Belton Lake Fishing Guide

THE WHITE BASS BROTHERS — 200 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, 24 May 2022, I fished with long-time clients Joe, Jack, and Jamie Oliver, all brothers who grew up around Lake Belton.

Joe is a retired coach and school district superintendent, Jack owns an electrical contracting business near Marble Falls and dabbles in real estate, and Jamie just recently retired from counseling and moved back to the Belton/Temple area.

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: Joe, Jack, & Jamie Oliver took fish after fish today for a final tally of 200 caught and released.  The grey skies and wind had the fish cranked up pretty good until around 10AM.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: We used the MAL Dense with chartreuse tail in deep water exclusively today as higher winds at sunrise eliminated any visible, shallow topwater action.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 24 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing was solid this morning, albeit a bit one-dimensional.  Thanks to a stiff pre-dawn breeze out of the ENE around 12 mph, there was no topwater action to be found as was the case yesterday morning under balmier conditions.

So, after about 20 minutes spent looking for topwater action, we headed out deep, found fish consistently, and fished effectively with MAL Dense Lures used vertically with a “smoking” tactic.

I continue to have the MAL Dense with chartreuse tails tied on to match the vivid yellow tails of the spawning threadfin shad.  On that topic, the spawn has now just about run its course, with only dribs and drabs of fish hitting the shoreline to spawn — gone are the 45 to 60 minute-long, unbroken waves of fish which were commonplace just a few days ago.

With a cold front on the way and storms due to spark up as it passes through, we kept a wary eye on weather radar for the entire trip, but, never had a drop of rain fall on us over the full 4-hour duration.

The fish bit well through ~9:55AM, then downshifted to nil over the following hour.

By 9:55, we’d landed 181 fish.  We were only able to muster an additional 19 fish in that final hour from 9:55 to 10:50 to bring our final count to 200 fish, with fooling the last 6 fish being quite the feat as the whites got very lethargic very quickly.

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

Our 200 fish catch included exactly 198 white bass, 1 sub-legal hybrid striped bass, and 1 largemouth bass.  Once again, fewer than 20 of our white bass were short.

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

TALLY:  200 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Water temperature profile comparing this morning with last Thursday (on 19 May, prior to the arrival of our current cold front on Saturday, 21 May:

24-May 19-May
0 feet 77.9 0 feet 78. 8
5 feet 78.1 5 feet 78. 8
10 feet 78.1 10 feet 78. 6
15 feet 78.1 15 feet 78.4
20 feet 78.1 20 feet 78.1
25 feet 77.9 25 feet 77. 9
30 feet 76.7 30 feet 76. 8
35 feet 72.2 35 feet 72.2
40 feet 67.4 40 feet 68.2
45 feet 66.0 45 feet 64.5
50 feet 63.8 50 feet 62.2
55 feet 61.7 55 and 61.8

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time:  10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 4.37 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 32 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ENE12 at trip’s start, slowly shifting toward the S and building to ESE14 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Fully greyed skies all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 32% illumination.

GT = 120

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1012/1552 (46 fish), 150/1298 (114 fish), B0042G (53 fish), 1489/B0005C (21 fish), vic 835 (19 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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec #mepps

THANKS, BOSS!! — 201 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Thursday, 19 May 2022, I fished with Aaron Martin, owner of A.M. Designs.

A.M. Designs makes “props” of all sizes out of foam for high school bands, theater companies, businesses, churches, and more.

Aaron brought with him three current employees and one former employee on a half-day morning fishing trip in pursuit of white bass.

Joining Aaron was Mason Stuart, Travis Reynolds, Coey Malina, and Jesus Suarez.

If you are a boss and would like to treat your employees to something like this, just give me a call!

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 7th and 12th.  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: Travis Reynolds, Mason Stuart, Jesus Suarez, Aaron Martin, and Coey Malina with but a few of the 201 fish haul these fellows caught and released this morning on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION:  The MAL Dense worked like a charm today.  All 201 fish were landed on this bait worked vertically with a “smoking” tactic.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 19 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

For the second consecutive day I had to adjust my launch location due to the forecast for high winds due to ramp up in the latter half of the morning.

With five anglers aboard, I decided to do a quick “demo” of the smoking tactic with the MAL Dense Lure and the Garmin LiveScope before we got out on top of fish, so that I could help reduce the learning curve a bit and avoid missing fish due to avoidable technique issues.

I get a little ribbing sometimes for having four gunwale-mounted sonar units on the boat, but, when I have a crew of 5 or 6 anglers and everyone has a clear view of the underwater world beneath them, including seeing exactly what their lure is doing as well as fish response to that lure, well, it is beyond worth it at that time.

