Find, Consolidate, Catch — 82 Fish

CLIENTS: This past Friday morning, I fished with a very nice young couple, Jesse Wright and Layne Marr.  She’s a farm girl from Canada, and he’s a city kid from L.A. who made good via the military where, after leaving the U.S. Air Force as an enlisted man doing aircraft maintenance, he transitioned to the U.S. Army as a warrant officer in the Field Artillery branch.

 

DATE: Friday, 30 August 2024 (AM)

 

NEXT OPEN DATES: 4, 5, 10-12 Sep.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Jesse and Layne executed three tactics very well and very consistently, and put together an 82-fish morning catch on Lake Belton.  The number of quality fish was enhanced this morning thanks to grey cloud cover extending the low-light period.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!  Jesse landed these three white bass simultaneously on a 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons.  Downrigging served us well from about 7:15 to 8:30A as fish were active, but were also scattered and moving fast.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

 

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:    

We got a reprieve on the long string of bright, calm sky conditions today as clouds moved in from the east early, giving near 100% coverage with a thin grey cloud deck.  This extended the low-light time period during which we’ve been catching our quality fish from about 90 minutes to right at 120 minutes this morning.

We began the morning casting MAL Originals with chartreuse tails up shallow for fish in under 15′ and did well for about 15 minutes until the ambient light reached a certain level and drove these fish deeper and caused some scattering.

We pursued these fish using downriggers equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs armed with #13 Pet Spoons.  The downrigger bite lasted until 8:30A and provided continuous action.

After this, we used sonar to search for concentrations of shad with gamefish mixed in, Spot-Locked atop these fish and worked MAL Originals vertically, aided by Garmin LiveScope.  This produced well for quality fish until around 9A.  The splasher was invaluable in drawing these fish to us and keeping them beneath us.

Around 9A, the now 2.5-hour long bite which had been very productive, began to wane.  From this point forward, most of the fish we found were on the small side.  We found them with sonar, consolidated them with the splasher, and caught them with the MAL Mini worked vertically

Remember, with these MAL Minis, if you don’t feel the blade spinning as you work it upwards, bend the shaft a bit at a time until it begins to “kick in”.  It is also helpful to start the smoking retrieve with the rod tip pointed downward toward the water, then, SIMULTANEOUSLY lift the rod sharply to the point where it parallel to the water’s AND begin turning the reel’s handle.  Done correctly, you’ll feel the spinner causing vibration, and you’ll see your rod tip get loaded by the resistance caused by the blade.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  We downrigged with #12 & #13 Pet Spoons. We smoked and sawtoothed with MAL Originals for heavily schooled and fairly stationary fish.  We smoked MAL Minis in the latter half of the trip suspended fish drawn in by the splasher.   Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

TALLY: 82 fish caught and released, including 3 largemouth bass, 1 blue catfish,  and 78 white bass.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Literally, just seconds of topwater action observed over about a 2 acre area around 10AM

2) Best quality fish came in the first 120 minutes; mainly smaller fish thereafter – the quality fish window ran longer today thanks to grey skies extending the low-light period.

 

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:25 AM on Monday, August 26 …

0 feet 87.2F
5 feet 87.6F
10 feet 87.9F
15 feet 87.9F
20 feet 87.9F
25 feet 87.9F
30 feet 87.2F
35 feet 85.6F
40 feet 84.2F
45 feet 83.3F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.72′ low and falling slowly with a 52 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 87.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE3-4

Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud coverage all morning helping to extend the low-light period and lengthen this morning’s bite for quality fish.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 19% illumination.

GT = 30

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic 1431 – sawtoothing MAL Originals, then downrigging #12 Pets for 47 fish by 8:30
Area B0273G —  smoking MAL Originals for 16 fish by 9A
Area vic 1077 to 1362 – smoking MAL Minis for a final 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)

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 #austinsubaru

That School Bell Has Yet to Ring in Cairo — 101 Fish

CLIENTS: This Friday morning I fished with returning guests — the grandfather-grandson team of Charles Simmons and Caden Kimpel.  Charles resides in Salado, and Caden, whose dad works in the international petroleum industry, currently resides in Cairo, Egypt.  He won’t start school until early September, so, we got to enjoy a very uncrowded Lake Belton this morning.

