Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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SUMMER SOLSTICE 2022 – 101 FISH @ BELTON

June 22nd, 2022June 23rd, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, June 22nd, I welcomed aboard Jason Martinez, accompanied by his daughters, Sophie (age 14), and Olivia (age 10).

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. So, instead of fishing for his own fish, Jason’s role was to help me help the girls be successful. He untangled lines, unhooked fish, set downriggers to depth, and more, all so we could maximize our catch for the girls while the fish were active.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Olivia, Jason, and Sophie Martinez with a few of the white bass Lake Belton gave up this morning on this “Kids Fish, Too!” trip just for the girls.

PHOTO CAPTION: 10-year-old Olivia started us off right this morning. Our first contact with fish resulted in a triple — three fish at one time on a downrigged 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons.

PHOTO CAPTION: Not to be outdone by her younger sister, Sophie came up with a triple of her own. The girls would go on to land five sets of triples and even more numerous doubles as the white bass really cooperated today.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 22 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite any appreciable change in winds or weather, fishing today was just much simpler and more productive than the last two days have been. We noted more topwater action (although it wasn’t through the roof), more fish in a feeding posture up off the bottom, and bait much more tightly bunched and up higher in the water column as they were being pursued by the white bass for three-plus hours straight this morning.

We began the day downrigging with twin ‘riggers deployed, each rigged with a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons to imitate the young-of-the-year shad. We stuck with this for about 45 minutes until the sun’s increasing angle and intensity drove the fish down in the water column and out away from shore. We’d already landed two dozen fish by now, and then added another dozen taken by smoking MAL Heavy Lures in just over thirty feet of water where we found a nice bunch (~60 fish as seen on sonar) piled up together.

When this dried up, we went hunting with sonar (primarily relying on side-imaging) to find congregations of fish large enough to hover atop of and fish vertically for. We found one such school fairly quickly in about 34 feet of water and worked them for about a half hour, adding another 27 fish to our tally on the MAL Heavy Lures.

We again hunted fish, and again found fish on side-imaging, this time in 32 feet of water in a more wind-exposed location (which kept the girls cooler as the summer heat was pouring on). We took another 12 fish on the MAL Heavies and then detected a weakening in the bite right around 9A.

By this time, both girls had worn out their wrists and were ready for the more relaxing approach of downrigging for one last round. The fish really put on a show as we covered lots of ground, straining out the still-active fish from amongst an increasingly inactive population. We took our final tally from 75 fish up to 101 fish in our final 30 minutes on the water, and still arrived back at the dock about 15 minutes early as the heat and action just about had the girls worn out.

Kudos to Jason for being a supportive, loving, present, encouraging, and (most importantly) godly dad to his daughters. Our nation needs more of that!

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

Our 101-fish catch included 99 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 1 short hybrid striper.

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

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Despite any appreciable change in winds or weather, fishing today was much more productive than were the previous 2 days. We noted 1) more topwater action, 2) more fish in a feeding posture up off the bottom, and 3) bait much more tightly bunched and up higher in the water column.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 9:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 5.26 feet low, 0.04’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: S7-10 all morning

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

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 36% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1404 to 1041 – downrigging early, then vertical once sun pushed fish down, 36 fish

Area 1411 – smoking MAL Lures for 27 fish

Area B0098G – smoking MAL Lures for 12 fish

Area 840 – downrigging for a final 26 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

GAVE HIM A BASS-WHUPPIN’ — 80 FISH @ BELTON

June 21st, 2022June 21st, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, June 21th, I welcomed aboard Dr. Aaron Baggett and his father-in-law, Dr. Jim Williams.

Aaron is an assistant professor at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, where, among other things, he provides oversight to the school’s bass fishing team.

Jim retired in November of 2021 after 50 years as a public health veterinarian with the United States Department of Agriculture, working in slaughterhouses to ensure the safety of the nation’s food supply.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 13th and 15th. 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: Dr. Aaron Baggett and his father-in-law, Dr. Jim Williams used a combination of downrigging, vertical tactics, and horizontal tactics to put together a catch of 80 fish on a hot summer morning in Texas.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 21 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Let me start at the end … as Aaron and Jim stepped out of the boat, I told them our results were not unusual for the summer, but the way the fishing “flowed” today definitely was, in that we caught fish steadily from start to finish for all four hours this morning. Summer morning trips are typically “front-loaded”.

