Belton Lake Fishing Guide | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Fishing with a Mission: Catching White Bass to Produce Hybrid Stripers with TPWD – 115 Fish

February 4th, 2025February 9th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

This past Tuesday morning, Feb. 04, a group of experienced anglers put their skills to good use on the clear, cool waters of Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir in an attempt to collect mature, egg-laden white bass for use in the production of hybrid striped bass by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) personnel.

Joining me were Andy Amburn, Phil Moore, Cody Talley, and Dustin Marsh.

[Linked Image]

CAPTION: From left: Dustin Marsh, Phil Moore, Cody Talley, and Andy Amburn joined local fishing guide Bob Maindelle to collect mature female white bass to enhance hybrid striped bass production by TPWD. Right photo shows the 64 fish transferred by these efforts to the TPWD hatchery in Dundee, TX. These fish will produce millions of eggs each year they are in captivity.

I took Moore, Talley, and Marsh aboard my boat, while Amburn set out on his own boat. In this manner we were able to cover different parts of the lake and catch fish from different schools of fish, thus increasing the likelihood of dissimilar DNA being possessed by the captured fish.

We met at 7:15AM and determined that we would retain all legal (10-inch minimum) white bass which did not emit milt when their abdomens were gently squeezed, thus increasing the likelihood that only female fish were retained.

By the time the first hour had passed, those in my boat had landed over thirty fish, fifteen of which we retained.

We noted some issues with barotrauma due to the depth from which some of the fish were taken from. Fortunately, Marsh, a large animal veterinarian who specializes in dairy herd care, had some 18-gauge needles in his work truck.

We vented the fish exhibiting signs of barotrauma and got them to right themselves and got back on track thanks to Marsh’s ingenuity.

The tactics we used to capture these fish included slowly reeling white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs upwards off bottom to draw bottom-hugging fish upward, and/or reeling these same lures past suspended fish as we viewed them on Garmin LiveScope.

Occasionally, when in less than thirty feet of water, after we had fished an area thoroughly with vertical tactics, we used white, curl-tail grubs on jigheads to work out away from the boat horizontally using a “sawtooth” retrieve.

Over the course of four hours, we found fish at four distinct areas, ranging from twenty-seven feet to forty-seven feet in depth.

As we concluded our efforts around 11:15AM, we met back up with Amburn just after we had finished transferring the second batch of fish from my boat into the TPWD trailer operated by Talley.

After Amburn’s fish were transferred, the total number of white bass headed to the Dundee Hatchery for hybrid striped bass production was sixty-four. Over fifty percent of these exceeded 15 inches.

Not all the fish we landed were able to be retained. We returned all male white bass, all undersized fish, and all fish of other species to the water.
Those that were retained were transported the same day to the Dundee State Fish Hatchery near Wichita Falls, Texas.

Within a few weeks these fish will be induced to release their eggs. These eggs will be mixed by hand with the milt (fish version of semen) from male striped bass to produce a hybrid striped bass referred to as the sunshine bass.

Several million fry will be able to be produced from this small batch of sixty-four female white bass.

These will be stocked as either fry or fingerlings in reservoirs across the state to sustain the popular hybrid striped bass fisheries in those locations.

This cooperation between the TPWD and private sector has taken place for several years now and has played a part in producing and stocking hybrid striped bass more predictably and consistently.

Prior to using angler-caught female white bass, TPWD personnel relied upon the capture of female striped bass collected via electro-fishing efforts at a handful of locations in north and northeast Texas.
For various reasons, these locations have failed to consistently yield the number and size of female striped bass required to meet the statewide demand for hybrid.

Since male striped bass are not nearly as challenging to locate and collect, TPWD biologists began experimenting with using the opposite gender mix for hybrid production – something which has been done in the private sector at places like the Keo Fish Farm in Keo, Arkansas, very successfully for many years.

Amburn summarized our morning’s effort well when he said, “This was fun — it was like fishing with a mission.”.

Watching That Weather Paid Off — 77 Fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

January 25th, 2025January 25th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On the afternoon of Friday, January 24, I welcomed aboard Dennis Cochran, owner of Interstate Marine and Outboard Service LLC located along the northbound Interstate 35 frontage road between Salado and Belton.

Although Dennis was interested in fishing, he was equally interested in learning to better understand his Humminbird sonar units, including Humminbird MegaLive technology.

We met a half-hour earlier than our 1:30PM fishing trip start time to go over some sonar fundamentals, including the shape, coverage, pros, and cons of the four technologies his units are capable of: traditional sonar, down-imaging, side-imaging, and forward-facing sonar.

DATE: Friday, 24 January 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 27-31 January (AMs or PMs)

PHOTO CAPTION: Dennis Cochran brought this 9.50-pound largemouth bass (weighed on a certified scale) to net from out of 38 feet of water. The fish struck a white, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab and hit about 8 or 9 minutes after we’d sat over a school of white bass catching them steadily.

PHOTO CAPTION: Female white bass are beginning to show bulging sides as the eggs in their ovaries begin to develop in advance of the forthcoming spring spawn.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I opened up Wednesday through Friday this week, but only for the afternoons from roughly 1:30PM to 5:30PM. The main reason I offered these afternoon trips was because the forecast called for winds to be blowing (from the north on Thursday and from the south on Wednesday and Friday) versus fairly calm conditions on all three mornings.

As I mentioned in my last post, although I feel we could have sat atop schools of shad which are converging on the river channel, I only “resort” to deadsticking if I have to because deadsticking requires the angler to be able to detect a bite and set the hook immediately, which is something a majority of my clients tend not to do well.

So, because I wanted to demonstrate for Dennis what white bass look like on 2D, DI, and SI, and then fish for them using forward-facing sonar (in downward mode), we opted not to do any deadsticking and instead searched for bottom-oriented fish holding on deep topographic features.

Over the course of the afternoon, we found cooperative fish on four distinct areas between 35 and 45 feet deep. At each of these, the bite was best as soon as we dropped our Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs down, then the action tapered pretty quickly. We presented as aggressively as the fish would allow by using a slow-smoking tactic at first, then dropping back to easing, then going even slower by snap-jigging before finally leaving and then searching for a new group of fish.

Although we found fish throughout the afternoon, they were definitely less aggressive than they were the prior afternoon, thus, we put in more effort and caught seventy-seven fish (that is 71% of the prior day’s catch).

The highlight of this trip occurred when Cochran brought a 9.50-pound largemouth bass into the net after it struck a ¾-ounce, white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab in thirty-eight feet of water.

Just as we did on Thursday, we closed out this trip casting jigheads and soft plastics horizontally in relatively shallow water, adding thirty fish to our tally in the last forty-five minutes of the outing, wrapping up at 5:30PM.

The fish stopped feeding right around 5:30PM, just prior to the sun setting below the western horizon.

RESULTS: 77 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO SNAP-JIG: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEON ON HOW TO DO “EASING”: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used curl-tail grubs and jigheads and the white, 5/8 oz. & 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab to catch our fish this morning. Find all Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Water temperature dropped from 52F down to 48.6F over this most recent cold snap. The chill was offset by bright, sunny daytime sky conditions.

2) Birds aided in finding fish only at the last, and shallowest, place we found fish this afternoon — 5 terns were acting suspiciously.

3) The further upstream I look, the more small fish I find, indicating the very first signs of the spring upstream spawning migration.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 1:00 PM on Thursday, 23 Jan. …

0 feet 49.4

5 feet 49.4

10 feet49.2

15 feet 49.0

20 feet 48.8

25 feet 48.7

30 feet 48.7

35 feet 48.6

40 feet 48.6

45 feet 48.6

50 feet48.6

55 feet 48.6

60 feet 48.6

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 1:30P

End Time: 5:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Elevation: 2.84′ low (with a 0.03′ fall in the last 24 hours) with a 1 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 49.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW11-12

