Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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SUBTLE CHANGES AS SUMMER DRAWS NEAR – 186 FISH @ BELTON

May 12th, 2022May 12th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, May 12th, I fished with long-time clients Tommy and Sylvia Maedgen of Temple, TX.

Sylvia retired from the USDA and Tommy worked for many years for Exide Battery. The Maedgen’s are “think ahead” kind of folks. They like to catch fish, they are good at it, and they plan their trips well in advance to secure dates at peak times of the season. This, plus their flexible “retiree” schedules, pave the road to fishing success.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 6th and 7th. 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: Bell County Master Gardener Sylvia Maegden was also a Master Angler this morning, taking our largest fish of the trip. This 4.75 pound hybrid striped bass swallowed her MAL Dense Lure as we fished in 36 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: The Maedgens “fish smart”, booking their trips months in advance, planning around peak fishing conditions and, as a result, enjoy much better than average results.

PHOTO CAPTION: The fish just tore things up today! This was Sylvia’s lure which accounted for two of our three legal hybrid and her fair share of the 186 fish boated today. Paint or no paint, the MAL Dense Lures did their job today.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 12 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

We enjoyed a nice “bonus” this morning! Right as the Maedgens stepped aboard just a few minutes prior to our scheduled 6:45AM start time, we made a beeline for some surface activity I’d spotted with my spotting scope in the lull between getting the boat all prepped for fishing and the Maedgen’s arrival.

As we approached the “scene of the crime” white bass continued to pin shad up against the surface, thus announcing their location inside a small “pocket” in under 13 feet of water. I equipped Tommy and Sylvia with 8′ St. Croix spinning rods with large arbor reels and light, 10-pound test braid all matched to maximize casting distance and allow us to stay as far away from the fish as we could so as not to spook them.

I had MAL Original Lures (the lightest in the MAL family) already tied on in anticipation of this.

We enjoyed right at an hour-plus of both sight-casting and blind-casting to these fish, racking up a total of 44 fish before the clearing clouds and brightening sun chased the white bass and shad out of the large, pocket-like cove they’d been holed up in.

From this point forward, this trip was a “cookie-cutter” version of what my trips have been over the last several weeks … we found fish in deep water, heavily schooled together, and primarily with side-imaging. We marked them, parked on them, and fished them with MAL Dense Lures worked vertically with a “smoking tactic” enhanced with Garmin LiveScope. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get the spinner blade spinning as close to bottom as possible, and to avoid a reflexive hookset. Setting a hook with MAL Lures like you would with a soft plastic bait for largemouth bass is a ticket to frustration — many fish will be unnecessarily lost this way.

As we sat on Spot-Lock, I kept my side-imaging (Humminbird Solix 15) playing so I could watch for schools of white bass moving out to my left and right. Whenever we saw more fish out to our port or starboard than we saw beneath us, we’d fire a few casts out to them and worked our lures back. By doing so, we drew these fish in closer to us and helped “merge” the various schools. Actually catching one or two by throwing horizontally was just icing on the cake. This method involved a “sawtooth” retrieve.

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

Our 186 fish catch included 182 white bass, 3 legal hybrid striped bass, and 1 sub-legal hybrid striped bass.

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

TALLY: 186 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: I’m afraid this prolonged spell of unseasonably warm temperatures is going to bring on the tough summer conditions sooner than later. The topwater action I saw today was longer and closer to the surface than I’ve observed yet this spring. I also noted that the fish were a bit reluctant to pull up high off the bottom into the lower third of the water column through the 9 o’clock hour, despite good wind and sky conditions.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 3.93 feet low, 0.04’ fall in last 24 hours, 36 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 at trip’s start increasing to SSE13 with no gusting

Sky Condition: Moderate grey cloud cover only for an hour today, then partial clearing to ~60% white clouds on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 83% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas SHAD031 (pocket), B0075C, vic B0118C, B0012C, 1374, 344

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

MY NEW P.A.L.S. FROM MARYLAND — 198 FISH @ BELTON

May 11th, 2022May 11th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, May 11th, I fished with first-time guests Richard and Lindy McClure of Salado, TX.

Lindy, a member of the board for the Public Arts League of Salado (PALS), was high bidder on a fishing trip for two I’d donated to that organization recently. Among other things, P.A.L.S. ensures that Salado’s public arts are presented and maintained appropriately.

