2025 Fishing Reports | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

White Bass Research Project – Trip #2 of 26 — 67 Fish @ Lake Belton

April 23rd, 2025April 23rd, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, April 23, I fished the second of 26 special fisheries research trips taking place between now and April 2026. These trips are aimed at collecting white bass so they can be measured, weighed, and released in support of a study conducted by students and faculty at Temple College comparing the populations of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir and Lake Belton.

Doing the catching this morning was returning guest Matt Laakso, and doing the research was Dr. Jason Locklin, Caleb Fry, and Mervin Narito.

If you would like to be a part of this effort, and get a $50 discount for the (very) minor inconvenience of having researchers aboard, please consider the following dates and contact me ASAP…

June 2025:18^th Wednesday Belton – OPEN OR 19^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

July 2025:16^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 17^th Wednesday – Stillhouse – OPEN

August 2025:14^th Thursday – Belton – OPEN OR 15^th Friday – Stillhouse – OPEN

September 2025: 20^th Saturday – Belton – Open OR 27^th Saturday – Stillhouse – FILLED

October 2025: 18^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 25^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

November 2025: 8^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 15^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

December 2025: 06^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 13^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

January 2026: 17^thSaturday – Belton – OPEN OR 24^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

February 2026: 14^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 21 Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

March 2026: 11^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 12^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

April 2026: 15^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 16^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

DATE: Wednesday, 23 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Matt Laakso enjoyed a multi-species catch this morning as just about every species in Lake Belton which eats shad visited his hook. Not shown are the blue catfish and freshwater drum that Matt also added to his catch — 67 fish in all.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We had some turbulent weather pass through between 3 and 5 AM this morning. This came in the form of a line of thunderstorms from the west. After the storms cleared, it was humid, balmy, gray, and with light southwesterly winds. As I picked my crew up at the dock, I felt encourage by the conditions, but, on our way to our first area, all of that moved off to the east, and we were left with high-pressure conditions with just the lightest ripple on the water from the east-northeast. We struggled to even find fish to fish for for about 90 minutes until the winds picked up and shifted just south of east. From that point on, we managed to catch consistently.

Once again, while things were tough (as the bite was starting and again as it was tapering off), fish would not stay excited very long about chasing artificial baits, yet, when live baits were presented, these same fish hit without reluctance. Once the bite really turned on, and fish begin to move up off the bottom, then artificial baits caught fish just fine.

Matt really enjoyed the variety of fish he caught – – one of the benefits of fishing live bait. Over our 4+ hours on the water we landed white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, blue catfish, and freshwater drum. By the time the morning by started to shut down around 11:20, we’d put 67 fish in the boat. Once 11:30 arrived, the fish were completely shut down, not even responding to live bait.

RESULTS: 67 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO THE “SMOKING” RETRIEVE: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
Just as fish were first turning on, they quickly got excited and just as quickly lost interest in artificials; live bait was the key to continuing to catch fish during this time

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Elevation: 4.24′ low

Water Surface Temp: 66.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for first 90 minutes, then ESE5-6 thereafter

Sky Condition: Thin, grey cloud cover for just 15 minutes then quickly cleared to

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 23% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1798 – 14 fish initially on smoked Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, then on live shad

Area vic 1614 – 30 fish – initially on bait, then bite improved as wind got stronger, and switched over to smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0237G/1012 – 23 fish on smoked Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs while bite was still strong, then closed out with live shad as morning bite died.

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

White Bass Research by Temple College Kicks Off @ Stillhouse — 107 Fish

April 22nd, 2025April 22nd, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, April 22, I fished the first of 26 special fisheries research trips taking place between now and April 2026. These trips are aimed at collecting white bass so they can be measured, weighed, and released in support of a study conducted by students and faculty at Temple College comparing the populations of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir and Lake Belton. This morning my anglers were returning guests Pastor PJ Condit and Pastor Scott Smith. The researchers aboard this morning included Professor Jason Locklin, Caroline Vanderburg, and Yessenia Edgecomb.

