Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

You Can Send Those Cold Fronts Just Any Time Now — 45 Fish

August 25th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, August 25, I fished with Mr. Roger Janosek and his grandson, Evan. Roger is a retired judge who recently moved to this area, and Evan is putting out feelers at age 19 into both the EMT world and the world of diesel repair. Both had prior fishing experience, but not doing what we did today for white bass. Fortunately, both fellows handled spinning gear well, allowing them to take full advantage of what we found early on in the trip.

TODAY’S DATE: Monday, 25 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 02 September (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Evan and Roger Janosek with a few of the 45 fish they landed this morning, as has been the case for most of August, the best bite is taking place in the low-light period from about 30 minutes before sunrise to about 30 minutes thereafter. 38 of their 45 fish came during this window.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although multiple, mild cold fronts are currently in the short and long-term forecasts, today was a continuation of the bright, hot, still conditions we’ve been experiencing for the lion’s share of August.

Accordingly, the fishing was as it has been for the past few weeks with the majority of the morning’s action taking place in the first 60 to 70 minutes, then seeing fish scatter and suspend thereafter, making fishing much, much tougher.

Using the Cork Rig with the new, very durable Sandy Sandwich streamer, grandfather and grandson landed 38 fish before the topwater action ended once and for all.

We moved on and fished a multitude of locations, none of which had strong concentrations of aggressively feeding fish. Over the remainder of the trip we landed seven additional fish with four coming on the downriggers equipped with 3-armed umbrella rigs ties up with #12 Pet Spoons on one and #13 Pet Spoons on the other. The fellows took an additional three fish picked up off bottom in about 26 feet of water using the MAL Heavy in conjunction with a sawtooth retrieve.

We wrapped up around 10:55 with exactly 45 fish landed, including one largemouth bass, one blue catfish, two hybrid striped bass, and 41 white bass, all of which were between 10.5 and 13.5 inches.

RESULTS: 45 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

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

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.28′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:15AM, Monday, 25 August …

0 feet 87.8F

5 feet 87.8F

10 feet 86.7F

15 feet 86.7F

20 feet 86.4F

25 feet 86.2F

30 feet 85.6F

35 feet 84.7F

40 feet 83.6F

45 feet 82.5F

50 feet 81.5F

55 feet 80.7F

60 feet 80.1F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.52′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE0-4

Sky Condition: <10% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 6% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic B0279G – 11 fish with topwater action under low-light conditions on Cork Rigs/Sandy Sandwich streamers

Area vic 2243 – 11 fish with topwater action under low-light conditions on Cork Rigs/Sandy Sandwich streamers

Area vic 2242 – 16 fish with topwater action under low-light conditions on Cork Rigs/Sandy Sandwich streamers

Area vic 2111 – 3 fish on MAL Heavies with sawtooth method

Remaining 4 fish were scattered & picked up on downriggers.

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

No Sugarcoating Here — It’s Tough Right Now — 37 Fish

August 19th, 2025August 19th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, August 19, I fished with returning guests Joshua Goodnight and Frank Ruiz. Despite knowing the fishing has been slow and that August is tough, they wanted to go forward with this trip to understand why fishing is tough at this time of year and see some approaches to catching fish despite the conditions.

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 19 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Monday, 25 August (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Joshua Goodnight and Frank Ruiz landed the majority of their fish during a short window of topwater action. The heat, lack of wind, and bright sun shut the fishing down minutes after the sun rose.

PHOTO CAPTION: 33 of our 37 fish came on topwater in the first 40 minutes of the trip and were caught on Sandy Sandwich streamers worked with a Cork Rig. After that … crickets! Here, the Sandy Sandwich is shown between two of the partially-digested, young-of-the-year threadfin shad regurgitated by the fish Frank and Joshua landed.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We went into the trip, knowing it was going to be tough thanks to an unbroken string of hot August days, nearly windless conditions, and only light cloud cover.

Thankfully, there was some low-light top water action during the 20 minutes either side of sunset. Both fellows really got the hang of working their Cork Rigs equipped with “Sandy Sandwich“ streamers and put a total of 33 white bass in the boat before the rising sun with its increasing intensity put the fish down for good.

From that point on it was very tough with only occasional “popcorn“ schools of white bass showing briefly on the surface scattered far and wide. Frank and Joshua wound up catching four additional fish.

These came from areas where sonar indicated an abundance of bait with some scattered game fish located in the vicinity. In these areas, we got the splasher working to consolidate fish beneath the boat and worked MAL Heavy Lures vertically through these fish with a smoking tactic. The fish that bit were mostly from suspended, fast-moving, patrolling schools of white bass. Those fish which were by themselves and/or bottom-oriented tended to either ignore the baits altogether, or just respond by following slowly behind the baits, but never aggressively overtaking them.

Seeing the writing on the wall this morning, we wrapped up at the three hour mark with 37 fish landed and not a whole lot of hope for improvement short of a change of weather as fall approaches.

RESULTS: 37 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

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

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.52′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 19 August …

0 feet 87.5F

5 feet 87.8F

10 feet 87.3F

15 feet 87.0F

20 feet 86.4F

25 feet 86.1F

30 feet 85.0F

35 feet 84.2F

40 feet 83.6F

45 feet 82.7F

50 feet 82.5F

55 feet 81.2F

60 feet 80.5F

65 feet 79.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 9:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.52′ high with a 0.06 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE0-2

Sky Condition: 20% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area 1544 thru B0279G – 33 of our 37 fish taken in this span of water under low-light conditions on Cork Rigs/Sandy Sandwich streamers

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

Yes, It’s a School Night, But … 42 Fish

August 15th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This evening, Thursday, 14 August, I fished an evening “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip for Dwayne Thomas Jr. (age 14) and his brother, Romel, (age 7). The boys’ five-year-old brother was supposed to join us, but wasn’t feeling well and didn’t make this trip. Accompanying the boys, and assisting me in making them successful, was their father, Dwayne Thomson Sr. Dwayne works as a military contractor in Southwest Asia and was home for just a few weeks to see the boys off to a new school year and get in a little fishing despite the following day being a school day.

ABOUT “KIDS FISH, TOO!” TRIPS: Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended just for the kids. They are considerably less expensive than standard trips ($195 for up to 2 kids vs. $295 for up to 2 adults; and more can be added), and typically go a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4-plus hours for standard trips. On these trips, licensed adults who desire to do so often help me help the kids be successful by baiting hooks, untangling lines, resetting our downrigger spreads, etc. so the kids’ efforts are maximized, but, the adults do not fish.

TODAY’S DATE: Thursday, 14 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Thursday, 21 August (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Romel (7), Dwayne Sr., and Dwayne Thomas Jr. with a few of the 42 fish the boys landed mainly by covering ground via downrigging in the August heat.

PHOTO CAPTION: Romel had to take a snack break after battling this bruiser in. This Lake Belton hybrid striped bass fell for a Pet Spoon trailing behind a 3-armed umbrella rig.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

By far, our most successful tactic this evening was downrigging with Pet Spoons for white bass which were suspended through about 6:35 PM. The same fish then moved shoreward until contacting the bottom where we were then, from that point on, able to work downriggers just a few feet off bottom and continuing catching fish on the downriggers. In the first instance, we were running the balls between 25 and 26 feet deep for fish which were slightly deeper, and, by trip’s and we were running the balls as shallow as 14 feet deep for fish which were in 16 to 18 feet of water.

In both instances, we used three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 pet spoons to imitate the steadily growing young-of-the-year shad.

It will not be long now before the #13 Pet Spoon will be a more appropriate selection to imitate this forage fish size.

I did keep a sharp eye out for any sunset topwater action which might develop, but we spotted none, despite surface conditions which would have lent themselves to spotting such activity. I even went so far as to have everyone practice casting and retrieving a Cork Rig equipped with a “Sandy Sandwich“ streamer, but we did not get the opportunity to use these.

At one point, as I saw more and more fish moving shallow and sticking to the bottom, we threw MAL Heavy Lures out horizontally and worked them with a sawtooth method, but the schools were small, splintered, and moving so fast, this just was not as good as choice as the downrigging was.

When all was said and done, the boys landed 42 fish, including 2 largemouth bass, 3 hybrid striped bass, and 37 white bass, all of which were of legal size.

