Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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I TOOK A PICTURE OF THE PICTURE — 110 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 18th, 2023May 18th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, May 18, I fished with longtime clients Tom and Tracie Byrd of Weir, Texas, and Tom’s sister, Patty Williams, who lives out west of San Antonio.

As they have for many years now, this crew came out in celebration of Traci‘s birthday. This was her 74th!

Before we launched, Tom asked me to join him at the trunk of his car. He opened the trunk and revealed a painting Tracie had made for me. It took her about an hour a day for three weeks to draw the picture in charcoal and then paint it with some input from her painting coach. What a nice thing to do!!

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

Next available dates are June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Tom and Tracie Byrd and Tom’s sister, Patty Williams, each with one of the solid white bass we got into this morning using MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! After wearing the fish out fishing MAL Lures vertically, they finally gave up around 10:15. We ran downriggers to “mop up”, and Patty wound up with three at a time.

PHOTO CAPTION: This was the original artwork Tracie presented me with this morning. I’ve got awesome clients!!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 18 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

There were both positive and negative factors at work when one considered today’s weather. On the positive side, this was the first day of a returning south wind, and we were due to have at least a bit of wind, which actually did materialize. On the negative side, there was no cloud cover at sunrise leaving bright skies to contend with.

Thanks to a lack of wind overnight, there was also very little shad spawning activity this morning, hence, there was not a strong draw bringing gamefish shallow after this forage.

As we got going, I, idled along parallel to a productive bank in 18 to 22 feet of water looking on down imaging, colored sonar, and that side of side-imaging aimed towards the bank, looking for signs of shad and/or white bass. The first group we came across was scattered, but fish were definitely present.

I first tried getting everyone going on a horizontal sawtooth tactic. That did not do too well with the fairly short casts the ladies were making, so, we went vertical instead, and wound up putting all our first five fish in the boat and, more importantly, working all of the kinks out of this “smoking“ tactic early on, which would serve us well the remainder of the trip.

Seeing that shallow water was likely not going to produce all that well this morning, I shifted out to deeper water and found a very large, active school of fish in just over 40 feet of water. This school produced 37 fish for us, every one of which was taken using a smoking tactic with an MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail. After this school lost interest, I moved about 100 or so feet away, found another, similarly active and large school of fish. We sat on these fish for a full two hours and took our fish count up to 104, again, using the smoking tactic and the MAL Heavy.

These fish finally gave up around 10:15 AM. Since Patty had expressed an interest in understanding how the downriggers worked, I suggested that we finish out the trip using the downriggers. I explained how they help cover ground and put baits in front of a lot of disinterested fish, helping us to weed out the few still active fish from among them.

We spent our last 30 minutes or so downrigging and picked up a single, a double, and a triple adding a final six fish to our count and finishing up the morning a bit early with 110 fish landed and the birthday girl just about worn smooth out.

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

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

TALLY: 110 fish caught and released

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

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

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 13.33 feet low, 24 CFS flow, no change over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~76.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at sunrise, with a SE wind picking up to 6 as the morning went on

Sky Condition: Bright blue skies with ~20% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0182C – 5 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0222G – 36 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0223G – 63 fish on on smoked MAL Heavies, then 6 final fish downrigged from the same area

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

TRANSITION UNDERWAY — 100 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 17th, 2023May 17th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, May 17, I fished with long-time client, Dwight Stone, a well-traveled sportsman and retired restaurateur from Georgetown, Texas.

There is a subtle transition taking place as the threadfin shad spawn comes within two weeks or so of wrapping up. Those young of the year shad spawned early on, back in April, are now growing out with some reaching about 1/2″ in length now. Additionally, spawned out shad are beginning to use the upper portion of the water column as sun and warmth cause algae to bloom there. More fish are now found suspended than there has been up to this point in the season.

