central texas fishing guide | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Fishing with The King’s Men — 78 Fish

April 25th, 2025April 26th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, April 25, I fished with a crew of four – all first time guests. These four men had both a work connection and a spiritual connection. They all work at a Round Rock-based manufacturer of flea and tick preventative products for pets (Wondercide), and they are all part of a Christian men’s group called The King’s Men led by Tim Beaird.

Tim organized this trip and invited along Jose Navarrete, CJ Skinner, and Phil Lewis.

DATE: Friday, 25 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Phil Lewis, CJ Skinner, Jose Navarrete, and Tim Beaird with a representative sample of the mixed bag of species they landed using live shad on Lake Belton this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Phil Lewis, CJ Skinner, Jose Navarrete, and Tim Beaird with a few of the better white bass that went for the large shad they were offered.

PHOTO CAPTION: The King’s Men logo representing that there is one King that stands above all kings; His name is Jesus.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Storms moved in from the west around 4:30 PM yesterday, dropping about an inch of rain area wide . This led to a very thin fog this morning and, combined with the gray cloud cover, made for fairly dim morning right on through our quitting time around 11:30 AM. Fishing was very straightforward this morning. We caught our first 54 fish at a single location in an area impacted overnight by winds. Those winds brought spawning shad to the area, and the fish we caught were holding just offshore still feeding on these shad as they came back off the bank once the skies brightened.

A nice mixed bag of fish was landed here, including largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, hybrid stripers, white bass, and blue catfish.

100% of our fish today were caught on live shad , using tight lines fished straight down in rod holders.

After the bite dried up in this fairly shallow, roughly 20-foot deep water, we moved out deeper to around 36′ and found another group of fish. This area produced a final 24 fish, including a mix of white bass, hybrid, striped bass, and blue cat.

We finished up with exactly 78 fish landed. The potential was certainly there for a higher catch, but none of these fellows had fished this way before, so there was a learning curve to get through mainly involving timing of the hookset just right to correspond with the fish pulling downward enough & long enough to keep the rod tip loaded.

RESULTS: 78 fish, all caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
Live bait had a distinctive edge over artificials today.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:40AM on Thursday, 24 April

0 feet 71.7F

5 feet 71.7F

10 feet 71.7F

15 feet 71.3F

20 feet 69.9F

25 feet 68.4F

30 feet 66.9F

35 feet 65.0F

40 feet 63.3F

45 feet61.5F

50 feet 60.3F

55 feet 59.2F

60 feet 59.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Elevation: 3.20′ low

Water Surface Temp: 71.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE5-8 through 10:50, then quickly tapering to calm

Sky Condition: Moderately overcast grey skies all morning with 100% coverage

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 7% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0021G – 54 fish on live shad

Area vic 1012 – 24 fish on live shad

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

There was No Debate About Bait – 71 Fish

April 24th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, April 24, I welcomed aboard returning guest, Max Schultz, and a longtime coworker and friend of his, Mikey Keim.

Max is looking forward to retiring soon from his family-owned appliance repair business, Tri City Service, which specializes in all manner of home appliance repairs. Mikey maintains a large apartment complex in Temple, TX, managed by Max’s wife

DATE: Thursday, 24 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Max Schultz and Mikey Keim with a few of the hybrid striped bass which showed a strong preference for live (and cut) bait this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The fishing got off to a slow, late start thanks to very heavy, dark, gray cloud cover. This is the third consecutive day in which I struggled in the first 60 to 90 minutes following sunrise. Until the murk thinned out and the skies brightened up, we put only a handful of fish in the boat with a combination of artificial and live bait Around 8:40 AM, the southeast wind picked up a few miles per hour and the clouds thinned allowing the skies to brighten. This almost instantly triggered the fish.

We were able to spend the remainder of this 4.25 hour long trip on just one area .

We fished only live bait and cut bait. Each fellow had one rod with a live shad and one rod with a cut shad, and the pace of the bites we were getting was enough to keep them busy continuously.

The live bait produced a variety of fish, including numerous blue catfish, white bass, and hybrid striped bass, as well as a single freshwater drum.

As has been the case over the last several days, the bite began to soften just after 11AM, and was done by 11:30.

RESULTS: 71 fish, all caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
Live bait had a distinctive edge over artificials today.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:40AM on Thursday, 24 April

0 feet 71.7F

5 feet 71.7F

10 feet 71.7F

15 feet 71.3F

20 feet 69.9F

25 feet 68.4F

30 feet 66.9F

35 feet 65.0F

40 feet 63.3F

45 feet61.5F

50 feet 60.3F

55 feet 59.2F

60 feet 59.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:05A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 3.13′ low

Water Surface Temp: 71.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE12-13 at trip’s start, then settling back to SE9-11 thereafter.

Sky Condition: Heavily overcast, dark grey skies through 8:40A, then brightening through a 100% grey clouded sky.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1012 – 71 fish on live shad

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

White Bass Research Project – Trip #2 of 26 — 67 Fish @ Lake Belton

April 23rd, 2025April 23rd, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, April 23, I fished the second of 26 special fisheries research trips taking place between now and April 2026. These trips are aimed at collecting white bass so they can be measured, weighed, and released in support of a study conducted by students and faculty at Temple College comparing the populations of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir and Lake Belton.

Doing the catching this morning was returning guest Matt Laakso, and doing the research was Dr. Jason Locklin, Caleb Fry, and Mervin Narito.

If you would like to be a part of this effort, and get a $50 discount for the (very) minor inconvenience of having researchers aboard, please consider the following dates and contact me ASAP…

June 2025:18^th Wednesday Belton – OPEN OR 19^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

July 2025:16^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 17^th Wednesday – Stillhouse – OPEN

August 2025:14^th Thursday – Belton – OPEN OR 15^th Friday – Stillhouse – OPEN

September 2025: 20^th Saturday – Belton – Open OR 27^th Saturday – Stillhouse – FILLED

October 2025: 18^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 25^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

November 2025: 8^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 15^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

December 2025: 06^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 13^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

January 2026: 17^thSaturday – Belton – OPEN OR 24^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

February 2026: 14^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 21 Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

March 2026: 11^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 12^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

April 2026: 15^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 16^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

DATE: Wednesday, 23 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Matt Laakso enjoyed a multi-species catch this morning as just about every species in Lake Belton which eats shad visited his hook. Not shown are the blue catfish and freshwater drum that Matt also added to his catch — 67 fish in all.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We had some turbulent weather pass through between 3 and 5 AM this morning. This came in the form of a line of thunderstorms from the west. After the storms cleared, it was humid, balmy, gray, and with light southwesterly winds. As I picked my crew up at the dock, I felt encourage by the conditions, but, on our way to our first area, all of that moved off to the east, and we were left with high-pressure conditions with just the lightest ripple on the water from the east-northeast. We struggled to even find fish to fish for for about 90 minutes until the winds picked up and shifted just south of east. From that point on, we managed to catch consistently.

Once again, while things were tough (as the bite was starting and again as it was tapering off), fish would not stay excited very long about chasing artificial baits, yet, when live baits were presented, these same fish hit without reluctance. Once the bite really turned on, and fish begin to move up off the bottom, then artificial baits caught fish just fine.

Matt really enjoyed the variety of fish he caught – – one of the benefits of fishing live bait. Over our 4+ hours on the water we landed white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, blue catfish, and freshwater drum. By the time the morning by started to shut down around 11:20, we’d put 67 fish in the boat. Once 11:30 arrived, the fish were completely shut down, not even responding to live bait.

RESULTS: 67 fish, all caught and released

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

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
Just as fish were first turning on, they quickly got excited and just as quickly lost interest in artificials; live bait was the key to continuing to catch fish during this time

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Elevation: 4.24′ low

Water Surface Temp: 66.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for first 90 minutes, then ESE5-6 thereafter

Sky Condition: Thin, grey cloud cover for just 15 minutes then quickly cleared to

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 23% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1798 – 14 fish initially on smoked Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, then on live shad

Area vic 1614 – 30 fish – initially on bait, then bite improved as wind got stronger, and switched over to smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0237G/1012 – 23 fish on smoked Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs while bite was still strong, then closed out with live shad as morning bite died.

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

White Bass Research by Temple College Kicks Off @ Stillhouse — 107 Fish

April 22nd, 2025April 22nd, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, April 22, I fished the first of 26 special fisheries research trips taking place between now and April 2026. These trips are aimed at collecting white bass so they can be measured, weighed, and released in support of a study conducted by students and faculty at Temple College comparing the populations of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir and Lake Belton. This morning my anglers were returning guests Pastor PJ Condit and Pastor Scott Smith. The researchers aboard this morning included Professor Jason Locklin, Caroline Vanderburg, and Yessenia Edgecomb.

