Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

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Squeezing Every Last Drop Out of Summer Break — 157 Fish

August 13th, 2024August 13th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On Tuesday morning I fished with returning guest A.J. Shiller, accompanied by his sons, and my first-time guests, Easton (9) and Colson (5). A.J. and I agreed a kids-only package would be just right, hence, our focus was on keeping fish coming over the side of the boat and on variety to keep the kids engaged.

DATE: Tuesday, 13 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Colson (5), A.J., and Easton (9) Shiller on their last “big event” of the summer as the Salado Independent School District kicks off the 2024-2025 academic year tomorrow. The boys landed 157 fish on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: A.J. and I agreed that, given the kids’ ages, keeping the fish coming over the side of the boat was Priority #1. So, if whatever we were doing slowed down, we moved on to the next thing.

We started the morning downrigging successfully under low-light conditions, but quickly transitioned to sight-casting for topwater fish until that ended abruptly at sunrise. We then began downrigging again, but only for a short while, taking our total to 20 fish.

We then moved up shallow into flooded brush and proceeded to wear out the panfish, with the boys landing a variety of 54 fish on bait presented under floats. When that began to taper off, we headed out for yet another adventure.

By this time, the sun had been directly shining on the water for quite some time, thus getting the algae blooming, which, in turn brought shad near the surface, with white bass in hot pursuit. We began downrigging for these fish and landed a single, a double, and a triple, before the action exploded on the surface, thus revealing an area the fish and bait were using heavily. We brought the fish under the boat with the splasher and the boys worked MAL Minis smoked right up off the bottom to add a final 77 fish to the count, most of which were smallish, ending the morning at 157 fish as this late morning bite began to wane.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 Pet Spoons for white bass, we “smoked” MAL Minis & MAL Originals vertically and we sawtoothed with both horizontally. Find three-armed umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 157 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

1) First solid, sustained topwater morning action since Aug. 4 witnessed this morning.

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: 6:30A

End Time: 10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.14′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow. 0.04′ drop over the last 24-hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-9

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover with a noticeable haze

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 59% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 027 thru 813 — 20 fish w/downrigging transitioning to sight-casting, then back to downrigging either side of sunrise

Area B0289G – 54 sunfish in shallow brush on bait under floats

Area Vic 1581 – downrigging transitioning to an excellent vertical smoking bite under the splasher for 83 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

Do You Realize Class Starts in 12 Hours? — 122 Fish

August 13th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This evening I fished with returning guests Wes & Knox Stearns and Rudy & Jaxen Yepez. If those names sound familiar it is because Wes & Knox have been aboard three times now in the past three weeks, and Rudy & Jaxen joined then just last Wednesday evening. Each time, the plan was to get in just one more fishing trip before school. As we returned to the boat ramp after a successful evening, the boys were due to be seated in their classes in under 12 hours’ time!

DATE: Monday, 12 August 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Wes & Knox Stearns and Jaxen and Rudy Yepez on the occasion of the boys’ third and final “back to school” fishing trip. The boys landed 122 fish in about three hours’ time on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: I planned to fish with the boys (only, as this was a Kids Fish, Too! trip just for them) for 3.5 hours. I baited out an area for catfish to provide a bit of variety, suspecting that the white bass fishing wouldn’t really kick in until about 2.5 to 3 hours before dark.

Well, we got one pulldown in 30 minutes on the catfish deal and left it behind.

We then began searching in the 22-28′ range for white bass. We looked over six areas, and found fish at five of them, but, all the fish we found were short fish — 39 consecutive short fish!! The boys took these on MAL Minis worked vertically with a smoking tactic, aided by Garmin LiveScope. I experimented with an MAL Original, but this was too large for these small fish, and, evidently all of the fish in these areas were small.

At just after 7P, we moved again. My intentions were to downrig over a large area while really paying attention to side-imaging to ferret out where fish might be. We did not have to do much ferreting, as we passed directly over what appeared to be sedentary fish. The boys both landed fish out of this school on the downriggers — a single and a triple — and they were all solid fish over 12.5″. I instructed them to leave the downrigger rods in, and we quickly U-turned, Spot-Locked on these fish, and fished them vertically (by smoking) and horizontally (by sawtoothing) with MAL Originals. This one stop gave up exactly 76 legal white bass through about 8:20.

As the sun set and the light failed, the fish moved shallower. We followed them until they finally quit around 8:40, adding a final 7 additional fish to the count for a final tally of 122 fish.

