 fish caught and released, including 59 white bass  (8 short, 51 legal), and 8 panfish

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Very little topwater action materialized this evening as compared to what we had before entering into the full moon period.

2) All fish were taken in under 21′.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 10AM on July 17 …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 5:15P

End Time: 8:45P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.89 feet high and falling with a 325cfs flow, resulting in a 0.05′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE breeze at ~6 all evening

Sky Condition: Light grey cloud cover all evening at 100% coverage.  A light, sporadic sprinkling of rain fell in the first half of the trip — not even enough to really feel.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 45

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

CLIENTS: This morning I was joined by the Mann family from the Georgetown, TX, area.  Mark and Caitlyn Mann chaperoned their three kids, Bruce (9), Evelyn (7), and Bryant (5), but did not fish themselves, as this was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip, intended just for the children.  Such trips are both less expensive and of a shorter duration than my standard adult trips.

DATE: 22 July 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE: Thursday, 01 Aug. (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Bryant, Mark, Bruce, Caitlyn, and Evelyn Mann with a portion of their summer morning catch of 66 fish in celebration of Bruce’s 9th birthday today.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:   Our approach today remained the same as it has been since the high flow of water out of Lake Belton slowed and the fishing began to improve.  We began the morning downrigging for fish which began up shallow and gradually moved deeper in the water column, further from shore, and grew increasingly disinterested.  By 8:20 the fishing for quality white bass was over (which was about 20-30 minutes more than last week, thanks to today’s cloud cover extending the low-light period).  After downrigging, we headed up into shallow brush and targeted panfish, leaving about 30 minutes at the end of the trip for a final round of downrigging which resulted in additional white bass, most of which were small.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  The white bass we landed on downriggers all struck #12 Pet Spoons attached to 3-armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at.  Panfish were all taken under floats on bait. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 66 fish caught and released, including 54 white bass  (11 short, 43 legal), 1 hybrid striped bass, and 11 panfish

OBSERVATIONS:

1) With multiple, mild cold fronts having just passed, and a low pressure system controlling the weather for the next several days, I found the morning low-light bite was not as aggressive or as lengthy today as it was Mon. – Thurs. last week with high pressure conditions.

2) All fish were taken in under 21′.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 10AM on July 17 …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 9:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.93 feet high and falling with a 325cfs flow, resulting in a 0.09′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 85.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Variable winds puffing up to 4 mph all morning from both N and S.

Sky Condition: Moderately dark grey cloud cover all morning at 100% coverage.  A light rain fell on the lake just before first light.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = 100

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

CLIENTS: This S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip was provided, free of charge, to Javon Miller, the son of Command Sergeant Major Michael Miller.  CSM Miller is assigned to Fort Cavazos here in Texas, but his family resides back at Fort Knox, Kentucky.  The summer break from school afforded Javon a chance to visit with his dad before heading back to Kentucky at the end of July.

DATE: 18 July 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATE: Thursday, 01 Aug. (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Command Sergeant Major Michael Miller and his son, Javon, with a portion of their 90-fish evening catch from Lake Belton during Javon’s visit with his dad from Fort Knox.

PHOTO CAPTION: CSM Miller kindly presented me with this beautiful unit coin on behalf of the Sergeant Audie Murphy Club for community service to the families of Fort Cavazos.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:  I have not fished an evening trip in a long while, but, with a full schedule thanks to many parties rescheduling after 7 weeks of our local lakes being shut down, I did what I could to fit CSM Miller and his son in before Javon heads back to Kentucky.  We downrigged for the first 90 minutes, then, as the light level began to fade and fish began to move up off bottom and move toward shallower water, we began to Spot Lock and work MAL Dense Lures with silver bodies using the sawtooth method.  Eventually, just before sunset, fairly consistent topwater action began, and the pair was able to sight-cast to nearby schools using MAL Minis.  They took 44 fish prior to the topwater action beginning, and 46 fish thereafter.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  The white bass we landed on downriggers all struck #12 Pet Spoons attached to 3-armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at.  Active bottom-oriented fish were taken on the MAL Dense with silver body using a sawtooth method.  Topwater fish were all taken on the MAL Mini.  Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 90 white bass caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

1) The lake is still 1.28′ high, but the flow of water through the dam has decreased substantially.

2) The water looks like green/brown tea and is darker than usual.

3) All fish were taken in under 21′.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 10AM on July 17 …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:10P

End Time: 8:55P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 94F

Elevation: 1.28 feet high and falling with a 541cfs flow, resulting in a 0.14′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 89.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW breeze all evening starting around 8mph at trip’s start, tapering down to 3 by dark.