If you would like to be a part of this effort, and get a $50 discount for the (very) minor inconvenience of having researchers aboard, please consider the following dates and contact me ASAP…

June 2025:

18^th Wednesday Belton – OPEN OR 19^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

July 2025:

16^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 17^th Wednesday – Stillhouse – OPEN

August 2025:

14^th Thursday – Belton – OPEN OR 15^th Friday – Stillhouse – OPEN

September 2025:

20^th Saturday – Belton – Open OR 27^th Saturday – Stillhouse – FILLED

October 2025:

18^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 25^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

November 2025

8^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 15^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

December 2025

06^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 13^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

January 2026

17^thSaturday – Belton – OPEN OR 24^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

February 2026

14^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 21 Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

March 2026

11^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 12^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

April 2026

15^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 16^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

DATE: Tuesday, 22 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: PJ serves the Community Christian Church in Round Rock, and Scott serves at Crestview Christian Church in Copperas Cove. They were serving up MALs and Hazy Eye Slabs to white bass this morning, though!!

PHOTO CAPTION: With calm winds in our first hour, we made our own luck putting live shad down after a quick white bass bite turned off. This resulted in the catch of multiple drum and this 11 pound blue cat.

PHOTO CAPTION: The Temple College fisheries research team from left foreground: Yessenia Edgecomb, Caroline Vanderburg, and Dr. Jason Locklin.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although we had cloud cover all morning, the southerly wind, which had come up at a nice velocity before sunrise, died for about an hour and during that first hour of effort we had trouble finding fish, and caught none.

By 8 AM, a southeasterly ripple had begun in more exposed areas on the lake , and it was around this time we begin to find and catch fish. The first group of fish we encountered behaved much like those I have recently reported on at Lake Belton. These fish get fired up very briefly, go crazy hitting artificials for all of two or three minutes and then settle down very very quickly.

I have found that following the artificial bite up with bait will help sustain a bite, so that is exactly what we had to do this morning at our first stop. After that, the wind and sky conditions improved, the fishing improved, and we had no problems catching fish on artificials from that point forward.

When I found smaller, isolated groups, fish, I parked on top of them and we worked silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically with a smoking tactic. If the fish were spread over a greater area horizontally, I put the boat upwind or crosswind from them and had Scott and PJ cast MAL Heavies out to them using a sawtooth method.

When all was said and done, we had landed 107 fish, including white bass, one largemouth bass, several freshwater drum, one blue catfish, and one bluegill sunfish.

RESULTS: 107 fish, all caught and released

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

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs & MAL Heavy Lures. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
Just as fish were first turning on, they quickly got excited and just as quickly lost interest in artificials; live bait was the key to continuing to catch fish during this time

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 4.25′ low

Water Surface Temp: 66.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for first hour, then SSE5-6 thereafter

Sky Condition: Thin, but complete, grey cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 33% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 549 – 24 fish initially on smoked MAL Heavy Lures, then on live shad

Area vic 754 – 28 fish on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 140 – 12 fish on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 2079 – 14 fish on smoked Bladed Hazy Eye slabs

Area vic B0021G – 22 fish on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 755 – 7 fish on smoked Bladed 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

The Bait Made it Great — 134 Fish

April 21st, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, April 21. I fished with a crew of six with five returning adult guests and one young newbie.

Rejoining me were brothers Joe, Jack, Jeff, and Jamie Oliver, as well as Joe‘s adult son, Thomas Oliver, as well as Jeff‘s grandson, Ember, age 10 (the new guy).

DATE: Monday, 21 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Thomas, Jamie, Ember, Jeffrey, Joe, and Jack with just a few of the 134 fish they landed under clear, bright, cool, nearly calm conditions.

PHOTO CAPTION: A few of the hybrid we encountered today, along with white bass, blue catfish, and smallmouth bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

A cold front moved through on Easter Sunday with thunder, lightning, rain, and a wind shift to the north beginning just before sunrise. That left cooler, dryer, brighter, calmer conditions in its wake today. This post-frontal weather negatively impacted the fishery, but, thankfully, we had already planned to use live bait , which certainly gave us an edge on this tougher set of weather conditions.

I went prepared with approximately 300 shad and intended to fish those on tight, down lines.

We met up at 7:15 AM and had lines in the water by around 7:30 AM.