TALLY: 122 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

1) We had a SSE breeze at 8-9 with occasionally higher gusts. This created just enough chop to kill an evening topwater bite — we only saw one school blow up for all of 4 seconds.

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: 5:10P

End Time: 8:40P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 100F

Elevation: 0.09′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 88.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S8 with gusts all evening

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

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 29% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1659 – 8 short whites on smoked MAL Minis

Area 0142 – 7 short whites on smoked MAL Minis

Area 1624 – 6 short whites and 1 drum on smoked MAL Minis

Area B0188C – 3 short whites on smoked MAL Minis

Area B0296C – 15 short whites on smoked MAL Minis

Area vic 165 – 83 white bass – 4 on downriggers, then 79 on smoked/sawtoothed 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

Last Hooks Before They Hit the Books — 117 Fish

August 12th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning I fished with the Lee family for the first time. These folks had the patience of Job trying to get out fishing with me. Cold, windy weather foiled their springtime plans, then lake closure due to flooding forced yet another reschedule. Finally, on this, the last day of the kids’ summer vacation, it all came together for Dianne, Maggie (17), Cam (14), and Caden (11).

DATE: Monday, 12 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Maggie, Caden, Cam, and Dianne Lee with a portion of their 117-fish catch on a 4-hour morning trip on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: 93 of our 117 fish came on this MAL Mini worked straight up off bottom through fish consolidated under the boat by the splasher. It was a dead-ringer for the small shad the white bass were feeding on. Note: If you crank this and the blade doesn’t spin readily, just bend the wire shaft at a slight 10 or 15 degree angle to overcome that. The shaft in this photo has been bent so you can see the bend is very slight. Don’t overdo it!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: There were four “chapters” in this morning’s story. First, we downrigged up shallow under low-light conditions. I didn’t find just a whole lot of fish, but the ones we found were eager to bite. We ended up with seven fish before the sun rose.

Chapter two: we went to an area I baited before sunrise and fished it with prepared baits under slipfloats. We gave it about 35 minutes and had only 1 channel cat caught, and 1 missed strike.

Chapter three: By 8:35, the sun was heating up the surface, algae was blooming, and shad were on the surface feeding, with white bass starting their “popcorn” feeding routine out in open water. I picked an area, downrigged it thoroughly and put another 16 fish in the boat until seeing even better, more consistent popcorn feeding about a half-mile away.

Chapter four: we headed to the vicinity of the topwater action, put the splasher to work, and were able to draw fish up under the boat for quite some time, allowing for a final 93 additional fish to be caught for a morning total of 117 fish landed in 3.75 hours by my 4-angler crew.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 & 13 Pet Spoons for white bass, we “smoked” MAL Minis vertically, and we used prepared baits under floats for catfish. Find three-armed umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 117 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

1) The steady S7 wind made the morning quite bearable. Topwater “popcorn” action began to crop up around 8:30AM and helped me to know where to focus our open water downrigging and vertical fishing efforts.

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: 6:30A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.09′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 87.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S6-8 all morning

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky thru 9:15, then steadily increasing light grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 29% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0279G – downrigging for white bass w/ #12 Pet Spoons under low-light conditions – 7 white bass

Area B0295G – slipfloat fishing w/ prepared baits yielded only 1 channel cat

Area B0030G thru 676 – 15 white bass and 1 largemouth bass downrigging w/ #12 Pet Spoons

Area vic 1081 – smoking MAL Mini Lures for 93 white bass

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 Board Broke!! — 70 Fish

August 11th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Friday morning I wrapped up the week welcoming aboard returning guests Paul Autry and his 9-year-old son, Parker. Joining me for the first time was Paul’s younger son, Nobel (age 7), and the boy’s maternal grandfather, Buck Buchanan. All live in the Round Rock area, north of Austin. This was one of many trips this year where lake closure forced us to reschedule after May/April rains inundated Lake Belton.

DATE: Friday, 09 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Paul, Nobel, and Parker Autry, and the boys’ grandfather, Buck Buchanan with the best of the boys’ catch after 3.5 hours of effort on a hot, dry August morning on Belton Lake.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: With a pair of elementary-aged boys aboard, I planned ahead to offer a variety of tactic for a variety of species in order to keep the trip engaging. We started the morning off downrigging in shallow water under low-light conditions for what would be the best quality white bass of the trip. When that fishing played out as the sun’s direct rays began to strike the water, we headed into shallow cover and invested some time maneuvering in panfish out of the cover they were hiding in as we used floats and live bait to tempt them.