If you would like to be a part of this effort, and get a $50 discount for the (very) minor inconvenience of having researchers aboard, please consider the following dates and contact me ASAP…

June 2025:

18^th Wednesday Belton – OPEN OR 19^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

July 2025:

16^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 17^th Wednesday – Stillhouse – OPEN

August 2025:

14^th Thursday – Belton – OPEN OR 15^th Friday – Stillhouse – OPEN

September 2025:

20^th Saturday – Belton – Open OR 27^th Saturday – Stillhouse – FILLED

October 2025:

18^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 25^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

November 2025

8^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 15^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

December 2025

06^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 13^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

January 2026

17^thSaturday – Belton – OPEN OR 24^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

February 2026

14^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 21 Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

March 2026

11^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 12^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

April 2026

15^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 16^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

DATE: Tuesday, 22 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: PJ serves the Community Christian Church in Round Rock, and Scott serves at Crestview Christian Church in Copperas Cove. They were serving up MALs and Hazy Eye Slabs to white bass this morning, though!!

PHOTO CAPTION: With calm winds in our first hour, we made our own luck putting live shad down after a quick white bass bite turned off. This resulted in the catch of multiple drum and this 11 pound blue cat.

PHOTO CAPTION: The Temple College fisheries research team from left foreground: Yessenia Edgecomb, Caroline Vanderburg, and Dr. Jason Locklin.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although we had cloud cover all morning, the southerly wind, which had come up at a nice velocity before sunrise, died for about an hour and during that first hour of effort we had trouble finding fish, and caught none.

By 8 AM, a southeasterly ripple had begun in more exposed areas on the lake , and it was around this time we begin to find and catch fish. The first group of fish we encountered behaved much like those I have recently reported on at Lake Belton. These fish get fired up very briefly, go crazy hitting artificials for all of two or three minutes and then settle down very very quickly.

I have found that following the artificial bite up with bait will help sustain a bite, so that is exactly what we had to do this morning at our first stop. After that, the wind and sky conditions improved, the fishing improved, and we had no problems catching fish on artificials from that point forward.

When I found smaller, isolated groups, fish, I parked on top of them and we worked silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically with a smoking tactic. If the fish were spread over a greater area horizontally, I put the boat upwind or crosswind from them and had Scott and PJ cast MAL Heavies out to them using a sawtooth method.

When all was said and done, we had landed 107 fish, including white bass, one largemouth bass, several freshwater drum, one blue catfish, and one bluegill sunfish.

RESULTS: 107 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO THE “SMOKING” RETRIEVE: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs & MAL Heavy Lures. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
Just as fish were first turning on, they quickly got excited and just as quickly lost interest in artificials; live bait was the key to continuing to catch fish during this time

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 4.25′ low

Water Surface Temp: 66.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for first hour, then SSE5-6 thereafter

Sky Condition: Thin, but complete, grey cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 33% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 549 – 24 fish initially on smoked MAL Heavy Lures, then on live shad

Area vic 754 – 28 fish on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 140 – 12 fish on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 2079 – 14 fish on smoked Bladed Hazy Eye slabs

Area vic B0021G – 22 fish on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 755 – 7 fish on smoked Bladed Hazy Eye slabs

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 Bait Made it Great — 134 Fish

April 21st, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, April 21. I fished with a crew of six with five returning adult guests and one young newbie.

Rejoining me were brothers Joe, Jack, Jeff, and Jamie Oliver, as well as Joe‘s adult son, Thomas Oliver, as well as Jeff‘s grandson, Ember, age 10 (the new guy).

DATE: Monday, 21 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Thomas, Jamie, Ember, Jeffrey, Joe, and Jack with just a few of the 134 fish they landed under clear, bright, cool, nearly calm conditions.

PHOTO CAPTION: A few of the hybrid we encountered today, along with white bass, blue catfish, and smallmouth bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

A cold front moved through on Easter Sunday with thunder, lightning, rain, and a wind shift to the north beginning just before sunrise. That left cooler, dryer, brighter, calmer conditions in its wake today. This post-frontal weather negatively impacted the fishery, but, thankfully, we had already planned to use live bait , which certainly gave us an edge on this tougher set of weather conditions.

I went prepared with approximately 300 shad and intended to fish those on tight, down lines.

We met up at 7:15 AM and had lines in the water by around 7:30 AM.

I chose to start at a cove into which the north winds were blowing overnight and in which I saw shad spawning around first light. That turned out to be a good choice as it yielded our first 28 fish, including white bass, hybrid striped bass, blue catfish, and six smallmouth bass.

We went on to fish five additional areas — the first two of which, and the last of which we fished with bait. The other two we stopped briefly after I saw small segments of the bottom carpeted with white bass. Not wanting to burn through a lot of good bait on smaller fish, I had my crew drop Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs down. The fish got very excited, but only for a short period of time and then lost enthusiasm – something not uncommon when they are in a neutral or negative mood associated with post frontal weather.

The other three area we fished with bait, and those areas accounted for the majority of our fish caught this morning.

When all was said and done, we wrapped up around 11:45 AM with exactly 134 fish landed for our efforts.

RESULTS: 134 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
Caught 6 smallmouth on live bait today — the greatest number of smallmouth I’ve encountered while not targeting them.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Elevation: 3.31′ low

Water Surface Temp: 65.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW3-8 all morning

Sky Condition: Clear blue, bright, cloudless skies

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 43% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 008 – 28 fish on live shad

Area vic B0100G – 27 fish on live shad

Area vic 187 – 6 fish on smoked slabs

Area vic 1012 – 4 fish on smoked slabs

Area vic B0299G – 23 fish on live shad

Area vic 1012 (2nd visit) – 46 fish on live shad

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

Seventy Fish and a Hat

April 18th, 2025April 18th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, April 18, I fished with a crew of four including three generations of Van Ripers, and one of their relatives. Joining me was George, Geoff, and Greg Van Riper, and Matt Bouton. George is a retired US Army aviation officer (Viet Nam era helicopter pilot), Jeff is a high school math teacher in the Killeen school district, as well as a golf coach there, Matt is in his junior year studying economics at Texas A&M, and Greg is working his way through public school.

DATE: Friday, 18 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: George and Geoff Van Riper, Matt Bouton, and Greg Van Riper (Geoff’s son), all with some of the white bass they landed under high wind conditions using mainly live bait with a few bouts of slab fishing thrown in when the conditions looked right on sonar.

PHOTO CAPTION: Geoff Van Riper came up with our largest hybrid of the trip. This one struck a large, live threadfin shad in 31 feet of water. It weighed 4.75 pounds.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The 800 pound gorilla in the room today was the wind. The wind situation was such that I was not sure we were even going to be able to get this trip in safely until the mid-week wind forecast throttled back on the forecast windspeeds and I decided to at least give it a try. The wind did force us to change our meeting location, and prohibited me from fishing the productive areas I had been fishing for the last several weeks.

The wind simply impacted everything negatively — from getting from Point A to Point B, to getting baits in the water efficiently, to detecting bites — but, we persisted!

We started off the day on a windblown point, picked up six fish by working three-quarter ounce, silver, Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically, but as soon as the sun got above the horizon and began to warm the atmosphere, the wind ratcheted it up to over 16-17 mph and we had to come off that exposed area .

I wound up fishing the remainder of the trip in the Leon River arm and relied mainly on live bait to get the job done.

