Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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MILITARY KIDS FISH FOR FREE (SKIFF PROGRAM) — 70 FISH @ BELTON

July 12th, 2022July 12th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, July 12th, I conducted the sixth Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip of the 2022 season.

Joining me was Mrs. Serena Flatt and her six-year-old daugther, Sofia.

We also had an unexpected guest this morning — U.S. Army Corporal Travis Flatt! Travis literally just returned from his most recent of two deployments to Iraq during his 5-year military career as a drone operator.

When Serena planned this trip for her daughter, she knew Travis would be reaching the end of his deployment, but, for security’s sake, exact dates are rarely revealed.

Since both Serena and Travis chose to get fishing licenses, they were able to be very “hands-on” and helped me help Sofia be successful.

ABOUT SKIFF: This fishing trip was provided to this military family at no charge. S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. This program began in May of 2009. It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with. S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing. SKIFF trips are also provided, free of charge, to Gold Star families who have lost their service member while he or she was on active duty. In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents are bona fide disabled veterans. I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 to 4 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

My next open date for a free SKIFF trip for qualifying families will be on August 11th.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Serena Flatt, her daughter, Sofia Lumaye, and U.S. Army Corporal Travis Flatt celebrating Travis’ return home from his most recent of two tours to Iraq as a drone operator.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 12 July 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

As we launched right at sunrise, we found ourselves in the midst of a days-long “Excessive Heat Warning” issued by the National Weather Service. Indeed, it was hot, but, thankfully, there was a light breeze all morning which kept it tolerable until about 10:30A.

Over the course of the morning, Sofia would manage to catch 7 species of fish in her 70 fish total.

We began the morning downrigging, catching 17 white bass, a hybrid striped bass, a freshwater drum, and a largemouth bass. We’d landed a total of 20 fish using 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons on the downriggers before I suggested we take a boat ride to go shoot for sunfish up in shallow water. Somewhere in the midst of all of this fish catching, Sofia braved up and held one of the fish she caught in order to release it in healthy condition.

We found a shallow, rocky area which held an abundance of sunfish and used a pole with a slip-float to present small baits to these aggressive fish in under 4 feet of water. Sofia quickly got the hang of placing her rig (using what is much like a fly-fishing roll cast) accurately, and it was game-on from that point. Sofia went on to land 21 sunfish, including bluegill, green, and longear sunfish. Sofia also tried her hand at baiting a hook for the first time, and got better with each attempt.

We closed out our trip by heading back out to open water to search for white bass. I had noted a lot of topwater action over the course of the morning, but, every school I spotted stayed up for only seconds — just not enough time to crank up, run to them, slow down, cast, and retrieve. But, as we downrigged on this go-round (between 9:30 and 10:30A), I noted even more schooling action and a few schools lingering at the top for what I thought would be enough time for us to approach them and present lures to them.

After landing another 4 fish on the downriggers, I headed to one of these lingering topwater schools and that turned out to be a good call. After we got to the vicinity of that particular school, multiple schools of fish began to feed on the surface in all directions. We witnessed a 45-minute long frenzy which allowed Travis and I to zing MAL Dense Lures out over top of these schools, crank the lures back through the fish, hook up, and then allow Sofia to reel in fish after fish until she was tired.

Sofia battled exactly 25 white bass back to the boat during this frenzy, taking her 4-hour catch up to a final 70 fish. The fish quit very suddenly right around 10:25, for no apparent reason — no boat ran through them, no cloud cover increased or decreased, no wind started or stopped — they just quit.

Sofia’s 70 fish catch included exactly 45 white bass, 1 hybrid striper, 1 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, 6 green sunfish, 1 longear sunfish, and 14 bluegill sunfish.

As we arrived back at the dock, there was another surprise awaiting us. Mrs. Maria Tolleson of the Sun City chapter of Women Helping Others (WHO), escorted by her husband, stopped by in-person to present the SKIFF program with a handsome donation to help keep the program strong. She got to see the dividends of her investment as she met the Flatts and heard Sofia excitedly tell about all the fish she caught.