As for a day-over-day comparison, we enjoyed ample, steady winds today right around 8-9mph the entire morning. This was not what was forecast — it was actually better (see wx chart below).

I came prepared for four tactics: downrigging (to find fish), topwater (which normally gets increasingly reliable sometime between Fathers’ Day and Independence Day and they stays steady into August), vertical smoking, and use of the horizontal “sawtooth” method. As it turned out, we employed all but topwater, which, for the second day in a row, did not materialize.

As typically happens on Lake Belton (and Stillhouse Hollow) in the summer as the thermocline forms, the white bass have splintered into small schools which can be found just about everywhere as they, like nomads, just cruise and patrol for shad. Where multitudes of these “wolf pack” collect, fishing can be great. Where you encounter just one or two such schools, the catching can be “brief”.

Today, we were fortunate to be in three separate areas where many of these wolf packs were grouped together.

The fishing played out at each one in much the same way. I checked on areas (wind-blown areas) where, based on past summers’ notes, I suspected fish would be. We downrigged through those areas with a single downrigger running a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Luhr-Jensen Pet Spoons while watching sonar like a hawk. When DI, SI, or 2D revealed fish, we used the Minn Kota i-Pilot Link system to go to these fish, Spot Lock on them, and begin fishing them vertically with the MAL Heavy (chartreuse tail). While on Spot Lock, we’d keep SI running and watch for schools swimming out to our port or starboard side. When a sizeable school showed, we would reel up, fire casts out to them and keep fishing them as long as they showed on sonar and were willing to strike. We repeated this “process” of finding and fishing, finding and fishing all morning, and did so successfully.

By trip’s end, Jim said Aaron had given him a bass whuppin’ by catching 2 fish for every one Jim brought in, but, I know the numbers were closer, and, in fairness, Aaron has been out with me before, during which time he’d used these same tactics, so, he had no learning curve to go through.

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

Our 80-fish catch included 79 white bass and 1 short hybrid striper.

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

TALLY: 80 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: We saw only 2 briefly appearing schools of fish feeding on topwater this morning after abundant topwater action most every day last week. When we don’t have humid, muggy air and/or cloud cover in the morning, that topwater action just seems to be much less prevalent.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 5.22 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9 all morning

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

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 46% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1993, three short hops (vert. and horiz.) and downrigging for 44 fish

Area vic 214, vert. and downrigging for 15 fish

Area B0201G, vert. and downrigging for 21 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

CAMPIN’ & FISHIN’ WITH PAW PAW — 70 FISH @ BELTON

June 20th, 2022June 20th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, June 20th, I welcomed aboard Mr. Scott Sutphen and his grandsons, Josh (15), Jacob (12), and Jace (11).

Scott and his wife are from the Bryan-College Station area where Scott works for Lochow Ranch, a pond and lake management company, providing comprehensive private lake and pond management services throughout Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. They routinely camp at Lake Belton, and that’s how they came to book with me.

The boys are all from the rural town of Iola, out between Bryan and Huntsville.

After fixing them his “Paw Paw Special Breakfast” (that’d be Pop-Tarts), the crew drove over from their campground and showed up on time for our 6:30A start.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jacob, Josh, Jace, and Scott Sutphen with a few of the Lake Belton white bass we really worked for today under bright skies and near-calm wind conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 20 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

We faced pretty tough conditions today — nearly cloudless skies, and nearly calm winds through 10AM. Our best run of catching actually came right at the close of the trip, between 10:10A and 10:55A, when we put a final 31 fish in the boat. This is atypical, especially in the summer, to catch more fish in the latter part of the trip, but, the fish turned on when the wind blew.

Until that wind kicked in, we faced very much the same scenario at each of the places we searched … we’d see a few fish on sonar, Spot-Lock on them, create some commotion to draw them in, and caught a few, only to have their interest drop off very quickly. We could not get fish to stay under the boat for any length of time. So, seeing this, we adjusted by moving frequently, taking a few fish from a given area, and then moving again as soon as the bite dropped off.