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

Next available dates are May 22, June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Dwight Stone enjoyed a 1-man, 100-fish outing this morning. He worked MAL Heavy lures both vertically and horizontally to put this sizeable catch together.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 17 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

After seeing topwater action increasing in frequency and abundance on my trips earlier this week, I had Dwight meet me a tad earlier today as the cloud coverage was to be much reduced versus Monday and Tuesday.

Unfortunately, we had very little cloud cover, and very little wind, so the exciting sight casting we were both hoping for did not materialize to a great extent, however, there was enough action to help us get to where the fish were and work our baits according to the fishes’ position relative to the bottom and in the water column.

Under low light conditions, while the sun was still low in the morning sky, we found fish in shallow water and in the middle third of the water column in under 22 feet of water. These fish lent themselves well to horizontally casting with the MAL Heavy Lure, and counting it down to a two-, four-, or six-count, depending on what we were observing.

We put just over 30 fish in the boat this way before the wind slacked off, the cloud cover was at its low point for the morning, and the sky began to brighten. From this point on, we found fish with sonar, typically in the lower 4 feet of the water column, and typically with side-by-side down-imaging and traditional sonar.

As frequently happens on Lake Belton due to a rise in the lake’s elevation (this time caused by locally heavy rains over the weekend and on Monday), the fish tend not to hold tightly to the bottom in large schools, but rather use the space just up off the bottom as they hunt under bright conditions.

By moving whenever the bite got quiet, by taking full advantage of Garmin LiveScope, and employing the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail using a smoking tactic, we were able to land exactly 100 fish by 11:20 this morning.

On occasion, when things got slow for Dwight as he worked the MAL, heavy vertically, I would cast an MAL Dense out horizontally and work it back with a sawtooth method. Whenever we were on fish responding to a vertical tactic, the sawtooth method did not fail to produce additional fish.

Our catch included one freshwater drum, and an 80/20 mix of white bass and short hybrid striped bass. Additionally, under the low light conditions early in the morning, I brought and tested a Cork Rig with a streamer selected to match the size of the threadfin shad we watched fish feeding on.

Even though fish were not feeding heavily on the surface, the Cork Rig drew fish upward, and this rig was able to produce, as well.

One important observation I have shared over the past few days is that of the presence of young of the year shad are now found here, there, and everywhere out in open water. Schools of primarily smaller white bass are definitely keying in on these juvenile shad. When we found this to be the case, lures imitating adult shad get largely ignored. For this reason, I went prepared this morning, with some very small baits to fish behind a Cork Rig, as well. Unfortunately, we did not get a real good chance to try this out. More on that end in next week’s reports, I’m sure.

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

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

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

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

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

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 13.33 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.01′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~76F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW2-4 until around 8A, then going calm for the remainder of the morning

Sky Condition: Bright blue skies with ~20% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 5% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0109G – 7 fish on MAL Heavy w/ countdown

Area B0221G – 25 fish on MAL Heavy w/ countdown

Area 150 – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavy

Area B0081C – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavy

Area B0042G – 28 fish on smoked MAL Heavy

Area vic B0017G – 28 fish on smoked MAL Heavy

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

SIGHT & SONAR – 136 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 16th, 2023May 16th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 16 May, I fished with Mr. Mike French of Salado, and one of his sons-in-law, Rob Cabaniss of Morgan’s Point, TX.

Mike bid on a fishing gift certificate I had recently donated to the Salado United Methodist Church for their wild game dinner which raised around $30,000 for the church’s various missions.

In stark contrast with yesterday’s results made difficult by weather, weather turned out to be our best friend this morning thanks to grey skies and breeze on the heels of a mild cold front which came in overnight.

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 May 22, June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:Mike French with a sweet Lake Belton hybrid striped bass taken by counting down an MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail to a 6-count as these fish stalked shad and forced them to the surface to trap and eat them.