 

DATE: Friday, 16 August 2024 (AM)

 

NEXT OPEN DATES: 26-30Aug. (AM & PM)

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Nine-year-old Caden Kimpel and his grandfather, Charles Simmons, landed 101 fish on an unbusy Lake Belton using a combination of tactics between first light and 10:30AM.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Triple!!  Caden landed these three “keeper” white bass simultaneously on his 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with #12 Pet Spoons which did a great job imitating the smallest shad in the system right now.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

 

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:   Fishing was pretty straightforward this morning.  With high pressure firmly in control of the weather, a light southerly breeze, and no boat traffic, the fish were ready to feed come first light, and stayed feeding for just shy of four hours.

We started the morning downrigging just to have baits in the water as I covered water with sonar to search for fishable concentrations of fish.  After finding fish, we quickly discovered they much preferred a horizontal presentation to a vertical one, so, we kept right on downrigging as long as the fish cooperated.  This accounted for 44 fish coming in as singles, doubles, and triples, all on #12 Pet Spoons behind 3-armed umbrella rigs.

Once this area quieted down, I found our next batch of fish in some timber, so, we smoked and cast MAL Originals through “lanes” in the timber working them sawtooth-style, as downrigging was not an option.  There was a bit of a learning curve to this, but, Charles and Caden added 8 more fish to the count before these fish lost interest.

By now, it was hot and bright and outside the “low-light” window which has produced quality fish both AM and PM.  We mostly smallish fish from this point forward, but, they were quite cooperative, responded well to the splasher, and provided lots of action.  These fish were taken by smoking MAL Minis vertically using Garmin LiveScope to gauge fish response.  Bending the shaft about 15-20 degrees on these tiny spinners  which imitate young-of-the-year shad is a great “tackle tip” if they don’t spin easily out of the package.

The trick on the “smoking” tactic in the summer, regardless of which MAL you choose, is getting the spinner going as close to the bottom as possible, and keeping the retrieve speed down thereafter.  Hence, I use 5.2:1 gear ratio reels for my clients.

Here is a tutorial on smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  We downrigged as long as we were finding fish on clean bottoms with #12 Pet Spoons, then “smoked” MAL Minis and Originals for the latter portion of the trip, once the fish got lazy and pushed lower in the water column. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released, including 5 drum, 1 largemouth bass, and a 60/40 mix of short and keeper white bass.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1) No topwater action observed.

2) Mainly undersized fish after ~8:30A.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6 AM on Friday, August 16 …

0 feet 88.2F
5 feet 88.6F
10 feet 88.8F
15 feet 88.8F
20 feet 88.5F
25 feet 87.9F
30 feet 86.7F
35 feet 85.5F
40 feet 84.8F
45 feet 83.8F
50 feet 82.1F
55 feet 80.5F
60 feet 79.7F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 0.24′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S8 all morning

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 86% illumination.

GT = 65

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 1126 thru B0170C – 44 fish on downriggers
Area B0170C – 8 white bass on sawtoothed & smoked MAL Original
Area vic 565 – 49 fish on smoked MAL Minis

 

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 #austinsubaru

Cherry Pickin’ with Cowboys — 105 Fish

CLIENTS: This past Wednesday evening I fished with returning guest Dustin Marsh, a large animal veterinarian based in the Bryan/College Station area who specializes in dairy herd care.  Coming with Dustin for the first time aboard my boat was James Becker who makes a living doing all things cattle, including international export.

Based on my observations over the past few weeks, I knew fishing for quality fish was not going to really kick in until after 6:30, so, we met up and “cherry picked” fished in just the final two hours before dark.