When all was said and done, this crew of four landed exactly 70 fish, including white bass, largemouth, bass, blue catfish, and hybrid striped bass. At each of the several locations we fished, I noted something in common. That was that quality white bass were most routinely caught off bottom but were very lackadaisical, whereas we also found very small white bass suspended and zipping around, looking for the source of the noise coming from the splasher. A few times when I felt Greg needed a change of pace to keep him engaged, I had him work a slab vertically when everyone else stuck with bait, and during those times, he pulled up small white bass from the upper half of the water column which chased his slab, as we observed together on Garmin LiveScope.

We wrapped up at 11:45 and I knew the ride back was going to be a wet challenge. We were doing great until Geoff’s hat (an Alamo hat with sentimental value) blew off. We took on some spray in the maneuvering required to get back to the hat before it sank, but, other than that, we got back to the dock unscathed.

Happy Easter — Christ has risen!

RESULTS: 70 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
High SE winds prohibited travel on exposed areas of the lake today.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 3.27′ low

Water Surface Temp: 67.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE16-20 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% thin, grey cloud cover for 3 hours, then clearing to a white, hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 81% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 0363 – 6 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0085C – 28 fish primarily on live bait

Area vic 0181 – 25 fish primarily on live bait

Area vic B0079C (2 hops) – 11 fish on live shad

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

‘Twas a Bad Day to be a Shad — 90 Fish

April 17th, 2025April 17th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, April 17, I fished with returning guests, Dr. Jim Wood and his friend and former coworker, Sky Sparks. Jim is a retired surgeon and wound care specialist now residing near McGregor, Texas, and Sky drove in for this morning‘s trip from the Killeen, Texas, area.

I was concerned about wind velocity this morning and actually changed our meeting location because after I got up this morning and did a physical weather check outdoors, I noted the winds were stronger than were forecast. In hindsight, we could have stuck with our original plan, but better safe than sorry.

DATE: Thursday, 17 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Sky Sparks and Dr. Jim Wood with a few of the white bass they caught using a variety of tactics as the warming spring weather has fish metabolism on the rise creating an aggressive bite.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Sky Sparks displays a hybrid striped bass, a largemouth bass, a blue catfish, and another hybrid striper — all caught on live shad fished near bottom under very windy conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We mixed it up a little bit this morning given that shad are fairly easy to catch here in the midst of their spawning season, and given that we did well on bait and artificial lures earlier this week, we put both to use this morning and put together a 90 fish catch.

I started the trip off fishing out from a south-facing bank, which was pounded overnight by the wind, and which shad were spawning on. Both white bass and hybrid striped bass were patrolling this area . We used silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with a “smoking” tactic until the sun got high enough to brighten the skies through the gray layer of cloud cover.

This brightening triggered some scattered topwater action, although the heavy wave action served to hinder it. At this point, I moved us to an area where topwater action took place in abundance yesterday, and although we did catch fish there, the topwater action did not really materialize, and it was clear that the number of fish in that area was not near what it was yesterday. From there, we took one more stab at working slabs vertically, picking up a few more fish before spending the remainder of the trip trying to tempt some legal hybrid (18 inches or larger) into biting shad fished on downlines.

The live bait produced exactly 50 additional fish, including three legal hybrid striped bass, several short hybrid, a single largemout bass, four blue catfish, and an abundance of white bass 90% of which were legal.

Although the fish were still hitting at the time I’d normally be wrapping up, and while I never stop a trip by the clock, but rather based on fish activity, I felt it was prudent to leave the exposed area we were in while the winds were still tame enough to do so without giving my clients a rough and or wet ride back in.

RESULTS: 90 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:05A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 3.24′ low

Water Surface Temp: 68.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13-16 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% thin, grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 81% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 0363 – 8 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0391G – 23 fish on MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic B0191C – 9 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 150 (2 hops) – 50 fish on live shad

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

No Bait Today & the Whites Came to Play – 178 Fish on MAL Heavies & Hazy Eyes

April 16th, 2025April 17th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, April 16th, I fished with returning guests Gary and Rachel Davidson from Kerrville, Texas. They brought two friends along with them – Ryan Johnson and Ronnie Langford — both from the Texas Hill Country out near Lake Buchanan.

