Mepps MAL | Fishing Report

CAMPIN’ & FISHIN’ WITH PAW PAW — 70 FISH @ BELTON

June 20th, 2022June 20th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, June 20th, I welcomed aboard Mr. Scott Sutphen and his grandsons, Josh (15), Jacob (12), and Jace (11).

Scott and his wife are from the Bryan-College Station area where Scott works for Lochow Ranch, a pond and lake management company, providing comprehensive private lake and pond management services throughout Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. They routinely camp at Lake Belton, and that’s how they came to book with me.

The boys are all from the rural town of Iola, out between Bryan and Huntsville.

After fixing them his “Paw Paw Special Breakfast” (that’d be Pop-Tarts), the crew drove over from their campground and showed up on time for our 6:30A start.

Here is how the fishing went …

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My next openings will be on July 13th and 15th. 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: Jacob, Josh, Jace, and Scott Sutphen with a few of the Lake Belton white bass we really worked for today under bright skies and near-calm wind conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 20 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

We faced pretty tough conditions today — nearly cloudless skies, and nearly calm winds through 10AM. Our best run of catching actually came right at the close of the trip, between 10:10A and 10:55A, when we put a final 31 fish in the boat. This is atypical, especially in the summer, to catch more fish in the latter part of the trip, but, the fish turned on when the wind blew.

Until that wind kicked in, we faced very much the same scenario at each of the places we searched … we’d see a few fish on sonar, Spot-Lock on them, create some commotion to draw them in, and caught a few, only to have their interest drop off very quickly. We could not get fish to stay under the boat for any length of time. So, seeing this, we adjusted by moving frequently, taking a few fish from a given area, and then moving again as soon as the bite dropped off.

All of the fishing we did, up until the wind began blowing, was vertical smoking with the MAL Heavy (chartreuse tail). Once the wind started blowing, we got on top of a good school, caught some vertically, and then noted large, patrolling schools of fish on bottom out to our starboard side, as witnessed on side-imaging. I gave everyone targets on the horizon to aim for so their casts would fall among the fish, and everyone started catching using the “sawtooth” method on that same MAL Heavy. We never saw a single such school of feeding whites while under calm conditions.

By 10:55, the bite was waning, the heat was rising, and the boys’ appetites were increasing, so, we called it a good morning right there, having achieved a “personal best” for number of fish caught on a single fishing trip for the Sutphen crew.

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

Our 70-fish catch included 68 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 1 freshwater drum.

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

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Here is the temperature profile I measured down to 60 feet. Note the 6-degree plunge between 40-45 feet:

0 feet 83.6F
5 feet 84.5F
10 feet 84.8F
15 feet 85F
20 feet 84F
25 feet 82.6F
30 feet 79.6F
35 feet 77.9F
40 feet 75.2F
45 feet 69.2F
50 feet 65.3F
55 feet 62.4F
60 feet 61.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 5.17 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable from the south, puffing at 1-4mph through 10A, then picking up to S8 thereafter.

Sky Condition: 5% coverage with wispy, white clouds on a blue sky.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 57% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS: We moved around a lot today, picking up a few here and there. The only areas which produced more than 10 fish were…

Area vic BDH005

Area vic 489

Area B0098G

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 #mepps

WORE OUT BOTH ARMS! — 160 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 5th, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Friday, 03 June 2022, I fished with first-time guests Amanda and Logan Winkler, a mother and son pair who are Central Texas natives.

Amanda and her husband, Justin, bid on a fishing gift certificate I had provided to the Ralph Wilson Youth Club some time ago, and today was the day they chose to redeem it.

Here is how the fishing went …

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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: Logan and Amanda fished until Amanda, literally, could not reel in any more fish because her arms hurt! We worked MAL Dense Lures (with white tails) very successfully for fish in 42-52 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 03 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite the abnormally warm May, I have yet to see any ill effects of the heat impacting the normally excellent late-spring fishery. Yes, the threadfin shad spawn is over, but that is normal for this time of year. And, yes, I’m beginning to see white bass suspend more off of steep slopes, but, that is also typical for this time of year. Other things in the natural, annual cycle are also falling in line now, like the presence of young of the year shad and the start of open-water topwater feeding.

As we got going, I spent a bit of time looking for topwater action, but, with a north wind blowing following the arrival of a mild cold front yesterday, I knew our chances of finding anything worth fishing for for any length of time were slim.

We went a good 30 minutes scrubbing the bottom with sonar (relying most heavily on the far-reaching side-imaging for this work) before we came upon our first sizeable school of fish.

We got a very positive reaction from these fish (which were in 42 feet of water) as they perked up immediately as Amanda and Logan’s baits reached bottom on their first drop.

We stayed on these fish for one hour and forty minutes, catching fish at a rate of one fish per minute, with a total of exactly 100 fish taken without moving the boat one iota between 7:00 AM and 8:40 AM.

With the bite fading to nil by 8:40, we headed in for a “bio-break”, and then went back out in search of more catchable fish.

By this time, Amanda’s right arm was sore from the catching, and, after switching her reel’s handle to the opposite side, she proceeded to wear out her left arm as well! Even Logan, a 4-sport athlete, said he was really feeling it in his right bicep after landing more fish during this trip than he had during all the trips in the rest of his life, combined!!

We found another, totally suspended group of fish holding at 30-40 feet in a horizontal band over 52 feet of water and, greatly aided by Garmin LiveScope, were able to present our MAL Dense Lures very effectively and efficiently to these fish.

Between 9AM and 10AM, Amanda and Logan continued to catch fish at a furious pace, landing another 60 fish before they decided to call it quits with Amanda scarcely able to reel in any more fish with either arm.

The sole tactic we relied upon today was “smoking” MAL Dense Lures (chartreuse body, white tail) up off the bottom repeatedly.

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

Our catch included 158 white bass, 1 short hybrid striped bass, and 1 largemouth bass.

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

TALLY: 160 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Topwater action was hindered by a continuing north wind following a cold front’s passage on the morning of 02 June. Here was the temperature profile down to 60 feet:

0 feet 80.1F
5 feet 80.1F
10 feet 79.9F
15 feet 79.6F
20 feet 79.2F
25 feet 78.8F
30 feet 78.2F
35 feet 76.1F
40 feet 72.1F
45 feet 67.4F
50 feet 64.7F
55 feet 62.2F
60 feet 60.8F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 4.45 feet low, 0.03’ fall in last 24 hours, 32 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 80.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE5-8 all morning

Sky Condition: Blue skies with wispy, white, thin cloud cover at ~60%

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 714/B0041G (100 fish), Area B0094G (60 fish)

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

JUST BEING NEIGHBORLY– 261 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

June 1st, 2022 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Tuesday, 31 May 2022, I fished with returning clients Sonny Monroe and his son-in-law, Ryan Miles, accompanied by first-time guest Brent Richey.

Sonny is a retired public school administrator, Ryan works for a hydraulics company here in Central Texas, and Brent has been in the telecommunications industry for many years now.

With the Memorial Day weekend now past, things were quieter than usual even for a weekday today as most folks returned to work for what is left of this shortened work week.

Brent is Sonny’s neighbor, and, after enjoying his previous trip out with me, Sonny extended an invitation to Brent to join in on the fun this morning.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ryan Miles, Sonny Monroe, and Brent Richey with a portion of their 261 fish catch. All fish were taken on MAL Heavy Lures with barbless hooks for ease and speed in unhooking.

PHOTO CAPTION: Closeup of the MAL Lure’s barbless hook with just a “bump” on the point (on left) versus the standard treble hook used otherwise. If you already own an MAL Lure and want to make it barbless, it is better to mash down the barbs than to replace the hook, as hook replacement requires a split ring which lengthens the lure’s overall dimension and increases the likelihood of “blade strikes”. I do offer the MAL Heavy (only) with barbless hooks already affixed. See link below.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 31 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

With Sonny and Ryan both having prior experience with using the MAL Lure fished both vertically and horizontally from their one prior trip with me earlier this spring, and Brent having fished for white bass successfully at Richland-Chambers in the past, there was minimal learning curve to work through to turn fishing into catching this morning.

We found some light topwater action in the first hour of light as white bass forced the first young-of-the-year shad to the surface and fed upon them there while the light level was low and we had a complete deck of clouds. Once the sun’s angle increased and the clouds thinned, the surface action was over.

While the action existed, we actually did better fishing vertically and by using the sawtooth method, as the fish which came to the surface stayed there only briefly.

After about an hour, we moved on to deep water and stayed there the remainder of the trip. Using MAL Heavy Lures with barbless hooks (as I was anticipating a high fish count this morning based on wind and weather), we used a “smoking” tactic and proceeded to “wear ‘em out” until about 11:15A, at which time we packed it up, leaving the fish still biting pretty well.

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

Our 261 fish catch included exactly 258 white bass, 2 short hybrid stripers, and 1 largemouth bass.

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

TALLY: 261 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Still a few small, individual schools of spawning shad seen in the shallows at first light. First sightings of white bass feeding on young-of-the-year shad witnessed in the first full hour of light.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 4.39 feet low, 0.02’ fall in last 24 hours, 32 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9 at trip’s start, climbing to SSE14 by 10A, then settling back to SSE12 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Greyed over skies for the first hour, followed by steady clearing to ~40% white clouds on a blue sky for the remainder of the trip.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 1% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0021G (early topwater/shallow water), B0150C, B0090C

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