 

DATE: Wednesday, 14 August 2024 (PM)

 

NEXT OPEN DATES:  15 & 26-30Aug. (AM & PM)

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  James Becker and Dustin Marsh with a few of the 105 fish they picked off using Garmin LiveScope and MAL Originals “smoked” vertically on Lake Belton.

 

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

 

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:   With just two hours to make it happen, I went with a “high percentage” option as far as fish location was concerned, and that turned out well.  We essentially drove right to the fish, Spot-Locked atop of them in ~26 feet of water and landed 63 until the dimming light pushed the fish shallower.  We bumped up into 20′, Spot-Locked again, and finished out the trip on this second anchorage, taking our tally up to 105 fish, all caught and released.  The only tactic necessary was “smoking” vertically with the MAL Original.  This was certainly enhanced by Garmin LiveScope, but that technology was only icing on the cake.

Here is a tutorial on smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  We “smoked” MAL Originals vertically for  the entire evening to wear out the keeper white bass. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released, including 2 drum, 1 largemouth bass, 5 short white bass, and 97 legal white bass with several exceeding 14″.

 

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: 6:35P

End Time: 8:35P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 100F

Elevation: 0.2′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S10 all evening

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover on a slightly hazy blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 68% illumination.

GT = 50

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic 164 – 63 fish on smoked MAL Originals
Area vic 2037 – 42 fish 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)

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 #austinsubaru

Caught ’em Until His Hands Hurt — 118 Fish

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)

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 #austinsubaru

Fueled by Adrenaline and String Cheese — 105 Fish, MAL Heavy & MAL Dense Lures, 21 May,

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)

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 #austinsubaru

WHITE BASS MOSH PIT – 70 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, August 29th, I fished with brothers Stiles and Miles Parker from the Austin area.

Stiles works in the building supply industry, and Miles works in the custom auto industry.  The two share a boat and do a bit of fishing on their own, usually on Decker Lake east of Austin.  Today was, at their request, more of a learning trip than a catching trip, although the catching went very well.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Stiles (left) and Miles Parker with a few of the white bass we downrigged for early in the morning before the vertical bite kicked in allowing us to work MAL Lures beneath the boat for even more fish.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Miles with a rare 16.25 inch long white bass.  I see 15,000 to 18,000 fish come over the side of my boat each year from Belton and Stillhouse, and not 3 of them will reach this size — a real prize!

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

HOW WE FISHED:   The first 75 minutes of the morning was straight downrigging with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.   As the skies brightened and the wind picked up from the S, then swung SSW, the bite improved as the fish moved onto a deep flat with largemouth working shad near the surface, and white bass working shad near bottom.  

We swapped back and forth between downrigging to find concentrations of bottom-hugging white bass and Spot-Locking atop them to work MAL Lures (white and chartreuse — it didn’t matter which) through them vertically. The fellows were really blown away as I introduced them to Garmin LiveScope technology. 

With the settings set where I have them, we were able to see all of our lures simultaneously, as well as several feet fore and aft of the boat down in ~40 feet of water.  This allowed us to see schools of white bass cruising toward us, thus allowing us to time the rise of our MAL Lures precisely to get bit — just like “leading” a flying bird while shooting a shotgun. On multiple occasions we had large, dense schools of white bass (several hundred in number) bass directly beneath us.  Stiles nicknamed these “mosh pit whites”. 

Whenever the action slowed, we downrigged, found more fish tight to the bottom, and then switched over to vertical work once again. The bite was just about done as 10:30 rolled around, so, once our 70th fish came over the gunwale around that time, we called it an “educational” morning, and headed on in.

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released (69 white bass, 1 largemouth bass)  

OBSERVATIONS:  Black bass on top meant white bass on bottom.  