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Here was the water temperature profile:

0 feet 87.9F
5 feet 88.5F
10 feet 88.5F
15 feet 87.2F
20 feet 85.6F
25 feet 84.3F
30 feet 83.3F
35 feet 79.9F
40 feet 73.4F
45 feet 68.5F
50 feet 65.3F
55 feet 63.1F
60 feet 61.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Elevation: 6.24 feet low, 0.06’ fall in last 24 hours, 89 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 87.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW3-5 then shifting to NE3-5 around 9A

Sky Condition: ~10% white cloud cover on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0201G to 1974 to B0077G – early downrigging

Area 1583 – sunfishing

Area vic B0040G – downrigging leading to topwater action

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

SWEATIN’ THRU OUR CLOTHES BY 7:30AM! — 107 FISH ON MAL DENSE LURES

July 11th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, July 11th, I fished with Mr. Clint Butler of Rockdale, TX, accompanied by his two children, Caylee (age 8) and Case (age 5), and by his father-in-law, Richard Pivonka, of Caldwell.

Clint seriously pursues white bass on his own, primarily on Lake Somerville, and primarily by trolling with Jet-Diver-like devices to get spoons down to where the fish are.

In addition to spending some vacation time with his kids, Clint also hoped to nail down some lessons on the summer tactics I employ. To that end, I planned the trip such that we’d do at least a little downrigging, vertical MAL work, and horizontal MAL work.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on August 23rd, 24th, and 25th. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Clint, Caylee, and Case Butler, and Richard “Poppy” Pivonka with a few of the 107 fish they landed this morning using vertical and horizontal tactics.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 11 July 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ll be honest … the lack of wind had me a little spooked this morning. We had a mild cold front shift our winds to the N. late Saturday, and the winds have been light and variable ever since. There was just enough wind to ripple the surface most of the morning, and that was enough to get the fish in gear.

I found our first group of fish with down-imaging, stacked up near bottom in just over 40′ of water. We stayed on these fish a full hour and took 30 fish during that time, even as the kids were working through the learning curve of using the MAL Dense vertically. We all watched each “cycle” of reeling and dropping the MAL Lures to bottom and cranking them up through the fish thanks to Garmin LiveScope technology. I positioned Clint and Case on the starboard stern unit, and Richard and Caylee on the forward starboard unit so everyone had a good view, as well as some elbow room.

Once this first group of fish shut down around 8A, we changed things up a bit and began to downrig, both to catch fish, and to figure our where larger, catchable groups of white bass were holding so we could capitalize on the information by ‘parking’ on those groups and fishing them vertically as long as they would tolerate it. We did this several times over in ~32 feet of water, all in about a 300 yard radius, and added another 38 fish to our count.

A few times during this stop I witnessed patrolling schools of white bass out to our starboard side (which was facing toward shallower water). I introduced Clint to the “sawtooth method” and soon, he was catching fish out horizontally with the MAL Dense while everyone else continued to catch while fishing vertically.

We did likewise at the third and final area we fished this morning, only these fish were in ~43 feet of water. I was thinking at this point (around 10A) that the bite had softened enough that we’d likely only continue to catch fish on the downriggers as we “sifted” the few still-active fish out from amongst an increasingly disinterested population. But, as I downrigged and watched sonar, I could clearly see entire schools of fish rising up off bottom expressing interest in the downrigger ball as it passed over. Seeing this, I knew these fish were active enough to chase MAL Lures, so, we set up atop these fish and went vertical one final time, adding a final 39 fish to our count for a grand total of 107 fish.

We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons (#12, silver, white feather).

We fished vertically and horizontally with MAL Dense Lures with white bodies and chartreuse tails.

A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Our 107 fish catch was made up entirely of white bass, with only 1 short fish all morning.

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 107 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Consistent topwater action could be seen from about 8A on as small “schoolie” largemouth chased small packs of shad to the surface and fed upon them there. The near-calm surface aided in sighting this action. Between the heat and humidity, this was the hottest trip I’ve fished thus far this summer. The overnight temperatures only dropped to 80F, and the humidity made it extra-uncomfortable.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Elevation: 6.29 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 86.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable, under 4mph all morning, predominantly from the N.

Sky Condition: Cloudless, dry skies

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 92% illumination.

GT = 95

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas SH0032G/SH0031G (30 fish)

Area 1198 (38 fish)

Area SH0202G (39 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

UH, WE’RE TAKING ON WATER!! — 64 FISH w/ THE HENSLEY’S

July 7th, 2022July 7th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, July 7th, I fished with father-and-son Troy and Trace Hensley of Copperas Cove, Texas.

