MAL Lure | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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Nobody On The Road … Nobody on the Beach — 57 Fish

August 31st, 2023August 31st, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Yep, it was like the Don Henley classic out there this morning … this morning, Thursday, August 31, I fished a “Beat the Heat“ special trip with returning guests, Jim Wood and George Vanriper — and company was quite scarce!

My “Beat the Heat“ trips are three hours in length with the fee prorated accordingly (versus 4+ hours for a standard trip). These trips are focused on topwater action in that low-light portion of the morning when such activity is most likely.

I’m offering these through Sept. 14 if anyone else is interested.

Jim, a retired surgeon, and George, a retired army aviator, used this occasion to meet one another in person for the first time after George asked me to suggest others he might occasionally pair up with to fish lakes Belton and Stillhouse. Both men are boat owners and are pretty good largemouth bass anglers in their own right, so , I helped put them in touch with one another.

Here is how the fishing went…
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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Sept. 5-7 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Retired U.S. Army aviator George VanRiper and retired surgeon Dr. Jim Wood with some handsome whites taken on early morning topwater on an all-but-deserted Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jim and George’s catch of 57 fish included 3 hybrid, of which only this guy was a keeper (and was released). 52 of the 54 white bass were of legal size.

PHOTO CAPTION: This was the view of the parking lot at the boat ramp this morning. I love this time of year!! Kids are back to school, summer vacation is over, football is kicking in, and hunting cranks up tomorrow … all these factors equate to less and less pressure on the fish and freedom to pursue fish without being followed or crowded.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 31 August 2023

HOW WE FISHED:

We were originally scheduled to fish yesterday, but, with a pretty stiff north wind still blowing after Sunday’s cold front moved through, I did not feel confident about topwater action materializing. We put off the trip until this morning when the north winds were due to let up and south winds were due to return once again.

This turned out to be a good decision.

Around 10:05, the winds went nearly slack prior to the forthcoming wind shift, and the heat really started pouring on. We wrapped up at that time with exactly 57 fish boated. As is often the case, this time of year, the lake was nearly deserted.

Although there was not the amount, nor the intensity, of topwater action this morning as compared to before the cold front’s arrival, we were able to get into about 90 minutes’ worth of action during which my two anglers were able to boat exactly 44 fish using Cork Rigs.

Cork Rigs, which I make by hand and sell on my website, couple a popping cork with a shad-sized streamer, and allow for a light bait to be presented at long distances.

Once the topwater action died down at 8:15, the job of putting fish in the boat immediately got much tougher.

We pressed on until about 10:05 and put a final 13 additional fish in the boat, including three hybrid, and, our only two short white bass. All of these fish were taken using downriggers with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.

TALLY: 57 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the Smoking Method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

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

OBSERVATIONS: Here was the water temperature profile taken this morning:

0 feet, 86.8F
5 feet, 86.8F
10 feet, 86.8F
15 feet, 86.8F
20 feet, 86.8F
25 feet, 86.2F
30 feet, 83.3F
35 feet, 75.6F
40 feet, 68.2F
45 feet, 65.6F
50 feet, 64.5F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:05A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 17.11 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 86.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW6 at trip’s start, slowly fading to calm by trip’s end as a forthcoming windshift was underway

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

Moon Phase: Full super blue moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 75

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1055 to 1545 – 43 legal white bass & 1 short hybrid by 8:15A

Area B0084G thru B0085G, and Area 1223 – singles, doubles, and a triple for a total of 14 fish by downrigging Pet Spoons on 3-armed umbrella rigs.

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

OLD SALTS HIT FRESHWATER — 104 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

July 11th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, July 11th, I fished with first time guests Rob Pasichnyk, and his friend, Ralph Owen.

Both men have lived in this area for many years, and first got acquainted when Ralph was working as a contractor renovating a facility in where Rob was employed.

With both men having previous saltwater fishing experience and being capable casters, I chose to take them to Lake Belton, hoping they could put those casting skills to work on fish feeding on top water.

Here’s 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 July 31 & August 2 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ralph Owen and Rob Pasichnyk pulled out the full summer arsenal to capture a total of 104 fish this morning: sight-casting, smoking, sawtoothing, and downrigging.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 10 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

By the time our four hours had come and gone, Rob and Ralph employed every summertime trick in the book to put their 104 fish catch together. We sight-cast to fish on top, we downrigged for suspended fish, we used MAL Lures with a smoking retrieve for heavily congregated, suspended fish, and we cast horizontally using MAL Lures with a sawtooth tactic to catch fish which were spread horizontally on and near the bottom.

I was a bit concerned about this morning’s wind velocity as it was blowing hard around 4:15 AM when I woke up to prep for the trip. As forecast by NOAA, however, the wind speed cut back significantly to just 8 or 9 mph and stayed there for the first two hours or so after sunrise.

We caught our first 37 fish this morning in under an hour as large schools of white bass forced young of the year shad to the surface and fed on them in a number of locations. The “nervous water“ they produced when feeding like this was the giveaway to their locations.

Given that these fish were feeding on such small bait, I equipped both Rob and Ralph with long, light action, St. Croix Panfish Series rods, coupled with large arbor reels and light braid to be able to maximize casting distance on standalone MAL Mini Lures.

When the top water died at this location, we moved to yet another area where topwater action was still going on. We fished these fish in much the same way, except that when they left the surface, we retooled with MAL Heavy Lures and continued picking up fish using a sawtooth method.

Once this top water action dried up for good, we switched back-and-forth between downrigging to find fish, and then taking advantage of what we’d found by either smoking or sawtoothing MAL Heavy Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

As we wrapped up at 10:15, it was still quite comfortable out thanks to some high, gray cloud cover which had moved into the area right after the topwater action died, and thanks to a now 10 to 12 mph breeze blowing from the SSW.

Of the 104 fish caught today, four were short hybrid stripers, one was an 18-inch, 3-pound hybrid striper, two were freshwater drum, and the balance were white bass with the five largest approaching the 14 inch mark.

TALLY: 104 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the smoking tactic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Topwater action ended at 8:10AM.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Elevation: 14.1 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW6-12 all morning

Sky Condition: Thin, grey cloud cover made the latter half of the trip bearable

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 35% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 814 – 37 fish via sightcasting with MAL Minis

Area vic 483 – 23 fish via sightcasting Minis, then sawtoothing MAL Heavies once the fish left the surface

Area vic 1738 – downrigging leading to smoking

Area 1608 thru B0030G – downrigging leading to smoking/sawtoothing

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

FIRST FOG, THEN FISH, THEN RAIN – 106 FISH

November 7th, 2022November 7th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, November 7th, I fished with returning guest Frank Sumner of Killeen, who brought as his guest his brother-in-law, Arturo Maldonado.

Frank is a veteran, originally from the St. Louis area, now working in the medical field where he serves Fort Hood soldiers. Arturo, also a veteran, grew up in New York City until age 12, then headed back to his parents’ home island of Puerto Rico, then enlisted in the U.S. Army following high school graduation. After serving in the infantry, he separated from the military and then worked with military medical records until retirement.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Arturo Maldonado and his brother-in-law, Frank Sumner, with a few of the 106 fish they caught and released using MAL Original Lures (white tail version) on Lake Belton, November 7th, 2022.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 07 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Although our trip was 4 hours in length, most of the catching took place between 8A and 10:10A. We found ourselves on the warm, humid, eastern side of an occluded (stalled) cold front to the northwest of us which resulted in on-and-off showers, some early morning fog, and an otherwise damp, warm, and humid feel to the day with little fluctuation of temperatures, which started around 72F before sunrise and only reached 76F by mid-afternoon.

We fished under a blanket of fog from 7-8A, and only landed 8 fish during that span of time. Although there was some topwater action during that time — which was easily seen on the slick, calm surface — the fish were well-dispersed and didn’t lend themselves to a typical topwater approach.

Just as the fog began to lift and a SE wind began to blow, the fishing immediately picked up, allowing us a catch of 30 fish at the first place we Spot-Locked on (in only 26 feet of water), and a catch of anther 50 fish at the second place we Spot-Locked on (in 34 feet of water). This span from ~8A to 9:30 was the best of the best today.

When this area began to fizzle, I went looking for more fish and at the same time noted storm clouds to our SE. A quick check of WX radar showed a fast-moving band of showers headed our way, so, I changed plans and looked for fish in the nearest likely location closest to our launch site in case we had to make a run for it.

The fishing here was okay, allowing us another 13 fish before the first raindrops fell at exactly 10:10. From the time the rain began, the fishing tanked, and then only partially recovered after two rain cells dropped rain on us and then passed to the north. From 10:10 to 11A, we only landed 13 more fish, despite seeing plenty of fish on Garmin LiveScope which simply refused our offerings and moved parallel to bottom quite sluggishly.

100% of our fish today came on the MAL Original with white tail. 8 of the 106 fish were taken by sight-casting to topwater fish under the fog, and the balance were taken racing the lure up off the bottom using a “smoking tactic”.

My 2-man crew landed 97 white bass, 6 hybrid striped bass, 2 largemouth bass, & 1 freshwater drum.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 106 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) a 40cfs flow continued today, 2) I spotted multiple single gulls, multiple flocks of 3 gulls, and one flock of ~12 gulls. Some were lightly feeding on topwater under the fog from 7-8A.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:55A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 13.28 feet low, 0.01′ fall in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 68.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm during the first hour with fog, then SE5-7 for ~2 hours, then dropping back to SE1-3 during and after the two rain showers.

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning, plus additional fog at lake level for the first hour.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 99% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0159G/2055, vic 083, vic B0041C, B0158G

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

SUMMER TRAIN WRECK!!! — 91 FISH @ BELTON

June 16th, 2022June 16th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, June 16th, I welcomed aboard 9-year-old Miss Adi Zwern of Houston.

Adi is in the midst of her annual summer visit with her Grandma and Pop Pop in Georgetown. For the last three years now, fishing with me has been a part of that summer visit.

Adi was accompanied by Pop Pop Larry Brewer and Uncle Blake Hoekstra on this “Kids Fish, Too!” trip — a trip intended just for kids, which is less expensive and shorter in duration than my adult trips.

In addition to the fishing, games and craft projects are also a traditional part of Adi’s summer visit.

This year, the domino game “Train” was the big hit, and painting birdhouses was the craft du jour. It seemed Adi took particular delight in causing “train wrecks” for her Pop Pop, thus causing him undesirably high scores (like 87 … 87 … 87… 87 … 87)!!

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 12th and 13th. 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: Pop Pop Larry Brewer, Adi Zwern, and Blake Hoekstra, each with one of the larger white bass we took mid-morning from deeper water after topwater feeding by smaller fish died down.

PHOTO CAPTION: A few pieces of Adi’s summers spent with Grandma and Pop Pop through the years.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 16 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

There is a very definite transition to summertime fishing patterns now underway at Lake Belton, as was the case over at Stillhouse Hollow earlier this week.

This morning on Belton, lots of small, young-of-the-year shad made easy pickings for white bass under low light conditions right at sunrise. We sight-cast to fish in schools of perhaps 100-200 fish each all tightly bunched together as they worked together to pin bait up against the surface.

We threw MAL Original Lures with white tails to these eager feeders and caught a fish each time Adi could reel the lure fast enough to keep it from sinking below the fish.

After the sun rose above the clouds and started brightening things up, we continued catching these same fish which were now visible only on sonar down between 12-18 feet. I ran just one downrigger with a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with silver Pet Spoons to catch these fish until they finally pushed deeper in the water column and away from shore. By this time we’d landed 16 fish, including a double on the umbrella rig.

From this point and until about 9:15, we went out into deeper, 38-44′ water searching for more bottom-oriented schools of fish. We found two such groups of fish, drew them in toward the boat with the commotion we created, and caught them on MAL Heavy Lures (silver blade/white tail) steadily, greatly aided by Garmin LiveScope.

The sole tactic we relied upon in this deepwater fishery was “smoking” MAL Heavy Lures up off the bottom repeatedly.

We picked up 32 fish at our first deepwater area, and another 19 fish at our second. By the time our fish count approached 45, Adi’s little wrists were starting to give out. I’d already swapped her spinning reel handle from left to right and back again multiple times to give her arms a break, but, at fish #67, she said she didn’t think she could reel in any more.

With about an hour still remaining, we took photos, did a bathroom break, and I then re-tooled to pursue sunfish up in shallow water. This was a much less strenuous exercise and Adi, who’d sunfished with me previously, did wonderfully well at watching her float and setting the hook.

In about a half-hour, Adi put 24 sunfish in the boat, including redears and bluegills, thus bringing our final fish count to 91.

Adi reeled in every last one of those 91 fish all by herself!

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

Our catch included 67 white bass, and 24 assorted sunfish.

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

TALLY: 91 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The fairly light winds and thin, but complete, grey cloud cover this morning made for great topwater conditions, with fish feeding for an extended period of time versus a bright, cloudless and/or windy morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 5.01 feet low, 0.04’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83F

Wind Speed & Direction: S4-5 at trip’s start, slowly increasing to S12 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Thin grey cloud cover at sunrise gave way to 50% patchy, thin cloud cover thereafter

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0031G (topwater and downrigging early)

Area 2033 and B0200G (mid-morning smoking with MALs)

Area 502 – sunfish

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THE WHITE BASS BROTHERS — 200 FISH @ BELTON

May 24th, 2022May 24th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

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

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

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 12th – 14th. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

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

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

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

HOW WE FISHED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TALLY: 200 fish caught and released

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

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

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

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

Water Surface Temp: 77.9F

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

Sky Condition: Fully greyed skies all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 32% illumination.

GT = 120

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THANKS, BOSS!! — 201 FISH @ BELTON

May 19th, 2022May 19th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

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

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

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

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

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

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 7th and 12th. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Travis Reynolds, Mason Stuart, Jesus Suarez, Aaron Martin, and Coey Malina with but a few of the 201 fish haul these fellows caught and released this morning on Lake Belton.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

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

HOW WE FISHED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TALLY: 201 fish caught and released

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

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

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

Water Surface Temp: 78.8F

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

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

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 84% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

WINDY, WITH A CHANCE OF WIND AND MORE WIND – 115 FISH

November 18th, 2021November 18th, 2021 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Yesterday morning, Wednesday, November 17^th, I fished with returning guest John Gossard of Morgan’s Point Resort, TX.

John and his wife moved to this area in August of 2020 and he’s been out with me three times now this year, with our first two trips conducted on Stillhouse over the summer months.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next three openings will be on 15, 16, and 22 December. Weekday mornings are always best.

PHOTO CAPTION: Although we caught white bass from multiple year classes at each area we fished this morning, the first area we hit under low light and with bird activity produced the greatest ratio of 13+ inch fish. John Gossard holds two such fish he took on the MAL Heavy Lure worked horizontally in 22-24 feet of water. Yes, his hat reads, “humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa“, the name of Hawaii’s state fish, the reef triggerfish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 17 November 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

We had a little too much of a good thing today. The south wind which was so welcome on Monday and Tuesday as it blew manageably today gusted over 20 all morning, with straight-line winds at 14-17 the entire time, limiting the areas we could practically fish.

Today’s fish activity closely mimicked yesterday’s as far as location and activity level. The fish did the same things in the same places and at the same times as they did yesterday, thus allowing us to skip searching in unproductive water and drive from one group of biting fish to the next.

We fished five areas today. The fishing was pretty much “cookie cutter” at the last 4, with the action coming entirely on vertical presentations using the MAL Heavy Lure (white blade, chartreuse tail). The first area, under low light and birds, fished a bit differently in that we had a lot of mobile fish just under the surface driving bait into the wind, thus allowing (actually, requiring) a horizontal presentation (sawtooth-style).

I observed that the fish seemed much more likely to rise far up in the water column after we created commotion by Spot-Locking and catching fish this morning that over the past two trips. I suspect this was because the high winds significantly reduced the amount of light penetrating the surface due to heavy wave action.

Once again we took 3 largemouth bass in over 25 feet of water as a bycatch; we also continued to see the hybrid striped bass stocked in 2020 make up 5-8% of the total catch. I’m really hopeful that 2023 will be a great year for that fishery.

When all was said and done, we landed 115 fish, including 3 largemouth bass, 5 juvenile hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 106 white bass.

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 115 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 1) As is typical for this time of year, the largemouth bass bycatch has begun to take place. We took 3 largemouth today (second consecutive day). 2) Next front is due in in the early morning hours of Thursday, 18 Nov.; the initial wind shift is due ~9P tonight.

Here is the pre-frontal water temperature profile down to 60 feet:

0 feet 68.6
5 feet 68.6
10 feet 68.6
15 feet 68.6
20 feet 68.6
25 feet 68.6
30 feet 68.5
35 feet 68.2
40 feet 68.1
45 feet 68.1
50 feet 68.1
55 feet 67.4
60 feet 67.9

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 1.64 feet low, 0.02 fall, 42CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9 at trip’s start increasing steadily to SSE13 by the 3 hour mark, then quickly going SSE17 in our final hour

Sky Condition: Fully clouded grey skies with enough light filtering thru to making it “squinting bright”

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 93% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1188 to B0100G to 1789 – 23 fish with multiple short hops under low-light conditions and with bird assistance; MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail worked horizontally

**Area 1075 – 14 fish; all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

**Area vic B0103G – 21 fish; all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

**Area 376 – 7 fish; all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

**Area 1815 – 35 fish; all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

**Area B0066G – 15 fish; ; all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

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