PHOTO CAPTION: Rob Cabaniss with a 4-pound class hybrid which fell for his MAL Heavy Lure worked via a count-down method to this fish any many others which were suspended down about 15′ beneath the surface.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rob Cabaniss and his father-in-law, Mike French, with a few of the nice white bass we caught using a variety of tactics on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 16 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going this morning right at 7 AM under overcast skies with a temperature of about 68°, and a night light northerly breeze at around 3 to 4 mph. The threadfin shad spawn was going full tilt on those banks impacted by the wind.

As I was observing both the lake surface for signs of fish, as well as sonar, I was using my spotting scope to see things more distant than my unaided I could detect. I picked up some bird activity some distance away, and we drove to it to find a few Franklin’s gulls scouting but not really committed to any given patch of water. I ran sonar through the area and found white bass and hybrid were suspended and moving, indicating they were intercepting spawning shad moving back off the bank towards deep water as the sky began to brighten.

We picked up a handful of fish fishing MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails vertically using a smoking tactic before I both saw and heard gamefish forcing bait fish to the surface and feeding on them aggressively within about 100 yards of us.

I moved us to those fish and we begin sight casting for what would be ~3 hours of such sight casting to white bass and short hybrid stripers feeding on 3.5 to 4 inch long threadfin shad over open water.

The MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail was a near perfect match for these broadsided, silver forage fish with bright yellow tails which get particularly bright during the spawn. See photo …

As the fish finally disappeared from the surface, and the 10 or 12 gulls that were working them dispersed, we had managed a total of 85 fish.

I could see abundant fish still in the area suspended 15 to 20 feet below the surface. We rigged up with twin downriggers, each equipped with three armed umbrella rigs terminated with a trio of # 13 Pet Spoons with silver prismatic tape and yellow tails. Mike and Rob very quickly got the hang of deploying the downriggers, leaving me to spot and drive to fish using, sight and sonar. We wound up with another 21 fish taken as singles and doubles before these fish pushed even deeper down to the 30 to 40 foot level and quit feeding.

It was now 10:30 and I gave the fellows the option of continuing to downrig, while letting them know that our success rate would drop off given what I was seeing on sonar, or going and looking afresh for fish holding on open water topographies. They opted for the latter, and we headed out to find fish we could park on top of and work MAL Lures through.

This turned out well for us. I rather quickly found a school of fish holding on and over a 42 foot bottom. These fish were already suspended 6 to 7 feet off the bottom, telling me they were already feeding. We quickly got atop them, got the splasher working, and landed exactly 30 more fish before they quit right around 11:15 AM as a line of light rain clouds moved in from the north and west.

Our 136 fish catch this morning consisted of two largemouth bass and a roughly 60/40 split of white bass versus hybrid striper. Of the hybrid, five were of legal size. Only three of our white bass were sub-legal fish (under 10 inches).

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

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

TALLY: 136 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: One BIG observation: I spotted the first “offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad which were the earliest spawned this year yesterday. Shad were still spawning on windblown shorelines this morning. Here is the water temperature profile taken yesterday:

0 feet, 76.3F
5 feet, 76.7F
10 feet, 75.7F
15 feet, 75.1F
20 feet, 73.9F
25 feet, 72.2F
30 feet, 67.4F
35 feet, 66.8F
40 feet, 66.0F
45 feet, 65.0F
50 feet, 64.1F
55 feet, 62.2F
60 feet, 60.8F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 13.34 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.16′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~76F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW5-6 with occasional brief gusts NW9

Sky Condition: “Squinting” grey cloud cover most of the morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 11% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1356 to B0220G – 85 fish sight casting MAL Heavies

Area vic B0220G – 26 fish downrigging

Area 1469/B0151G – 30 fish smoking MAL Heavies in 42′

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

GRINDING IN THE FOG — 30 FISH @ BELTON

May 15th, 2023May 15th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, May 15, I fished with David Hermann, David’s uncle Matt Bierwirth, and David’s grandfather, Bob Shull.