Sky Condition: High, thin white cloud cover by trip’s end with grey clouds in the western sky which partially obscured the setting sun.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 90% illumination.

GT = N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

CLIENTS: This S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip was provided, free of charge, to the sons of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rolando Saldana and his wife, Monica. Chase (10) and Christian (7) had never before been fishing.  Their mom accompanied them on their first trip.  CW2 Saldana is currently deployed to Poland.  He has served in the U.S. Army for 14 years.

DATE: 18 July 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE: Thursday, 01 Aug. (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Chase, Monica, and Christian Saldana with a few of the mature white bass the boys landed in their first 90 minutes on the water.

PHOTO CAPTION: After Christian landed this fish, he suggested he and his brother have a “see who can catch the biggest fish” contest!!!

PHOTO CAPTION:  The #12 Pet Spoon was a “dead ringer” for the young-of-the-year shad the white bass are primarily feeding on right now.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:  We followed the same successful pattern which has produced plenty of fish to keep kids’ attention ever since the high flows out of Lake Belton ended.  We downrigged for the first 90 minutes of today’s trip ( about 10-20 minutes longer than on less clouded mornings).  Due to the fishes’ aggressive attitude this morning on the heels of a cold front’s passage, we were able to work baits horizontally and vertically from a fixed position on three occasions after finding them with sonar while downrigging.  Once that ended, we then headed up shallow to target panfish with slipfloats and bait, then ended the trip with another round of downrigging for additional, less aggressive, white bass.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  The white bass we landed on downriggers all struck #12 Pet Spoons attached to 3-armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at.  We worked new prototype lures horizontally, and we worked the MAL Dense with silver body vertically.  Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 88 fish caught and released (43 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, & a mixed bag of 40 panfish)

OBSERVATIONS:

1) The lake is still 1.28′ high, but the flow of water through the dam has decreased substantially.

2) The water looks like green/brown tea and is darker than usual.

3) All fish were taken in under 21′.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 10AM on July 17 …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 9:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 1.428 feet high and falling with a 541cfs flow, resulting in a 0.14′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 86.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW5-7 all morning following a line of thunderstorms which moved N to S and cleared our area right before 6:15AM on the lead edge of a mild cold front.

Sky Condition: Grey skies slowly lightened to high, thin white cloud cover by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 90% illumination.

GT = N/A

This was our forecast:

And this was the weather-maker moving south just in time.  The blue dot is Lake Belton…

CLIENTS: Mr. Cody Ballew chaperoned his two sons, Emory (11) and Owen (7), for a kids-only fishing trip on Lake Belton this morning.  The Ballew family is from the small town of Frost, population 620, located on Highway 22 between Corsicana and Hillsboro.

DATE: 17 July 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE: Thursday, 01 Aug. (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Owen and Emory Ballew with a portion of their 89 fish catch from Lake Belton this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:  We targeted white bass on an all catch-and-release basis during the first 1.25 hours of this 3.5 hour trip.  During this time, the kids landed 55 white bass (all legal), with more doubles and triples caught on the 3-armed umbrella rig than singles.  The fish were pretty fired up this morning, but did not make much of an appearance on the surface anywhere due, in part, to the chop on the water.  After the low-light bite died at 7:50, we invested about an hour into panfishing up shallow, adding another 23 fish to our count using slipfloats and bait.  We closed the trip out with a final round of downrigging, which added a final 11 fish to our count, including 9 short white bass and 2 short hybrid.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  The white bass we landed all struck #12 Pet Spoons attached to 3-armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at.  Find umbrella rigs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 89 fish caught and released (64 white bass, 2 hybrid striped bass, & a mixed bag of 23 panfish)

OBSERVATIONS:

1) The lake is still 1.42′ high, but the flow of water through the dam has decreased substantially.

2) The water looks like green/brown tea and is darker than usual.

3) All fish were taken in under 21′.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 10AM on July 17 …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 9:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Elevation: 1.42 feet high and falling with a 541cfs flow, resulting in a 0.20′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 86.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-10 through 9:15, then dropping to <SSE4 as high, off-white cloud cover moved in

Sky Condition: High, thin clouds gradually thickening over the course of the morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 82% illumination.

GT = 65

CLIENTS: Jose and Fridae Rodriguez treated their 10-year-old son, Alex, to a fishing trip to celebrate his birthday today.  Joining him was his sister, Alayna (age 11), and his buddy, Wyatt Otto (age 12).