Lindy invited Richard, her husband, as her guest, and the two chose this morning to pursue white bass on Lake Belton.

The McClure’s recently retired to Salado from Annapolis, Maryland, where Richard served as the general manager of Carrol’s Creek Cafe for over two decades, right across Annapolis Harbor from the U.S. Naval Academy.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on June 29 and July 5. 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: Richard and Lindy McClure on their first Texas fishing trip, and first visit to the waters of Lake Belton.

MAL DENSE LURE

PHOTO CAPTION: After the McClures hit the 100 fish mark using MAL Dense Lures (shown above), we switched over the MAL Heavy Lures with barbless hooks to make things a bit easier on fish and fishermen.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 11 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

This morning was much like the last 5 or 6 trips I’ve fished so far as the weather was concerned … a manageable SSE breeze with a balmy 74F air temperature and nearly 100% cloud cover through to the end of the trip keeping it comfortable despite unseasonably warm temperatures.

The fish started biting right out of the chutes this morning as the thin grey cloud cover allowed for a noticeable brightening of the skies.

We landed 37 fish in under an hour, although 80% of these fish were undersized. Regardless, this allowed the McClures to work out the kinks in their presentations and laid a solid foundation which they built on over the remainder of the morning.

We fished two additional areas fairly quickly between 8A and 9A, with the fish being only moderately interested, landing 12 at the first and 29 at the second.

Our final move landed us on top of a school of white bass which was really turned on and feeding hard, occasionally chasing shad all the way to the surface. These fish fed well from right around 9A to around 10:30, then slowly “faded to black” by 11AM.

At 10:43, with 184 fish in the boat and with Lindy sitting it out after all the catching wore out her shoulder, I leaned over to Richard and asked if he wanted to see if we could make it to 200. We agreed we’d give it until 11AM or 200 fish, whichever came first. By 11, we’d landed 198 and called it a great morning right then and there.

All of our fish were taken using the “smoking” tactic with MAL Dense Lures until we reached 100 fish; then, I switched one rod over the the MAL Heavy Lure with barbless hooks to make unhooking faster and to cause less tissue damage on the fish we hooked.

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

Our 198 fish catch included 193 white bass, and 6 sub-legal hybrid striped bass.

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

TALLY: 198 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Water temperature profile:

0 feet 76.7F
5 feet 76.4F
10 feet 76.3F
15 feet 76.3F
20 feet 76.3F
25 feet 74.8F
30 feet 72.7F
35 feet 69.8F
40 feet 67.8F
45 feet 66.1F
50 feet 63.9F
55 feet 62.0F
60 feet 60.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 3.81 feet low, 0.032’ fall in last 24 hours, 36 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10 at trip’s start increasing to SSE13 with no gusting

Sky Condition: Moderate grey cloud cover persisted all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 74% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas vic 1579/181, Area 1012, and Area LOST ROD 2

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 SIMPLE 7,503-STEP PROCESS — 139 FISH @ BELTON

May 10th, 2022May 11th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, May 10th, I fished returning guests Frank Sumner and Steve Arnold — both veterans, both employed in the medical field, and both active in men’s ministry at their church.

It so happened that Steve was wearing one of these “Fit Bit” style watches which counts your steps daily. Experts say 10,000 steps is a healthy daily goal.

Well, Steve discovered that his watch registered a “step” every time he made a full turn of his spinning reel’s handle. Steve racked up exactly 7,503 “steps” as he landed his fair share of the 139 fish he and Frank brought over the gunwales this morning. That’s a pretty good workout without even breaking a sweat!

As they departed today, Frank signed up for yet another “workout session” in early November!

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Fishing buddies Steve Arnold and Frank Sumner with a sampling of their 139 fish haul from Lake Belton this morning. As always, 100% of our catch was released.

MAL DENSE LURE

PHOTO CAPTION: The fast-sinking MAL Dense with white body and chartreuse tail was the only lure we used today. Minimizing time spent waiting for the lure to return to the bottom was the key to this lure’s success after we found our fish in 42 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 10 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

The fish apparently “slept in” a bit this morning. In our first 75 minutes on the water, we landed a grand total of four fish. Although I found a few pockets with a few fish here and there, I looked over several typically productive areas and found no organized schools of fish at any of them.