I chose to start at a cove into which the north winds were blowing overnight and in which I saw shad spawning around first light. That turned out to be a good choice as it yielded our first 28 fish, including white bass, hybrid striped bass, blue catfish, and six smallmouth bass.

We went on to fish five additional areas — the first two of which, and the last of which we fished with bait. The other two we stopped briefly after I saw small segments of the bottom carpeted with white bass. Not wanting to burn through a lot of good bait on smaller fish, I had my crew drop Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs down. The fish got very excited, but only for a short period of time and then lost enthusiasm – something not uncommon when they are in a neutral or negative mood associated with post frontal weather.

The other three area we fished with bait, and those areas accounted for the majority of our fish caught this morning.

When all was said and done, we wrapped up around 11:45 AM with exactly 134 fish landed for our efforts.

RESULTS: 134 fish, all caught and released

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

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
Caught 6 smallmouth on live bait today — the greatest number of smallmouth I’ve encountered while not targeting them.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Elevation: 3.31′ low

Water Surface Temp: 65.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW3-8 all morning

Sky Condition: Clear blue, bright, cloudless skies

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 43% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 008 – 28 fish on live shad

Area vic B0100G – 27 fish on live shad

Area vic 187 – 6 fish on smoked slabs

Area vic 1012 – 4 fish on smoked slabs

Area vic B0299G – 23 fish on live shad

Area vic 1012 (2nd visit) – 46 fish on live shad

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

Seventy Fish and a Hat

April 18th, 2025April 18th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, April 18, I fished with a crew of four including three generations of Van Ripers, and one of their relatives. Joining me was George, Geoff, and Greg Van Riper, and Matt Bouton. George is a retired US Army aviation officer (Viet Nam era helicopter pilot), Jeff is a high school math teacher in the Killeen school district, as well as a golf coach there, Matt is in his junior year studying economics at Texas A&M, and Greg is working his way through public school.

DATE: Friday, 18 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: George and Geoff Van Riper, Matt Bouton, and Greg Van Riper (Geoff’s son), all with some of the white bass they landed under high wind conditions using mainly live bait with a few bouts of slab fishing thrown in when the conditions looked right on sonar.

PHOTO CAPTION: Geoff Van Riper came up with our largest hybrid of the trip. This one struck a large, live threadfin shad in 31 feet of water. It weighed 4.75 pounds.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The 800 pound gorilla in the room today was the wind. The wind situation was such that I was not sure we were even going to be able to get this trip in safely until the mid-week wind forecast throttled back on the forecast windspeeds and I decided to at least give it a try. The wind did force us to change our meeting location, and prohibited me from fishing the productive areas I had been fishing for the last several weeks.

The wind simply impacted everything negatively — from getting from Point A to Point B, to getting baits in the water efficiently, to detecting bites — but, we persisted!

We started off the day on a windblown point, picked up six fish by working three-quarter ounce, silver, Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically, but as soon as the sun got above the horizon and began to warm the atmosphere, the wind ratcheted it up to over 16-17 mph and we had to come off that exposed area .

I wound up fishing the remainder of the trip in the Leon River arm and relied mainly on live bait to get the job done.

When all was said and done, this crew of four landed exactly 70 fish, including white bass, largemouth, bass, blue catfish, and hybrid striped bass. At each of the several locations we fished, I noted something in common. That was that quality white bass were most routinely caught off bottom but were very lackadaisical, whereas we also found very small white bass suspended and zipping around, looking for the source of the noise coming from the splasher. A few times when I felt Greg needed a change of pace to keep him engaged, I had him work a slab vertically when everyone else stuck with bait, and during those times, he pulled up small white bass from the upper half of the water column which chased his slab, as we observed together on Garmin LiveScope.

We wrapped up at 11:45 and I knew the ride back was going to be a wet challenge. We were doing great until Geoff’s hat (an Alamo hat with sentimental value) blew off. We took on some spray in the maneuvering required to get back to the hat before it sank, but, other than that, we got back to the dock unscathed.

Happy Easter — Christ has risen!

RESULTS: 70 fish, all caught and released

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

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.
High SE winds prohibited travel on exposed areas of the lake today.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 3.27′ low

Water Surface Temp: 67.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE16-20 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% thin, grey cloud cover for 3 hours, then clearing to a white, hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 81% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 0363 – 6 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0085C – 28 fish primarily on live bait

Area vic 0181 – 25 fish primarily on live bait

Area vic B0079C (2 hops) – 11 fish on live shad

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

‘Twas a Bad Day to be a Shad — 90 Fish

April 17th, 2025April 17th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, April 17, I fished with returning guests, Dr. Jim Wood and his friend and former coworker, Sky Sparks. Jim is a retired surgeon and wound care specialist now residing near McGregor, Texas, and Sky drove in for this morning‘s trip from the Killeen, Texas, area.

I was concerned about wind velocity this morning and actually changed our meeting location because after I got up this morning and did a physical weather check outdoors, I noted the winds were stronger than were forecast. In hindsight, we could have stuck with our original plan, but better safe than sorry.

DATE: Thursday, 17 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Sky Sparks and Dr. Jim Wood with a few of the white bass they caught using a variety of tactics as the warming spring weather has fish metabolism on the rise creating an aggressive bite.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Sky Sparks displays a hybrid striped bass, a largemouth bass, a blue catfish, and another hybrid striper — all caught on live shad fished near bottom under very windy conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We mixed it up a little bit this morning given that shad are fairly easy to catch here in the midst of their spawning season, and given that we did well on bait and artificial lures earlier this week, we put both to use this morning and put together a 90 fish catch.

I started the trip off fishing out from a south-facing bank, which was pounded overnight by the wind, and which shad were spawning on. Both white bass and hybrid striped bass were patrolling this area . We used silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with a “smoking” tactic until the sun got high enough to brighten the skies through the gray layer of cloud cover.

This brightening triggered some scattered topwater action, although the heavy wave action served to hinder it. At this point, I moved us to an area where topwater action took place in abundance yesterday, and although we did catch fish there, the topwater action did not really materialize, and it was clear that the number of fish in that area was not near what it was yesterday. From there, we took one more stab at working slabs vertically, picking up a few more fish before spending the remainder of the trip trying to tempt some legal hybrid (18 inches or larger) into biting shad fished on downlines.

The live bait produced exactly 50 additional fish, including three legal hybrid striped bass, several short hybrid, a single largemout bass, four blue catfish, and an abundance of white bass 90% of which were legal.

Although the fish were still hitting at the time I’d normally be wrapping up, and while I never stop a trip by the clock, but rather based on fish activity, I felt it was prudent to leave the exposed area we were in while the winds were still tame enough to do so without giving my clients a rough and or wet ride back in.

RESULTS: 90 fish, all caught and released

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

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
No helpful bird activity.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:05A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 3.24′ low

Water Surface Temp: 68.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13-16 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% thin, grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 81% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 0363 – 8 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0391G – 23 fish on MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic B0191C – 9 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 150 (2 hops) – 50 fish on live shad

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

No Bait Today & the Whites Came to Play – 178 Fish on MAL Heavies & Hazy Eyes

April 16th, 2025April 17th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, April 16th, I fished with returning guests Gary and Rachel Davidson from Kerrville, Texas. They brought two friends along with them – Ryan Johnson and Ronnie Langford — both from the Texas Hill Country out near Lake Buchanan.

DATE: Wednesday, 16 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rachel and Gary Davidson, Ryan Johnson, and Ronnie Langford with a portion of their 178-fish catch made on

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

After two consecutive days fishing live bait targeting hybrid striped bass, I shifted gears this morning and targeted white bass using artificials. The shad spawn was going on this morning and that got the bite off to an early start. It tapered up to a peak about two and three-quarter hours long, then tapered back down to nil by 11:30.

In order to familiarize my two new guests with the vertical tactics we be using today, I equipped them with the silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab, and we worked them vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope and a splashing device used to draw fish to the boat and keep them there. We continued on with this tactic at a second location, putting a total of 50 fish in the boat before making a move to a third area and changing up our presentation.

At this third area, birds (gulls, and turns) gave away the location of topwater feeding whites in fairly shallow water . As I slowly crept into this area so not too spook anything, I noted white bass of all sizes pinning schools of shad up against the surface and feeding heavily on them there. I rearmed everyone with different rods and reels equipped with MAL Heavy lures with chartreuse tails and put everyone to work casting out horizontally, and using a modified sawtooth method to bring the lures back. By “modified”, I mean I did not have them open the bail to allow the lure to sink quickly because that was not an issue in this fairly shallow water.

I should note that Gary and Rachel are very good temperate bass anglers, spending most of their time on Lake Buchanan after whites, hybrid, and full-blooded stripers. Gary likes to experiment, and, on this trip he brought a bait normally used for deadsticking (a jighead with soft plastic) and used it whenever everyone else was using slabs vertically. This larger bait which hangs horizontally got, on average, larger white bass, but, also invited missed strikes as smaller fish still struck at it, so he wound up landing fewer fish when using that tactic. Despite the difference in bait, the presentation (“smoking” it past suspended fish or up and away from bottom-oriented fish) remained essentially the same.

Over about 1.75 hours’ time, this aggressive feeding behavior continued, allowing us to tally a catch of 106 additional fish before leaving this bite behind as fish pushed out of shallow water due to brightening conditions. From this point on, the bite got softer and softer.

Despite finding groups of fish, we could only keep them teased up enough to strike for a few minutes before they lost interest altogether. This happened three times at two different areas and finally, around 11:30, we called it a good morning with exactly 178 fish landed.

RESULTS: 178 fish, all caught and released

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

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
Helpful bird activity witnessed around 8:15, which led to about 1.75 hours of successful fishing in the area the birds indicated.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 3.22′ low

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6-9 for about 90 minutes, then shifting S and ramping up to 13-16 thereafter

Sky Condition: Increasing thin, grey cloud cover all AM going from 30% to 100%

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 88% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 676 – 12 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0074G – 38 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0391G to B0166C – 68 fish fish on MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 031 – 18 fish fish on MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic B0191C – 7 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0310G (2 hops) – 35 fish on 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

The Hunt for Hybrid Continues … 111 Fish

April 15th, 2025April 15th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, April 15, I fished with a crew of five targeting hybrid striped bass with live shad on Lake Belton. Joining me was a crew of five including Harris Young, Craig Hunter, Tim Long, Austin Long, and Joey Sapien.

A mild, dry cold front pushed in overnight resulting in more comfortable temperatures, some high, thin, but complete gray cloud cover by mid-moring, and north-north east winds straight line at 13 to 15 with higher gusts.

DATE: Tuesday, 15 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 02 June (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Harris Young, Craig Hunter, Tim Long, Austin Long, and Joey Sapien each with a nice Lake Belton hybrid striped bass landed on live shad fished on downlines during the annual threadfin shad spawn.

PHOTO CAPTION: Joey Sapien landed our heaviest hybrid of the trip in the final fifteen minutes before the fish quit feeding.

PHOTO CAPTION: Tim demonstrating to his son, Austin, “how it’s done”.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This wind shift shifted the location of spawning shad, and the fish chasing after them and consuming them.

When I located fish today (between 25 and 41 feet), we fished with tight down-lines rigged up with a trolling sinker to which a leader with kahle hook with mono tag were attached. I nostril-hooked all of the shad, and the mono tag prevented them from slipping too far up the hook shank .

We caught a wide variety of fish, including smallmouth bass, freshwater drum, blue catfish, yellow catfish, white bass, and hybrid striped bass.

We fished five areas today, finding fish at four of them. The first and the last both gave up legal hybrid , whereas the other two produced only white bass, albeit well-proportioned, mature fish with many exceeding 13 inches.

By 11:35 the bite had run its course and my crew had landed 111 fish, including 17 legal hybrid striped bass.

RESULTS: 111 fish, all caught and released

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

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used only live bait today. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

Threadfin shad spawn continues.
Helpful bird activity witnessed in the first 45 minutes as laughing gulls pointed the way to spawning shad with white bass and hybrids in pursuit.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F

5 feet 68.4F

10 feet 67.4F

15 feet 65.9F

20 feet 65.1F

25 feet 64.3F

30 feet 63.5F

35 feet 62.6F

40 feet 61.9F

45 feet 60.0F

50 feet 59.2F

55 feet 58.2F

60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F

5 feet 63.1F

10 feet 62.9F

15 feet 62.9F

20 feet 62.9F

25 feet 68.2F

30 feet 62.6F

35 feet 61.4F

40 feet 60.6F

45 feet 59.4F

50 feet 59.4F

55 feet 59.0F

60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 3.17′ low

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE13-16 all morning

Sky Condition: Increasing thin, grey cloud cover all AM going from 30% to 100%

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 175

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 008 (2 hops) – 36 fish on live shad

Area vic 1013/1552 – 29 fish fish on live shad

Area vic 187 – 35 fish fish on live shad

Area vic B0308G – 43 fish on live shad

Area vic B0299G – 11 fish on live shad

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