RESULTS: 42 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

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

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.79′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 12 August …

0 feet 87.5F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.5F

15 feet 86.7F

20 feet 86.4F

25 feet 85.1F

30 feet 84.5F

35 feet 84.0F

40 feet 83.6F

45 feet 83.1F

50 feet 82.5F

55 feet 81.3F

60 feet 80.1F

65 feet 79.6F

70 feet 79.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 5:15P

End Time: 8:35P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 93F

Elevation: 0.79′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 87.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8-10.

Sky Condition: 20% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 67% illumination.

GT = 10

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 2128 – 12 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area vic B0104C to 302 – 23 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area vic B0165C – 5 on downrigged Pet Spoons, 2 on MAL Heavy sawtoothed

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

Blowouts and Gummi Bears — 30 Fish with the Schmidts

August 13th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, August 13, I fished a short “Kids Fish, Too!“ Trip with Gary Schmidt, his adult son, Matt, Gary’s adult daughter, Ashley, and Matt‘s son, five-year-old Rex Schmidt, all from Troy, Texas.

TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 13 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Thursday, 21 August (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: In the back row, Ashley, Gary, and Matt Schmidt all supported young Rex (age 5) as we employed several different methods to keep fish coming over the side of the boat for as long as Rex stayed engaged.

PHOTO CAPTION: The “Sandy Sandwich” – as close to an indestructible streamer as there is. I terminate my Cork Rigs with these (right photo), and also use them as “teasers” on tandem rigs above slabs when the situation demands it. They scored on nearly every cast today for as long as the fish stayed on top!

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I got a text from Gary about 30 minutes before we were due to link up that he’d experienced a flat tire. This cost us about 25 minutes in what has been a roughly 60 to 80 minute window of white bass activity just before, during, and after sunrise. I was really concerned that we’d run out of “easy” fishing while young Rex was still ready for more, and risk having him become disinterested.

It all turned out just fine in the end, as we essentially drove straight to a pod of surface feeding fish I spotted shortly after leaving the dock on the lightly rippled surface of the lake.

I cut the outboard about 100 yards out from these fish, deployed the trolling motor, and trolled the rest of the way to these fish until we were within casting distance. I had two rods equipped with Cork Rigs terminated with “Sandy Sandwiches“ as the streamer behind the cork. We used this two rod system to keep Rex continuously reeling fish in. After I made the cast beyond the fish and worked the Cork Rig through them to get a hook up, I then passed the rod off to Gary who helped Rex reel ’em in. In the meantime, I fired out another cast, got another hookup, and kept pressure on the fish until Rex was ready to catch another. Gary would pass me the rod with the fish still attached for me to release, and so it went.

At five years of age, Rex simply didn’t have the manual dexterity required to fully take advantage of this situation, so, we tried to set him up for success.

Rex stayed engaged for about 40 minutes and wound up catching exactly 20 fish in this manner.

Once it was clear that the fish had left the surface for good (thanks to a lack of cloud cover in the eastern sky), I moved on to an area which had been producing bottom-oriented, fish on downriggers of late. As was the case yesterday, once the fish left the surface, the feed really scaled back significantly.

We picked up one additional white bass on the downriggers with about 15 minutes’ worth of effort before I decided we needed to do something more engaging for Rex.

We put in another 30 minutes or so in pursuit of panfish up shallow.

Rex was able to set the hook pretty well using the telescoping pole I dedicated to this technique. He wound up landing a total of nine panfish, bringing his morning tally to 30 fish before everyone agreed he had reached his limit at about 8:40 AM.

Between changing things up every so often, the cool, northerly breeze, and a copious amount of Gummi Bears, young Rex made it close to two hours, which is pretty typical for kids his age.

RESULTS: 30 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

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

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.81′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 12 August …

0 feet 87.5F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.5F

15 feet 86.7F

20 feet 86.4F

25 feet 85.1F

30 feet 84.5F

35 feet 84.0F

40 feet 83.6F

45 feet 83.1F

50 feet 82.5F

55 feet 81.3F

60 feet 80.1F

65 feet 79.6F

70 feet 79.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:05A

End Time: 8:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.81′ high with a 0.04 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 86.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW4 increasing to NNW9 in under 2 hours.