Such was the case this morning.  I had two men looking together at the aft starboard Garmin unit, one man solo, looking at the forward starboard monitor, and another pair of men looking together at the port side aft Garmin unit (hence, the port side forward unit remained turned off).  Everyone had plenty of elbow room and everyone could see their bait rise and fall 100% of the time.

We fished four areas this morning.  The fishing was best from 7:25 through 9:30, then tapered off quickly from 9:30 through 10:15, and, by 10:30 the fish were done.

I observed very little in the way of spawning shad and I saw no signs of schooling white bass feeding on the surface.

All of our fish was done in 34 to 49 feet of water using the smoking tactic.

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

Our 201 fish catch included exactly 200 white bass, and 1 sub-legal hybrid striped bass.  Of the 200 white bass, only 6 were “short” (under the legal length of 10 inches).

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

TALLY:  201 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: For a third day in a row, the shad spawn was present, but much weaker than in the last 2-3 weeks.  We are definitely on the downhill slope of the ‘bell curve’.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time:  10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 4.19 feet low, 0.04’ fall in last 24 hours, 36 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S9 at trip’s start, building gradually to S16-17 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: A thin, grey cloud layer kept the sun’s heat off all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 84% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1012/1259, vic B0037C, B0042G, 835 (2 hops), 1209

 

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec #mepps

DAD, I KNOW WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS!! — 126 FISH

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Wednesday, Dec. 2nd, I fished with Brian Linford of El Paso, TX, and his “homeless” father, Larry Linford, who is weighing his options after selling his home in Idaho Falls, ID, and is considering becoming at least a winter-Texas given that his adult kids all live down this way.

The two were visiting relatives in the Belton area and decided to give Lake Belton a try.  Larry hadn’t done much white bass fishing before, and Brian was eager to see how I put sonar, in particular the GARMIN LiveScope, into practice in a “real-world” fish-finding scenario.

After seeing what he saw, but knowing his wife would not be wild about the possibility of another sonar purchase, Brian considered his alternatives and informed Larry, “Dad, I know what I want for Christmas.”   Larry just laughed.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   From right: Larry and Brian Linford with a few of the 3-year class fish from our haul of 126 fish taken from Lake Belton on MAL Lures this morning in advance of a dry cold front which came in around 1PM.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 02 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

It was a pretty crazy weather day today which resulting in me having to postpone my afternoon outing due to forecast high winds.

We had a mild, dry cold front approaching from the NW, but this morning’s trip did not coincide with the pre-frontal wind shift in advance of that front, so, we had enjoyable conditions, but pretty average fishing.  We were aided by light, grey cloud cover, but hindered by a lack of wind.

When the wind blew, the activity level of the fish rose noticeably, but, the opposite was also true.

We put our 100th fish in the boat today right at 11:20, the, because I had already made a call to postpone the afternoon trip and was under no time constraints, we hit an area I haven’t fished in a while to scout it out a bit.  I found fish in about 35′ on bottom, and we fished them until they quit, putting a “bonus” 26 fish in the boat and taking our final tally to 126 fish.

In that mix was 1 freshwater drum, 2 smallmouth bass, 8 largemouth bass, and 115 white bass.  No hybrid striped bass in the mix this morning.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 126 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   No gull activity today after a 4-day run of solid bird action.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation:  0.87 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 60.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light SE breeze at trip’s start, then just short stints of light breezes from the SW thereafter in the hours immediately preceding the arrival of yet another mild, dry cold front which started with a northerly wind around 1P, and which led to the postponement of this afternoon’s trip due to high forecast winds (18, gusting 25)

Sky Condition: Grey skies all morning with occasional mist, as well as occasional, brief breaks of sun through the clouds.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 96% illumination

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1483; 15 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 1489; 21 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 354; 34 on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic B0051G; 31 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 579; 25 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

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) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

IT’S A CRIME TO PAY MORE THAN A DIME – 100 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: If you’ve ever heard the phrase “It’s a crime to pay more than a dime.” — you were most likely listening to a McLeod Auto Sales radio commercial.

This morning, Tuesday, December 1st, I fished with returning guest Travis McLeod, co-owner, along with his wife, Diane, of McLeod Auto Sales at 1601 E. Rancier Ave. in Killeen.

The McLeods have been in business for over 20 years selling used cars.  To take a break from that from time to time, Travis likes to get out and do some hunting and fishing.  Today, he braved some pretty tough weather to pursue white bass and sharpen up his own game on this abundant gamefish species on Lake Belton so as to be able to treat his own family, namely his grandkids, to some similar fishing.

Although we both enjoyed the catching, Travis also came to pick my brain a bit about tactics and sonar use.  He came away with a few valuable lessons, namely, that he’s likely been looking too shallow in his autumn fishing, and too dependent on the down-looking technologies of down-imaging and colored sonar, while not making full use of his side imaging on his own Humminbird Helix unit.

Travis is a well-traveled hunter and in that arena I picked up a tip or two from him, namely that I need to set aside time to go to the Dallas Safari Club’s Convention and Sporting Expo held annually in Dallas.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   Travis McLeod with one of several hybrid striped bass we took from about 40 feet of water as we focused on white bass using a combination of MAL Lures and Garmin LiveScope.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 01 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

After a sweet run of fishing for very aggressive fish spurred on by frontal activity this past Saturday and again yesterday, things settled back down to more normal conditions today as a southerly wind returned overnight after a very short post-frontal calm just at and after sunset last night.

Under these conditions, fish feed, but not for extended periods.  Fish chase, but not for extra long distances, and the energy they exhibit is generally less than when a rapid change of atmospheric pressure is taking place.

Today we wound up fishing 4 general locations, short-hopping a bit at the first three to keep up with the fish (under birds), to put together our catch of exactly 100 fish.  By 10:30, the winds, which were forecast to max out a 13 mph straight-line, actually rose to 16-17, with higher gusts.  It was such that we vacated open water for our last hour and fished more protected (but still wind-impacted) water.

Until we hit our last area, our ratio of young of the year fish to legal fish was very low, but, of the last 20 we landed, approx. 17 were shorts.  Regardless of size, it sure is fun to work individual fish while peering into the depths below with the LiveScope technology.

We ended up with exactly 100 fish caught this morning, including 3 hybrid stripers, 4 largemouth, and 93 white bass, with one big drum missed right at boatside which did not go on the “clicker” to be counted.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   2.5 hours worth of solid gull activity in the middle part of this morning’s trip.  First “killing” frost of the year occurred overnight.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Elevation:  0.86 low with a 0.03’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 60.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S12 at trip’s start, ramping up to S16 with higher gusts to 20+ by 10:30A

Sky Condition: High, thin white cloud cover at ~20% on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 99% illumination

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic B0098C; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 086 to 1551; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 1391; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 844; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

 

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) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

COULDN’T GET ENOUGH — 277 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday afternoon, November 25th, I fished with first-time guests Jeff and Sue Madden and their twin 12-year-old sons, Cash and Cooper.  The Maddens came down from Lewisville, TX, to gather in Salado for Thanksgiving with family and planned about a month ahead to do some fishing with me on Lake Belton the day before.

Because Jeff was pretty certain Sue would only come along if the weather cooperated, I suggested booking an afternoon trip, which they did.

All four of the Maddens really worked at catching fish the entire four hours on the water, and, thanks to weather conducive to a strong catch, they wound up boating 277 fish.

Toward the end of the trip, a request came in from a client to release their date with me on Saturday morning due to forecast damp, cool conditions.  Jeff thought all of about 2 seconds and told me he’d take that slot!!  So, I’ll be seeing at least him and the twins again on Saturday, rain or shine!

PHOTO CAPTION #1: The Madden family, from left, Jeff, Cooper, Cash, and Sue, with but a few of the 277 fish they landed during their 4-hour afternoon trip on Wednesday, Nov. 25th.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Mom (Sue Madden) landed our largest fish of the trip — a nice Lake Belton hybrid striped bass  — on a correctly worked MAL Lure.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #3: White bass and hybrid stripers weren’t the only species feeding on the MAL Lure, as Cash discovered when this Lake Belton largemouth bass went for his.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (PM), 25 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Thankfully, the north wind which treated us well this morning continued blowing this afternoon, thus we did not encounter difficult, post-frontal, calm conditions.

This family of four put 277 fish in the boat in just under 4 hours thanks to a few factors.  First, was the wind I’ve already mentioned. Second, everyone got the hang of using the MAL Lures early and executed the retrieve correctly and consistently.  Third, because no one minded catching smaller fish and, instead, enjoyed the non-stop action they provided, we did not engage in time-consuming fish-hunting hoping to find areas holding larger fish (thus, we did not leave fish to find fish).

We fished only four areas, and the Maddens put their 100th fish in the boat by 2:32PM, just over an hour into our trip.

Jeff and the boys were very enthused with the “video game-like qualities” of the Garmin LiveScope, and it kept their attention, helped them focus, and helped them be efficient with their retrieves.

Everything really came together well this afternoon and it was very gratifying to be able to give a family the experience which the Maddens got this day on Lake Belton.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 277 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   Although I feared the north winds would go calm during our time on the water, they kept right on blowing, and the fish kept right on biting well, right up to sunset, when they quit abruptly.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  1:30P

End Time: 5:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Elevation:  0.82 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour rise, and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were NW8 at trip’s start, tapering down to NW4 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue skies in the wake of last night’s cold front passage

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous at 80% illumination

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1000, 66  fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 409, 64 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0070C, 132 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area 694/968, 15 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

 

 

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) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec