Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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NUDGING TOWARD BETTER FALL FISHING — 102 Fish

September 7th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning I fished with returning guests Kelvin and Angela Gladden, and their adult sons, Kelvin and Tevin. After poor results scouting for white bass on Stillhouse this past week, I continued fishing Lake Belton with the Gladdens this morning. Autumn was in the air as a stiff north wind ushered in cooler, dryer air which will nudge us toward better fall fishing.

DATE: Saturday, 07 September 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 10-12, 16-19 Sep.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Tevin, Angela, Kelvin, and Kelvin Gladden with a few of the white bass they took using downrigging and smoking tactics. In addition to 93 white bass, there were 6 short hybrid, 1 largemouth, and 2 smallmouth included in their catch.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Generally speaking, fishing on an incoming cold front is better than average; that said, timing is the key. That span of time after any storms occur as the front’s lead edge arrives and until the wind velocity peaks is typically the best of the best. Fortunately, we got in on that this morning.

We got right down to business using downriggers to cover water and to find and catch fish. We fished two areas via downrigging with #12 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs and boated 42 fish before 8AM. The 6 fish we took before the sun’s direct rays struck the water were shallow and orienting to the bottom; the 36 fish we took after the sun rose were suspended at or below 25′ and we got them with the balls set at ~24′.

Around 8:20A, the fish we found began to dissipate. I got back on fish around 9A, after stopping three different times in unsuccessful attempts to draw fish in with the splasher.

Around 9A, we picked up five more white bass via downrigging with balls set to 28′, but, as I ran over a breakline, I saw fish on bottom in as much as 36′. We put the ‘rigging gear away and spent the rest of the trip Spot-Locked atop three distinct schools of bottom-hugging white bass, all within an eighth of a mile of one another. The splasher definitely worked its magic to draw and hold these fish, and, although the MAL Original caught fish on the first few drops at each location when the fish were most fired up, the MAL Mini continued to put fish in the boat once they got finnicky. We used a smoking tactic supported by Garmin LiveScope.

This last scenario was encouraging, as it represented the first time after summertime patterns kicked in that I’ve seen fish return to bottom in deep water and stay put long enough to fish for with a positive outcome. This is a big deal which most anglers wouldn’t recognize nor see the significance of.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with #12 Pet Spoons. We smoked MAL Originals and Minis vertically. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 102 fish caught and released, including 2 smallmouth, 1 largemouth, 6 short hybrids, and 93 white bass

OBSERVATIONS:

1) No topwater action, although I was not fishing in areas where I’d anticipate topwater action would materialize.

2) We fished with rising wind velocity as a cold front passed last night and as high pressure began to build in today.

3) Found the first bottom-oriented schools of white bass I’ve encountered since the summertime patterns kicked in “camped out” for more than just a few minutes at a time. We were able to Spot-Lock on them, present to them, and draw responses repeatedly.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:35 AM on Saturday, September 7 …

0 feet 83.1F

5 feet 83.8F

10 feet 84.0F

15 feet 84.0F

20 feet 84.0F

25 Feet 84.0F

30 feet 84.0F

35 feet 84.0F

40 feet 84.0F

45 feet 84.0F

50 feet 83.1F

55 feet 80.5F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time:11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.85′ low and rising slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .03′ rise in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 83.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW11-14

Sky Condition: Light blue, cloudless skies all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 17% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1746 – downrigging #12 Pets for 6 fish prior to sunrise

Area vic B0109C – downrigging #12 Pets for 36 fish between sunrise and 8A

Area 971/473, Area 971/B0022C, and Area vic B0096C – 60 fish between 9 & 11A smoking MAL Originals and Minis

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 Flip-Flopped, But, My Values Are Unchanged – 51 Fish

September 4th, 2024September 4th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Sunday evening (Labor Day weekend) I made an “exception to policy” for the Oliver family of Temple, and ran a fishing trip on a holiday weekend. I normally don’t fish on weekends between Spring Break and Labor Day, and I normally don’t fish on holiday weekends at any time of year. I just feel the extra traffic reduces the aesthetic value of a trip, and limits the number of places I can search for fish without getting close to others. But, the Olivers are one of my longest-running clients, and have booked more trips with me than any other clients. Aside from that, they are always uplifting to have aboard, so, holiday weekend or not, we went for a shortened 2 hour trip for the low-light evening bite on Lake Belton to close out the family’s mini-reunion celebrating the birthday of Betty Jean Oliver (mom, grandma, great-grandma) now in her early 90s. Aboard were Joe and Dicque Oliver, and their three adult kids, Corey, Amber, and Thomas.

DATE: Sunday, 01 September 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 5, 10-12 Sep.

PHOTO CAPTION: Two generations of Olivers, from left: Corey, Amber, Dicque, Joe, and Thomas. The family converged on the Temple/Belton area to celebrate Joe’s mother’s birthday. Mrs. Betty Joe Oliver is in her early 90s. After the 1p Sunday party ended, all the “young folks” went fishing with me!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although several areas have produced well in the evenings all through August, the evening bite is short, and this evening, we’d really only have enough time to hit one, or at most, two areas.

With a crew of 5, I went with a downrigging approach. Downrigging is very effective all summer when fish are moving fast and small schools tend to be scattered and often suspended.

Our first area was a bit of a bust, but, we also hit it a bit earlier than the timespan when the evening bite has really been getting underway. Additionally, due to a north wind, this area was not being as heavily impacted by wind as it had been with SE winds.

We picked up 5 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons and moved on.

The second area we hit was a bit more steeply sloped and a bit deeper. The fish here were suspended, although not more than 5-6 feet off bottom. As it turned out, these fish were all small and although they were hitting eagerly, we moved once again after everyone had a round or two catching these on #12 Pet Spoons.

The third area we went to, and the last at which we would downrig, held a mix of sizes of fish, and the fish were willing to chase and strike to some degree, although not overly aggressive. We worked this area thoroughly right up until the sun went behind a thick, grey cloud bank in the west and the light level decreased sharply. At this point we had 45 fish landed.

I headed us up shallow in hopes that a few fish would come up despite the traffic and the mild cold front. I was pleasantly surprised that there were a few fish up in under 15′. I had everyone get on one side of the boat abreast of one another and sling MAL Originals, working them back sawtooth style. My crew landed 6 final fish this way before dark, at which time the fish quit altogether.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with #12 & #13 Pet Spoons. We sawtoothed with MAL Originals up shallow at dark. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 51 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

1) No topwater action

2) Grey clouds developed with a mild cold front which brought NNE winds since late Friday

3) Fish were in a neutral mood; not turned off, but not aggressive, either.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:25 AM on Monday, August 26 …

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.9F

15 feet 87.9F

20 feet 87.9F

25 feet 87.9F

30 feet 87.2F

35 feet 85.6F

40 feet 84.2F

45 feet 83.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15P

End Time: 8:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 88F

Elevation: 0.73′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .01′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 86.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE10

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud coverage all evening

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1075 & 1923 – downrigging #12 Pets for 45 fish by 7:55

Area 010 – sawtoothing MAL Originals up shallow for a final bite at dark

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

Find, Consolidate, Catch — 82 Fish

September 3rd, 2024September 3rd, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Friday morning, I fished with a very nice young couple, Jesse Wright and Layne Marr. She’s a farm girl from Canada, and he’s a city kid from L.A. who made good via the military where, after leaving the U.S. Air Force as an enlisted man doing aircraft maintenance, he transitioned to the U.S. Army as a warrant officer in the Field Artillery branch.

DATE: Friday, 30 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 4, 5, 10-12 Sep.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jesse and Layne executed three tactics very well and very consistently, and put together an 82-fish morning catch on Lake Belton. The number of quality fish was enhanced this morning thanks to grey cloud cover extending the low-light period.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! Jesse landed these three white bass simultaneously on a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons. Downrigging served us well from about 7:15 to 8:30A as fish were active, but were also scattered and moving fast.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We got a reprieve on the long string of bright, calm sky conditions today as clouds moved in from the east early, giving near 100% coverage with a thin grey cloud deck. This extended the low-light time period during which we’ve been catching our quality fish from about 90 minutes to right at 120 minutes this morning.

We began the morning casting MAL Originals with chartreuse tails up shallow for fish in under 15′ and did well for about 15 minutes until the ambient light reached a certain level and drove these fish deeper and caused some scattering.

We pursued these fish using downriggers equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs armed with #13 Pet Spoons. The downrigger bite lasted until 8:30A and provided continuous action.

After this, we used sonar to search for concentrations of shad with gamefish mixed in, Spot-Locked atop these fish and worked MAL Originals vertically, aided by Garmin LiveScope. This produced well for quality fish until around 9A. The splasher was invaluable in drawing these fish to us and keeping them beneath us.

Around 9A, the now 2.5-hour long bite which had been very productive, began to wane. From this point forward, most of the fish we found were on the small side. We found them with sonar, consolidated them with the splasher, and caught them with the MAL Mini worked vertically

Remember, with these MAL Minis, if you don’t feel the blade spinning as you work it upwards, bend the shaft a bit at a time until it begins to “kick in”. It is also helpful to start the smoking retrieve with the rod tip pointed downward toward the water, then, SIMULTANEOUSLY lift the rod sharply to the point where it parallel to the water’s AND begin turning the reel’s handle. Done correctly, you’ll feel the spinner causing vibration, and you’ll see your rod tip get loaded by the resistance caused by the blade.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with #12 & #13 Pet Spoons. We smoked and sawtoothed with MAL Originals for heavily schooled and fairly stationary fish. We smoked MAL Minis in the latter half of the trip suspended fish drawn in by the splasher. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 82 fish caught and released, including 3 largemouth bass, 1 blue catfish, and 78 white bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Literally, just seconds of topwater action observed over about a 2 acre area around 10AM

2) Best quality fish came in the first 120 minutes; mainly smaller fish thereafter – the quality fish window ran longer today thanks to grey skies extending the low-light period.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:25 AM on Monday, August 26 …

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.9F

15 feet 87.9F

20 feet 87.9F

25 feet 87.9F

30 feet 87.2F

35 feet 85.6F

40 feet 84.2F

45 feet 83.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.72′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 87.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE3-4

Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud coverage all morning helping to extend the low-light period and lengthen this morning’s bite for quality fish.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 19% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1431 – sawtoothing MAL Originals, then downrigging #12 Pets for 47 fish by 8:30

Area B0273G — smoking MAL Originals for 16 fish by 9A

Area vic 1077 to 1362 – smoking MAL Minis for a final 19 fish

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Wednesday’s Scouting Paid Off on Thursday — 84 Fish

September 2nd, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: Earlier this week I took an evening scouting trip on Lake Belton accompanied by my brother, Andy. I’d not fished an evening trip in over 10 days, and wanted to be sure I knew right where to take my young clients, Jackson (9) and Maverick (6) Pursell, accompanied by their dad, Steve. This evening, that scouting paid off as Steve helped me help his boys be successful as they caught fish using a variety of tactics right where Andy and I had found them the evening before.

DATE: Thursday, 29 August 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 3-5, and 10-12 Sep.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jackson, Maverick, and Steve Pursell with a sampling of the evening’s catch of white bass taken in the last 3.5 hours of light on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We began fishing downriggers equipped with #12 Pet Spoons just above the visible “band of life” down around 30′. This band shows clearly on sonar and is a concentration of life just above the level at which dissolved oxygen levels are too low to support fish life.

We put 30 fish in the boat, including singles, doubles, and triples. As has been the case all summer this year, these fish caught outside the “low light window” which exists from about 90 minutes prior to dark right up until dark, were mostly small fish.

We moved on around 5:30P and began looking for larger fish using the bottom in under 30 feet of water. Based on the prior evening’s scouting, we essentially drove right to these fish and proceeded to catch them consistently right until about 7:50. As the sun dropped into a cloud bank in the west, it got a bit too dark for the downriggers to be effective any longer, so, after finding a sizeable school of fish in about 24′ on bottom, we Spot-Locked on them and smoked MAL Originals to catch them.

Once it got too dark for the fish to feed any longer in that depth, we moved even shallower and fancast MAL Originals for our final few fish.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with #12 & #13 Pet Spoons. We smoked and sawtoothed with MAL Originals for heavily schooled and fairly stationary fish. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 84 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) No topwater action observed.

2) Best quality fish came in the last 75 minutes; mainly smaller fish before that.

3) Spotted the first flock of migratory teal of the fall on Lake Belton in the morning

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:25 AM on Monday, August 26 …

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.9F

15 feet 87.9F

20 feet 87.9F

25 feet 87.9F

30 feet 87.2F

35 feet 85.6F

40 feet 84.2F

45 feet 83.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 4:45P

End Time: 8:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 92F

Elevation: 0.68′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 87.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE12

Sky Condition: 35% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 19% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1604 to 1404 – downrigging for mainly short fish

Area 1924 to 812 – downrigging for quality fish

Area vic B0197C – smoking MAL Originals

Area 1781 – sawtoothing MAL Originals

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

A Very Consistent Summer Pattern – 72 Fish

September 1st, 2024September 1st, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Thursday morning, I fished with Mostafa K., a single young man in his late twenties working as an accountant for a construction firm in the DFW area. Since he is able to work remotely for a portion of his workweek, he took Thursday off, headed south to visit his family in the Austin area, and came out with me on this Thursday morning before putting in a few more hours on Friday. Mostafa has fished with me several times before.

DATE: Thursday, 29 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 10-12 Sep.

PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Original did a great job imitating the size, shape, and color of the mature threadfin shad the quality fish we found in the early part of this morning’s trip were feeding on. The shad in the photo was regurgitated by one of the white bass my client landed.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Since our Central Texas lakes reopened in early July and after the USACE stopped running water through the dam, the fishing has become very consistent. Essentially, a fairly shallow bite for quality fish is taking place from first light and until the sun has been shining directly on the water for about 20 minutes (a total of about 80 minutes of fishing time), after which, fish move deep, scatter, and suspend. Once this dispersal takes place, the majority of my catch then is made up of small fish, most sub-legal, and the catch rate drops off.

This morning was no exception. We found fish via downrigging, caught them well and, on occasion, stopped to fish vertically or horizontally as the downrigging took us over larger concentrations of fish and/or side imaging revealed larger concentrations of fish to the port or starboard. This fishing took place from about 6:45A to about 8:00A and then quickly ended as the sun’s direct rays began to brighten the water and warm the air.

From this point on, we searched for white bass and shad with all forms of sonar, Spot-Locked atop the fish we found, used the splasher to draw them in and keep them near, and worked MAL Minis very quickly upwards off bottom with a smoking tactic to catch the rest of our fish.

Remember, with these MAL Minis, if you don’t feel the blade spinning as you work it upwards, bend the shaft a bit at a time until it begins to “kick in”.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 72 fish caught and released, including 3 freshwater drum, and 69 white bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) No topwater action observed.

2) Best quality fish came in the first 80 minutes; mainly smaller fish thereafter.

3) Spotted the first flock of migratory teal of the fall on Lake Belton

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:25 AM on Monday, August 26 …

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.9F

15 feet 87.9F

20 feet 87.9F

25 feet 87.9F

30 feet 87.2F

35 feet 85.6F

40 feet 84.2F

45 feet 83.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.68′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 87.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE4

Sky Condition: 35% white cloud cover increasing to 75% and going gray in advance of rain coming in after dark.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 19% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0171C – downrigging #12 Pets, then sawtoothing/smoking for large groups we came upon

Area B0061C — smoking MAL Minis

Area vic 1077 – smoking MAL Minis

Area vic 565 – smoking MAL Minis

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

Scouts Out! — 70 Fish

August 30th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On the evening of Aug. 27, I invited my brother, Andy Maindelle and his wife, Amy, to accompany me on a scouting trip on Lake Belton. I’d not fished an evening trip since Aug. 14 before my California rockfishing trip, and didn’t want to take clients out and spend time looking for fish the following evening. So, we went scouting together for just 2 hours, leading up to dark.

DATE: Tuesday, 27 August 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 10-12 Sep.

PHOTO CAPTION: My brother, Andy Maindelle, joined me for a scouting trip as I nailed down a few evening locations for white bass for an evening trip with clients the next day.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Amy decided to read an e-book while on the water, so, it was up to Andy and I to do the catching. We started off downrigging over open water and found fish at ~16-24′ deep over a ~30′ bottom. We caught fish steadily on #12 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs, but they were small fish.

By 6:30, I moved and searched for fish primarily with side-imaging over a 24-32′ bottom with ‘riggers set at 14-19’. Suspecting larger fish would be present, I changed us over to #13 Pets. Side-imaging revealed solid returns indicting plenty of fish present, but, they were in small (~20-30 fish) schools and were really moving, chasing after 1 1/8″ shad.

We caught fish steadily, and they were all legal. As the light level reduced rapidly with the sun going behind cloud cover in the western sky, some solid topwater action broke out over a 34′ bottom about 100 yards further offshore than we were downrigging.

We hopped up on the front casting deck and positioned upwind of these fish as best we could so as not to chase them with the trolling motor, and sight-cast MAL Minis to the pods of fish as the boiled.

This lasted about 25 minutes, afterwhich we did another short stint of downrigging, followed by some vertical work smoking MAL Originals. As the sun set we headed up shallower and fancast MAL Originals using a sawtooth retrieve to finish out the trip.

In all, we caught and released exactly 70 fish, including 69 white bass and 1 smallmouth bass. I was now confident of where to go and when to go there with my clients scheduled for the following evening.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with #12 & #13 Pet Spoons. We sight-cast to surface feeders with MAL Minis. We smoked MAL Originals for heavily schooled and fairly stationary fish in about 22′. We sawtoothed with MAL Originals for shallow fish at dark. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released, including 1smallmouth bass, and 69 white bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) About 25 min. of topwater action despite light whitecapping due to a SE12 wind.

2) Best quality fish came in the last 90 minutes; mainly smaller fish in the first 30 minutes.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:25 AM on Monday, August 26 …

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.9F

15 feet 87.9F

20 feet 87.9F

25 feet 87.9F

30 feet 87.2F

35 feet 85.6F

40 feet 84.2F

45 feet 83.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15P

End Time: 8:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 94F

Elevation: 0.64′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE12

Sky Condition: 35% white cloud cover increasing to 75% and going gray in advance of rain coming in after dark.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 38% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1922 thru 1802 — 22 fish downrigging #12 Pets

Area B0155C thru 1933 — 32 fish via downrigging leading to sightcasting for topwater fish

Area vic 1933 – 6 fish smoking MAL Originals w/ LiveScop

Area vic 018 – 10 fish sawtoothing MAL Originals up shallow at dark

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

Trading Places — 147 Fish

August 26th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning I welcomed aboard Amanda Adams and her sons, Carsen (16) and Carter (14) from Eugene, Oregon, which is in the southwestern part of the state. Amanda’s brother-in-law, T.J. Yagalla, a client of mine, scheduled the trip for her. As his text came in, my wife and I were actually in Eugene wrapping up a week’s vacation taking in the giant Northern California coastal redwood trees and doing some rockfish fishing off the coast near Crescent City, CA. Having experienced both places now, I’d much rather be in Oregon in August!!

DATE: Monday, 26 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 28 Aug. (AM), 10-12 Sep.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Amanda, Carsen, and Carter Adams with a few of the 147 fish they caught using a variety of tactics and baits on this late August morning fishing trip on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: While “triples” (catching three fish at a time using a 3-armed umbrella rig) do happen while downrigging in the summer months, this crew landed five sets of triples today!!

PHOTO CAPTION: Carsen landed our single largest fish of the trip. This smallmouth buffalo hit his MAL Mini inline spinner as he was working it vertically through a school of white bass. It weighed 10.50 pounds on a certified scale.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We began the morning downrigging under low-light conditions. Fish were fairly active by 6:50A, then continued to feed more and more enthusiastically until about 25 minutes after the sun began to shine directly on the water. During this time we used #12 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs to catch mature white bass in under 20 feet of water. Fish were quite willing to come as much as 7-8 feet off bottom to chase these lures.

During this low-light period, we encountered one instance with several hundred fish showing out to starboard, so, I stopped the downrigging, Spot-Locked, and got everyone quickly tossing MAL Originals with chartreuse tails to those fish, and retrieving with a sawtooth method. This quickly added 11 fish to our count before these fish dissipated.

We returned to downrigging until the fish moved deeper than 20 feet and no longer showed an interest in rising off bottom, nor in chasing lures enthusiastically. The sun had now been shining on the water for about a half-hour.

At this point, I used side-imaging and down-imaging to find less active fish grouped together on bottom. Once found, I Spot-Locked on them and, with the help of Garmin LiveScope had everyone use MAL Minis with a vertical smoking tactic to tease these fish into chasing these baits upwards. The splasher was invaluable for drawing fish in from the surrounding area.

The rest of the morning was spent finding fish, Spot-Locking atop them, and working MAL Minis vertically while being aided by both LiveScope and the splasher.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged as long as we were finding fish on clean bottoms with #12 Pet Spoons, stopped once to then “smoked” MAL Minis and Originals for the latter portion of the trip, once the fish got lazy and pushed lower in the water column. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 147 fish caught and released, including 3 drum, 1 largemouth bass, and a 60/40 mix of 143 short and keeper white bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Only brief (lasting just seconds) topwater action observed, primarily just prior to sunrise.

2) Best quality fish came in the first 80 minutes; mainly smaller fish after ~8:30A.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:25 AM on Monday, August 26 …

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.9F

15 feet 87.9F

20 feet 87.9F

25 feet 87.9F

30 feet 87.2F

35 feet 85.6F

40 feet 84.2F

45 feet 83.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 0.60′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable all morning

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover on a light blue sky at start, increasing to 40% by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 49% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 2037 to 165 to B0293G – 62 fish on downriggers & Pets, with one stop for sawtoothing w/ MALs

Area vic 2037 – 16 fish on smoked MAL Minis

Area vic 565- 22 fish on smoked MAL Minis

Area vic B0290G – 12 fish on smoked MAL Minis

Area vic 826 – 35 fish on smoked MAL Minis

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

That School Bell Has Yet to Ring in Cairo — 101 Fish

August 16th, 2024August 16th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This Friday morning I fished with returning guests — the grandfather-grandson team of Charles Simmons and Caden Kimpel. Charles resides in Salado, and Caden, whose dad works in the international petroleum industry, currently resides in Cairo, Egypt. He won’t start school until early September, so, we got to enjoy a very uncrowded Lake Belton this morning.

DATE: Friday, 16 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 26-30Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Nine-year-old Caden Kimpel and his grandfather, Charles Simmons, landed 101 fish on an unbusy Lake Belton using a combination of tactics between first light and 10:30AM.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! Caden landed these three “keeper” white bass simultaneously on his 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with #12 Pet Spoons which did a great job imitating the smallest shad in the system right now.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was pretty straightforward this morning. With high pressure firmly in control of the weather, a light southerly breeze, and no boat traffic, the fish were ready to feed come first light, and stayed feeding for just shy of four hours.

We started the morning downrigging just to have baits in the water as I covered water with sonar to search for fishable concentrations of fish. After finding fish, we quickly discovered they much preferred a horizontal presentation to a vertical one, so, we kept right on downrigging as long as the fish cooperated. This accounted for 44 fish coming in as singles, doubles, and triples, all on #12 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs.

Once this area quieted down, I found our next batch of fish in some timber, so, we smoked and cast MAL Originals through “lanes” in the timber working them sawtooth-style, as downrigging was not an option. There was a bit of a learning curve to this, but, Charles and Caden added 8 more fish to the count before these fish lost interest.