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:30A

End Time: 10:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation:  2.80′ low, -0.04′ 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  84.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: S4-5 through around 8:45, then increasing to 8-9 and shifting SSW.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous with 86% illumination

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1976 to SH0031G to 854 – downrigging with balls around 29 for suspended fish

**Area 070 – first stop for vertical work with MAL Lures

**Area vic SH0033G – vicinity of widespread largemouth/white bass 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) 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

 

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)

#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

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

1st FISH OF THE A.M. = 1st FISH OF HIS LIFE

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Saturday, July 18th, I fished with Clint Tippett and his two young sons, Carter (age 7) and Carson (age 5).  We attempted to make this event happen last year, but dates didn’t work out.  Then, again in February we tried to set something up for March and COVID saw to it that those plans were foiled.  So, the third time was a charm this morning.

This trip was specifically focused on the boys’ success, so Clint, an anesthesiologist at Baylor Scott & White in Temple, helped me help them.

Prior to this morning’s trip, Carson had never landed a fish, and Carter only had a handful to his credit.

PHOTO CAPTION:   5-year-old Carson Tippett proudly displays the first fish of his life, a Stillhouse Hollow white bass landed just after sunrise while downrigging in deep water.

PHOTO CAPTION: 7-year-old Carter Tippett with the largest of the 50 fish we landed today.  This white bass fell for a Pet Spoon – one of three presented simultaneously on a 3-armed umbrella rig.

WHEN WE FISHED: 18 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  Clint and I spoke by phone the evening before this trip (which was originally just to include Carter) and agreed that Carson would join us.  I laid out what to expect based on my experience in fishing with kids this age and in this season of the year.

We planned to fish for white bass early on when the kids’ attention span and enthusiasm level was high, then move on to fishing up shallow for more cooperative and abundant sunfish later in the morning.

These plans worked out pretty well. The white bass action was more subdued this morning than over the past few trips, but the boys both landed 4 white bass a piece, included Carson’s very first fish ever, thus earning him a TPWD First Fish Award. By around 8:15, the deep action on white bass was waning, and so we retooled and headed up shallow.

All of these white bass came on downrigged 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.  At no time did I see a congregation of white bass which I felt warranted stopping to work vertically for.

We made two stops up in shallow water specifically targeting sunfish.  We landed 36 sunfish at our first stop, then made a tally of 50 fish (which would require each boy catch 3 more fish) our goal at our final sunfish stop.  The boys handily met that goal and, now at the 3.5 hour mark, dad and I knew it was time to wrap up before the boys got too (choose any combination):  hot, bored, hungry, irritable, whiny, distracted, etc.  Thus, we ended on a good note with the boys landing roughly equal numbers of fish.

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Temperature profile at depth:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:30A

End Time: 10:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  0.9′ low, 0.05′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  87F

Wind Speed & Direction: S6 at sunrise, increasing to SSE12 by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moving to a new moon on 20 July

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 062 thru SH0031G – serpentine downrigging pattern for deep white bass in lower third of water column

**Area 200 and 189 – 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)

#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

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

FISH SATURDAY … GET MARRIED MONDAY — 40 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Saturday, July 11th, I fished with returning guest Shawn Leverington who has been out with me twice before.  Accompanying Shawn this go-round were his sister and brother-in-law, Sarah and Matt Todd, as well as his soon-to-be father-in-law, Mike Carroll.

Shawn is to be wed this coming Monday to his fiancee, Kelly, in an evening ceremony at the Dead Fish Grill on Lake Belton, so family from both sides have come to town for the event.  Sarah, a teacher, and Matt, a federal fire fighter, drove down from Wisconsin, and Mike, a estate planning attorney, came in from Austin.

Shawn is a U.S. Army Reservist working full-time at Fort Hood as commander of the Warrior Transition Unit there.  The WTU’s stated mission is to provide command and control, primary care, and case management for soldiers in transition to establish conditions for healing and to promote the timely return to the force or transition to continue serving the nation as a veteran in their community.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Sarah and Matt Todd, Mike Carroll, and Shawn Leverington

PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!!  3 fish on the 3-armed umbrella rig simultaneously.

WHEN WE FISHED: 11 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: After experiencing just so-so fishing on Belton yesterday morning, and given that I expected a heavy weekend crowd there, I fished with Shawn and crew on Stillhouse today and was glad we made that call.

