Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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WIND & CLOUDS KEPT ‘EM BITING — 182 FISH

November 3rd, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, November 3rd, I fished with returning guests Gary Jones, Pat Mullins, Harry Adams, and Guy Fowler. Joining me for the first time on this trip was Mac Purifoy.

Gary, Pat, Harry, and Guy originally came out with me in May of 2021 after Gary was high bidder on a gift certificate I had donated to the Ralph Wilson Youth Club fundraiser.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Gary Jones, Pat Mullins, Mac Purifoy, Harry Adams, and Guy Fowler enjoyed a morning of fishing (and poking fun at one another!) on Lake Belton in pursuit of white bass.

PHOTO CAPTION: Although I am specifically targeting white bass at this time of year, other species are often caught as we use shad-imitating lures. On this trip, we landed 7 hybrid striped bass, 3 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth bass (caught by Harry Adams, above), and 4 freshwater drum.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 02 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Overnight cloud cover and SE winds brought warmer, more humid conditions this morning, with a 70F, pre-sunrise air temperature. Mist fell intermittently over the first two hours of the trip.

The grey skies and balmy winds kept the fish biting throughout the morning, although there was a bit of a slowdown between 10:15 and 11:00A when a short break in the clouds brought some brightening and a decrease in wind speed.

By noon, we had landed exactly the same number of fish we’d landed yesterday by that time — 182 fish. I gave everyone the option of sticking it out until we’d boated 200 fish, but at least one of the fellows had an appointment which beckoned, so we wrapped up right at the 4-hour mark.

Fishing MAL Original Lures with white tails was a sure bet once again today. Fish are definitely moving onto bottom topographies in great numbers with each passing day as the cooling of the water column (via the process of turnover) continues. Just about everywhere I searched held at least a few fish this morning.

Using the MAL Original with a smoking tactic was all that was required. At our first stop, I tried to identify any shortfalls in technique which anyone had, help overcome them, and, from that point on it was all gravy.

My 5-man crew landed 167 white bass, 7 hybrid striped bass, 3 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth bass, and 4 freshwater drum.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 182 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) a 40cfs flow resumed today, 2) no helpful bird action, 3) here is the temperature profile I measured this morning:

0 feet 69.2F
5 feet 69.2F
10 feet 69.1F
15 feet 69.1F
20 feet 69.1F
25 feet 69.1F
30 feet 69.1F
35 feet 69.0F
40 feet 69.0F

45 feet 68.6F
50 feet 68.2F
55 feet 67.9F
60 feet 67.2F
65 feet 63.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:50A

End Time: 12:05P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 13.24 feet low, 0.04′ fall in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 69.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12 for all except a 45-minute span from 10:15 to 11A when the winds dropped to SSE8.

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover for all except a 45-minute span from 10:15 to 11A when the skies cleared to 60% white clouds on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 74% illumination.

GT = 340

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0078C (55 fish), 1152 (30 fish), B0005C (25 fish), B0165G (30 fish), B0164G (24 fish), 1374/835 (18 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

FIRST 200 FISH TRIP SINCE THE SPRING

November 2nd, 2022November 2nd, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, November 2^nd, I fished with returning guests Dr. Jim Wood and Sky Sparks on Lake Belton in pursuit of white bass.

This trip came together at the last minute when the gentleman due to fish with me called in sick. I posted the opening on Facebook just after noon yesterday and, 20 minutes later, Jim called and booked the trip.

This was our first 200 fish trip since the spring.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Dr. Jim Wood and Sky Sparks with a handful of the 200 fish they landed on a nearly-deserted Lake Belton which started out cool and damp under fog.

PHOTO CAPTION: Sky landed our largest fish of the morning — a 3.5 pound hybrid striper which took the same MAL Original with white tail which all other fish were taken on this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 02 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

I was a bit concerned this morning as we got going due to a pretty persistent fog over the lake; foggy conditions often lead to slow fishing, but, foggy conditions are often accompanied by calm conditions, and that was not the case this morning. A nice, 8mph SE wind was blowing before sunrise and kept blowing right up until we finished up just after noon.

The fishing this morning was as simple as shampoo, rinse, repeat. I found the fish, parked over top of them, had Jim and Sky drop MAL Originals with white tails down and crank them back up through the fish. The fish were fired up and took care of the rest.

We enjoyed the fastest action in the first hour, but the entire morning was very productive. No helpful bird action quite yet, in fact, I spotted only one ringbilled gull all morning.

At 11:55A, our count had climbed to 182 fish. I told the fellows that we’d give it until 12:15 or 200 fish, whichever came first. Well, those two events coincided and, with the bite then really slowing down thanks to calming winds and brightening conditions, we called it a good trip right then.

We stopped fishing when the 200th fish came over the gunwale. Of those, 16 were hybrid striped bass, 4 were freshwater drum, 2 were largemouth bass, and the remaining 178 fish were white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 200 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Lake Belton is now dropping slowly once again at a rate of about 0.03 feet per day (that’s 1 foot every 33 days) after a small bump from recent rains. Fortunately, the dam has been shut, so there is no loss other than from pumping and evaporation now. No bird action.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:50A

End Time: 12:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Elevation: 13.22 feet low, 0.04′ fall in last 24 hours, 0 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 67.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 right up until ~11:45 when rapid clearing and warming took place, accompanied by calming winds

Sky Condition: 100% foggy for ~2 hours, then slowly clearing to 100% grey cloud cover until ~11:45A, then rapidly warming and clearing to ~25% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 64% illumination.

GT = 85

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0078C (78 fish), vic B0081C (39 fish), 300/B0158G (23 fish), B0164G (60 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

LIKE DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN — 124 FISH

November 1st, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, November 1st, I fished with a 4-man crew of returning guests, hosted by David Vahrenkamp from Target Solutions. Joining him were father-and-son team AJ and Jackie Shiller of Killeen, and Jerry Worley from the Worley Insurance Agency in Harker Heights.

David has been hard at work in Florida assisting in hurricane recovery efforts as part of his job, and wanted to spend some time decompressing in the outdoors before picking up where he left off now that he has returned to Texas.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: AJ Shiller, David Vahrenkamp, Jackie Shiller, and Jerry Worley with a few of the 124 Lake Belton white bass they landed on MAL Original Lures with white tails during a moderately-paced morning bite.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 01 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

This morning’s fishing was remarkably similar to yesterday’s in that as long as the wind blew, we caught fish. We had a nice westerly breeze for the first two hours this morning and, during that time, caught fish at a fast clip.

Around 10A, the light cloud cover cleared, the wind died to nearly calm, and the atmosphere quickly heated up. From this time until a light breeze resumed around 11A, we picked up just a handful of fish here and there.

Once that light breeze resumed around 11A, the fishing picked back up and allowed us a steady pick of fish for the next hour, adding 42 final fish to our count

100% of our fish were taken fishing MAL Originals with white tails vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. Fortunately, all four anglers had fished with me using this tactic and this bait previously, so, after a bit of a review, there really was no learning curve and everyone got right down to catching.

In all, we landed 124 fish, including 6 hybrid striped bass, 4 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth bass, and 113 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 124 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:50A

End Time: 12:00 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Elevation: 13.18 feet low, 0.03′ fall in last 24 hours, 0 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 67.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: WSW6 at sunrise and until ~10A, then calm for about an hour, then starting back out of the WSW at 2-3 for our final hour on the water.

Sky Condition: ~30% white cloud coverage for the first 2 hours, then clearing to <10% coverage

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 53% illumination.

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0159G (47 fish), B0078C/B0081C (20 fish), Area vic 512 (the majority of 33 fish), and B0163G (24 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

HAVE WIND, WILL CATCH — 105 FISH

October 31st, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, October 31st, I fished with first-time guests Rob Patterson and Dennis Armstrong from the Round Rock area where the men are neighbors.

Rob retired out of law enforcement and Dennis is a U.S. Navy veteran who worked in fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft maintenance.

When I asked Rob and Dennis whereabouts they lived, they mentioned exiting I-35 at the Westinghouse exit. I told them that was a dangerous exit for fishermen, as it is the “gateway to Bass Pro Shops” for those traveling in from the north!