By now, it was hot and bright and outside the “low-light” window which has produced quality fish both AM and PM. We mostly smallish fish from this point forward, but, they were quite cooperative, responded well to the splasher, and provided lots of action. These fish were taken by smoking MAL Minis vertically using Garmin LiveScope to gauge fish response. Bending the shaft about 15-20 degrees on these tiny spinners which imitate young-of-the-year shad is a great “tackle tip” if they don’t spin easily out of the package.

The trick on the “smoking” tactic in the summer, regardless of which MAL you choose, is getting the spinner going as close to the bottom as possible, and keeping the retrieve speed down thereafter. Hence, I use 5.2:1 gear ratio reels for my clients.

Here is a tutorial on smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged as long as we were finding fish on clean bottoms with #12 Pet Spoons, then “smoked” MAL Minis and Originals for the latter portion of the trip, once the fish got lazy and pushed lower in the water column. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released, including 5 drum, 1 largemouth bass, and a 60/40 mix of short and keeper white bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) No topwater action observed.

2) Mainly undersized fish after ~8:30A.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6 AM on Friday, August 16 …

0 feet 88.2F

5 feet 88.6F

10 feet 88.8F

15 feet 88.8F

20 feet 88.5F

25 feet 87.9F

30 feet 86.7F

35 feet 85.5F

40 feet 84.8F

45 feet 83.8F

50 feet 82.1F

55 feet 80.5F

60 feet 79.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 0.24′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S8 all morning

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

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 86% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1126 thru B0170C – 44 fish on downriggers

Area B0170C – 8 white bass on sawtoothed & smoked MAL Original

Area vic 565 – 49 fish on smoked MAL Minis

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

Cherry Pickin’ with Cowboys — 105 Fish

August 15th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Wednesday evening I fished with returning guest Dustin Marsh, a large animal veterinarian based in the Bryan/College Station area who specializes in dairy herd care. Coming with Dustin for the first time aboard my boat was James Becker who makes a living doing all things cattle, including international export.

Based on my observations over the past few weeks, I knew fishing for quality fish was not going to really kick in until after 6:30, so, we met up and “cherry picked” fished in just the final two hours before dark.

DATE: Wednesday, 14 August 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 15 & 26-30Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: James Becker and Dustin Marsh with a few of the 105 fish they picked off using Garmin LiveScope and MAL Originals “smoked” vertically on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: With just two hours to make it happen, I went with a “high percentage” option as far as fish location was concerned, and that turned out well. We essentially drove right to the fish, Spot-Locked atop of them in ~26 feet of water and landed 63 until the dimming light pushed the fish shallower. We bumped up into 20′, Spot-Locked again, and finished out the trip on this second anchorage, taking our tally up to 105 fish, all caught and released. The only tactic necessary was “smoking” vertically with the MAL Original. This was certainly enhanced by Garmin LiveScope, but that technology was only icing on the cake.

Here is a tutorial on smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We “smoked” MAL Originals vertically for the entire evening to wear out the keeper white bass. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released, including 2 drum, 1 largemouth bass, 5 short white bass, and 97 legal white bass with several exceeding 14″.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) As we hit 8:10P and the fish began to slow down, we found that targeting the highest fish in the water column from any given school outproduced just randomly reeling up through a school of fish.

2) Nothing but undersized fish at several areas through 7P, then quality fish thereafter; this is just the opposite of what I’m seeing in the mornings.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 5:50 AM on Friday, August 9 …

0 feet 87.6F

5 feet 88.2F

10 feet 88.5F

15 feet 87.2F

20 feet 86.2F

25 feet 85.6F

30 feet 85.3F

35 feet 85.0F

40 feet 84.5F

45 feet 83.7F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 80.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35P

End Time: 8:35P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 100F

Elevation: 0.2′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S10 all evening

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover on a slightly hazy blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 68% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 164 – 63 fish on smoked MAL Originals

Area vic 2037 – 42 fish on smoked MAL Originals

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com