Sky Condition: bright, clear, cloudless skies

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 32% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 721 – 17 fish on slow-smoked & eased white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 1412 – 8 fish on slow-smoked & eased white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs

Area SHFL24007- 11 fish on slow-smoked, eased, and snap-jigged white 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic SH0115C – 11 fish on slow-smoked & eased, and snap-jigged white 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 798 – 30 fish on slow-rolled jigheads/curltails and slow-smoked 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs

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

Find, Consolidate, Catch — 82 Fish

September 3rd, 2024September 3rd, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Friday morning, I fished with a very nice young couple, Jesse Wright and Layne Marr. She’s a farm girl from Canada, and he’s a city kid from L.A. who made good via the military where, after leaving the U.S. Air Force as an enlisted man doing aircraft maintenance, he transitioned to the U.S. Army as a warrant officer in the Field Artillery branch.

DATE: Friday, 30 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 4, 5, 10-12 Sep.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jesse and Layne executed three tactics very well and very consistently, and put together an 82-fish morning catch on Lake Belton. The number of quality fish was enhanced this morning thanks to grey cloud cover extending the low-light period.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! Jesse landed these three white bass simultaneously on a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons. Downrigging served us well from about 7:15 to 8:30A as fish were active, but were also scattered and moving fast.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We got a reprieve on the long string of bright, calm sky conditions today as clouds moved in from the east early, giving near 100% coverage with a thin grey cloud deck. This extended the low-light time period during which we’ve been catching our quality fish from about 90 minutes to right at 120 minutes this morning.

We began the morning casting MAL Originals with chartreuse tails up shallow for fish in under 15′ and did well for about 15 minutes until the ambient light reached a certain level and drove these fish deeper and caused some scattering.

We pursued these fish using downriggers equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs armed with #13 Pet Spoons. The downrigger bite lasted until 8:30A and provided continuous action.

After this, we used sonar to search for concentrations of shad with gamefish mixed in, Spot-Locked atop these fish and worked MAL Originals vertically, aided by Garmin LiveScope. This produced well for quality fish until around 9A. The splasher was invaluable in drawing these fish to us and keeping them beneath us.

Around 9A, the now 2.5-hour long bite which had been very productive, began to wane. From this point forward, most of the fish we found were on the small side. We found them with sonar, consolidated them with the splasher, and caught them with the MAL Mini worked vertically

Remember, with these MAL Minis, if you don’t feel the blade spinning as you work it upwards, bend the shaft a bit at a time until it begins to “kick in”. It is also helpful to start the smoking retrieve with the rod tip pointed downward toward the water, then, SIMULTANEOUSLY lift the rod sharply to the point where it parallel to the water’s AND begin turning the reel’s handle. Done correctly, you’ll feel the spinner causing vibration, and you’ll see your rod tip get loaded by the resistance caused by the blade.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged with #12 & #13 Pet Spoons. We smoked and sawtoothed with MAL Originals for heavily schooled and fairly stationary fish. We smoked MAL Minis in the latter half of the trip suspended fish drawn in by the splasher. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 82 fish caught and released, including 3 largemouth bass, 1 blue catfish, and 78 white bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Literally, just seconds of topwater action observed over about a 2 acre area around 10AM

2) Best quality fish came in the first 120 minutes; mainly smaller fish thereafter – the quality fish window ran longer today thanks to grey skies extending the low-light period.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:25 AM on Monday, August 26 …

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.9F

15 feet 87.9F

20 feet 87.9F

25 feet 87.9F

30 feet 87.2F

35 feet 85.6F

40 feet 84.2F

45 feet 83.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.72′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 87.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE3-4

Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud coverage all morning helping to extend the low-light period and lengthen this morning’s bite for quality fish.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 19% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1431 – sawtoothing MAL Originals, then downrigging #12 Pets for 47 fish by 8:30

Area B0273G — smoking MAL Originals for 16 fish by 9A

Area vic 1077 to 1362 – smoking MAL Minis for a final 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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That School Bell Has Yet to Ring in Cairo — 101 Fish

August 16th, 2024August 16th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This Friday morning I fished with returning guests — the grandfather-grandson team of Charles Simmons and Caden Kimpel. Charles resides in Salado, and Caden, whose dad works in the international petroleum industry, currently resides in Cairo, Egypt. He won’t start school until early September, so, we got to enjoy a very uncrowded Lake Belton this morning.

DATE: Friday, 16 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 26-30Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Nine-year-old Caden Kimpel and his grandfather, Charles Simmons, landed 101 fish on an unbusy Lake Belton using a combination of tactics between first light and 10:30AM.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! Caden landed these three “keeper” white bass simultaneously on his 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with #12 Pet Spoons which did a great job imitating the smallest shad in the system right now.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was pretty straightforward this morning. With high pressure firmly in control of the weather, a light southerly breeze, and no boat traffic, the fish were ready to feed come first light, and stayed feeding for just shy of four hours.

We started the morning downrigging just to have baits in the water as I covered water with sonar to search for fishable concentrations of fish. After finding fish, we quickly discovered they much preferred a horizontal presentation to a vertical one, so, we kept right on downrigging as long as the fish cooperated. This accounted for 44 fish coming in as singles, doubles, and triples, all on #12 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs.

Once this area quieted down, I found our next batch of fish in some timber, so, we smoked and cast MAL Originals through “lanes” in the timber working them sawtooth-style, as downrigging was not an option. There was a bit of a learning curve to this, but, Charles and Caden added 8 more fish to the count before these fish lost interest.

By now, it was hot and bright and outside the “low-light” window which has produced quality fish both AM and PM. We mostly smallish fish from this point forward, but, they were quite cooperative, responded well to the splasher, and provided lots of action. These fish were taken by smoking MAL Minis vertically using Garmin LiveScope to gauge fish response. Bending the shaft about 15-20 degrees on these tiny spinners which imitate young-of-the-year shad is a great “tackle tip” if they don’t spin easily out of the package.

The trick on the “smoking” tactic in the summer, regardless of which MAL you choose, is getting the spinner going as close to the bottom as possible, and keeping the retrieve speed down thereafter. Hence, I use 5.2:1 gear ratio reels for my clients.

Here is a tutorial on smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We downrigged as long as we were finding fish on clean bottoms with #12 Pet Spoons, then “smoked” MAL Minis and Originals for the latter portion of the trip, once the fish got lazy and pushed lower in the water column. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released, including 5 drum, 1 largemouth bass, and a 60/40 mix of short and keeper white bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) No topwater action observed.

2) Mainly undersized fish after ~8:30A.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6 AM on Friday, August 16 …

0 feet 88.2F

5 feet 88.6F

10 feet 88.8F

15 feet 88.8F

20 feet 88.5F

25 feet 87.9F

30 feet 86.7F

35 feet 85.5F

40 feet 84.8F

45 feet 83.8F

50 feet 82.1F

55 feet 80.5F

60 feet 79.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 0.24′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S8 all morning

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 86% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1126 thru B0170C – 44 fish on downriggers

Area B0170C – 8 white bass on sawtoothed & smoked MAL Original

Area vic 565 – 49 fish on smoked MAL Minis

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

Cherry Pickin’ with Cowboys — 105 Fish

August 15th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Wednesday evening I fished with returning guest Dustin Marsh, a large animal veterinarian based in the Bryan/College Station area who specializes in dairy herd care. Coming with Dustin for the first time aboard my boat was James Becker who makes a living doing all things cattle, including international export.

Based on my observations over the past few weeks, I knew fishing for quality fish was not going to really kick in until after 6:30, so, we met up and “cherry picked” fished in just the final two hours before dark.

DATE: Wednesday, 14 August 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 15 & 26-30Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: James Becker and Dustin Marsh with a few of the 105 fish they picked off using Garmin LiveScope and MAL Originals “smoked” vertically on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: With just two hours to make it happen, I went with a “high percentage” option as far as fish location was concerned, and that turned out well. We essentially drove right to the fish, Spot-Locked atop of them in ~26 feet of water and landed 63 until the dimming light pushed the fish shallower. We bumped up into 20′, Spot-Locked again, and finished out the trip on this second anchorage, taking our tally up to 105 fish, all caught and released. The only tactic necessary was “smoking” vertically with the MAL Original. This was certainly enhanced by Garmin LiveScope, but that technology was only icing on the cake.

Here is a tutorial on smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We “smoked” MAL Originals vertically for the entire evening to wear out the keeper white bass. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released, including 2 drum, 1 largemouth bass, 5 short white bass, and 97 legal white bass with several exceeding 14″.

OBSERVATIONS:

1) As we hit 8:10P and the fish began to slow down, we found that targeting the highest fish in the water column from any given school outproduced just randomly reeling up through a school of fish.

2) Nothing but undersized fish at several areas through 7P, then quality fish thereafter; this is just the opposite of what I’m seeing in the mornings.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 5:50 AM on Friday, August 9 …

0 feet 87.6F

5 feet 88.2F

10 feet 88.5F

15 feet 87.2F

20 feet 86.2F

25 feet 85.6F

30 feet 85.3F

35 feet 85.0F

40 feet 84.5F

45 feet 83.7F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 80.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35P

End Time: 8:35P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 100F

Elevation: 0.2′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S10 all evening

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover on a slightly hazy blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 68% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 164 – 63 fish on smoked MAL Originals

Area vic 2037 – 42 fish on smoked MAL Originals

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

Caught ’em Until His Hands Hurt — 118 Fish

August 15th, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Tuesday evening I fished with returning guests — the father-and-son team of Oscar and Mateo Santiago. Although many school districts got the 2024-2025 year kicked off today, Mateo didn’t head back until the following day, so, he and dad got in one last adventure together before the academic routine kicks in.

The fishing was so good that, after landing his share of the 118 fish they landed, Mateo told his dad that his hands hurt. I suggested Mateo get a note for the first day of school letting the teacher know he would be physically unable to complete written assignments for a few days.

DATE: Tuesday, 13 August 2024 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 15 & 26-30Aug. (AM & PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Oscar and Mateo Santiago with large, well-proportioned Lake Belton white bass taken between 7P and dark on MAL Original Lures with chartreuse tails. The father-and-son team landed 118 fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: That 6:45P to 7P timeframe very consistently sees a real upshift in fish feeding behavior under this present high-pressure weather system. Prior to that time, I’m finding only small fish which respond well, albeit briefly, to the splasher. We managed to catch a few by smoking MAL Minis up through them, then they either leave, or grow used to the presence of the lures and turn off to them.

Then, around 6:45 to 7P, as the light level begins to drop and the air temperature begins to decrease, I’m finding much better quality fish consistently using the bottom in 16-24 feet of water (deeper earlier, moving shallower as sunset and dark approach). These fish also respond well to the splasher and stick around for long whiles allowing for high catch numbers. My best approach for these has been “smoking” the MAL Original with chartreuse tail up off bottom for 5-6 cranks. These fish seem unwilling to travel any further upwards than the 10 feet level beneath the surface, so, bringing the lure any higher is just wasted effort. Garmin LiveScope clearly illustrates this over and over again.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We “smoked” MAL Minis vertically until 7P for smaller fish, then used MAL Originals vertically for the remainder of the evening to wear out the keeper white bass. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 118 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

1) As we hit 8:10P and the fish began to slow down, we found that targeting the highest fish in the water column from any given school outproduced just randomly reeling up through a school of fish.

2) Nothing but undersized fish at several areas through 7P, then quality fish thereafter; this is just the opposite of what I’m seeing in the mornings.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 5:50 AM on Friday, August 9 …

0 feet 87.6F

5 feet 88.2F

10 feet 88.5F

15 feet 87.2F

20 feet 86.2F

25 feet 85.6F

30 feet 85.3F

35 feet 85.0F

40 feet 84.5F

45 feet 83.7F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 80.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 5:40P

End Time: 8:40P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 100F

Elevation: 0.13′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 88.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S9 all evening

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover on a slightly hazy blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 59% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 0142 – 7 short whites on smoked MAL Minis

Area vic B0238G – 4 short whites on smoked MAL Minis

Area 1822 – 107 white bass on smoked MAL Originals

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

Fueled by Adrenaline and String Cheese — 105 Fish, MAL Heavy & MAL Dense Lures, 21 May,

May 21st, 2024May 21st, 2024 by Bob Maindelle

ABOARD THE BOAT TODAY: This morning I was joined by returning guests Dwight Stone and his granddaughter, Jemma Rogers, in celebration of her 10th birthday.

DATE: 21 May 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: Wednesday, 22 May (AM), and Friday, 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Dwight Stone took his 10-year-old granddaughter, Jemma Rogers, out on Stillhouse Hollow for a morning of white bass catching. The MAL Dense and MAL Heavy, both with silver body and chartreuse tail, did the trick once again.

PHOTO CAPTION: This 3.5 pound “bonus bass” and one other just like it, along with a 6-pound drum, rounded out Jemma’s 105 fish birthday catch this morning as her grandfather, Dwight “Boom-Pa” Stone helped me help her, and cheered her on.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SHORT SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: The peak bite this morning ran from 8:30 to 10:00. Having seen this timing over my past three trips to Stillhouse, I put Jemma on some fast-biting sunfish up shallow beforehand, using bait and a slipfloat to land an even dozen bluegill, four of which we retained as largemouth bait once we got out into open water. Beginning around 8:30, we fished MAL Dense Lures (silver body/chartreuse tail) vertically with a smoking tactic until the fish lost interest, then, we switched over to a sawtooth tactic using MAL Heavy Lures (also w/silver body/chartreuse tail) to continue catching right on through 10:45AM. During the latter half of this white bass bite, I set out the sunfish on a downline resulting in landing a pair of 3.5 pound fish, and one white bass on the four baits.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the new MAL Dense with silver body (shown above) for vertical work, and the MAL Heavy with silver body and chartreuse tail for horizontal work today. Find these lures at the Liberty Mart Exxon uphill from Temple Lake Park on Lake Belton, or go here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TUTORIAL LINK FOR SAWTOOTH & SMOKING TACTICS:

Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ&t=89s

Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=56s

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released (2 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, & 102 white bass)

OBSERVATIONS:

1) The lower third of Stillhouse was in good shape today with fairly clear water. The water, although clear, resembled iced tea in color and clarity at mid-lake.

2) The lake fell 0.08′ in the last 24 hours

3) The flooded vegetation has made finding fish using side-imaging very tough. We had to drive over most fish today with DI and/or 2D to get a bead on their location.

4) Due to decreasing flooding on the Brazos River’s main channel, USACE began releasing water from Stillhouse on the afternoon of 19 May 2024 at a rate of 808 CFS. That increased to 1534 CFS by mid-afternoon that same day, and continued at that rate today.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Measured with FishHawk TD device on 17 May…

0 feet 74.8F

5 feet 74.9F

10 feet 74.9F

15 feet 74.9F

20 feet 74.9F

25 feet 74.8F

30 feet 73.8F

35 feet 71.7F

40 feet 70.3F

45 feet 69.9F

50 feet 68.8F

55 feet 68.5F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 10.11 feet high and slowly rising, with a 1534 CFS release.

Water Surface Temp: 77.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW8-12 all morning

Sky Condition:100% light grey cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 96% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 239 for sunfish

Areas SHFL24015 and SHFL24013 – produced all of our white bass

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THE WHITE BASS BROTHERS — 200 FISH @ BELTON

May 24th, 2022May 24th, 2022 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THANKS, BOSS!! — 201 FISH @ BELTON

May 19th, 2022May 19th, 2022 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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com