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Rob Patterson captured our largest fish of the trip today. This 19.50″, 3.50 pound hybrid striped bass struck his MAL Original with white tail while he fished it vertically using a smoking tactic in about 40 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rob Patterson and Dennis Armstrong worked MAL Original Lures vertically all morning for a 105 fish catch.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 31 October 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We are into that stretch of autumn fishing now wherein if you can safely get on the water, you’ll likely make a good catch. As the water temperature falls out of the 70’s and down through the 60’s this time of year, the fishing becomes very productive, right up until we hit that 58F mark, at which time things begin to slow down a bit.

As long as the wind blew today, we caught fish. As we got going, the remnants of our last cold front (from last Thursday) blew itself out around 9:50. We experienced about an hour-long period of calm, then the winds went southerly once again. We landed 63 fish before the calm, next to no fish during the calm, and a final 42 fish once the wind began blowing again from the south.

Most all of our fish were taken fishing MAL Originals with white tails vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope, save for a few fish taken by downrigging and with a sawtooth retrieve during short bouts where I demonstrated these tactics as Rob and Dennis followed along, mainly so they’d have a bit of experience whenever conditions were more conducive to those tactics.

In all, we landed 105 fish, including 4 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 99 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Lake Belton is now dropping slowly once again after a small bump from recent rains. Fortunately, the dam has been shut, so there is no loss other than from pumping and evaporation now.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 12:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Elevation: 13.15 feet low, 0.03′ fall in last 24 hours, 0 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 67.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW5 at sunrise and until ~9:50A, then calm for about an hour, then starting out of the SSW3-4 for about an hour before dying back to near calm. The NWS pretty much nailed it today!

Sky Condition: ~40% white cloud coverage for the first three hours, then clearing to <10% coverage

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 41% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas vic 1291 (38 fish), vic 1291 (25 fish), vic 346 (19 fish), B0102G (23 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

A RACCOON IN THE BOAT!!! — 75 FISH

October 30th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: What a morning! I had a completely full boat today. I’m Coast Guard rated for 8 and had seven passengers plus me aboard this morning at 7:45A. Mr. Don Bousquet, owner of the Ragin’ Cajun boat/RV storage area just uphill from Temple Lake Park on West Adams Ave., ramrodded the whole deal, setting up the trip for his son-in-law (Guy Slimp), brother-in-law (Larry Miller), and the five kids which accompanied them – Hudson Slimp (13), Luke Carlson (12), Cameron Miller (10), Townes Slimp (6), and Calvin Slimp (4).

Essentially, the four older boys did the fishing, while Guy helped Calvin until Calvin discovered the livewell and focused on the captive fish in there the remainder of the trip, at which time Guy then covered down on Townes to try to help him out. Larry was the photographer/videographer and snack passer-outer.

Well, after passing out nearly all of the glazed donuts and all of the cream-filled donuts (~ 2 dozen of them in roughly the first 70 minutes), the large white donut box lay ignored on the floor of the boat. As we motored to another fishing area, said white box blew out of the boat and landed in Lake Belton. After executing a U-turn, said box was retrieved with my landing net, along with a few soggy donuts and donut remnants. Now, fast forward to around 11AM … while everyone, except 4-year-old Calvin, is engaged in the fishing in the stern of the boat, Guy (Calvin’s dad) asks, “Hey, where’s Calvin?” Guy and I look toward the bow of the boat and spot Calvin, curled up against the forward bulkhead like a little raccoon with his paws clawing through the soggy donuts for a little pre-lunch appetizer!! Guy and I looked at each other and just shook our heads

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Here’s the crew (and a few fish, too!) … from left, back row: Guy Slimp, Luke Carlson, Hudson Slimp, and Larry Miller; from left, front row: Calvin (The Raccoon) & Towne Slimp, & Cameron Miller

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 29 October 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We were fishing in the aftermath of a cold front’s passage which moved through the day before from about 9A to noon, so, by the time we hit the water, the fish were already getting in that post-frontal funk, but, we moved a good bit, caught the most aggressive fish from the schools we located, and then moved on and continued to do likewise in order to piece together a decent trip.

When all was said and done, we wound up fishing six distinct areas and, at most of them we wound up making a “short hop” or two from our original stop location in order to go to fish seen on side-imaging, knowing that due to the weather situation those fish were unlikely to move toward us.

We used MAL Original Lures with white tails the entire morning save for one short bout of downrigging when I spotted a few fish up shallow (20-24′) which were scattered horizontally on a fairly flat area. Everyone used the “smoking” tactic with spinning gear in combination with Garmin LiveScope to make our catch.

By the time we needed to wrap up so the crew could grab a quick lunch and head south to a flag-football game, my boatload of eager anglers had landed 75 fish, including 2 largemouth bass, 3 hybrid stripers, 3 freshwater drum, and 67 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 75 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Lake Belton was still rising slightly (0.06′ overnight) from rains we got on Monday and Friday. Level is 13.08′ low. Additionally, USACE has stopped all flow through the dam.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Elevation: 13.08 feet low, 0.06′ rise in last 24 hours, 0 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 70.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW15 at sunrise slowly increasing to NW17 by trip’s end. This was an atypical cold front in that after the front passed, a low pressure system moved in behind it, thus, we had a prolonged period of rain and an even longer spell of cloud cover. The winds stayed more westerly, and the temperature did not drop sharply as with a dry cold front.

Sky Condition: Light grey skies with 100% cloud coverage for the entire trip.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 20% illumination.

GT = 245

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 387, B0173C, vic 1945, 1012, 150/1325, vic 1482

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 AFTERNOON WAS EVEN BETTER – 119 FISH

October 28th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Thursday afternoon, 27 Oct., I welcomed first-time guests Richard Schneider and his wife, Linda, aboard.

Richard had ordered some MAL Lures from me in the past, and then this past weekend I had an occasion to assist him in getting his pontoon boat launched on a particularly windy day.

He contacted me, a bit unexpectedly, around 5:30A Thursday morning asking if my afternoon trip was still available. I explained that mornings tend to produce better, but, the afternoon worked best for the couple’s schedules, so we met up at 2:45P and went fishing!

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: In addition to the target species of white bass, we always seem to pick up a few “bycatch” fish, as well. Today, we landed 2 largemouth, 3 hybrid stripers, and 4 freshwater drum, like the one Richard is holding.

PHOTO CAPTION: Prior to today’s trip, Linda had only been fishing 5 times in her life, and had only landed 2 fish. The couple boated 119 in just shy of four hours today.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 27 October 2022 (PM)

HOW WE FISHED:

The Schneiders’ two-angler total actually surpassed that of my morning trip’s total of 106 fish landed, which is more of the exception than the rule. As a rule, evenings tend to produce about 70% of the morning’s catch on days where no significant weather changes occur between AM and PM.

This afternoon’s weather was mild, and, as compared to the morning, we had stronger winds for a longer period, with winds right at SSE14 for the first 2 hours on the water.

After a brief demonstration on how to use the MAL Original Lure with a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope, we were off to hunt and catch fish.

The couple’s lack of experience with use of the MAL Lure actually worked to their advantage. Instead of having to overcome bad habits (like aggressive hooksetting) before they exercised good technique, they went right into good technique and did not pay the price in missed fish as many more experienced anglers do.

The fish cooperated well all afternoon and, just as in the morning, we enjoyed a steady pick of fish from start to finish. We landed our 100^th fish right around 6:10PM with about thirty minutes left until sunset. Sunset came a bit early as the building bank of heavy grey clouds in the west obscured the sun before it actually sunk below the horizon.

By that time, Richard and Linda had landed another 19 fish for a total of 119 fish, including 2 largemouth bass, 3 hybrid stripers, 4 freshwater drum, and 110 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 119 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: I spotted the first flock of gulls of the fall this evening. A V-formation of gulls was headed west over the lake right at sunset. They did not lead to fish, in fact, I don’t even know if they used Lake Belton at all, but, at least it is a start!

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 2:45P

End Time: 6:40P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 13.07 feet low, 0.00′ fall in last 24 hours, 24 CFS flow – the overnight rain from Monday simply prevented any losses, but no gains were made on water level.