All of the fishing we did, up until the wind began blowing, was vertical smoking with the MAL Heavy (chartreuse tail). Once the wind started blowing, we got on top of a good school, caught some vertically, and then noted large, patrolling schools of fish on bottom out to our starboard side, as witnessed on side-imaging. I gave everyone targets on the horizon to aim for so their casts would fall among the fish, and everyone started catching using the “sawtooth” method on that same MAL Heavy. We never saw a single such school of feeding whites while under calm conditions.

By 10:55, the bite was waning, the heat was rising, and the boys’ appetites were increasing, so, we called it a good morning right there, having achieved a “personal best” for number of fish caught on a single fishing trip for the Sutphen crew.

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

Our 70-fish catch included 68 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 1 freshwater drum.

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

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Here is the temperature profile I measured down to 60 feet. Note the 6-degree plunge between 40-45 feet:

0 feet 83.6F
5 feet 84.5F
10 feet 84.8F
15 feet 85F
20 feet 84F
25 feet 82.6F
30 feet 79.6F
35 feet 77.9F
40 feet 75.2F
45 feet 69.2F
50 feet 65.3F
55 feet 62.4F
60 feet 61.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 5.17 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable from the south, puffing at 1-4mph through 10A, then picking up to S8 thereafter.

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

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 57% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS: We moved around a lot today, picking up a few here and there. The only areas which produced more than 10 fish were…

Area vic BDH005

Area vic 489

Area B0098G

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

SUMMER TRAIN WRECK!!! — 91 FISH @ BELTON

June 16th, 2022June 16th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, June 16th, I welcomed aboard 9-year-old Miss Adi Zwern of Houston.

Adi is in the midst of her annual summer visit with her Grandma and Pop Pop in Georgetown. For the last three years now, fishing with me has been a part of that summer visit.

Adi was accompanied by Pop Pop Larry Brewer and Uncle Blake Hoekstra on this “Kids Fish, Too!” trip — a trip intended just for kids, which is less expensive and shorter in duration than my adult trips.

In addition to the fishing, games and craft projects are also a traditional part of Adi’s summer visit.

This year, the domino game “Train” was the big hit, and painting birdhouses was the craft du jour. It seemed Adi took particular delight in causing “train wrecks” for her Pop Pop, thus causing him undesirably high scores (like 87 … 87 … 87… 87 … 87)!!

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 12th and 13th. 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: Pop Pop Larry Brewer, Adi Zwern, and Blake Hoekstra, each with one of the larger white bass we took mid-morning from deeper water after topwater feeding by smaller fish died down.

PHOTO CAPTION: A few pieces of Adi’s summers spent with Grandma and Pop Pop through the years.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 16 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

There is a very definite transition to summertime fishing patterns now underway at Lake Belton, as was the case over at Stillhouse Hollow earlier this week.

This morning on Belton, lots of small, young-of-the-year shad made easy pickings for white bass under low light conditions right at sunrise. We sight-cast to fish in schools of perhaps 100-200 fish each all tightly bunched together as they worked together to pin bait up against the surface.

We threw MAL Original Lures with white tails to these eager feeders and caught a fish each time Adi could reel the lure fast enough to keep it from sinking below the fish.

After the sun rose above the clouds and started brightening things up, we continued catching these same fish which were now visible only on sonar down between 12-18 feet. I ran just one downrigger with a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with silver Pet Spoons to catch these fish until they finally pushed deeper in the water column and away from shore. By this time we’d landed 16 fish, including a double on the umbrella rig.

From this point and until about 9:15, we went out into deeper, 38-44′ water searching for more bottom-oriented schools of fish. We found two such groups of fish, drew them in toward the boat with the commotion we created, and caught them on MAL Heavy Lures (silver blade/white tail) steadily, greatly aided by Garmin LiveScope.

The sole tactic we relied upon in this deepwater fishery was “smoking” MAL Heavy Lures up off the bottom repeatedly.