Finally, after slowly combing over four other areas with little to show for it, I found a good concentration of fish in 42 feet of water. Side-imaging revealed multiple schools, each with well over 100 fish in them. We prepared to fish vertically by Spot-Locking atop these fish, getting the Garmin LiveScope adjusted, etc. As we let down and began working our baits with a “smoking” tactic, the response was pretty lackluster.

I was loathe to leave given the number of fish here and the scarcity elsewhere, so, I decided to stick it out and see if the strength of the bite would increase. Well, it did.

By 9:05, it was all I could do to unhook and release fish at the rate Frank and Steve were catching them. This went on for about 50 minutes. During this time we saw fish moving more rapidly as they swam parallel to the bottom; we also saw fish occasionally drive shad to the surface. Then, slowly but surely, the aggression level of the fish subsided until, by 11AM, it was over. The fish never got sparse enough for me to consider a move, so, we wound up catching the entire trip’s worth of fish at just this one location.

We used the MAL Dense with white body and chartreuse tail 100% of the trip. We experimented with a horizontal “sawtooth” retrieve a few times as the action was building, mainly to draw fish in toward the boat, although we did catch a few this way, as well.

Our 139 fish catch included 137 white bass, 1 legal hybrid striped bass, and 1 sub-legal hybrid striped bass.

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

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

TALLY: 139 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Of note today was the size/quality of the fish we encountered. Of the 139 fish we landed, only 3 were under the 10-inch legal limit. This is a very rare occurrence on Lake Belton, which is more well known as a “high density” reservoir with strong numbers of smaller fish. The strong shad spawn continues.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 3.84 feet low, 0.02’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 73.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11 at trip’s start increasing steadily to SSE13 with no gusting

Sky Condition: Heavy grey cloud cover persisted all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 65% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas vic 835

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

BRINGIN’ THE HEAT FROM OMAHA – 228 FISH @ BELTON

May 9th, 2022May 9th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, May 9th, I fished with a crew of three first time guests.

Coordinating the effort was Mark Foster, and joining him was his son, Landon Foster, and his son-in-law, Lucas Potter.

Mark just retired from the Union Pacific Railroad and recently moved to the Temple area from near Omaha, Landon works for Cummins in their power generation segment up in Minden, Nebraska, and Lucas is a construction superintendent for Stylecraft Builders here in Central Texas.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Landon and Mark Foster and Lucas Potter. Mark caught this 4.75-pound hybrid striped bass in our final 30 minutes on the water. It slammed an MAL Dense with chartreuse tail as Mark worked it up off bottom in 40 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Landon and Mark Foster and Lucas Potter with a few of the nice haul of quality fish we enjoyed catching this morning under ideal weather conditions — grey and breezy!

MAL DENSE LURE

PHOTO CAPTION: The fast-sinking MAL Dense, with its lead body, did the majority of the catching today. Minimizing time spent waiting for the lure to return to the bottom is the key to this lure’s success.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 09 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

The bite followed a normal, bell-shaped curve this morning with a ramp-up from our 6:45A start to a peak running from ~7:45A through about 9:50A, followed by a tapering off to a shutdown by 10:50A.

At this point in the season, with the water warm and the white bass done with spawning, I have nothing but MAL Lures now tied on my clients’ rods. I’ve got one set of rods with MAL Originals for topwater or shallow work over spawning shad, MAL Heavy Lures with barbless hooks for when it really breaks loose and the fish go crazy, and MAL Dense Lures for all other vertical work in deep water where a fast sink rate is desirable.

This morning, we used a “smoking” tactic from start to finish hitting the 100 fish mark by exactly 8:28AM, and the 200 fish mark at 10:05AM. We fished 5 areas, catching 13 fish at our first location, 163 fish at our second location, 11 fish at our third location, 27 fish at our fourth location, and 14 fish at our final location. By 10:50A, it was getting toasty with temps already in the mid-80’s on the third of what is forecast to be a string of ~9 days with highs in the mid-90s.

Our 228 fish catch included 221 white bass, 1 legal hybrid striped bass, and 6 sub-legal hybrid striped bass.

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

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

TALLY: 228 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The percentage of quality, legal sized fish was substantially greater today than I’ve seen thus far in the post-spawn period. Of the 228 fish we caught, fewer than a dozen were under 10″. The strong shad spawn continues.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 3.82 feet low, 0.01’ rise in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 72.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13 at trip’s start, SSE16 and gusting higher at trip’s end

Sky Condition: Moderately thick grey cloud cover at 100% coverage for the first 2 hours, then clearing to 40% white clouds on a very hazy sky thereafter.

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 55% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1933, vic 1012, vic 344, 835, vic 1555

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

GARMIN GRATITUDE – 284 FISH @ BELTON

May 4th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, May 4th, I fished with returning guest Stiles Parker, accompanied by business associates and first time guests Edson Chavez and Brent Ellis.

Stiles sells products, including siding and windows, into the building industry, Edson works for ABC Supply, and Brent serves as a contractor doing utility work for an Austin-area electric cooperative.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on June 21 and 23. 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: Stiles Parker, Edson Chavez, and Brent Ellis caught and released 284 fish this morning under ideal grey, breezy conditions. 100% of the catch was made on MAL Lures worked vertically in 26 to 43 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 04 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

After a minor weather disturbance moved through right at sunrise yesterday and upset the apple cart a bit, things got back on track this morning as we enjoyed nothing but unbroken grey cloud cover and a SE breeze at just under 14 mph which made boat control a non-issue.

We fished four areas over the 4.75 hour trip, taking 52 fish at our first stop, 96 fish at our second stop, 52 fish at our third stop, and 84 fish at our fourth and final stop.

The fishing got progressively deeper with each stop, starting up in ~26′ and ending out in 47′.

We used MAL Heavy Lures and MAL Dense Lures interchangeably. Since Stiles had previous experience with the MAL Lure, I put him on the MAL Heavy with barbless hooks right off the bat, and switched Edson and Brent over to barbless once they got the hang of things after leaving our first area.

We used a smoking tactic vertically the entire morning aided by Garmin LiveScope. Stiles owns his own boat and, thanks to observing the usefulness of Garmin LiveScope on prior guided trips with me, has now included Garmin LiveScope on his rig. Edson and Brent were really impressed with the technology and the results it paved the way for us to enjoy.

Actually seeing fish and their response to their presentations in real time helps my clients stay focused on the fish. They fish harder and longer and more intentionally when they can see with their own eyes that there is something down there to keep working for.

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

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

TALLY: 284 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Shad spawn is in full swing.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 3.91 feet low, 0.00’ change in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8 at launch time, slowly and steadily building to SE14 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Moderately thick grey cloud cover at 100% coverage all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 12% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1804, 682, B0106G, 1298

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

WIND TO THE RESCUE!! — 142 FISH @ BELTON

May 3rd, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, May 3rd, I fished with Aaron and Kelly Baggett, and family friend of theirs, Jordan Barker.

Aaron serves as the Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton.

Kelly, Aaron’s dad, is a retired public school superintendent of the Levelland Independent School District.

Jordan is a project manager for Sturdisteel of Waco, a design, engineering, and fabricating company specializing in the construction and installation of grandstands, bleachers, and press boxes for university and high school athletic facilities.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: UMHB Professor Aaron Baggett with a 5.75-pound Lake Belton hybrid striped bass taken on an MAL Dense Lure while we worked vertically for white bass.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Aaron and Kelly Baggett, and Jordan Barker, each with a few of the white bass we took working MAL Dense Lures vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. The larger fish we took today were lean, indicating they were “spawned out”, and many were therefore lacking the plump appearance they had while still full of eggs or milt.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 03 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

A minor disturbance in the weather caused a thin, short-lived line of showers to pass over Lake Belton just before and after sunrise this morning with gentle rain and light winds. In the wake of this weather, we were left with clear, bright skies and calm winds for the first 1.25 hour of the morning.

The fish were not liking that weather at all. Despite finding fish, they were very scant, very tight to the bottom, and all but disinterested in what we had to show them. We boated exactly 2 fish in our first hour of effort.

Wind to the rescue!! Around 8:15A, a gentle breeze began from the SSE and slowly built up to about SSE9, while at the same time cloud cover began to develop. Within 10 minutes of that breeze beginning, we started catching fish, and the catching never stopped from that point on.

We fished four locations, using the smoking tactic detailed below with MAL Dense lures chosen for their fast sink rate, and so as to give Kelly some first-hand experience with them since he specifically asked about the difference between the MAL Dense and the MAL Heavy.