Water Surface Temp: 70.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13 at trip’s start, settling back to SSE7 by sunset

Sky Condition: Mild conditions with clear skies until ~5P when grey clouds from the next rain-maker began to from in the western sky.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 5% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1012/155 (17 fish), 1290/1945 (29 fish), B0149C/1152 (36 fish), B0162G (37 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

STEADY WIND, STEADY WEATHER, STEADY BITE — 106 FISH

October 28th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Thursday morning, 27 Oct., I welcomed returning guests Bill York and Gardiner Henderson aboard for a half-day trip on Lake Belton in pursuit of white bass.

The men came out with me once before, accompanied by Gardiner’s wife, and enjoyed some fast springtime action. Both men’s spouses were to join us today, but, when the forecast low for the morning’s start time hit the high 40’s, they changed their minds.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Gardiner Henderson hoists our largest fish of the trip, a 4.25-pound hybrid striped bass taken on the MAL Original with white tail in ~40 feet of water, as Bill York looks on.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Bill York and Gardiner Henderson put 106 fish in the boat (including 99 white bass) as the white bass fed steadily from sunrise to about four hours hence this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 27 October 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Today we saw the first morning with a returning southerly wind following the most recent cold front which blew in Mon. night into Tues. morning.

The SSE wind was rippling the surface before sunrise, and, with no cloud cover to obscure the brightening morning sky, the fish went right to work feeding just a few minutes after sunrise.

We caught fish steadily from start to finish, with the peak of the activity taking place from about 10:00 to 10:40AM. During this time, Garmin LiveScope showed enhanced fish activity which included 1) fish swimming faster as they moved parallel to the bottom, 2) fish suspending up higher off the bottom (as much as halfway up into the water column), and 3) a much higher catch rate as more fish from a given school would chase and overtake our presentations.

All of our fishing was vertical this morning with the MAL Original with white tail doing all the catching while Bill and Gardiner used the “smoking” tactic described in the video link below.

For our efforts, we wound up boating exactly 106 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 2 hybrid striped bass, 4 freshwater drum, and 99 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 106 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird activity yet sighted. The water temperature profile was as follows:

0 feet 69.6F
5 feet 70.0F
10 feet 70.3F
15 feet 70.3F
20 feet 70.3F
25 feet 70.3F
30 feet 70.3F
35 feet 70.3F
40 feet 70.3F
45 feet 70.3F
50 feet 70.3F
55 feet 69.4F
60 feet 64.4F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F

Elevation: 13.07 feet low, 0.00′ fall in last 24 hours, 24 CFS flow – the overnight rain from Monday simply prevented any losses, but no gains were made on water level.

Water Surface Temp: 69.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5 slowly and steadily increasing to SSE12

Sky Condition: Bright, clear, cool, dry conditions

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 5% illumination.

GT = 125

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0159G, B0160G, B0089C/1555, B0161G, B0059G

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

FIRST FISH ON A LURE — 34 FISH POST-FRONTAL

October 26th, 2022October 26th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Tuesday, 25 Oct., I ran an afternoon trip for Rob Gagne, a U.S. Air Force veteran and his friend, Carrie Bryan.

This trip was courtesy of Mr. Frank Dubuisson, who presented Rob with a gift certificate for the trip some time ago.

We had a pretty tough go of it this afternoon as we found ourselves on the wrong side of the cold front which blew in powerfully during the overnight hours. More about that below.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Rob Gagne and Carrie Bryant with a few of the fish they landed on a tough, post-frontal scenario after our most recent cold front moved east more quickly than forecast.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 25 October 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

The weather forecasters all correctly forecast that a cold front would hit Central Texas late Monday and into Tuesday. The details, however, changed by the minute, it seemed. I tried to work the day’s two scheduled trips so we’d be fishing after the violent weather passed, but before the winds died and the actual high pressure built in.

Well, I went 0 for 2 on that. I wound up having to postpone the AM trip as the straightline winds were blowing 20-25 with gusts to 45 — no can do!!