We picked up 32 fish at our first deepwater area, and another 19 fish at our second. By the time our fish count approached 45, Adi’s little wrists were starting to give out. I’d already swapped her spinning reel handle from left to right and back again multiple times to give her arms a break, but, at fish #67, she said she didn’t think she could reel in any more.

With about an hour still remaining, we took photos, did a bathroom break, and I then re-tooled to pursue sunfish up in shallow water. This was a much less strenuous exercise and Adi, who’d sunfished with me previously, did wonderfully well at watching her float and setting the hook.

In about a half-hour, Adi put 24 sunfish in the boat, including redears and bluegills, thus bringing our final fish count to 91.

Adi reeled in every last one of those 91 fish all by herself!

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

Our catch included 67 white bass, and 24 assorted sunfish.

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

TALLY: 91 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The fairly light winds and thin, but complete, grey cloud cover this morning made for great topwater conditions, with fish feeding for an extended period of time versus a bright, cloudless and/or windy morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 5.01 feet low, 0.04’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83F

Wind Speed & Direction: S4-5 at trip’s start, slowly increasing to S12 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Thin grey cloud cover at sunrise gave way to 50% patchy, thin cloud cover thereafter

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0031G (topwater and downrigging early)

Area 2033 and B0200G (mid-morning smoking with MALs)

Area 502 – sunfish

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

SUMMERTIME’S “SO-SO” KICKING IN — 60 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

June 13th, 2022June 13th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, June 13th, I fished with Drew and Cathy Dennison and their 18-year-old son, Zach.

Of the three, only Zach had been out with me previously during a Spring Break trip earlier this year which he attended with two of his buddies from Belton High School.

Drew works designing homes for Omega Builders, Cathy works to keep her family functioning, and Zach is preparing to head off to college where he’ll continue running track in the 1-mile, 2-mile, and cross-country events this coming fall. Go Lumberjacks!

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Zach, Drew, and Cathy Dennison each with a 14+ inch-long white bass taken in our first hour of fishing using MAL Lures in ~42 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: Cathy picked this “bonus” 3.75-pound largemouth bass up after he came over to see what all the white bass were doing as we caught fish out of a school in 38 feet of water by racing MAL Lures from off bottom toward the surface.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 13 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

It seems the impact of heat is definitely bringing on the summer-time fishing. As I’ve shared with many of you on the boat, June is my least favorite month to fish. The fish are transitioning locations due to the thermal stratification of the water, they tend to be most active early and late under low-light conditions, they tend to get finnicky, and, year after year, I see my fish counts drop significantly in June. I have to let my statistics guide my expectations. If I can put 45-70 fish in the boat in 4 hours with 1-3 anglers on board, I feel pretty good about that on Belton and Stillhouse during the month of June and into early July.

After a week off the water to join my brother for our annual prairie dog hunt (destination: Montana for 2022), I was back on the water hunting fish this morning. I chose to give Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir a try this morning, as it normally begins fishing more consistently than Lake Belton, and almost always produces better quality fish than Lake Belton where white bass are concerned.

Over the weekend, I put my downriggers back on the boat, anticipating that I will start to begin to see fish holding in horizontal bands (suspended up off bottom) as the thermocline begins to develop.

We got going a bit early this morning, and, since Stillhouse white bass almost never bite before sunrise, I did some looking for fish and bait just prior to sunrise at around 6:45A.

I found a few fish which looked catchable via downrigging, holding close to bottom in about 40 feet of water. We took one small fish and saw only a handful of others as we made 2 passes over the area, and left thereafter.

The rest of our fish were taken by searching and finding with side-imaging, using the precision of the i-Pilot Link Spot-Lock technology to “park” on top of these fish, and goad them into biting using a “smoking” tactic. As we sat in one area and created commotion, fish would “slide in” along the bottom and higher up in the water column. Whenever fish showed both on bottom and up higher in the water column at the same time on Garmin LiveScope, the fish highest off bottom were almost always the most aggressive as far as willingness to chase our lures.

The later it got, the shorter the duration of the bite at a given area until, around 10:30, even though we could pull fish in, we could no longer get them interested in chasing or striking.

The primary tactic we relied upon today was “smoking” MAL Dense Lures up off the bottom repeatedly. One significant variation is worth noting. Once the fish we parked atop of showed a reluctance to chase vertically, we were able to “milk” a few more fish from that area by just pitching the lure a short (~30 feet) distance out from the boat, and working it back with a sawtooth method. That extra horizontal component really made a difference. This tactic has been verified by others on Lake Buchanan, Hubbard Creek, and Fort Phantom Hill.

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

Our catch included 59 white bass, and 1 largemouth bass (3.75 pounds).

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

TALLY: 60 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: We broke a record for the daily high temperature this past Saturday (105F) and tied the record for June 12th on Sunday (104F). Today and tomorrow are supposed to hit 100F before an entrenched high pressure system moves east and allows some cloud cover to cool us off before it move back over us for Thurs. thru Sat.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 5.13 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 82.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW10 at sunrise, increasing to SSW16 with gusts to 19 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Blue skies with wispy, white, thin cloud cover at ~60%

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 99% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area SH0130G – 29 fish (2 hops)

Area SH0131G – 3 fish

Area SH0132G – 28 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

IS THERE A VETERINARIAN ONBOARD? — 159 FISH @ BELTON

June 6th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Monday, 06 June 2022, I fished with returning guests Linda Hankins and Kelly Wiggins.

The ladies, both veterinarians, are long-time friends and well-traveled anglers.

Linda had presented Kelly with a fishing gift certificate over the holidays. Foul weather prevented our first attempt at fishing earlier in the spring, but, today we found a “window in the wind” and made the best of it.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: Linda Hankins (left) and Kelly Wiggins put up with a stiff wind all morning and were rewarded for their efforts. That largest white bass of Kelly’s went 16 1/8″!! That’s the 2nd largest white bass I’ve had a client land in 17 year from that lake. The 16.75″ fish which beat it is the current C&R lake record.

PHOTO CAPTION: Meet “Wylie”. Wylie needed some veterinary assistance this morning when he found himself enmeshed in an abandoned cast net.

PHOTO CAPTION: Now, meet Kelly. Kelly is the fearless vet who grabbed ahold of Wylie while I snipped him out of the abandoned cast net he was tangled in.

PHOTO CAPTION: To show his appreciation to his savior, Wylie gave Kelly a little hug before he swam away!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 06 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Every time I gear up to receive clients aboard in the month of June I feel like I’m living on borrowed time before the water stratifies thanks to the heat, and the tougher summer fishing settles in.

Fortunately, today was not that day. Wind, however, was an issue. As I launched well before sunrise, it was already blowing SSE13, and it steadily ratcheted up over our four hours on the water to 18-19 gusting higher by the time we wrapped up.

Thanks to the high winds, there were few other boats on the water, so we had the ‘run of the place’. We wound up having to fish only three locations to put together our catch this morning, with but a handful coming off of the third area, which we fish for only 20 minutes or so.

We got on top of our first bunch of fish at 7:05 and caught steadily for two hours, putting 116 fish in the boat. Most of the fish from this area were taken from the top of the lower third of the water column. Although there were fish showing continuously from this level all the way down to bottom, those fish closer to the bottom were less likely to chase and strike.

We fished our next area from about 9:20 to 10:20 and put another 35 fish in the boat using the same smoking tactic with the same MAL Dense Lures as before. As it typical in the fourth hour following sunrise, these fish did not stay interested nearly as long as those we found earlier.

By 10:20 we moved one final time to look at one last area. We’d already agreed, based on the ladies’ success and the increasing wind, that if we did not find fish where I was headed to, that we’d call it a good morning and wrap up.

Fortunately, I did find a few fish. We had to work harder for the success we had here, and only added 8 more white bass to our count as the morning bite was winding down.

The sole tactic we relied upon today was “smoking” MAL Dense Lures up off the bottom repeatedly.

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

Our catch included 158 white bass, and 1 blue catfish.