We closed out the trip spending the last 80 minutes downrigging in deeper, open water for white bass. These fish were smaller, but also incredibly abundant, routinely giving up doubles and triples as we precisely trolled 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 Pet Spoons behind downriggers right above schools of fish as they were revealed on down-imaging and on traditional 2-D sonar.

Just as things were beginning to click on this final downrigging effort, and after we’d already eliminated unproductive water and knew just where to concentrate, I had a printed circuit board go bad on one of my two downriggers. Not to worry! We just used the manual clutch to let the baits down to depth and good old elbow grease to haul the weight up by hand from 20-30 feet each time we had that starboard side rod go off. I hadn’t planned on an upper-body work out this morning, but, I got on anyway!

Paul and Buck were excellent mates, getting and keeping the rods rigged and maximizing the time the lures spent in the water, thus accounting for a great result for the boys. They even took the boys’ fish off for me.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 & 13 Pet Spoons for white bass, and we used live bait under floats with telescoping bream rods to fish for panfish up shallow. Find three-armed umbrella rigs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Winds were light from the SSE until around 9:15 when cloud cover began to build in from the E, and the winds went ESE6. This was on the lead edge of a mild front which moved in later in the afternoon bringing some rain to some parts of Bell, Coryell, and Lampasas counties. As the wind shift occurred, a noticeable increase in “popcorn” schooling by white bass pinning shad to the surface occurred.

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: 6:15A

End Time: 10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 0.01′ high and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 87.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable thru 9:15A, then ESE6

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky thru 9:15, then steadily increasing light grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 22% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0113G – downrigging for white bass w/ #12 & #13 Pet Spoons under low-light conditions – 15 white bass

Area 014 – panfishing with bait and floats in shallow cover — 13 fish

Area B0021G thru B0194C – downrigging open water in bright conditions – 42 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

6 Kings, and All Aces for 2 Hours — 57 Fish

August 10th, 2024August 10th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On Thursday evening I welcomed aboard three generations of the King family. This was a “last chance to do something as a family before school starts” kind of trip. Aboard were grandparents David and Michelle King, parents Dustin and Cristina King, and kids Jackson (11) and Catherine (8) King. Everyone had prior fishing experience, and that helped plenty. We only fished the last two hours before dark, from 6:45 to 8:45PM, at my suggestion, as the oppressive heat has limited the evening bite to that time of low-light conditions, and, I was concerned about having kids out in the direct sun in 100+ degree weather.

DATE: Thursday, 08 August 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left in the back row: Cristina, Dustin, Michelle, and David King. Front row: Jackson and Catherine King, each with white bass taken from the hot waters of Lake Belton on this 101F afternoon in August.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: It was pretty straightforward tonight: find fish, downrig for them with the balls set at or as much as 2′ above the tops of the schools of fish we encountered, and catch them. David and Dustin manned the ‘riggers doing the setting and adjusting, while allowing the kids and the ladies to do the catching. It worked great having these men right on the downriggers so we could do a lot of instant “micro-adjustments” to our trolling depth as sonar dictated. This crew landed singles, doubles and triples for a total catch of 57 fish in just 2 hours. These Kings were real aces!!

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 & 13 Pet Spoons for white bass the entire trip. Find three-armed umbrella rigs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 57 white bass caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

1) A short peak or burst of activity came about 10 minutes either side of sunset when fish just seemingly materialized, coming shallow in large numbers, and occupying the entire lower half of the water column.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

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

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 88.1F

10 feet 88.1F

15 feet 86.5F

20 feet 86.1F

25 feet 86.1F

30 feet 85.6F

35 feet 85.1F

40 feet 84.5F

45 feet 83.1F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 81.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45P

End Time: 8:50P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 101F

Elevation: 0.04′ low falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow, resulting in a 0.03′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE7-8

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 15% illumination.

GT = 75

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0186C to B0113G – downrigging for white bass w/ #12 & #13 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

A Lucky Little Lady from Lubbock — 72 Fish

August 9th, 2024August 9th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On Thursday morning I welcomed back Mr. Stephen Simank and his granddaughter, Owen, who is down visiting from Lubbock before the new school year begins. The two came out with me for a summertime fishing trip last summer, and planned to fish with me before August’s heat kicked in, but flooding closed Lake Belton and prevented those original plans. I got to know Steve through his connection with Guns Plus in Georgetown — just an excellent family-owned business for hunting and shooting sports enthusiasts (see https://www.gunsplus.net/)

DATE: Thursday, 08 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Owen landed this beautifully colored Lake Belton smallmouth bass in the opening minutes of our morning trip.

PHOTO CAPTION: Steve Simank and his 8 1/2 year-old granddaughter, Owen, with her best two white bass of the morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: Variety was the key to keeping Owen engaged this morning. We downrigged, then sunfished, then downrigged some more, then sunfished some more, and ended up with a third and final round of downrigging. The mid-morning white bass bite is very reliable with these hot, bright, windless conditions allowing for observation of where great numbers of shad are present.

Downrigging with a pair of ‘riggers, each equipped with three-armed umbrella rigs rigged with #12 Pet Spoons did the best job of imitating the small shad everything seems to be focused on. Doubles and triples were common.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 & 13 Pet Spoons for white bass, and with fished live bait under floats for sunfish. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released, including 1 smallmouth bass, 31 sunfish, and 38 white bass

OBSERVATIONS:

1) “Popcorn” schools of small white bass chasing shad in open water seemed to be here, there, and everywhere, with topwater action peaking between 8:15 and 9:40 as the direct sun brought shad to the surface to feed on blooming algae.

2) These “popcorn” schools are moving so fast there is scarcely a way to get to them, cast, and retrieve before they disappear. Having a rod ready in case they pop up within casting distance is good for an occasional bonus fish.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

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

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 88.1F

10 feet 88.1F

15 feet 86.5F

20 feet 86.1F

25 feet 86.1F

30 feet 85.6F

35 feet 85.1F

40 feet 84.5F

45 feet 83.1F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 81.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 0.04′ low falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow, resulting in a 0.03′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE<5

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 15% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 0154 – downrigging for white bass pre-sunrise, 11 white bass

Area 1791 – 11 sunfish on live bait/slip float

Area 097 to 1015 – 15 white bass downrigging open water with Pet Spoons

Area SHAD 024 – 23 sunfish on live bait/slip float

Area 097 to 1015 – 12 white bass downrigging open water with 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

Gluttons for Pun-fish-ment — 48 Fish

August 8th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On Wednesday evening I welcomed back Wes Stearns and his son, Knox. Accompanying the Stearns were father and son team Rudy and Jaxen Yepez. On this particular trip, only the boys did the catching, while the dads helped by keeping the downriggers rigged to maximize our fishing time.

DATE: Wednesday, 07 August 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Knox Stearns and Jaxen Yepez with some sunset white bass they landed on this evening’s Lake Belton fishing trip — likely their last fishing trip before going back to school next week.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: This turned out to be the hottest day of the year thus far, and, to add insult to injury, we had hardly any wind, so, we really felt that heat soaking in. For this reason, I shaved a half-hour off of my normal 3.5 hour duration for kids-only trips, and we fished from 5:45 to 8:45. We downrigged for all but the final thirty minutes, pickup up singles, doubles, and triples of white bass of all sizes, from 4.5 inches up to 13.5 inches.

Even the small fish showed a preference for the #13 Pet Spoon.

Once side-imaging revealed fish beginning to move shallow in strong numbers right at sunset, we pulled up the ‘riggers, Spot-Locked, and cast MAL Originals with chartreuse tails using the sawtooth method to finish out the trip.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 & 13 Pet Spoons. We fished MAL Originals with a “sawtooth method”. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 48 fish caught and released, including 1 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 46 white bass

OBSERVATIONS:

1) “Popcorn” schools of small white bass chasing shad in open water seemed to be here, there, and everywhere, with topwater action peaking between 8:15 and 9:40.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

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

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 88.1F

10 feet 88.1F

15 feet 86.5F

20 feet 86.1F

25 feet 86.1F

30 feet 85.6F

35 feet 85.1F

40 feet 84.5F

45 feet 83.1F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 81.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 5:45P

End Time: 8:50P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 101F

Elevation: Lake Belton hit normal conservation level today and is falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow, resulting in a 0.01′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE<5

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 9% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1604, 1666 – downrigging for white bass pre-sunset

Area vic 272/165 – downrigging at and after sunset, transitioning to casting MAL Originals as fish moved shallower before quitting

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Fishin’ with the Kids of a Travelin’ Soldier — 74 Fish

August 7th, 2024August 7th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning I conducted the 19th “S.K.I.F.F.” trip of the 2024 season, welcoming aboard Randall and Robert Pierce, the sons of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Randall Pierce and his wife, Gabbie. SSG Pierce, like many soldiers at Ft. Cavazos, has not been home much lately. He just completed field time, is now at gunnery with his tank crew, then heads right out to the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, followed by an Army school for professional development after that.