Then, as we got going in the afternoon, those hard morning winds died very quickly and left us with tough fishing as a result.

We found fish here and there and when we did, we encountered a lot of refusals. The only really solid fishing was in our final 45 minutes as the fish went on a pretty good feeding binge just before the sun sunk below the horizon.

Of the 32 fish we landed, all but seven came on the MAL Original with white tail worked vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. I often scale back to this smaller, lighter version of the MAL under tough conditions. Four came on downrigged Pet Spoons, and the remaining three came on the same MAL Original worked horizontally right before that feeding binge kicked in right under the boat.

Carrie had never before caught a fish on an artificial bait — most of her fishing was done with a cane pole using livebait back home in North Carolina. Regardless, she was willing to be coached and did very well as a result.

Of note was the fact that the USACE significantly reduced the flow of water through the dam over the weekend. We dropped from several weeks of releasing 385 cubic feet per second (which caused a ~0.12′ fall each day) to a 34 CFS flow, which drains the lake ~0.03 to 0.04 feet per day.

For our efforts, we wound up boating exactly 32 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 32 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: We dropped from several weeks of releasing 385 cubic feet per second to a 24 CFS flow.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 2:50P

End Time: 6:40P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 71F

Elevation: 13.07 feet low, 0.00′ fall in last 24 hours, 30 CFS flow – the overnight rain simply prevented any losses, but no gains were made on water level

Water Surface Temp: 71.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW15 tapering down steadily to NW6

Sky Condition: Bright, clear, cool, dry conditions

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 1% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT: This is a graphic representation of the cold front’s arrival Mon/Tue…

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1024 to B0174C (downrigged); B0064G – MAL work for majority of our catch

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

MORE RELAXING THAN TIBETAN BOWLS? — 100 FISH

October 24th, 2022October 24th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, 24 Oct., I dodged (most of) the raindrops to get in a full 4-hour trip with my brother, Andy Maindelle, and his recently retired boss of many years, Tony Johnson.

The men’s work at the Blizzard Entertainment offices in Austin brought them together more than a decade ago. Blizzard is the creator of popular video games like World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, StarCraft, and Diablo.

As I got to know Tony a bit better, we spoke of his several months-long decompression process he is now in the midst of after leaving the world of corporate leadership behind. Somewhere in there he shared about his wife providing care and therapy to others, in part relying on Tibetan bowl therapy — something I’d never heard of before.

If the meteorologists were to be believed, we’d all still be sitting indoors waiting for a deluge of rain and high winds, but, as is too often the case, they guessed wrong. We wound up encountering multiple short bouts of light rain and winds which never even resulted in whitecapping.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Andy Maindelle and Tony Johnson with a few of the 100 fish they boated in just under 4 hours’ time on a damp Monday morning in advance of a significant change of weather due in overnight.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 24 October 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

As the days get shorter and the water gets cooler, the fishing is getting simpler and more predictable as the fish continue to bunch together in much greater numbers than we witnessed over the summer.

Fishing was very straightforward today … we simply dropped MAL Original Lures with white tails to the bottom and cranked them straight up through the fish using a “smoking” tactic which I describe in detail in the YouTube video linked below.

Fishing was actually tough in the first 90 minutes due to the dim light level brought on by thick, grey clouds. Once the fish turned on, the activity rose to a peak in the 9:45 to 10:45 timeframe, then began to taper back off. We hit the 100 fish mark at exactly 11:15, but, we put in significantly more effort in catching our final 10 fish than we did in catching the rest of the fish we landed this morning.

For our efforts, we wound up boating exactly 100 fish including 4 freshwater drum, 4 short hybrid striped bass, and 92 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: We dropped from several weeks of releasing 385 cubic feet per second to a 34 CFS flow. We fished on a SSE wind in advance of a forthcoming windshift with a series of two cold fronts following it. The cold front is due in around 10P tonight.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:40A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 13.07 feet low, 0.03′ fall in last 24 hours, 30 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 71.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12 most of the morning

Sky Condition: Heavy grey cloud cover at 100% all morning w/ occasional light rain

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 1% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0157G (15 fish), 678 (8 fish) , B0158G (77 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