DATE: Wednesday, 16 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rachel and Gary Davidson, Ryan Johnson, and Ronnie Langford with a portion of their 178-fish catch made on

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

After two consecutive days fishing live bait targeting hybrid striped bass, I shifted gears this morning and targeted white bass using artificials. The shad spawn was going on this morning and that got the bite off to an early start. It tapered up to a peak about two and three-quarter hours long, then tapered back down to nil by 11:30.

In order to familiarize my two new guests with the vertical tactics we be using today, I equipped them with the silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab, and we worked them vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope and a splashing device used to draw fish to the boat and keep them there. We continued on with this tactic at a second location, putting a total of 50 fish in the boat before making a move to a third area and changing up our presentation.

At this third area, birds (gulls, and turns) gave away the location of topwater feeding whites in fairly shallow water . As I slowly crept into this area so not too spook anything, I noted white bass of all sizes pinning schools of shad up against the surface and feeding heavily on them there. I rearmed everyone with different rods and reels equipped with MAL Heavy lures with chartreuse tails and put everyone to work casting out horizontally, and using a modified sawtooth method to bring the lures back. By “modified”, I mean I did not have them open the bail to allow the lure to sink quickly because that was not an issue in this fairly shallow water.

I should note that Gary and Rachel are very good temperate bass anglers, spending most of their time on Lake Buchanan after whites, hybrid, and full-blooded stripers. Gary likes to experiment, and, on this trip he brought a bait normally used for deadsticking (a jighead with soft plastic) and used it whenever everyone else was using slabs vertically. This larger bait which hangs horizontally got, on average, larger white bass, but, also invited missed strikes as smaller fish still struck at it, so he wound up landing fewer fish when using that tactic. Despite the difference in bait, the presentation (“smoking” it past suspended fish or up and away from bottom-oriented fish) remained essentially the same.

Over about 1.75 hours’ time, this aggressive feeding behavior continued, allowing us to tally a catch of 106 additional fish before leaving this bite behind as fish pushed out of shallow water due to brightening conditions. From this point on, the bite got softer and softer.

Despite finding groups of fish, we could only keep them teased up enough to strike for a few minutes before they lost interest altogether. This happened three times at two different areas and finally, around 11:30, we called it a good morning with exactly 178 fish landed.

RESULTS: 178 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
Helpful bird activity witnessed around 8:15, which led to about 1.75 hours of successful fishing in the area the birds indicated.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 3.22′ low

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6-9 for about 90 minutes, then shifting S and ramping up to 13-16 thereafter

Sky Condition: Increasing thin, grey cloud cover all AM going from 30% to 100%

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 88% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 676 – 12 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0074G – 38 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0391G to B0166C – 68 fish fish on MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 031 – 18 fish fish on MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic B0191C – 7 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0310G (2 hops) – 35 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

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 Hunt for Hybrid Continues … 111 Fish

April 15th, 2025April 15th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, April 15, I fished with a crew of five targeting hybrid striped bass with live shad on Lake Belton. Joining me was a crew of five including Harris Young, Craig Hunter, Tim Long, Austin Long, and Joey Sapien.

A mild, dry cold front pushed in overnight resulting in more comfortable temperatures, some high, thin, but complete gray cloud cover by mid-moring, and north-north east winds straight line at 13 to 15 with higher gusts.

DATE: Tuesday, 15 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Harris Young, Craig Hunter, Tim Long, Austin Long, and Joey Sapien each with a nice Lake Belton hybrid striped bass landed on live shad fished on downlines during the annual threadfin shad spawn.

PHOTO CAPTION: Joey Sapien landed our heaviest hybrid of the trip in the final fifteen minutes before the fish quit feeding.

PHOTO CAPTION: Tim demonstrating to his son, Austin, “how it’s done”.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This wind shift shifted the location of spawning shad, and the fish chasing after them and consuming them.

When I located fish today (between 25 and 41 feet), we fished with tight down-lines rigged up with a trolling sinker to which a leader with kahle hook with mono tag were attached. I nostril-hooked all of the shad, and the mono tag prevented them from slipping too far up the hook shank .

We caught a wide variety of fish, including smallmouth bass, freshwater drum, blue catfish, yellow catfish, white bass, and hybrid striped bass.

We fished five areas today, finding fish at four of them. The first and the last both gave up legal hybrid , whereas the other two produced only white bass, albeit well-proportioned, mature fish with many exceeding 13 inches.

By 11:35 the bite had run its course and my crew had landed 111 fish, including 17 legal hybrid striped bass.

RESULTS: 111 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used only live bait today. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
Helpful bird activity witnessed in the first 45 minutes as laughing gulls pointed the way to spawning shad with white bass and hybrids in pursuit.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 3.17′ low

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE13-16 all morning

Sky Condition: Increasing thin, grey cloud cover all AM going from 30% to 100%

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 175

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 008 (2 hops) – 36 fish on live shad

Area vic 1013/1552 – 29 fish fish on live shad

Area vic 187 – 35 fish fish on live shad

Area vic B0308G – 43 fish on live shad

Area vic B0299G – 11 fish on live shad

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

Hybrid Striped Bass on Live Threadfin Shad – 81 Fish

April 14th, 2025April 15th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS:This morning, Monday, April 14, I fished with a crew of four gentlemen, all retired, from the Georgetown, Texas, area. Joining me were Doug Roper, Rob Andrews, Danny Marriott, and John Kelley.

Danny specifically booked this trip to target hybrid, striped bass, so we, spent 4+ hours this morning in pursuit of that species using lively threadfin shad as bait.

DATE: Monday, 14 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Doug Roper, Rob Andrews, Danny Marriott, and John Kelley each with Lake Belton hybrid striped bass (a.k.a. wipers) which we took on tightlined livebait .

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We searched five areas this morning finding fish at the last four in depths between 25 and 41 feet (shallower early, moving deeper with increasing light). The fish we found were very tight to the bottom this morning , which informed me on how far I should have my crew fish their baits up off bottom. We used a fairly simple rig, tying my main line to a trolling sinker with swivels on either end of the sinker, then attaching a fluorocarbon leader to a kahle hook to which a mono tag was attached to prevent baits from riding too high up on the shank of the hook.

We fished directly under the boat with tight lines and with rods placed in rod holders (I use Bee-Ready holders — simple and effective and bulletproof).

We used large, live threadfin shad which I netted and then culled for size. My net choice is a heavy Fitec tape net with 5/16-inch mesh and 7-foot radius. This small mesh allows smaller shad to slip out of the net (not through the mesh) without getting hung by their gills, so, no net cleaning is necessary, nor are any hung shad present to slow the net’s descent on subsequent throws.

At each location, we began getting hits before we could get all four baits in the water.

By the end of the morning, my crew had landed 81 fish, including a mix of white bass, hybrid, striped bass, and blue catfish. A total of 12 legal hybrid were included in this mix of 81 fish.

RESULTS: 81 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used only live bait today. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 02 April…

0 feet 65.6F

5 feet 65.6F

10 feet65.6F

15 feet 65.5F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.9F

30 feet 64.4F

35 feet 63.1F

40 feet 62.0F

45 feet 60.9F

50 feet 57.8F

55 feet 57.6F

60 feet 57.4F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 3.15′ low

Water Surface Temp: 64.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12-14 all morning

Sky Condition: ~20% white cloud cover on light blue skies all AM

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = 140

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 363 – 21 fish on live shad

Area vic B0026G – 8 fish on live shad

Area vic B0243G – 9 fish on live shad

Area vic B0308G – 43 fish on live shad

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

De-stressing for the Homefront Parents — 104 Fish with the Curtis Family

April 13th, 2025April 13th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On Friday morning, April 11, I conducted the fourth SKIFF trip of the 2025 season. Joining me was the family of U.S .Army Staff Sergeant Jovan Curtis Sr., who is currently deployed to South Korea where he serves as a heavy equipment mechanic. His wife, Jewels, and their three children, Maliah (16), Jaylah (10), and Jovan Jr. (8) came out with me for a much-needed stress break.

Beyond the stressors of being a single parent during a lengthy deployment, Mrs. Curtis was also dealing with a recent car accident, as well as some uncertainty about her employment with the Veterans Administration.

Not long after launching, SSG Curtis was able to “tune in” through Facetime from halfway around the world and got to see and hear his kids catching their first fish on their first time on a boat!!

ABOUT SKIFF: SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009. SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru. S.K.I.F.F. provides kids of military members separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish. SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member. In mid-2019, SKIFF began providing trips to kids of bona fide disabled veterans. I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

DATE: Friday, 11 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jaylah (10), Maliah (16), Jewels, and Jovan Curtis with a few of the white bass we targeted on Lake Belton following the passage of a mild, dry cold front late in the afternoon the day prior.

PHOTO CAPTION: While protecting her manicured nails all set for her prom this coming weekend, Maliah did her best to display this 9-pound smallmouth buffalofish which struck her slab.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jaylah landed this nice hybrid striped bass from out of a school of larger white bass we encountered late in our trip.

PHOTO CAPTION: Twice during this trip Jaylah landed 2 fish on 1 lure at the same time. These fish were very aggressive. Even if they weren’t hungry, they’d still chase after something just to keep another schoolmate from getting it first!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We met up at 7:15 this morning with the kids bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, full of energy, and anticipating landing their first fish on what would be their first time out on a boat.

At 10:30, after landing 104 fish, the energy level was considerably lower and everyone looked like they could use a good lunch and a nap!

During this morning‘s trip, we saw the annual threadfin shad spawn continue for the second consecutive day after a four day pause due to a hard cold front the previous weekend. A very mild, dry cold front also pushed in yesterday afternoon. This shifted the winds and dampened the bite just a bit, but the fish were still plenty aggressive.

For simplicity sake, due to their total lack of prior fishing experience, I simply had the kids work silver, 3/4 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with the splasher.

The splasher drew in fish and kept them beneath us while the kids worked on exacting their technique. I did not introduce the GARMIN LiveScope until after the kids had the fundamentals under their belt. Even then, LiveScope was far from necessary, as the fish were just that cooperative.

We fished in under 25 feet of water until 10 o’clock rolled around. At that time, the shallow water bite went soft as the sun climbed and the winds slacked off. I made one final move and found fish in 41 feet of water. We put our final 27 fish in the boat at this area, bringing the kids’ tally to104 fish.

Twice during the trip Jaylah landed a double, catching two fish on her lure at the same time, and the big fish award went to Maliah with a 9-pound smallmouth buffalo.

RESULTS: 104 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the silver 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab exclusively to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn resumed yesterday after a four day pause due to a harsh cold front 5-6 April. Shad were on banks opposite those from yesterday due to light N. wind.
No helpful bird activity.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 02 April…

0 feet 65.6F

5 feet 65.6F

10 feet65.6F

15 feet 65.5F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.9F

30 feet 64.4F

35 feet 63.1F

40 feet 62.0F

45 feet 60.9F

50 feet 57.8F

55 feet 57.6F

60 feet 57.4F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Elevation: 3.05′ low

Water Surface Temp: 62.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: N5-7 all morning

Sky Condition: Cloudless, light blue skies all AM

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 748 – 28 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0074G – 3 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 097 – 46 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 1012 -27 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

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