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: Wednesday, 07 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Randall (9) and Robert (6) Pierce proudly display part of their 74-fish catch before releasing them to fight again. The boys were treated to a free fishing trip during a time of separation from their father, SSG Randall Pierce, who is stationed at Fort Cavazos and has served since 2019.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: The weather was still hot and dry, but, we managed a bit of an easterly breeze this morning which stirred up some “popcorn” schooling action by white bass and gave us some clues as to where to find bait and fish.

The boys landed 15 fish via downrigging under low-light conditions, then “smoked” vertically with MAL Mini lures for 4 more fish before we changed it up and headed up shallow for some panfishing. We closed out the trip with a final round of downrigging. This final effort from about 8:45 to 10 was the most productive, yielding multiple singles, multiple doubles, and multiple triples as we match lure size to bait size with the #12 Pet Spooon.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 & 13 Pet Spoons. We fished MAL Minis vertically with a smoking tactic, and we used live bait under slipfloats for panfish up shallow. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 74 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) “Popcorn” schools of small white bass chasing shad in open water seemed to be here, there, and everywhere, with topwater action peaking between 8:15 and 9:40.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

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

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 88.1F

10 feet 88.1F

15 feet 86.5F

20 feet 86.1F

25 feet 86.1F

30 feet 85.6F

35 feet 85.1F

40 feet 84.5F

45 feet 83.1F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 81.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: Lake Belton hit normal conservation level today and is falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow, resulting in a 0.01′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 87.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: E3 or less all morning

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 9% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1802 – 15 white bass on downrigged #12 & 13 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs

Area vic 296- 2 white bass and 2 freshwater drum smoking MAL Minis in 35′

Area 166 – 27 panfish on bait and slipfloats

Area 1041 through B0030G – 28 white bass on downrigged #12 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs

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

Zach Travelled 2,100 Miles to Catch These White Bass — 50 Fish

August 6th, 2024August 6th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning I fished with first-time guest Al Edwards from the San Antonio area. He chaperoned his grandson, 11-year-old Zach Holbrook, who is visiting for the summer from the “wine country” of Oregon, in the Willamette River valley. This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip, so, only Zach did the fishing.

DATE: Tuesday, 06 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: With the Lake Belton waterfall as a backdrop, I took this photo of Al Edwards and his 11-year-old grandson, Zach Holbrook, with a few of the white bass Zach landed under tough, windless conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: With very hot, dry, high-pressure weather sitting right on top of Central Texas, there was no wind all morning. This typically does not bode well for white bass fishing, and, this morning was no exception. There was a weak low-light bite through around 7:50A, then it got to be like pulling teeth. I began not “feeling the love” early on, so, after we capitalized on the low-light bite via downrigging with Pet Spoons, and then gave smoking MAL Minis a try with little success, I switched Zach over to panfishing in shallow water to keep the fish coming over the side without much time going by between fish.

With 40 fish under his belt by around 9:30, we started heading back the way we came, but, I told him I’d like to try one area to see if we could land a double or a triple (2 or 3 fish landed simultaneously on downrigged 3-armed umbrella rigs). I changed all the baits over to small, #12 Pet Spoons and we go down to business. First fish was a single, next fish was a single, then a triple, then another single, followed by a double and two more singles. Ten fish to round out the morning, all taken in about 20 minutes’ time.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 & 13 Pet Spoons. We fished MAL Minis vertically, and we live bait under slipfloats for panfish up shallow. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Hot, dry, high pressure weather led to windless conditions and tough white bass action today.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

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

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 88.1F

10 feet 88.1F

15 feet 86.5F

20 feet 86.1F

25 feet 86.1F

30 feet 85.6F

35 feet 85.1F

40 feet 84.5F

45 feet 83.1F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 81.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:10A

End Time: 10:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Elevation: 0.04 feet high and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow, resulting in a 0.03′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 87.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm all morning

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 4% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0154C to B0018G – 4 white bass on downrigged #12 & 13 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs

Area B0035G (west fork) – 36 panfish on bait and slipfloats

Area B0021G thru 1579 – 10 white bass on downrigged #12 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs

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