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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

HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER — 132 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

November 26th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Saturday morning, November 25, I fished with first time guests, Maurice and Galen Hall, a father and son team.

Maurice lives out in Oglesby, Texas, and works in the maintenance field for a company in Killeen. Galen recently left the US Army where he served as an infantryman, and now works in chemical manufacturing down south of Houston.

Galen brought his wife and 14 month old child in for the weekend in order to treat his dad to this fishing trip for his 63rd birthday. Here is how the fishing went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Nov. 27 – 30

PHOTO CAPTION: Maurice Hall, left, was treated to a fishing trip for his 63rd birthday by his son, Galen, who drove in from League City the night before to make this trip happen. The pair landed 132 fish during their 4-hour morning trip.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 25 Nov. 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

With consistently cloudy skies and a consistent wind, we enjoyed consistent action from start to finish today. In fact, I dare say this was one of the most consistent bites I’ve seen yet this fall in terms of the fish activity being spread well over the trip’s four hour duration.

Our middle two hours of the morning definitely saw more aggressive action both by fish and birds, but the first and last hour also produced well. During our second hour of the trip from about 8 to 9 AM, the birds and the fish were so active that I had Galen and Maurice use MAL Dense Lures with a sawtooth tactic to put 33 fish in the boat. This call was made easier when I observed that the fish and birds were both feeding on shad, roughly 3.5 inches in length.

In the time leading up to that aggressive activity, and again as the fish begin to tone down thereafter, we relied on my fall standby tactic of smoking the 5/8 ounce, white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab used in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

We hit only five areas today with the first four being fairly near one another thanks to the fish staying bunched up and active, and responding well to the splasher.

By the time 11:20 had rolled around, the bite had just about fizzled. The 132 fish Galen and Maurice caught consisted of a mix of 2 hybrid, striped bass, 4 largemouth bass, and 126 white bass, of which, approximately 85% were legal with a solid number of three year-old fish in the mix going right at 13 inches.

Here is a tutorial on the smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ

TALLY: 162 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS: The water temperature profile measured on 20 Nov., was:

0 feet, 65.9F
5 feet, 65.6F
10 feet, 65.6F
15 feet, 65.6F
20 feet, 65.6F
25 feet, 65.5F
30 feet, 65.5F
35 feet, 65.5F
40 feet, 65.5F
45 feet, 65.5F
50 feet, 65.5F
55 feet, 65.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 39F

Elevation: 15.38 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 62.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: WSE9 to 13 all morning

Sky Condition: 15-30% thin white cloud cover on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 96% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas:

958 – 35 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

B0237G – 43 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

1945/1552 – 20 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

1290 – 3 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

B0242G – 31 fish smoking 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

PERFECT STORM FOR TOPWATER — 102 FISH ON CORK RIGS

September 7th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, 07 September, I fished with returning guest James Dubose accompanied by his father-in-law, Brian Markham, who was joining me for the first time.

James, a veteran, now supports Fort Cavazos working as a civilian there in the computer field, while Brian runs his own mobile RV repair service in the RV-saturated area on the Gulf coast near Rockport, TX.

James’ wife (and Brian’s daughter), Ashly Dubose put this whole thing together for the fellows.

Here is how the fishing went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Sept. 12-14 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Brian Markham and James Dubose with a sampling of the white bass taken mainly on the surface under low-light conditions using the Cork Rig.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 07 September 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

It truly was a “perfect storm” of circumstances this morning leading to a 100+ fish catch in just under 3 hours’ time.

What do I mean by that?

The weather was right — this high pressure dome causing our heat and drought headaches also makes for incredibly stable weather in which the fish get into a “mode” and do the same things at the same places and times each day.
The wind was right — we had a light SSE chop fueled by a 4-5 mph breeze, so the water was moving, but any fish activity could be readily spotted.
The lake was deserted — hence, no rookie anglers driving right up to the fish using their outboards, no jet skis, no wake boats, no company of any sort to put the fish down prematurely.
My clients could cast well — both Brian and James could cast both far and accurately. This allowed me to give a maximum buffer distance between the boat and the fish which translated to fish which stayed up longer than if they’d been pressured.
My clients were coachable — if I saw something they could do differently or better, I let them know that, and they willingly adjusted.
The shad continue to grow thanks to the extended high water temperatures — this means we could get away using larger lures imitating adult shad and enjoy the extra heft and distance those larger presentations allow for.

The fish first showed on the surface at 6:47AM and went strong until 8:15. After that, there was an additional 35 minutes of sporadic action before the fish vacated the surface by 8:50A. We had the boat back on trailer by 9:30A following this “Beat the Heat Special”, 3 hour long trip.

All but 7 of the 102 fish were taken on the Cork Rig with the largest streamer option (#2 white/grey) I offer. The men landed 3 fish on MAL Heavies in the roughly 10-minute span of time between 8:15 when the aggressive activity stopped, the fish sounded, and just before the fish began to “popcorn” feed. The balance were taken on Pet Spoon-equipped downrigggers.

Of the 102 fish landed, 6 were short hybrid, and the other 96 fish were all legal white bass with the best 10-15% going over 13-14″.

TALLY: 102 fish caught and released.

Find the Cork Rig here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: I spotted additional flocks of migrating teal this morning. The water temperature profile taken around 9:45 after my clients had departed was as follows:

0 feet, 87.0F
5 feet, 86.4F
10 feet, 85.9F
15 feet, 85.6F
20 feet, 85.5F
25 feet, 85.0F
30 feet, 82.9F
35 feet, 76.8F
40 feet, 69.0F
45 feet, 66.8F
50 feet, 65.1F
55 feet, 68.3F
60 feet, 62.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 9:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Elevation: 17.54 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 87.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE4-6 all morning

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

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 44% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0197C to B0039G to B0100C, and Area B0107G – early morning, low-light topwater action

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

December 2nd, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

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

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

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

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

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

HOW WE FISHED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TALLY: 126 fish caught and released

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

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

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

Water Surface Temp: 60.8F

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

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

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 96% illumination

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

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

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

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

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

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

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

December 1st, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

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

HOW WE FISHED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

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

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

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

Water Surface Temp: 60.9F

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

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

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 99% illumination

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

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

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

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

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

NO PET BUFFALOS – 105 FISH

July 30th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, 29 July, I fished Lake Belton with two young lady anglers — Lils and Zoey Haberer, accompanied and assisted by their mom, Emily, and their grandfather, Steve Niemeier.

Zoey is 5 years of age, and Lils is 8.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: That’s Emily and little Zoey with a buffalo nearly as long as Zoey is tall!

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Lils Haberer with an 11th hour largemouth we picked up downrigging after causing havoc for the local sunfish population for over 2 solid hours.

WHEN WE FISHED: 29 July, 2020, AM

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

HOW WE FISHED: With girls so young, I had a fairly limited amount of time to find some “easy” fish before they became disinterested. In a scenario nearly identical to the day before, although our forecast called for SW winds, we actually had ESE winds during that critical low-light time from just before sunrise to just after it during which much shallow water topwater feeding typically takes place. That easterly wind just seems to put the brakes on the topwater bite. We actually spotted fewer suspended fish than the day before, and saw no early topwater fish at all this morning. After patrolling, looking, and downrigging a bit, by the 1-hour mark we’d managed to lose 2 young of the year white bass (which were all of about 4″ long), and land another.

I decided at that point that we needed to provide some “instant gratification”, so, we headed up shallow and proceeded to put a hurt on the local sunfish population.

Over the next 2.25 hours, the girls landed exactly 102 sunfish, including bluegill, green, and longear sunfish. Lils was ably assisted by Steve, and Zoey was coached by her mom. This was just the ticket to refocus the girls after a very slow start.

By the time the second area we fished for sunfish played out, we were right around the 3.5 hour mark and Zoey had just about played out, and I suspected Lils wasn’t too far behind. I suggested that we give downrigging just one more try to see if we couldn’t end the day with some larger fish.

Since the girls could move around and snack while we downrigged, and because this was a change of pace from the sunfishing, that suggestion went over well.

We put in all of about 20 minutes’ worth of downrigging during which time Lils came up with a nice largemouth bass — her largest fish of the trip. Not to be outdone, Zoey (with much help from Emily, or perhaps it was the other way around), landed a 16.00-pound smallmouth buffalo.

The whole boat erupted in cheering when the fish was secured in the net. We revived the fish, took some photos, and released it. It was then that Emily noticed Zoey was pouting up in the front of the boat with her head down.

When asked what was the matter, she shared with her mom that she wanted to take the buffalo home as a pet and was therefore very sad that we had released it.

Besides that, we had a good trip even if the white bass weren’t cooperative.

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The presence of an easterly wind these past two mornings has just killed the low-light bite. After the sun gets up and the wind starts to move the water, occasional “popcorn” schools of briefly appearing whites could be seen for just seconds at a time out in open water.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 10:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 1.35′ low, 0.06′ 24-hour change, 54 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE6-7 during the first 2 hours, shifting to SE thereafter.

Moon Phase: First Quarter Moon +2 (a.k.a. waxing gibbous moon)

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1583 and B0158C for sunfish

**Area vic 1604 for light action on downriggers late in the AM

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)

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

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

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com