Troy, a U.S. Army veteran, and his 7-year-old son, Trace, just came back from a visit with family in Illinois where Trace got to do some fishing and learn a bit about how to use both spinning gear and closed-faced (push-button or Zebco) style reels. This helped greatly, as that was one less hurdle to clear before he could do what it takes to fish vertically in deep, clear water for summertime white bass.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on August 11th and 23rd. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Trace and Troy Hensley landed a mix of white bass and sunfish during their morning outing in the midst of an early July Texas heat advisory which extends until 9PM on July 10th (another 3 full days).

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 07 July 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

I chose to fish Stillhouse for this trip, as I suspected Trace’s age would dictate more action, variety, and transitions than Lake Belton has been producing of late. I wanted to “stack the deck” in terms of having abundant sunfish activity to offer when the white bass fishing lost its appeal. Stillhouse, with its hundreds of acres of hydrilla, has a burgeoning sunfish population.

As we met just before sunrise, there was a hatch of small, flying insects which had the sunfish popping on topwater and revealing their lairs, so, we took advantage of that, landing 15 sunfish pretty handily before setting out in pursuit of white bass.

The first bunch of white bass I found was holding along the bottom in over 40 feet of water and they were stacked up pretty tightly. We worked MAL Dense Lures (white body/chartreuse tail) vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope to catch these aggressive fish, taking 35 fish (all legal size) in just over an hour’s time until the “crowd” dispersed and the action died down.

We headed up shallow for a shorter “Round 2” of sunfishing, then back out to deeper, open water for Round 2 of white bass fishing, this time with downriggers trailing Pet Spoons to change it up a bit. We landed 5 more sunfish and 5 more white bass and had plans to go one more round, but, Troy’s phone rang …

It was Troy’s wife, Lori, and she said they were taking on water back at home. She reported a bulge in their ceiling and water dripping into a light fixture at their house about 30 minutes away. We quickly brought the gear in and wrapped up a bit early as Troy made some calls to some trusted workmen. He and I suspected a clogged attic A/C unit condensate line.

A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Our 64 fish catch included exactly 44 white bass and 20 sunfish.

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 64 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Some light topwater action could be seen here and there as small “schoolie” largemouth chased small packs of shad to the surface and fed upon them there.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 6.12 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 86.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: S12 all morning.

Sky Condition: Cloudless, dry skies

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 54% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 239 and 1416 for sunfish

Areas Sh0150G and 873 for 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

16.125″ WHITE BASS FOR CODY — 73 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

July 6th, 2022July 6th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, July 6th, I fished with father-and-son team Rick and Cody Vincent of Salado, TX.

Rick, a fellow U.S. Army veteran, and I have known one another, having first gotten acquainted through church, for many years. Despite the common interest in fishing, we’d never fished together.

So, when Rick reached out to me to schedule an 18th birthday fishing trip for his son, Cody, who is headed into his senior year in high school, I was really looking forward to the date.

Cody informed me during our trip that he is headed into the U.S. Navy after he graduates from high school. Perhaps that’ll ensure he’ll always be near fishable waters as he serves the nation.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 12th – 14th. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rick and Cody Vincent with a take of hefty white bass from Lake Belton. Although we caught fish using three tactics today, the most productive was using the MAL Dense with a horizontal sawtooth retrieve.

PHOTO CAPTION: Cody laid the groundwork today toward earning TPWD Elite Angler status with the capture of this 16 1/8″ white bass. This fish fell for a MAL Dense with white body and chartreuse tail worked with a sawtooth retrieve in ~33 feet of water. After taking the required photos, we released it in excellent condition.

PHOTO CAPTION: The MAL Dense turned out to be a good match for the ~3″-long threadfin shad which the larger white bass we encountered were feeding on this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 06 July 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

I told Rick and Cody right off the bat this morning that I love having experienced anglers aboard when the fishing is tough (as it always is in June and July) because good anglers can help reach the full potential the fishery has to offer. With less experienced anglers aboard, I becomes necessary to teach and coach before those anglers get the hang of things, and, going through that learning curve typically equates to a least a few fish not landed which otherwise could have been.

We began our day looking over a traditionally productive area with sonar while at the same time downrigging. Within minutes, both Rick and Cody landed a single on downrigged Pet Spoons trailing behind a 3-armed umbrella rig. Although this was a nice start, I did not see the volume of fish present in this area to make me want to stay, so, we moved on.