Summer fishing is always a challenge, but, thanks to some wind from the SSW, we did alright today.  The bite started just as the sun cleared the eastern horizon and went strong until around 8:15, after which fishing slowed dramatically.

As has been the case for the last few weeks, and will be the case for weeks to come, we found and caught fish on the downriggers, which allowed us to cover ground with sonar and to cash in on the occasional “patch” of bottom-hugging fish via vertical jigging with MAL lures.  The ‘riggers were equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs rigged with Pet Spoons.

We actually gave vertical work a try before our first downrigger run this morning, as I saw a nice 50-60 fish school right on bottom in water just over 45 feet, but, it was still pretty dark down there and we just couldn’t get them excited.  We stopped to work vertically about 5 times this morning, catching fish on two of those pauses.

We witnessed no topwater action today, which was not surprising, as there was next to zero cloud cover.

We finished our morning right around 10:30 with 39 white bass and 1 largemouth landed.

TALLY: 40 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  No clouds, no topwater action.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation:  0.57′ low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  83F

Wind Speed & Direction: S7 +/- 1 mph all morning

Moon Phase: Last day of the waning gibbous, moving into the last quarter moon tomorrow.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0030G to SH0031G to SH0032G  – downrigging and vertical work

**Area vic 878 –  downrigging

 

 

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)

 

#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

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WE WORKED FOR ‘EM TODAY — 27 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Friday, July 10th, I fished Billy Champlin of Killeen, TX, and his father-in-law, Tom Estes, of Florence, TX.  Billy’s wife, Teri, put the trip together as a Fathers’ Day gift to the both of them.

Billy serves as a TPWD Lieutenant Game Warden here in Central Texas and has been in law enforcement off the pavement for over 20 years now.

Tom retired from the quarry/stone business and just this year began a post-retirement job of substitute teaching in Florence’s public schools.

Both fellows had fished a good bit previously.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Tom Estes and his son-in-law, Billy Champlin, with a few of the white bass we worked to catch from Lake Belton this morning.

WHEN WE FISHED: 10 July, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was tough today.  We had lightly whitecapping waves (w/ a ~13 mph wind) prior to sunrise and no cloud cover for about 90 minutes.  The wind relented a bit and broken white cloud cover built in as the morning progressed.  There was no topwater action in the areas I searched during the key topwater time right before, during, and just after sunrise.

We wound up covering a lot of water today with downriggers, encountering small schools of white bass with roughly 20-30 fish in each school.  These schools were typically 2-6 feet off bottom but were not carpeting the bottom, rather, they were “balled up” and appeared similar to shad when they form into bait balls, except the individual fish in the school were clearly visible, especially on Garmin DownVu.

On a number of occasions (probably 9 or 10) we saw excellent sonar returns, pulled the downrigging gear in quickly and circled back to Spot-Lock on top of the fish we’d seen, only to find them a) gone, b) present but in lower numbers than we first encountered, or c) unenthusiastic.  Over the course of our trip, we only landed 3 or 4 by fishing vertically.

Around 8:30 I noticed some light topwater action fueled by white bass chasing very large shad (4+ inches) over about a three-quarter acre area.  We tried pinning these fish down to fish for them, but they were in very small, splintered groups and moving quickly.  After failing to catch any by patiently waiting for a boil and sight-casting, we again tried a vertical approach resulting in 1 fish, and then went back to downrigging to cover water, and picked up another 4 fish this way.  Covering water was the key for these moving fish.

 

TALLY: 27 fish caught and released, including 26 white bass & 1 freshwater drum

OBSERVATIONS:  Only sporadic topwater action under a waning gibbous moon as we just passed full and are heading into the new moon which will occur on 20 July.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:15A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation:  0.05′ low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  82F

Wind Speed & Direction: S13 +/- 1 mph all morning

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0025G to B0026G – downrigged with some success after keying on sporadic, light topwater

**Area 1975 to 687 – downrigging

**Area vic  -1604 downrigging

 

 

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)

 

#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

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle