CLIENTS: This morning, Saturday, September 20, I conducted the tenth SKIFF trip of the 2025 season.  Joining me was 16 year-old Benjamin Adams accompanied by his mom, Maria, who attended but did not fish. The Adams family is a Gold Star family – meaning they are the immediate family members of a fallen service member who died while serving in a time of conflict. Ben’s dad served for nearly 30 years in the U.S. Army’s Air Defense Artillery branch.

ABOUT SKIFF:  SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009.  SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru.  S.K.I.F.F. provides kids of military members separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish.  SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families, and kids of bona fide disabled veterans.  I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round.  Call or text 254.368.7411 to make your reservation.

SKIFF YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK:  About SKIFF

TODAY’S DATE: Saturday, 20 September 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 22 September (AM) 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Benjamin Adams, age 16, traveled in from Dallas with his mom, Maria, to take part in this morning’s SKIFF program trip on Lake Belton.  He wound up landing 50 fish in right at 4 hours’ time.

PHOTO CAPTION: This early morning shot shows the thermocline still set “hard as concrete” thanks to a lack of seasonal cooling thus far.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

These troopers drove in all the way from Dallas departing around 4:30 AM to shoot for our 6:55 AM start time. Roadwork on Interstate 20 cost them about 15 minutes, so our short, low light, shallow water fishing window for white bass got cut even shorter, but still produced fish at the best rate of the morning as we steadily took singles and doubles on three-arm umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons worked behind twin downriggers.  That low light window yielded 10 fish.

After the sun rose and the skies stayed bright and cloudless, the white bass fishing fell off fairly quickly. We put just six additional fish in the boat by 10 AM and then decided to put a final hour into fishing for sunfish up shallow. Our fish count at this point was 16 fish.

In the final hour of effort, between 10 AM and 11 AM, Ben single-handedly landed 34 sunfish using a pole equipped with balsa float, a single hook, a split shot, and a small segment of worm. This rig accounted for three different species of sunfish, including bluegill, long ear, and green sunfish.

At exactly 10:59 AM, then 50th fish came over the side and, with the calm winds and bright sun now really making it feel uncomfortably hot, we called it a good day and sent them to Miller’s Smokehouse before the 2.5 hour drive back home.

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is 0.15′ high with a 0.02 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 43 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:35AM, Saturday, 20 September …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 0.15′ high with a 0.02 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 43 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 83.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SW0-3

Sky Condition: <5% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 1% illumination.

GT = n/a

Wx SNAPSHOT:  N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic B0018G – downrigging Pet Spoons – 13 fish

Area vic B0030G thru 677 – downrigging Pet Spoons/smoking MAL Heavy Lures  – 3 fish

Area B0163C – 34 panfish on slipfloat rig and bait

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

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, September 17, I fished with Mr. Bret, Jordan, his wife, Vilma, and his nephew, Houston Brown.  All three were treated to this outing by Bret‘s dad, Max Jordan, a US Army veteran from back in the 1960s, and a retired public school educator.

TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 18 September 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 22 September (AM) 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Houston Brown, and Vilma and Bret Jordan were all treated to a morning in pursuit of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow by Bret’s dad, Max Jordan.  Fishing remains tough, but this crew landed 18 fish and missed a few more over a span of 3.5 hours.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The tough summertime fishing brought on by the summer heat and multiple factors driven by that heat, continues. One of the first things I shared with everyone as they hopped the board this morning was, “This is not going to be a cakewalk.“.

Indeed, everyone worked for every last one of the fish we landed this morning. We used a combination of downrigging to have baits in the water as we went through areas I felt had potential to hold fish, and then we used both horizontal and vertical tactics with the MAL Heavy to exploit what we found.

We ended up landing 18 fish including 16 white bass and two largemouth bass.

Although we fished quite a number of areas, the majority of these 18 fish came from just two stops.

It was very common to find areas where fish were present but expressed little or even no interest in our presentations whatsoever. These disinterested fish might follow the lures half-heartedly for a few feet up off the bottom, or not even acknowledge our presentations whatsoever. The fish we did catch were typically egged on by the presence of other fish. The fishes’ desire to be the first one to the bait from out of all the individuals in the school would become their undoing.

The already tough conditions were not at all aided by bright skies and nearly calm winds all morning (contrary to the forecast). There was very little topwater, action, even by “schoolie” largemouth bass, which are typically a staple this time of year. I anticipate things will simply stay tough until cooler weather arrives and brings about turnover.

OBSERVATIONS: Stillhouse is now 0.10′ high with a 0.01 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing just 1 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:35AM, Wednesday, 17 September …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:55A

End Time: 10:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 0.10′ high with a 0.01 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing just 1 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 83.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SW0-3

Sky Condition: <10% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 17% illumination.

GT = 15

Wx SNAPSHOT:  N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 865 – downrigging Pet Spoons to find fish, then smoking/sawtoothing MAL Heavy Lures to capitalize  – 8 fish

Area vic 1133 – using SI sonar to find fish, then smoking/sawtoothing MAL Heavy Lures to capitalize – 10 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

CLIENTS: This past Thursday evening, August 28, I fished a multi-generation trip with James Long, his son Casey Batley, and Casey’s five-year-old son, John “Bear” Batley.  James is retired from law enforcement in Southern California, and Casey has just assumed leadership for the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor’s ROTC program.

TODAY’S DATE: Thursday, 28 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Friday, 05 September (AM) 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Casey Batley, John “Bear” Batley (age 5), and James Long with a few of the 43 fish they caught and released in three hours’ time on a toasty, late-August evening fishing trip on Lake Belton.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although James does a good bit of saltwater fishing on the big boats heading out of Southern California into the Pacific, and some fly fishing out west, he was not familiar with the approach we took today for sunfish and white bass.

His main goal was to have me introduce his son and grandson to a form of fishing they could do together in this area.  Due to schedules, an evening trip turned out to be the best option for this crew.

Knowing that a five year-old was not likely to make a full four hours, especially in the August heat, we whittled this trip down to three hours, devoting the first half to “instant gratification” fishing up shallow for sunfish, then focusing on bigger game in the last half of the trip by targeting white bass with downriggers.

Our pursuit of panfish up shallow produced 15 fish on our first stop and another six on our second before the novelty of that wore off with my youngest guest. After enjoying some snacks and drinks, we retooled for the second half of the trip and got into white bass right away. We set up with twin downriggers, each equipped with three-armed umbrella rigs terminated with #12 Pet Spoons. We landed singles, doubles, and triples for a catch of 22 fish, wrapping up at sunset right around 8:10 PM. Of these 22 fish, 19 were keeper-sized white bass, with two hybrid stripers, and a single largemouth bass, all released in good condition.

I am very hopeful the series of cold fronts due in beginning tomorrow bringing rain, clouds, and lower temperatures over the next 10 days will be the trigger we need to break the back on this tough summer fishing. Only time will tell.

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.18′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Monday, 25 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 5:15P

End Time: 8:10P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 94F

Elevation: 0.18′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 87.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE5-7

Sky Condition: <10% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 27% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:  N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area B0163C – 15 panfish on bait/floats

Area 492- 6 panfish on bait/floats

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

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, August 25, I fished with Mr. Roger Janosek and his grandson, Evan.  Roger is a retired judge who recently moved to this area, and Evan is putting out feelers at age 19 into both the EMT world and the world of diesel repair.  Both had prior fishing experience, but not doing what we did today for white bass.  Fortunately, both fellows handled spinning gear well, allowing them to take full advantage of what we found early on in the trip.

TODAY’S DATE: Monday, 25 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Tuesday, 02 September (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Evan and Roger Janosek with a few of the 45 fish they landed this morning, as has been the case for most of August, the best bite is taking place in the low-light period from about 30 minutes before sunrise to about 30 minutes thereafter.  38 of their 45 fish came during this window.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although multiple, mild cold fronts are currently in the short and long-term forecasts, today was a continuation of the bright, hot, still conditions we’ve been experiencing for the lion’s share of August.

Accordingly, the fishing was as it has been for the past few weeks with the majority of the morning’s action taking place in the first 60 to 70 minutes, then seeing fish scatter and suspend thereafter, making fishing much, much tougher.

Using the Cork Rig with the new, very durable Sandy Sandwich streamer, grandfather and grandson landed 38 fish before the topwater action ended once and for all.

We moved on and fished a multitude of locations, none of which had strong concentrations of aggressively feeding fish. Over the remainder of the trip we landed seven additional fish with four coming on the downriggers equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs ties up with  #12 Pet Spoons on one and  #13 Pet Spoons on the other.  The fellows took an additional three fish picked up off bottom in about 26 feet of water using the MAL Heavy in conjunction with a sawtooth retrieve.

We wrapped up around 10:55 with exactly 45 fish landed, including one largemouth bass, one blue catfish, two hybrid striped bass, and 41 white bass, all of which were between 10.5 and 13.5 inches.

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.28′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Monday, 25 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.52′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE0-4

Sky Condition: <10% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 6% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic B0279G – 11 fish with topwater action under low-light conditions on Cork Rigs/Sandy Sandwich streamers

Area vic 2243 – 11 fish with topwater action under low-light conditions on Cork Rigs/Sandy Sandwich streamers

Area vic 2242 – 16 fish with topwater action under low-light conditions on Cork Rigs/Sandy Sandwich streamers

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

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, August 19, I fished with returning guests Joshua Goodnight and Frank Ruiz.  Despite knowing the fishing has been slow and that August is tough, they wanted to go forward with this trip to understand why fishing is tough at this time of year and see some approaches to catching fish despite the conditions.

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 19 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 25 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Joshua Goodnight and Frank Ruiz landed the majority of their fish during a short window of topwater action.  The heat, lack of wind, and bright sun shut the fishing down minutes after the sun rose.

PHOTO CAPTION:  33 of our 37 fish came on topwater in the first 40 minutes of the trip and were caught on Sandy Sandwich streamers worked with a Cork Rig.  After that … crickets!  Here, the Sandy Sandwich is shown between two of the partially-digested, young-of-the-year threadfin shad regurgitated by the fish Frank and Joshua landed.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We went into the trip, knowing it was going to be tough thanks to an unbroken string of hot August days, nearly windless conditions, and only light cloud cover.

Thankfully, there was some low-light top water action during the 20 minutes either side of sunset. Both fellows really got the hang of working their Cork Rigs equipped with “Sandy Sandwich“ streamers and put a total of 33 white bass in the boat before the rising sun with its increasing intensity put the fish down for good.

From that point on it was very tough with only occasional “popcorn“ schools of white bass showing briefly on the surface scattered far and wide. Frank and Joshua wound up catching four additional fish.

These came from areas where sonar indicated an abundance of bait with some scattered game fish located in the vicinity. In these areas, we got the splasher working to consolidate fish beneath the boat and worked MAL Heavy Lures vertically through these fish with a smoking tactic. The fish that bit were mostly from suspended, fast-moving, patrolling schools of white bass. Those fish which were by themselves and/or bottom-oriented tended to either ignore the baits altogether, or just respond by following slowly behind the baits, but never aggressively overtaking them.

Seeing the writing on the wall this morning, we wrapped up at the three hour mark with 37 fish landed and not a whole lot of hope for improvement short of a change of weather as fall approaches.

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.52′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 19 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 9:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.52′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNE0-2

Sky Condition: 20% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area 1544 thru B0279G – 33 of our 37 fish taken in this span of water under low-light conditions on Cork Rigs/Sandy Sandwich streamers

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

CLIENTS: This evening, Thursday, 14 August, I fished an evening “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip for Dwayne Thomas Jr. (age 14) and his brother, Romel, (age 7). The boys’ five-year-old brother was supposed to join us, but wasn’t feeling well and didn’t make this trip. Accompanying the boys, and assisting me in making them successful, was their father, Dwayne Thomson Sr. Dwayne works as a military contractor in Southwest Asia and was home for just a few weeks to see the boys off to a new school year and get in a little fishing despite the following day being a school day.

ABOUT “KIDS FISH, TOO!” TRIPS:  Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended just for the kids. They are considerably less expensive than standard trips ($195 for up to 2 kids vs. $295 for up to 2 adults; and more can be added), and typically go a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4-plus hours for standard trips.  On these trips, licensed adults who desire to do so often help me help the kids be successful by baiting hooks, untangling lines, resetting our downrigger spreads, etc. so the kids’ efforts are maximized, but, the adults do not fish.

TODAY’S DATE: Thursday, 14 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Thursday, 21 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Romel (7), Dwayne Sr., and Dwayne Thomas Jr. with a few of the 42 fish the boys landed mainly by covering ground via downrigging in the August heat.

PHOTO CAPTION:   Romel had to take a snack break after battling this bruiser in.  This Lake Belton hybrid striped bass fell for a Pet Spoon trailing behind a 3-armed umbrella rig.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

By far, our most successful tactic this evening was downrigging with Pet Spoons for white bass which were suspended through about 6:35 PM. The same fish then moved shoreward until contacting the bottom where we were then, from that point on, able to work downriggers just a few feet off bottom and continuing catching fish on the downriggers. In the first instance, we were running the balls between 25 and 26 feet deep for fish which were slightly deeper, and, by trip’s and we were running the balls as shallow as 14 feet deep for fish which were in 16 to 18 feet of water.

In both instances, we used three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 pet spoons to imitate the steadily growing young-of-the-year shad.

It will not be long now before the #13 Pet Spoon will be a more appropriate selection to imitate this forage fish size.

I did keep a sharp eye out for any sunset topwater action which might develop, but we spotted none, despite surface conditions which would have lent themselves to spotting such activity. I even went so far as to have everyone practice casting and retrieving a Cork Rig equipped with a “Sandy Sandwich“ streamer, but we did not get the opportunity to use these.

At one point, as I saw more and more fish moving shallow and sticking to the bottom, we threw MAL Heavy Lures out horizontally and worked them with a sawtooth method, but the schools were small, splintered, and moving so fast, this just was not as good as choice as the downrigging was.

When all was said and done, the boys landed 42 fish, including 2 largemouth bass, 3 hybrid striped bass, and 37 white bass, all of which were of legal size.

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.79′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 12 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 5:15P

End Time: 8:35P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 93F

Elevation: 0.79′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 87.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE8-10.

Sky Condition: 20% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 67% illumination.

GT = 10

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 2128 – 12 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area vic B0104C to 302 – 23 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area vic B0165C – 5 on downrigged Pet Spoons, 2 on MAL Heavy sawtoothed

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Wednesday, August 13, I fished a short “Kids Fish, Too!“ Trip with Gary Schmidt, his adult son, Matt, Gary’s adult daughter, Ashley, and Matt‘s son, five-year-old Rex Schmidt, all from Troy, Texas.

ABOUT “KIDS FISH, TOO!” TRIPS:  Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended just for the kids. They are considerably less expensive than standard trips ($195 for up to 2 kids vs. $295 for up to 2 adults; and more can be added), and typically go a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4-plus hours for standard trips.  On these trips, licensed adults who desire to do so often help me help the kids be successful by baiting hooks, untangling lines, resetting our downrigger spreads, etc. so the kids’ efforts are maximized, but, the adults do not fish.

TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 13 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Thursday, 21 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   In the back row, Ashley, Gary, and Matt Schmidt all supported young Rex (age 5) as we employed several different methods to keep fish coming over the side of the boat for as long as Rex stayed engaged.

PHOTO CAPTION: The “Sandy Sandwich” –  as close to an indestructible streamer as there is.  I terminate my Cork Rigs with these (right photo), and also use them as “teasers” on tandem rigs above slabs when the situation demands it.  They scored on nearly every cast today for as long as the fish stayed on top!

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I got a text from Gary about 30 minutes before we were due to link up that he’d experienced a flat tire. This cost us about 25 minutes in what has been a roughly 60 to 80 minute window of white bass activity just before, during, and after sunrise.  I was really concerned that we’d run out of “easy” fishing while young Rex was still ready for more, and risk having him become disinterested.

It all turned out just fine in the end, as we essentially drove straight to a pod of surface feeding fish I spotted shortly after leaving the dock on the lightly rippled surface of the lake.

I cut the outboard about 100 yards out from these fish, deployed the trolling motor, and trolled the rest of the way to these fish until we were within casting distance. I had two rods equipped with Cork Rigs terminated with “Sandy Sandwiches“ as the streamer behind the cork. We used this two rod system to keep Rex continuously reeling fish in.  After I made the cast beyond the fish and worked the Cork Rig through them to get a hook up, I then passed the rod off to Gary who helped Rex reel ’em in.  In the meantime, I fired out another cast, got another hookup, and kept pressure on the fish until Rex was ready to catch another.  Gary would pass me the rod with the fish still attached for me to release, and so it went.

At five years of age, Rex simply didn’t have the manual dexterity required to fully take advantage of this situation, so, we tried to set him up for success.

Rex stayed engaged for about 40 minutes and wound up catching exactly 20 fish in this manner.

Once it was clear that the fish had left the surface for good (thanks to a lack of cloud cover in the eastern sky), I moved on to an area which had been producing bottom-oriented, fish on downriggers of late. As was the case yesterday, once the fish left the surface, the feed really scaled back significantly.

We picked up one additional white bass on the downriggers with about 15 minutes’ worth of effort before I decided we needed to do something more engaging for Rex.

We put in another 30 minutes or so in pursuit of panfish up shallow.

Rex was able to set the hook pretty well using the telescoping pole I dedicated to this technique. He wound up landing a total of nine panfish, bringing his morning tally to 30 fish before everyone agreed he had reached his limit at about 8:40 AM.

Between changing things up every so often, the cool, northerly breeze, and a copious amount of Gummi Bears, young Rex made it close to two hours, which is pretty typical for kids his age.

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.81′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 12 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:05A

End Time: 8:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.81′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 86.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW4 increasing to NNW9 in under 2 hours.

Sky Condition: 80% grey cloud cover in the aftermath of light storm activity late yesterday afternoon coming in from the NW.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 77% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic B0165C – 20 white on Cork Rigs/topwater

Area B0132C – 1 white on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area 492 – 7 sunfish on bait under floats

Area 499 – 2 sunfish on bait under floats

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

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, August 12, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip for Benjamin Beal, the 13-year-old grandson of Sara Beal, who accompanied him and lent me a hand in helping Ben have a successful morning on the water.

As a an incoming seventh grade student in the Temple Independent School District, Ben does not return to classes until next week, although most of the rest of the Central Texas area resumes classes this week.

The fact that the summer vacation period has ended was quite evident this morning. The lake and parking lots look like a ghost town.

ABOUT “KIDS FISH, TOO!” TRIPS:  Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended just for the kids. They are considerably less expensive than standard trips ($195 for up to 2 kids vs. $295 for up to 2 adults; and more can be added), and typically go a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4-plus hours for standard trips.  On these trips, licensed adults who desire to do so often help me help the kids be successful by baiting hooks, untangling lines, resetting our downrigger spreads, etc. so the kids’ efforts are maximized, but, the adults do not fish themselves.

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 12 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Thursday, 21 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  Sara Beal treated her 13-year-old grandson, Ben Beal, to a morning of fishing before he begins his 7th grade year starting next week.

PHOTO CAPTION: The “Sandy Sandwich” –  as close to an indestructible streamer as there is.  I terminate my Cork Rigs with these (right photo), and also use them as “teasers” on tandem rigs above slabs when the situation demands it.  They scored well today!

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We got going at 6:35 AM and found multiple large schools of bottom-oriented white bass in under 30 feet of water using side imaging. These fish were great candidates for a downrigging approach because, although they were bottom-oriented, they were also moving about frequently and quickly.

We got twin ‘riggers set up, both equipped with three-armed umbrella rigs terminated with #12 Pet Spoons.

Ben landed a pair of doubles, followed by a single. Five fish in about five minutes!

As I kept my eye out for a particular jet ski racing across the surface without navigation lights on while it was still fairly dark out, I spotted a disturbance on the surface quite some distance away. We brought the downriggers in, headed to that area, and, for the next 35 minutes or so, were able to catch white bass from surface feeding schools that popped up and quickly disappeared, but did so over and over again.

Now, I could not take advantage of this scenario with just any client who steps aboard the boat.  This requires both fast AND accurate casting skills.  Fortunately, Ben had both which enabled him to lob his Cork Rig w/ Sandy Sandwich streamer completely over any schools we found and work that bait from the far side to the near side of the school, and do so before they disappeared.

Ben wound up catching exactly 32 whites from these “popcorn“ schools before the unobscured rising sun brightened the nearly calm surface and drove these fish down for good.  The time was now 7:40.  Note: we caught 32 of our 65 white bass in the first hour — the low light period is definitely the most productive time to be on the water in this summer heat.

We then returned to the area I had been downrigging in, only to find these fish also had quit feeding. Since Ben had a good bit of fishing experience under his belt coming into the trip, I was not all that keen on switching over to sunfish any earlier than necessary. For this reason, I ran sonar off of a few points impacted by the light southerly wind. Fortunately, at two of these areas, my suspicion that fish would be present was confirmed by the appearance of additional “popcorn“ schools of white bass, as well as by sonar signatures.

I cranked up the splasher, and we used MAL Heavy Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope to catch another 23 fish at two different locations as we used a smoking tactic to precisely time the presentation of our lures in front of schools crossing beneath the boat.  This catch included 3 largemouth bass, 1 hybrid striper, and 19 white bass.

With about 30 minutes left in this 3.5 hour trip, I offered to take Ben up shallow to show him a method of sunfishing he was not already familiar with. He quickly put five fish in the boat, taking our grand total for the morning to exactly 70 fish caught and released using poles and floats to target shallow cover.

We wrapped up right around 10:20 AM as an outflow boundary from some storms in the Dallas area in the early morning hours began pushing cloud cover into our area and shifting the wind to a northerly direction.

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.85′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 12 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 0.85′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S1-3, shifting N5 at trip’s end

Sky Condition: Cloudless with a light blue sky thru 9:40, then 40% light grey clouds moved in from the NW

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 86% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 016 thru 1792 – downrigging for 5 whites

Area 133 – 32 white bass on topwater w/ Cork Rigs

Area 1799, 1793, and vic B0017G – 23 white on smoked MAL Heavy Lures

Area 2126 – 5 sunfish on bait under floats

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

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, August 11, I conducted a SKIFF trip for the Rankin family currently stationed at Fort Hood and living in Copperas Cove. U.S .Army First Lieutenant Cody Rankin serves as a physician’s assistant and was recently separated from his family while involved with coursework at another post.

Mrs. Kimberly Rankin reached out to me during this absence and we set this trip up just days before the boys head back to public school.

Working the rods this morning were Easton (age 10), Greyson (age 8), and Hudson (age 6).

TODAY’S DATE: Monday, 11 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Thursday, 21 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Greyson, Easton, and Hudson Rankin with a portion of their 37 fish catch made in just 2 hours on Lake Belton this morning.

FIND CORK RIGS & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Kim let me know in advance that the boys would likely not all make it for the full 3.5 hours given their prior experience fishing for panfish at the city park pond in Copperas Cove.  I planned our activities accordingly so the boys could get some exposure to at least two different sorts of fishing even if the morning were shortened up a bit.

We got going a few minutes before sunrise and experienced a 75 minute white bass bite which started shallow, transitioned out to deeper water, then dissipated right around 8 AM.

During this time, the boys landed 32 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 6 hybrid striped bass, and 25 white bass (one of which was short).  These fish were taken on downriggers working 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons selected to imitate the threadfin shad these fish were feeding on.

Kim let me know that the younger two boys were getting “antsy“ just as the white bass bite was dying down, so, we made a quick transition to fishing up shallow for sunfish.  I believe Easton would have hung with me all morning, but the younger brothers started to wane after the novelty of the first few sunfish coming aboard wore off.

We wrapped up right around the two hour mark.

The boys landed a total of 32 fish on the downriggers, and they put an additional five bluegill in the boat for a grand total of 37 fish during this, the ninth SKIFF trip of the 2025 season.

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.91′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 338 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 05 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 8:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  0.91′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 338 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 87.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S2-4

Sky Condition: Cloudless with a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 93% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic B0132C thru 813 – downrigging for mixed bag of 32 whites/hybrid

Area B0036G – 5 sunfish on bait under floats

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

CLIENTS: This morning I welcomed Chase and Steph Labenski aboard as chaperones to their three kids – Peyton (10), Emmie (7), and Parker, who turned 6 today.  This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip, so, the kids did all the fishing while mom and dad helped me make the kids successful.  Chase and Steph covered down on the two younger kids really well, and ten-year-old Peyton, who enjoyed her independence anyway, was able to operate on her own with just a bit of coaching from me, thus leaving me free to oversee everything, take fish off, rebait hooks, and untangle lines.

ABOUT “KIDS FISH, TOO!” TRIPS:  Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended just for the kids. They are considerably less expensive than standard trips ($195 for up to 2 kids vs. $295 for up to 2 adults; and more can be added), and typically go a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4-plus hours for standard trips.  On these trips, licensed adults who desire to do so often help me help the kids be successful by baiting hooks, untangling lines, resetting our downrigger spreads, etc. so the kids’ efforts are maximized, but, the adults do not fish themselves.

TODAY’S DATE: Friday, 08 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Thursday, 21 Aug. (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Emmie, Chase, Peyton, Stephanie, and Parker Labenski with fistsful of sunfish the kids landed in shallow cover this morning — 70 fish in all.

FIND WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Between August’s heat pouring on and the crazy mixing of water we’ve experienced with this rare July flooding, white bass fishing had become very, very difficult.  We spent just a short time hitting a few high percentage areas with downriggers under low-light conditions and, finding nothing to get excited about, devoted the lion’s share of this trip to the pursuit of sunfish up in shallow cover.

Conditions are excellent right now for this, as the lake us just under 1.5′ high, thus, the water is right up in the shoreline vegetation which was growing at the lake’s edge before the flooding.  This creates a great “edge” of brush which stops abruptly and has fish very concentrated right now.

We used finesse hooks, weights and balsa floats with poles and worm segments to routinely fool bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, longear sunfish, and young largemouth bass into biting to the tune of 70 fish by the time young Parker wore out around the three-hour mark.

I really like to show youngsters how to fish this way, as it is something which can be transferred directly to their own “home” waters, without the need for a boat, sonar, or an abundance of gear.  The fishing is close-in and intimate, like fishing’s version of bow hunting.

OBSERVATIONS: Stillhouse is now 1.69′ high with a 0.14′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 567 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  Taken around 6:15AM, Friday, 08 August …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 9:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 1.69′ high with a 0.14′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 567 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S4-7 all morning

Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover on a hazy blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area SH0121C – 37 panfish on bait

Area 1416 – 17 panfish on bait

Area SH0126C- 16 panfish on bait

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