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

TALLY: 159 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The forecast calls for a string of eight 100-105F days beginning today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 4.61 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13 at first light, increasing to SSE17-19, gusting higher by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Blue skies with wispy, white, thin cloud cover at ~60%

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 39% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0042G (116 fish), Area B0084G (35 fish), Area 834 (8 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

WORE OUT BOTH ARMS! — 160 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 5th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Friday, 03 June 2022, I fished with first-time guests Amanda and Logan Winkler, a mother and son pair who are Central Texas natives.

Amanda and her husband, Justin, bid on a fishing gift certificate I had provided to the Ralph Wilson Youth Club some time ago, and today was the day they chose to redeem it.

Here is how the fishing went …

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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: Logan and Amanda fished until Amanda, literally, could not reel in any more fish because her arms hurt! We worked MAL Dense Lures (with white tails) very successfully for fish in 42-52 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 03 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite the abnormally warm May, I have yet to see any ill effects of the heat impacting the normally excellent late-spring fishery. Yes, the threadfin shad spawn is over, but that is normal for this time of year. And, yes, I’m beginning to see white bass suspend more off of steep slopes, but, that is also typical for this time of year. Other things in the natural, annual cycle are also falling in line now, like the presence of young of the year shad and the start of open-water topwater feeding.

As we got going, I spent a bit of time looking for topwater action, but, with a north wind blowing following the arrival of a mild cold front yesterday, I knew our chances of finding anything worth fishing for for any length of time were slim.

We went a good 30 minutes scrubbing the bottom with sonar (relying most heavily on the far-reaching side-imaging for this work) before we came upon our first sizeable school of fish.

We got a very positive reaction from these fish (which were in 42 feet of water) as they perked up immediately as Amanda and Logan’s baits reached bottom on their first drop.

We stayed on these fish for one hour and forty minutes, catching fish at a rate of one fish per minute, with a total of exactly 100 fish taken without moving the boat one iota between 7:00 AM and 8:40 AM.

With the bite fading to nil by 8:40, we headed in for a “bio-break”, and then went back out in search of more catchable fish.

By this time, Amanda’s right arm was sore from the catching, and, after switching her reel’s handle to the opposite side, she proceeded to wear out her left arm as well! Even Logan, a 4-sport athlete, said he was really feeling it in his right bicep after landing more fish during this trip than he had during all the trips in the rest of his life, combined!!

We found another, totally suspended group of fish holding at 30-40 feet in a horizontal band over 52 feet of water and, greatly aided by Garmin LiveScope, were able to present our MAL Dense Lures very effectively and efficiently to these fish.

Between 9AM and 10AM, Amanda and Logan continued to catch fish at a furious pace, landing another 60 fish before they decided to call it quits with Amanda scarcely able to reel in any more fish with either arm.

The sole tactic we relied upon today was “smoking” MAL Dense Lures (chartreuse body, white tail) up off the bottom repeatedly.

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

Our catch included 158 white bass, 1 short hybrid striped bass, and 1 largemouth bass.

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

TALLY: 160 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Topwater action was hindered by a continuing north wind following a cold front’s passage on the morning of 02 June. Here was the temperature profile down to 60 feet:

0 feet 80.1F
5 feet 80.1F
10 feet 79.9F
15 feet 79.6F
20 feet 79.2F
25 feet 78.8F
30 feet 78.2F
35 feet 76.1F
40 feet 72.1F
45 feet 67.4F
50 feet 64.7F
55 feet 62.2F
60 feet 60.8F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 4.45 feet low, 0.03’ fall in last 24 hours, 32 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 80.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE5-8 all morning

Sky Condition: Blue skies with wispy, white, thin cloud cover at ~60%

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 714/B0041G (100 fish), Area B0094G (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

SEVERAL “DAYS” WORTH OF FISHING — 86 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 3rd, 2022June 3rd, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Thursday, 02 June 2022, I fished with first-time guests Cedric, Terry, and Daniel Day.

Cedric, who serves as the medical director for the faith-based Hope Pregnancy Centers in Central Texas, and I first met at a recent fund-raiser for that organization.

Cedric had considered fishing with his son earlier in the year, but I suggested holding off until the peak mid-April to late-May/early-June timeframe to ensure success.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Terry (Papa Bear), Daniel (age 9) and Cedric Day with a few of the 86 fish they landed as an early summer cold front surprised us and the weathermen.

PHOTO CAPTION: After an hour of fishing, that “green monster” bore down on us around 8:00A, but, by 8:30, had moved quickly to the SE. We got in another hour of fishing, before another, more violent, wave of weather moved in forcing an early conclusion to our trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 02 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

I know I’m preaching to the choir when I lament how erroneous weather forecasting can throw anglers a real curve-ball, but, today was a real doozy. We were due to have winds from the SW at 7-12 during our first 4 hours of light today, but, in reality, were faced with northerly winds all morning, the passage of two bands of rain, and winds which went 15-18, gusting 22+.

We got going at 6:30A, found a few fish chasing shad on topwater, but the ill effects of the north wind were already beginning. The wind speed was up, thus disturbing the surface, which cuts down on fishes’ ability to silhouette prey against the bright surface. After catching a handful of fish, we moved on to look for congregated fish in deeper water to work vertically for.

We found such a school in about 26 feet of water, caught another 9 fish from that bunch and, perhaps more importantly, got all the kinks worked out of everyone’s technique.

We caught those nine fish with a wind driving drops of rain from the north at high velocity so, when the bite died, we made a call to get everyone back to cover to await the passage of this band of weather which appeared on weather radar to be moving quickly. I was now about 8A.

We reboarded the boat at 8:20A and drove straight to a nice, bottom-hugging school of fish in just over 40 feet of water. We picked up another 23 fish here working MAL Heavy Barbless Lures (for the men) and an MAL Dense (for Daniel).

When that group of fish lost interest, I found another nearby. This school was NOT bottom-oriented. Rather, it consisted of a loose gathering of suspended fish which, by the commotion we created as we fished for them, we were able to get to consolidate under the boat. We continued our “smoking” tactics, but, instead of cranking x number of times up off bottom as we did for the bottom-oriented fish, we cranked until our lures were 2-3 handle turns above the highest of the suspended fish.

We took a final 51 fish at this location and then got while the gettin’ was good as yet another storm pushed in from the NW, this time with ample thunder and lightning.

I got my three men to their vehicle before the first raindrops fell, then sat in my truck in a downpour between getting my boat on the trailer and trailering home. As I sat in the truck, glad we didn’t wait a minute longer to come in, I watched the temperature drop from 74F to 66F in a matter of minutes.

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

Our catch included 85 white bass and 1 largemouth bass.

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

TALLY: 86 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 1) White bass are definitely turning on to young of the year threadfin now. 2) In addition to bottom-hugging fish, loosely grouped fish in the lower third of the water column were consistently found on the windward side of deeper, steeper bottom features.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 9:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F, falling to 66F by trip’s end

Elevation: 4.45 feet low, 0.03’ fall in last 24 hours, 32 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light/variable winds at trip’s start under 2mph, then picking up from the SE at under 8 mph from ~8A on.

Sky Condition: Grey skies all morning with rain and wind gusts under influence of an incoming cold front.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 8% illumination.

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT: (This turned out to be quite inaccurate!)

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0098G (before first storm), B0037C & 1945/B0148C (in advance of second storm)

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

NOW ON THE MENU: TENDER SHAD – 204 FISH @ BELTON LAKE

June 2nd, 2022June 2nd, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Wednesday, 01 June 2022, I fished with returning client Phil Moore, accompanied by two new guests — Clinton White and Gary Jones.

Phil retired some time ago from his position with a water supply corporation and is very active in ministry through Memorial Baptist Church in Killeen. Clinton is a retired educator from out in West Texas, and Gary is the current Dawson Independent School District superintendent, in the Lamesa/Brownfield area.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Clinton White, Gary Jones, and Phil Moore with a nice take for this first day of June 2022. We found fish on topwater early, then transitioned to vertical tactics after the skies brightened.

PHOTO CAPTION: The young-of-the-year threadfin shad which were spawned earliest this spring have grown out to just over an inch long now and are EVERYWHERE. They definitely are the center of the white basses’ attention now. Many of our caught fish were regurgitating these hapless little forage fish. The top shad is intact and had not been eaten long before it was regurgitated. The lower one was digested partially before being expelled.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 01 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

With light winds and thin, but complete, grey cloud cover and heavy, humid air in place, it just “felt right” for topwater action this morning when I poked my head out the door just after 4AM.

I placed my topwater rod set in the boat right next to the MAL Heavy rods for deep, vertical work, and headed out.

Sure enough, just after greeting my trio of guests and covering all the standard pre-trip items, I began to see the telltale “nervous water” created by white bass feeding gingerly on young of the year threadfin shad.

The schools of surface-feeding whites appeared here and there at first, but, as the light level increased through the clouds, the feeding grew stronger and stronger.

In under an hour, we put 46 fish in the boat primarily by sight-casting to these fish. There are a few keys to capitalizing on these surface feeders. The biggest one is avoiding running all over the place trying to get to the fish. Instead, either staying in a well-chosen location where the fish have shown a tendency to feed, or getting ahead of a group of feeding fish so as to fish them as they approach, as they surround, and as they move away, are MUCH better options.

I intentionally moved away from another angler who “joined” us, as he whipped the water into a froth doing acrobatics with his trolling motor trying to speed over to every small group of fish which showed themselves … that just didn’t work out too well for him.

The second key is wisely choosing where to cast so your lure is lobbed over as many fish as possible then retrieved before it sinks below the level of the fish.

My topwater rods are all light, 8-foot spinning rods with large arbor reels and light, 10-pound braid, terminated with an MAL Original with one of the three treble hook tines snipped off and the barbs pressed down. This makes for super-fast unhooking so more casts can be executed over a given period of time.

PHOTO CAPTION: My modifications of the MAL Original for surface action: 1) snip off 1 of the 3 tines for quicker releases, 2) press down the barbs for faster unhooking, 3) go with a white tail, as immature shad do not have yellow tails yet, and 4) use a “speed clip” of some sort so you can quickly change a bait without having to retie. If a hybrid or striper mangles your bait, if a hook breaks, etc. you can just slip the old on off and put the new one on and keep casting. I also keep a backup rod with an identical setup at the ready. I use the MAL Original as it is the lightest lure in the MAL Lure family, so it doesn’t sink below the surface feeding fish too quickly.

Even on the best days, on Lake Belton (fairly clear water) the “window” of opportunity usually doesn’t last more than 40 minutes or so. So, one needs to “make hay while the sun shines”.

After the topwater chapter ended, we headed out to deep water, found congregated fish both on bottom, and loosely schooled in the lower third of the water column along more steeply sloped bottoms being impacted by the wind, We worked MAL Heavy Barbless Lures vertically for the remainder of our trip, using the “smoking” tactic. This accounted for 154 additional fish.

The fishing fell off sharply around 10:10. I stayed on the fish we’d found at our final deep water spot longer than I normally would have in order to help the fellows reach the 200 fish mark. I felt that to leave fish at this point in an attempt to find fish might just backfire.

We hit that 200 fish mark right at 10:30, then I cruised around looking for a few more fish but found nothing until I noticed a blue heron diving repeatedly out in open, deep water. A quick look with the spotting scope showed white bass driving shad to the surface under the darkened conditions brought on by briefly thickening cloud cover. I eased over to the action, everyone caught one last fish (Phil got 2!) on the topwater rods, and we called it a great morning with 204 fish landed.

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

Our 204 fish catch included exactly 201 white bass, 1 short hybrid striper, 1 freshwater drum, and 1 largemouth bass.

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

TALLY: 204 fish caught and released

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 4.42 feet low, 0.03’ fall in last 24 hours, 32 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light/variable winds at trip’s start under 2mph, then picking up from the SE at under 8 mph from ~8A on.

Sky Condition: Greyed over skies for the first hour, followed by steady clearing to ~60-80% grey clouds on a white sky for the remainder of the trip.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 4% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 698 (early topwater/shallow water), Area 083/958 (bottom oriented), Area B0094G (suspended on slope), Area 2033 (suspended on slope)

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