Our next stop came out in open water after I spotted the “nervous water” created by white bass feeding on the surface. Because the bait was very small, the commotion on the surface was minimal, and, the ~11mph wind made a chop on the surface which made this nervous water even tougher to spot.

I put one man on the port and starboard pedestal seats on my front casting deck I as operated the trolling motor from the center pedestal to keep Rick and Cody within casting distance. They landed 12 fish before the sun brightened sufficiently to push them down.

We moved on in search of suspended fish roaming and feeding on shad and found what we were after, but, the fish were definitely not feeding aggressively. Over the timespan from 7:30 to 9:00, we added only 12 additional fish to our count as we moved repeatedly, only to find fish pretty disinterested.

As the wind increased and the morning moved on, the fish finally worked up into a feed and fed well from around 9A to around 10:15A, followed by a rapid tapering off of interest. We Spot-Locked on, and stayed on, just one patch of bottom during this entire episode. We began catching fish vertically, but, as I let the side-imaging play and frequently glanced at it, it began to reveal fish consistently located out to our starboard side. I had Rick and Cody begin using a sawtooth method (which we’d practiced earlier for just such an occasion) and they began taking fish after fish in rapid succession. By the time the feed was over, they’d landed an additional 49 fish for a final total of 73 fish landed on the morning.

A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Our 73 fish catch included exactly 72 white bass and 1 small largemouth bass.

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 73 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The best feeding time ran from ~9 to 10:15A this morning, with a short spurt of topwater action right at sunrise which lasted only ~15-20 minutes.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 5.89 feet low, 0.06’ fall in last 24 hours, 75 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW11-13 all morning.

Sky Condition: Cloudless, dry skies

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 44% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1411 and B0203G for the majority of our catch working MAL Dense Lures vertically and horizontally

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

WALLEYE & WINE? PERCH & PILSNER? FLAT SERGEANT DADDY? – 34 FISH @ BELTON

July 5th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, July 5th, I conducted the fifth Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip of the 2022 season.

Joining me was Mrs. Rochelle Masteller and her three kids, Lillie (age 13), Grace (age 9), and Harrison (age 6).

Mrs. Masteller’s husband, U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Bruce Masteller, is currently deployed. He has served for 19 years. Rochelle is a U.S. Army veteran who did four years in an administrative role.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Harrison, Rochelle, “Flat Daddy” Bruce in yellow shirt, Grace, and Lillie Masteller with a few of the mature white bass we took on Lake Belton during the 2022 season’s 5th SKIFF program trip just for military kids separated from their parents.

PHOTO CAPTION: Did you catch this in the photo above?!?

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 31 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

What a neat family I got to fish with today! Yes, SFC Bruce Masteller is deployed, but, a miniaturized “flat” version of him still gets to participate in family activities while he’s gone. Mom (Rochelle) is from near the Ohio/Pennsylvania border where she grew up fishing from the bank for walleye and perch in Lake Erie. As we got to talking about this, she fondly recalled the Walleye and Wine Festival and the Perch and Pilsner Festival celebrated each year in her hometown of Ashtabula.

She and Bruce had taken the kids fishing before, but never from a boat, and never with spinning gear, so, we had some fundamentals about boat safety and gear we had to go over before the fishing started.

Whenever there is such a gap in ages with the kids I have onboard, the fishing becomes a bit challenging. Lillie (age 13) was a very capable assistant who aided me greatly in helping to make her siblings successful. The challenge lie in finding sufficient action, and over a 3.5 hour time span, to keep my youngest member of the crew (Harrison, at age 6) engaged in the summer season when fishing is typically tough.

We switched back and forth between downrigging (to find and catch fish), to working MAL Dense lures vertically (to capitalize on what we’d found), and “going fast” (Grace’s favorite) from one fishing area to another, all to keep it interesting for the kids. That, plus a few well-timed snacks, a visit to the waterfall, and the assignment of kid-specific tasks (placing fish in livewell, culling fish for photos, releasing fish, rigging up downriggers, stowing gear for travel, etc.) kept everyone in the game. And, thanks to mom-wisdom, we had a learn-to-read video game onboard for Harrison, just in case.

As is often the case in the summer, the white bass are widely dispersed, with many small schools spread all over the lake hunting the easily-fed-upon young-of-the-year shad. Still, there are concentrations of fish to be found in areas where an abundance of these small schools work independently of one another — typically where a lot of bait is seen on sonar. Such was the case today, hence, all of our fish caught came from but two areas, each spanning just 1-3 acres in size.