Bob recently attended the Public Arts League of Salado‘s (PALS) fundraiser and bid on a fishing trip I had donated to the cause. Bob is not much of a fisherman, but knew Matt and David were, and so he bid on this, intending to gift it to David in celebration of his graduation from the civil engineering program at Texas A&M.

Bob is a retired OB/GYN physician, Matt is a practicing pediatric physician, and David has been employed with a Waco-based engineering firm since before his graduation.

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 June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Matt Bierwirth, Bob Shull, and David Hermann with a few of the fish they labored for on a very tough morning with calm winds and 3 hours of fog.

PHOTO CAPTION: If you look past the fish (and brand-spanking new Aggie ring!!) and note the sky conditions, the fish fired up for about 25 minutes just as the fog was lifting, but before the direct sun began to shine. Once the sun shone, it was over. This Lake Belton hybrid fell for a downrigged Pet Spoon and went 4.25 pounds on a certified scale.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 15 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

In a word, this morning’s fishing was … tough!

After this weekend’s rains, we experienced calm and foggy conditions for three of the four-plus hours on the water.

Neither the calm winds nor the fog were forecast as I closed out the day on Sunday, so they caught me a bit off guard as I was prepping for the trip this morning. We were initially due to have winds from the south around six, and the ambient temperature and dewpoint showed at least a bit of separation which is necessary to avoid fog. Neither of those materialized.

We had a brief spurt of activity with the typical low-light bite that is still taking place in conjunction with the threadfin shad spawn, but after that ended, both finding and catching fish became a real chore. I never once found any schools of white bass of any significance on side-imaging, and what we drove directly over top of, typically on drop-off areas, showed as just handfuls of individual fish on down-imaging and colored sonar.

After giving up on trying to find enough fish to present to vertically, I shifted to downrigging. For about a 25 minute span, just as the fog was burning off, but before the direct sun shone brightly, we more than doubled our catch from 11 fish up to 24 fish in a quick spurt. But, once the sun burned the fog off completely just a few minutes afterwards, it became calm and bright, and the fishing tanked once again.

Having fished Lake Belton for 30 years with the last 18 of them fishing professionally, I recognize the boats of most of our regular retirees out on the water on the weekdays. I noted that we were all doing exactly the same thing this morning with very limited success.

I found it interesting while comparing notes at the end of my trip with a bass angler, that the five smallmouth he managed today all came right at the transition as the fog burned off. So, to summarize, we caught 11 fish early with MAL Heavy Lures fished vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope, and then our remaining 19 fish came as singles, doubles, and one triple taken on three armed umbrella rigs fished behind downriggers.

,Of the 30 fish landed, two were legal hybrid striped bass, and the remainder were legal white bass.

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

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

TALLY: 30 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: One BIG observation: I spotted the first “offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad which were the earliest spawned this year. Shad were still spawning on windblown shorelines this morning. Here is the water temperature profile:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 13.50 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.03′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 70.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning

Sky Condition: Moderate density fog through 10A, clearing to 50% white cloud cover on a blue sky with calm winds

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 19% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0022C – 11

Area vic 835 – 19 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

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

WE SAW THE LIGHT!! – 101 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 11th, 2023May 11th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, May 11, I fished with longtime clients Tommy and Sylvia Maedgen from Troy, Texas.

Both are now retired, both enjoy the outdoors, and both are very good at the various fishing tactics we needed to employ today mainly because they have fished with me in all weather, and in all seasons and so they already had familiarity with the methods required to consistently catch white bass here in the late spring. Hence, there was really no learning curve for them.

Here is how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Tommy and Sylvia Maedgen with a few of the quality white bass they took primarily fishing MAL Heavy Lures vertically this morning. The largest of the two fish Tommy is holding was just fractions of an inch shy of 16″!

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! Sylvia landed this triple to close out the trip and put us over the 100 fish mark as we downrigged for white bass late in the morning. We used silver #13 Pet Spoons with silver prismatic tape on the bodies and yellow tails behind umbrella rigs.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 11 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We are in a strange weather pattern with the jet stream way up north in the continental U.S., thus allowing for a counter-clockwise spin of Gulf moisture to stay in place over us for a number of days now, with at least three more days of the same forecast to follow.