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

At our third location, as we were fishing vertically, I noted more scattered fish “roaming” out in deeper water to our starboard side as we were positioned parallel to the 32′ contour line. We changed up our presentations and used the MAL Dense Lures to cast perpendicular to the starboard side of the boat, and worked these lures back in a series of seven handle turns in a “sawtooth” pattern, and continued catching fish steadily until these fish also petered out . We then made the move to our final location to continue fishing with the smoking tactic just before a wind shift and light rain arrived with an incoming, mild cold front.

Our final tally of 142 fish consisted of 1 short hybrid striped bass, 1 legal (5.75 pound) hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 139 white bass.

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

TALLY: 142 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: A lot went on in the weather over the course of this morning’s 4 hours, but the only thing the really shut the fish down was a lack of wind right at the opening.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 3.91 feet low, 0.01’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 71.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for the first 1.25 hours, then picking up from the SSE at 7-9 mph prior to a mild cold front’s arrival right at 11AM, which shifted winds abruptly to W12.

Sky Condition: Clear skies at trip’s start quickly gave way to 60% white cloud cover on a pale blue sky for the first 3 of our 4 hours. As the mild cold front crept in, grey cloud cover increased to 100% in the final hour.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 7% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 953/1544, vic B0186C (2 hops), B0005G, vic B0105G

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

LATE START, EARLY FINISH, & STILL CAUGHT 260 FISH

May 2nd, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, May 2nd, I fished with Rick Raatz, Ashley Schwettmann, and Clayton Whitson.

Rick runs a carpentry business based in Salado, Ashley tends bar in Killeen, and Clayton runs an excavation service out of Harker Heights.

The three became friends with fishing as the common denominator.

It was definitely a Monday, with my three anglers texting me just before our 6:45A meeting time that they’d be running late. Even with our late start, we made up for lost time pretty quickly.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Clayton Whitson, Ashley Schwettmann, and Rick Raatz enjoyed excellent fishing during this annual spring warmup, as rising fish metabolism drives them to feed heavily and frequently.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 01 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Based on my own experience the last two weeks, and reports I got over the weekend, I anticipated easy, high-numbers fishing this morning, and that is exactly what we got.

With this in mind, I rigged up all of the rods we’d be using this morning with my MAL Heavy Lures with barbless hooks to make it easier on both me and the fish. This, over the course of a 3-4 hour trip, also allows for more fish to be boated when less time is involved in removing the hook from each fish. We used the white tail and the chartreuse tail versions interchangeably using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

By about 10A, Rick’s back was “talking to him”, Clayton needed to get people and equipment moving, and Ashley probably would have stayed all day, but rode in with Rick. We wrapped up a bit early at 10:15A with exactly 260 fish landed in three hours flat.

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

The LiveScope really is beneficial in this scenario, as it shows how high up off the bottom fish are, so each of my anglers knows how far to reel up off bottom to present their lure to individual fish they can track in real time on that sonar technology. The LiveScope is also helpful to gauge fish activity level. When the fish are more frenetically moving left and right, parallel to the bottom, you can see their forward rate of speed is greater than when they “settle down” and slow down. Also, watching to see if fish are chasing a retrieved lure upwards lets my anglers know when to keep reeling, or, conversely, when to drop back to bottom.

Our final tally of 260 fish consisted of 1 short hybrid striped bass, 259 white bass.

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

TALLY: 260 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: I feel the slight wrinkle in the weather overnight gave the fishing a little boost this morning, although the fishing was already a 9.5 out of 10.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 10:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 3.91feet low, 0.06’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 71.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE16 for the first 3.5 hours, then calming to SSE12 thereafter

Sky Condition: Clear skies at trip’s start quickly gave way to a fully clouded sky with thin, grey cloud cover by 8:15. Grey cloud varied from 80-100% coverage from that point on.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 3% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1804, B0039G, B0069G (2 hops)

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

HEY, SONNY, IT’S KINDA SUNNY — 175 FISH @ BELTON

April 30th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday evening, April 28^th, I fished with Sonny Monroe and his son-in-law, Ryan Miles.

Sonny is a retired public school administrator and superintendent residing in Nolanville, TX, and Ryan is employed at Texas Hydraulics in Temple, TX.

In his retirement, Sonny got a new Ranger fishing boat, and passed down his older Champion bass boat to Miles. After fishing with me on Thursday, the two turned right back around and did a 4-hour on-the-water sonar training session with me today (Saturday) on Sonny’s boat, using his pair of Lowrance Elite sonar units to train on.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Ryan Miles and his father-in-law, Sonny Monroe, landed 175 fish on a warm, partly cloudy afternoon trip this past Thursday on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (PM), 28 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

The heat and light we experienced on this afternoon’s trip made this the first trip in quite some time when the majority of the trip was not fished under very heavily clouded skies.

The fishing was a bit tougher, as we had to move quite a bit (8 locations in all) to keep on the bite, and wound up catching ~68% of the morning’s catch of 254.

The fish were not really all that hard to located, as large schools of fish have been the norm. When the fish are in such large schools, at least a few will be located up off bottom, making detection with sonar much easier than when just a handful of fish are holding really tightly to the bottom.

When we found the fish, they tended to be other than enthusiastic about our presentations. Only once, at our last stop of the evening, did the fish rise up off bottom to “greet” our falling presentations; otherwise, we had to work our baits for several iterations to get the fish excited. Once they were excited and began biting, there was no real frenzied action.

We relied on using the MAL Dense (white body/chartreuse tail) vertically, retrieved using a smoking tactic at all but our last location. A complete description of this “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

At our last location, with the fish up as shallow as we would find them over the span of the entire trip, we were able to position the boat in even shallower water, cast perpendicular to the portside of the boat, and work our MAL Dense Lures back through the heavily schooled fish using a “sawtooth retrieve”. This put a final 33 fish in the boat in about as many minutes just before and after the sun set.

Our final tally of 254 fish consisted of 2 short hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 172 white bass.

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

TALLY: 175 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Here is the water temperature profile I measured around 3:15PM:

0 feet 72.5
5 feet 72.1
10 feet 71.3
15 feet 70.8
20 feet 70.5
25 feet 70.0
30 feet 68.6
35 feet 67.8
40 feet 66.4
45 feet 64.9
50 feet 62.6
55 feet 61.9

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 3:45P

End Time: 8:05P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 83F

Elevation: 3.81 feet low, 0.02’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 72.5F (nearly 5 degrees warmer on the surface than at sunrise)

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE16 for the first 3.5 hours, then calming to SSE12 thereafter

Sky Condition: 60% moderate grey cloud cover for the first 2 hours, then clearing slightly to 30% light grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 6% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0067G/B0002C, B0016G, B0064G, B0010C/B0056G, vic B0122C, B0082G, B0187C, B0172C

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 TIME OF RESPITE – 254 FISH @ BELTON

April 29th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning, April 28^th, I fished with David and Jill Weaver of Florence, TX. David, an Aggie, is a career veterinarian, working at a successful small animal practice in northwest Austin, and Jill retired early from her work as a financial planner.

After spending much time in and around the hospital caring for a family member of late, this outdoor experience came as a very welcome break, and at a very opportune time.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: David and Jill Weaver really worked ‘em over this morning, boating 254 fish in a little over 4 hours’ worth of fishing. All fish were caught using MAL Dense Lures with a “smoking tactic”.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 28 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

With continued wind, cloud cover, and warming water, the fishing continued to be spectacular this morning.

Although the forecast called for ~75% cloud cover early with clearing to about 30% by afternoon, we had very few breaks in the grey skies all morning, which kept the light levels low and the fish on the feed.

We started our morning up as shallow as we would fish all morning (~22’ deep) and then moved progressively deeper to keep up with feeding fish, with our last fish coming out of 43’.

The schools of fish we found numbered several hundred individuals in each of the four schools we fished over top of today, as seen on down-imaging, side-imaging, traditional sonar, and Garmin LiveScope equally well.

The four areas we fished produced 76 fish, 18 fish, 14 fish, and 146 fish, respectively.

We relied on but one presentation today, using the MAL Dense (white body/chartreuse tail) vertically, retrieved using a smoking tactic. A complete description of this “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

The Garmin LiveScope help let us know when to continue reeling (as fish pursued our baits) and when to let the lure return to bottom.

David, who has a black bass fishing background, had to “unlearn” his reflexive, hard hookset in order to land more of the fish which struck his presentation, but, once he got that mastered (which he did rather quickly), he did very well.

Our final tally of 254 fish consisted of 2 short hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 251 white bass.

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

TALLY: 254 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The wild dewberries have begun to ripen.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 3.81 feet low, 0.02’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 67.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12 at trip’s start, slowly increasing to SSE16 with gusts to 20.

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover all morning with just a few momentary breaks of sun shining through

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 6% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas vic 1804 (2 hops), 1012, 1544, and 1390

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