A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Our 34 fish catch included exactly 31 white bass, 1 short hybrid striper, 1 sunfish, and 1 blue catfish.

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 34 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: This post-holiday Tuesday saw lighter than average weekday boat traffic on the lake — very enjoyable. Here was the water temperature profile:

0 feet 85.1F
5 feet 85.1F
10 feet 85.1F
15 feet 85.1F
20 feet 85.0F
25 feet 83.4F
30 feet 81.2F
35 feet 78.2F
40 feet 74.2F
45 feet 69.9F
50 feet 65.6F
55 feet 63.2F
60 feet 62.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 5.83 feet low, 0.02’ fall in last 24 hours, 32 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-13 all morning.

Sky Condition: 50-60% white cloud cover on a blue sky all afternoon.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 34% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0205G & B0031G

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

WE CAME BACK IN THE SECOND HALF — 65 FISH @ BELTON

June 30th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, June 30th, I welcomed aboard two returning guests — long-time friends Larry Brewer and Blake Hoekstra, both from the Georgetown, TX, area.

Larry has been involved in the Austin area HVAC industry for decades, and Blake is a retired accountant.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on 1, 10, & 11 August. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

PHOTO CAPTION: Our better sized fish were all taken on the MAL Dense (chartreuse tail) fished either vertically or horizontally. Smaller, but more numerous, fish came on the downriggers, but were quite scattered about.

PHOTO CAPTION: For the seventh consecutive trip we managed a “triple” — catching three fish at a time, one on each of the three Pet Spoons on my 3-armed umbrella rig fished behind a downrigger. This was our one and only triple today under continued calm, bright conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 30 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite a wind shift back to the south overnight, the wind velocity stayed quite low and the fishing was tough once again under hot, cloudless, bright skies.

We picked up about 15 fish in our first 40 minutes on the water as we downrigged, all the time looking for opportunities to stop and fish vertically in order to catch a lot of fish in a short span of time, but, that did not happen early on.

We continued downrigging, finding very little to get excited about through around 9A. During this time we picked up only 9 additional fish. On numerous occasions as we passed over schools which, under better conditions I’d have bet money on; however, many failed to chase and strike our downrigged presentations despite good depth and speed control.

Around 9A, after spotting multiple schools feeding briefly in the same general area on multiple occasions over a short span of time, I headed over to investigate, saw some promise on side imaging, Spot-Locked, and cashed in on a solid, final 90 minutes of fishing through around 10:30A.

During this time we watched multiple, aggressive schools of white bass, most about 80 fish in number, move under and around the boat. We worked MAL Dense Lures (chartreuse tails) vertically for the majority of our catch. If the screen got sparse, I looked for options out to our port and starboard and we worked the same lures with a “sawtooth” retrieve for additional fish in that manner.

During that final 90 minute span we landed an additional 41 fish until, just after 10:30A, the fish quit. By this time we had all sweated through our shirts and welcomed the self-made breeze of the boat ride back to the dock.

Our 65-fish catch included 61 white bass, 2 freshwater drum, & 2 largemouth bass.

TALLY: 65 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Bright, near-windless conditions really made it tough going this morning, for the second day in a row.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 5.57 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 50 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: Puffing 0-3 from SE for the entire morning.

Sky Condition: Cloudless, bright skies all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 2% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT: For the second consecutive day the wx forecast missed the mark. We never had sustained wind and we never had any cloud cover. Tough!

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1614 produced fish on downriggers right at sunrise, then all other downrigged fish came from small, scattered groups – 24 fish via downrigging.

Area B0203G to B0204G – vertical and horizontal MAL Dense work from 9a to 10:30a for 41 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

ARE YOU UP ON YOUR DOWNRIGGING? — 51 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 29th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, June 29th, I welcomed aboard U.S. Army veteran and retiree Robert Rhodes of Killeen, TX.

Robert, like many anglers, has a boat which is well-equipped with sonar, a trolling motor, and quality batteries to keep everything powered up, but he knew he just was not using this equipment to its full potential when it came to finding and catching fish.

We made some inroads today toward that goal of consistently finding and catching fish after Robert booked both a fishing trip, followed by an on-the-water sonar training session with me.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: With clear skies and light winds following Monday’s cold front, we really had to work for what we caught today. By the end of the trip, Robert got great exposure to downrigging, sonar use, the smoking tactic, and the sawtooth tactic.

PHOTO CAPTION: For the sixth consecutive trip we managed a “triple” — catching three fish at a time, one on each of the three Pet Spoons on my 3-armed umbrella rig fished behind a downrigger. This was our one and only triple today under calmer, brighter conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 29 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

We came as close to “post-frontal” tough as we could today without the winds actually going calm. Despite a forecast to the contrary, we endured bright skies and near-calm, puffing winds all morning. The fish really didn’t put on the feed bag at any point this morning, but, the latter half of the trip was definitely more productive than the first half.

The downriggers really earned their keep this morning. When the bite gets tough, the downriggers allow for covering a lot of territory very quickly. Many folks mistakenly think of downrigging as an expensive, highly-technical form of trolling, but it is much more than that.

By precisely controlling the depth of your presentation (and verifying it on sonar), lures can be run in and around many times more fish than could be presented to with a vertical or horizontal presentation over the same amount of time from a fixed position. Further, at a time when fish begin to organize horizontally (parallel to the bottom) due to thermal stratification, the downrigger keeps your baits right in the “zone” better than any other method. The Hell-Pet, Jet Divers, Dipseys, and trolled crankbaits just can’t match the downrigger’s accuracy and allowance for tight turns.

When fish are turned off, a downrigger can help expose that low percentage of fish willing to chase and eat to your lures while the vast (disinterested) majority of the fish just watch that bait go on by. You are able to weed out the aggressive fish from amongst the passive fish.

We used the downriggers to find and catch fish, and, on the occasions where the caught fish came from an area with an abundance of other fish present, we stopped and worked MAL Dense Lures more thoroughly over those areas with a horizontal “sawtooth” method, guided by side-imaging which showed us which direction to cast, and how far out away from the boat the fish were.

We caught roughly 3 fish on downriggers for every 1 we took on the MAL Lures today because the fish were very spread out and pretty disinterested all morning. We took two fish on the MAL Original (the lightest version of the MAL) when the burst up on the surface chasing after shad, literally, for just seconds. I rigged up our downriggers with unweighted 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.

Our 51-fish catch included 49 white bass, & 2 largemouth bass.

TALLY: 51 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Bright, near-windless conditions really made it tough going this morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 5.52 feet low, 0.03’ fall in last 24 hours, 50 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: Puffing 0-3 from ENE for the entire morning.

Sky Condition: Cloudless, bright skies all morning.

Moon Phase: New moon.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: Unfortunately, this wx forecast missed the mark. We never had winds above ~4 mph, with multiple spans of calm; and, we never had any cloud cover.

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0099G, and B0180C to 347 — all downrigging to find fish, then horizontal MAL Dense work to capitalize on what we’d found.

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

SPEAK SOFTLY AND WEAR A BIG GLOVE — 43 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 28th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, June 28th, I welcomed aboard Dwight (Boom-Pa) Stone, his wife, Connie (YaYa) Stone, and their 6-year-old grandson, Jackson Rogers.

This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip — a trip intended just for kids, which is less expensive and shorter in duration than my adult trips. I always ask parents or grandparent who come on these trips to come with a mindset of helping me help the kids be successful, and that is just what Connie and Dwight did today.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on August 10th & 11th. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Dwight “Boom-Pa” Stone, Jackson Rogers (age 6), and Connie (YaYa) Stone, with Jackson’s two largest white bass of the morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: For the fifth consecutive trip we managed a “triple” — catching three fish at a time, one on each of the three Pet Spoons on my 3-armed umbrella rig fished behind a downrigger. Jackson actually landed three triples today!

PHOTO CAPTION: Jackson was a little leery about touching the white bass we caught and released, but, with suitable personal protective equipment, he overcame that challenge! Speak softly and wear a big glove!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 28 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

The impact of Monday’s cold front was still noticeable, but more diminished this morning. Winds were still from the north, and we enjoyed some rainfall area-wide overnight. The fish were still just a bit reluctant today. On numerous occasions we had solid schools of fish pass beneath the boat which, under “standard” summertime conditions with hot temperatures, southerly winds, and hazy skies would normally perk up and chase, overtake, and eat our baits, simply refuse to do so this morning from time to time.

We just rolled with these punches and put together a decent morning over the three hours which Jackson stayed engaged.

In summary, we downrigged to both find and catch fish, and, on occasions where sonar revealed strong concentrations of fish, we stopped to fish for them vertically using a smoking tactic with MAL Dense Lures (white body, chartreuse tail) in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

For variety’s sake, I brought along a set of juglines generously donated to me back in 2019 by Mr. Greg Wade for use with kids aboard. With my jugs, and Dwight’s “secret bait”, we set out ten jugs to drift parallel to one another. After about an hour we went back and checked them without success.

“Action” Jackson did really well today — he followed instructions, was courteous and thoughtful, and took good care of his catch so each fish could be released in healthy condition.

Our 43-fish catch included 41 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 1 freshwater drum.

TALLY: 43 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 0.50″ caught in the rain gauge between 7p Monday and 7a Tuesday thanks to a cold front colliding with a low pressure system right over Central Texas.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 9:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 5.50 feet low, 0.03’ fall in last 24 hours, 50 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE11 for the entire morning.

Sky Condition: Greyed over skies all morning, right up until 9:15, at which time the clouds began to “burn off” pretty rapidly.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 0% illumination (new moon tomorrow).

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0030G, 1608, B0201G thru B0031G — all downrigging to find fish, then vertical MAL Dense work to capitalize on what we’d found.

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

ONE MAN, ONE LIMIT, ONE PRETTY TOUGH MORNING — 35 FISH

June 27th, 2022June 27th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, 27 June 2022, I fished with first-time guest Jim Perciavalle who drove in from just north of Georgetown, TX.

Jim, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, operates Veterans Advocates Group LLC, which aids veterans and their families with their disability claims before the Veterans’ Administration.

Through the planning phase of this trip, our headcount varied from 2 to 3, but, as it turned out, Jim joined me solo this morning.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on August 1st & 2nd. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

PHOTO CAPTION: Jim Perciavalle with a pair of white bass taken on MAL Dense Lures worked over an area we first identified via downrigging. If the fish were active enough to chase and overtake our downrigged baits, they would typically also be tempted as we worked lures through them vertically.

PHOTO CAPTION: Despite fishing made tougher by a wrinkle in the weather, this made the fourth consecutive trip during which we landed at least one “triple”, catching one fish on each of the three Pet Spoons on the 3-armed umbrella rig as we searched for fish using the downrigger.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 27 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Our nice run of “cookie cutter” weather days came to a crashing halt last night as the wind shifted to the north with the arrival of a mild, summer cold front. Even though it has been hot, the weather has been consistent, as has the fishing (not great, mind you, but at least consistent). This cold front “wrinkled” that consistency and the fishing took a bit of a dip this morning.

In ~5 hours on the water, we spotted perhaps a half-dozen schools of white bass doing their “popcorn” routine, where they blitz bait on the surface for just seconds, and then disappear for good.

Finding collections of fish was definitely tougher today, and, even when we found them, two of three were disinterested. Those schools that were interested just didn’t “stick” very long beneath us.

We used the downrigger as a search tool today. Each time we found fish with it, we’d circle back to where the fish came from and, when they were still present, we fished for them, knowing at least a few of them were active enough to chase and strike.

We “exploited” the downrigger catch by fishing MAL Dense Lures vertically with the help of Garmin LiveScope, using a smoking tactic. Only three or four times over the course of the morning did a large enough school of fish show on side-imaging out to our port or starboard as we sat on Spot-Lock to make it worth tossing out horizontally and using a sawtooth tactic.

Our 35-fish catch included 33 white bass and 2 short hybrid striper.

TALLY: 35 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Temperature profile down to 60 feet; note the greatest change from 30-35′:

0 feet 86.2F
5 feet 86.4F
10 feet 86.4F
15 feet 86.4F
20 feet 86.4F
25 feet 86.2F
30 feet 81.9F
35 feet 77.0F
40 feet 74.7F
45 feet 69.6F
50 feet 64.3F
55 feet 62.3F
60 feet 60.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 5.47 feet low, 0.01′ rise in last 24 hours, 50 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 86.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW7 at sunrise, increasing to NW13 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 0-5% coverage with wispy, white clouds on a blue sky.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 2% illumination (new moon in 2 days).

GT = 225

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0084G – vertical with MAL Dense

Area B0202G – vertical with MAL Dense

Areas 1974 to 1411 – downrigged to find; vertical to 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