This made for a very murky, dark gray sky this morning. Although the shad spawn was heavy, there was not as much shallow water gamefish action as there has been over the past several weeks. In fact, the fishing really didn’t get going until after 7:30 when the sun had risen a bit higher and begin to burn off some of the gray cloud cover.

Once we “saw the light” (as the light level reached “squinting brightness“), the fishing turned on and stayed on right up through about 10:20. Prior to 10:20 AM, we hit three distinct areas and found decreasingly aggressive white bass congregated at each location. We did not experience the two hour lull in the middle of the morning, which has been bothersome over the last week or so.

Once these fish were found, the catching was pretty straightforward. I Spot-Locked over top of the fish, got Garmin LiveScope adjusted so Tommy and Sylvia could see their lures ascend and descend very well, and then they began working their MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails vertically using a smoking tactic. The key, as always, with the smoking tactic is to get the blade spinning as close to bottom as possible, and to never change cadence while a fish is seen chasing after the lure on LiveScope.

In this manner, Tommy and Sylvia put 89 fish in the boat through 10:20. At this point, the fishing got increasingly difficult with each passing moment. Although we found groups of fish, they were very reluctant to chase. Although we picked up three more fish using the sawtooth method when I spotted large schools of fish out to the port side of the boat, it was the downriggers that helped us get our final count up over 100.

The downriggers allow for efficiently covering large tracts of the bottom when the fish are sluggish, thus weeding out the few remaining active fish from an increasingly inactive population. We ran twin downriggers with three-armed umbrella rigs each outfitted with three #13 Pet Spoons and trolled them using the bottom-tracking feature on the Cannon Optimum TS downriggers I retrofitted by guiding boat with for this 2023 season.

Our count of 101 fish included one freshwater drum, and exactly 100 white bass.

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

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

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: I witnessed the second most intense shad spawn of this spring this morning with millions of fish really moving fast, churning the shallows, and actually often creating a wake as they moved parallel to the shoreline.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 13.57 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.11′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 70.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE4-6 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 63% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 684 – 57 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails

Area 355 – 15 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails

Area 1483/B0031C – 17 fish on MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails

Area vic 835 – 13 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons (10) and sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures (3)

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

VISSEN MET VRIENDEN — 106 FISH @ BELTON

May 9th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, May 9, I welcomed a crew of six first-time guests aboard for a morning of catch-and-release white bass fishing on Lake Belton.

Mr. Mark Ratcliffe put everything together and provided a great outing for his two adult sons, Justin and Jeremy, as well as three friends of theirs from the Netherlands. Sven Van Den Oever is Mark’s future son-in-law, and joining Sven were his dad, Antoon Van Den Oever, and Sven’s uncle, Johan Holland.

The Ratcliffes run Technique Flooring and Restoration in Killeen, Sven is pursuing his masters in business administration, while coaching soccer at a Christian college in Oklahoma, Antoon develops drawings for construction, and Johan is a welder.

If you are wondering about the title, ‘Vissen met Vrienden‘ means Fishing with Friends (or at least that is what Sven told me, but, if I get banned from Facebook overnight, you’ll know Sven did me wrong!).

Here is how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mark Ratcliffe, Antoon Van Den Oever, Jeremy and Justin Ratcliffe, Johan Holland, and Antoon Van Den Oever with some of the white bass they caught and released using a combination of smoked MAL Lures and downrigged Pet Spoons.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! Antoon landed both of our two sets of triples as we downrigged for white bass late in the trip. We used silver #13 Pet Spoons with silver prismatic tape on the bodies and yellow tails behind umbrella rigs.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 09 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

In what has become the norm of late, we had a great low light bite from about 6:50 to around 8:10AM. During this time, the fish were as active as they would be over our entire trip, with fish pursuing our smoked MAL Lures aggressively, and for long distances up off the bottom. The fish themselves were often positioned several feet up off the bottom, and they were seen moving quickly as they swam horizontally passing under the boat.

Around 8:10, the bite began to cool off rapidly, and we had to work for our fish from that point until around 10:10 AM. During this time I moved from group of fish to group of fish as seen (typically) on side imaging, I then Spot-Locked us atop these fish and, with the assistance of Garmin LiveScope, we fished them only until the initial surge of interest waned, and then we moved on. To stay any longer just saw the law of diminishing returns kick in and the fish & fishing get slower and slower with time.

For our final hour, I planned ahead to downrig as both a means to catch our final fish of the morning, and to offer some variety.

Earlier in the trip I asked Mark, of the six people in his party, which would he identify as the two most mechanically inclined. He said his sons and Johan, the welder, would be his picks. I went with the English-speaking brothers and recruited them to be the ones working the downriggers so I would be free to watch sonar and pilot the boat from group of fish to group of fish as they appeared on sonar.

Justin and Jeremy did a great job keeping baits in the water and fishing effectively. In our final 50 minutes on the water, we boated 31 more fish, taking our count from 75 up to 106. This included two sets of triples, both landed by Antoon, as well as a numerous doubles and singles. These all came on three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with # 13 Pet Spoons.

Our 106-fish catch this morning consisted of 104 white bass and 2 short hybrid stripers.

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

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

TALLY: 106 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: The migration of Franklin’s gulls looks like it is all but over now with but a handful of these very helpful birds witnessed this morning, for the second day in a row. A few small flocks of Forster’s terns still remain, and ample white and blue herons are still signaling where the threadfin shad spawn is strong each morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 13.71 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.01′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 70.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 91% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 473 – 15 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails

Area 1975 – 36 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails (2 hops)

Area vic B0041G – 20 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails (3 hops)

Area vic 187 to B0041G – 31 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

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

STRONG START, STRONG FINISH, BUT THAT MIDDLE WAS TOUGH — 101 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 8th, 2023May 8th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, May 8, I fished with returning guests – – the father and son team of Frank and Marcos Sumner.

Frank, a US Army veteran who worked in the military healthcare field, now continues in that same field as a civilian. Marcos and his family reside south of Austin where Marcos works in the banking industry.

Here is how the fishing went…
—————————————————————————————————–

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

Next available dates are June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Marcos Sumner and his dad, Frank, with a few of the 101 fish we caught. Fishing was strong at both the start of the trip and again at the end, with two tough hours in between.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! Frank landed both of our two sets of triples as we downrigged for disinterested fish. We used #13 Pet Spoons behind umbrella rigs.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 08 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

I encouraged Frank and Marcos to be punctual for our 6:40 AM start time suspecting that we would have an opportunity to sight-cast to white bass and hybrid striper feeding in shallow water on spawning shad.

That shallow action did materialize, and thanks to thin, but complete, gray cloud cover, that early morning feed lasted for a full 70 minutes and allowed us a take of 51 fish all on MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails, counted down to either a four-, six-, or eight-count depending on the light level and what I was seeing on sonar.

As this fairly easy and productive fishing tapered off sharply as the sun began to burn through the clouds, I told Frank and Marcos that it was now time to go to work. Thing was … I didn’t know just how much work it was going to be this morning. Over the next 2 1/4 hours we were only able to put six more fish in the boat as I found it difficult to locate large groups of fish, and also found that those fish I did find were quite reluctant to chase and strike our presentations.

Last week, when the fishing got tough, downrigging was the cure, but, that was when there were ample fish present and after those abundant fish had turned off after feeding pretty well prior to.

This morning, those large groups of fish I’d hoped to downrigger over were in short supply. I hit one open water area which the wind was impacting pretty substantially, and we were able to pick up seven fish on the downriggers.

Seeing the effectiveness of this approach, I backtracked to one of the areas where we found fish earlier in the morning, but could not get them to fire up.

Fortunately, the fish were still there and this time, they went for the horizontal movement of the downriggers. We spent the remaining 75 minutes of the trip at that location, catching singles, doubles, and two sets of triples as the wind reached peak speed, and the skies began to clear.

To best imitate spawning shad, I chose a number 13 Pet Spoon with silver prismatic tape, and a yellow feather for the tail. I placed three of these behind the three-armed umbrella rig on 22-inch leaders and that combination was simply deadly. I tried to keep the downrigger balls about 4 feet off the bottom so these lazy fish did not have to travel very far if they were interested. We landed 37 more white bass in this area.

We wrapped up this morning’s trip with exactly 101 fish, including 43 hybrid, all of which were short, and all of which were taken while we were sight-casting during the first 70 minutes of the trip

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

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

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: The migration of Franklin’s gulls looks like it is all but over now with but a handful of these very helpful birds witnessed this morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 13.72 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.02′ rise over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 70.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11 at trip’s start, building slowly to an end-of-trip peak of SSE13

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover with brief spurts of direct sun breaking thru in the final 90 minutes

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 91% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1562 – 51 fish on sight-cast MAL Heavies counted down to 4, 6, or 8

Area 098 – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic B0023C thru 1556 – 7 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area vic B0041G – 37 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

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

THEY GOT “BUS”TED — 131 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 5th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, May 5, I fished with returning guests — the father and son team of Kelvin Gladden, and one of his sons, Tevin.

I Kelvin is a US Army veteran and Tevin works in the computer industry over in Temple.

Here is how the fishing went.…

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

Next available dates are June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Kelvin and Tevin Gladden with some mature Lake Belton white bass which came on MAL Heavy Lures worked vertically and on downrigged Pet Spoons when the fish were less aggressive.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! Tevin landed five sets of triples as we downrigged for increasingly disinterested fish after the winds reached a peak and then began falling off. We used #13 Pet Spoons behind twin umbrella rigs behind two downriggers.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 05 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Due to high wind speeds forecast toward the end of our trip, I had to launch at a more distant ramp this morning than usual, and although I got there with no problem before 6:15A, the Gladdens got stuck behind a school bus and arrived a bit late, which cost us an opportunity at sight-casting to white bass forcing shad to the surface in shallow water under low light conditions.

Although this action was still going on as we got underway, we only managed three fish in the few minutes which remained of that action before the skies brightened, the shad moved out, the birds quit, and the white bass crept downward and outwards away from the shoreline.

We moved away from the shoreline out to the first breakline and were able to catch abundant, active white bass, just as we did under similar weather conditions yesterday. We took these fish with a vertical tactic using MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. After nearly an hour on these fish, found on two distinct areas along this first breakline, the bite began to wane.

Next, I spotted about three dozen Franklins gulls working over open water, got to them, saw abundant, but very scattered fish, and after making a quick attempt to see if we could draw fish to us with the splasher, I instead changed over to downrigging. This allowed us to cover water quickly, spot fish on side-imaging, then turn to port or starboard, and troll directly over top of them. This accounted for six fish very quickly before the birds quit flying and resumed resting on the water, and the fish dispersed.

With the southerly wind now picking up to right at 13 mph, I felt that some of the deeper topographies might begin producing, and this suspicion turned out to be right. We made three stops in about 32 feet of water and continued using the smoking tactic.

As the wind velocity built to a peak, the fish feeding activity also built to a peak. We were able to take our fish count up to 102 while the wind remained strong by fishing these three fairly similar areas. The first gave up 13 fish, the second gave up 9 fish, and the third gave up 30 fish.

The NOAA forecast called for the winds to peak late morning, and then begin falling off toward noon, and that is exactly what happened this morning. As soon as the winds slacked off, the bite begin to decline, as well.

With 102 fish in the boat at this point, I asked Kelvin and Tevom if they would prefer to move to a number of spots in rapid succession and try to pull a few fish at each, or would prefer to put the downriggers back down. They asked me which I thought would produce more fish. I told them I thought the downrigging would put a few more fish in the boat, so they went for that option. We wound up with 29 additional fish landed, including 5 sets of triples all landed by Tevin, over the final 40 minutes of our trip. We concluded with 131 fish all of which were white bass, except for a single short hybrid.

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

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

TALLY: 131 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 13.80 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.02′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 67.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7 at trip’s start, peaking around 10A at SSE13, then dropping back to SSE6-7

Sky Condition: 90% moderate grey cloud cover with brief spurts of direct sun breaking thru

Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0196C – 44 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0171G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 0008 – 10 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0023C thru 1556 – 20 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

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

I’LL BET YOU A MATCHBOX YOU CAN’T … — 80 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

May 4th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, May 4, I fished with two of Wayne Winekauf’s grandkids — cousins Jude Masoner and Noah Thomas.

Wayne, originally from Iowa and now residing in Morgan’s Point, fished with me for the first time earlier this spring, while entertaining a friend of his who had come in for a visit from Iowa for a few days.

This morning’s trip was specifically for the boys, so, Wayne came in the role of helping me help the boys be successful, but didn’t fish.

Jude is 11 and Noah is 8, so my “Kids Fish, Too!“ package was a very good fit for these young men. These kid–specific packages last a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4+ hours for adult trips, and they cost about $100 less than a comparable trip for adults.

Although the kids did a great job and their results showed it, one thing we never could get ironed out was their tendency to reel a fish up so far that the swivel on the leader hit the tip of the rod. At one point Wayne told them he’d take them to Walmart and let each one pick out a Matchbox car if they could avoid slamming the swivel into the rod tip any longer. Suffice it to say that Walmart is still well stocked with Matchboxes.

Here is how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are June 6 and 21 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jude Masoner, Wayne Winekauf, and Noah Thomas with a portion of the boys’ 80 fish catch taken on a combination of vertical tactics using MAL Lures and horizontal tactics using downrigged Pet Spoons.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 03 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Weather conditions were much improved today fishing–wise, as we had light gray, but complete cloud cover and enough wind to ripple the surface prior to sunrise. That wind would continue all morning and be of a great help.

We fished three areas this morning using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope for which I rigged the boys up with light spinning rods terminated with MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. The boys landed 44 fish at our first stop, 6 fish at our second stop, and 10 fish at our third stop.

By 9:15 AM the boys had landed 60 fish, but the bite was beginning to wane. I could see it by gauging the swimming speed and reaction of the fish we found, as well as by observing multiple small flocks of Franklin’s gulls, which, at this time, were beginning to settle on the water, no longer scouting for, finding, nor eating shad.

After seeing how well a downrigging approach worked while the fish were uncooperative yesterday, and for variety sake, we retooled with twin downriggers each equipped with a three arm umbrella rig terminated with number 13 Pet Spoons. I fished a windward, underwater ledge which side-imaging revealed white bass were using.

We kept the downrigger balls ~3′ off bottom and our rigs about 20′ behind the ball.

In our final 90 minutes, the boys landed an additional 20 fish, including singles, doubles, and a pair of triples.

We wrapped up right at 11 AM with 80 fish landed, including 2 freshwater drum, 4 short hybrid striped bass, and 74 white bass.

Going back to my first sentence in this section, “Weather conditions were much improved today fishing–wise…”, consider this … this morning, with grey skies and wind, two inexperienced boys landed 80 fish in 3.5 hours, whereas yesterday, under calm, bright skies, and while fishing the same areas, two very experienced men struggled mightily to land 74 fish in over 5 hours. Weather matters!!

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

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

TALLY: 80 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 13.78 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.02′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-9 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0196C – 44 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0171G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 0008 – 10 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0023C thru 1556 – 20 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

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