Sky Condition: 80% grey cloud cover in the aftermath of light storm activity late yesterday afternoon coming in from the NW.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 77% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic B0165C – 20 white on Cork Rigs/topwater

Area B0132C – 1 white on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area 492 – 7 sunfish on bait under floats

Area 499 – 2 sunfish on bait under floats

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

Cork Rigs & Sandy Sandwiches in a Ghost Town — 70 Fish (w/ Sandy Sandwich photos & more)

August 12th, 2025August 12th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, August 12, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip for Benjamin Beal, the 13-year-old grandson of Sara Beal, who accompanied him and lent me a hand in helping Ben have a successful morning on the water.

As a an incoming seventh grade student in the Temple Independent School District, Ben does not return to classes until next week, although most of the rest of the Central Texas area resumes classes this week.

The fact that the summer vacation period has ended was quite evident this morning. The lake and parking lots look like a ghost town.

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 12 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Thursday, 21 August (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Sara Beal treated her 13-year-old grandson, Ben Beal, to a morning of fishing before he begins his 7th grade year starting next week.

FIND CORK RIGS, SANDY SANDWICHES & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We got going at 6:35 AM and found multiple large schools of bottom-oriented white bass in under 30 feet of water using side imaging. These fish were great candidates for a downrigging approach because, although they were bottom-oriented, they were also moving about frequently and quickly.

We got twin ‘riggers set up, both equipped with three-armed umbrella rigs terminated with #12 Pet Spoons.

Ben landed a pair of doubles, followed by a single. Five fish in about five minutes!

As I kept my eye out for a particular jet ski racing across the surface without navigation lights on while it was still fairly dark out, I spotted a disturbance on the surface quite some distance away. We brought the downriggers in, headed to that area, and, for the next 35 minutes or so, were able to catch white bass from surface feeding schools that popped up and quickly disappeared, but did so over and over again.

Now, I could not take advantage of this scenario with just any client who steps aboard the boat. This requires both fast AND accurate casting skills. Fortunately, Ben had both which enabled him to lob his Cork Rig w/ Sandy Sandwich streamer completely over any schools we found and work that bait from the far side to the near side of the school, and do so before they disappeared.

Ben wound up catching exactly 32 whites from these “popcorn“ schools before the unobscured rising sun brightened the nearly calm surface and drove these fish down for good. The time was now 7:40. Note: we caught 32 of our 65 white bass in the first hour — the low light period is definitely the most productive time to be on the water in this summer heat.

We then returned to the area I had been downrigging in, only to find these fish also had quit feeding. Since Ben had a good bit of fishing experience under his belt coming into the trip, I was not all that keen on switching over to sunfish any earlier than necessary. For this reason, I ran sonar off of a few points impacted by the light southerly wind. Fortunately, at two of these areas, my suspicion that fish would be present was confirmed by the appearance of additional “popcorn“ schools of white bass, as well as by sonar signatures.

I cranked up the splasher, and we used MAL Heavy Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope to catch another 23 fish at two different locations as we used a smoking tactic to precisely time the presentation of our lures in front of schools crossing beneath the boat. This catch included 3 largemouth bass, 1 hybrid striper, and 19 white bass.

With about 30 minutes left in this 3.5 hour trip, I offered to take Ben up shallow to show him a method of sunfishing he was not already familiar with. He quickly put five fish in the boat, taking our grand total for the morning to exactly 70 fish caught and released using poles and floats to target shallow cover.

We wrapped up right around 10:20 AM as an outflow boundary from some storms in the Dallas area in the early morning hours began pushing cloud cover into our area and shifting the wind to a northerly direction.

RESULTS: 70 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

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

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.85′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 12 August …

0 feet 87.5F

5 feet 87.6F

10 feet 87.5F

15 feet 86.7F

20 feet 86.4F

25 feet 85.1F

30 feet 84.5F

35 feet 84.0F

40 feet 83.6F

45 feet 83.1F

50 feet 82.5F

55 feet 81.3F

60 feet 80.1F

65 feet 79.6F

70 feet 79.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 0.85′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 337 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S1-3, shifting N5 at trip’s end

Sky Condition: Cloudless with a light blue sky thru 9:40, then 40% light grey clouds moved in from the NW

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 86% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 016 thru 1792 – downrigging for 5 whites

Area 133 – 32 white bass on topwater w/ Cork Rigs

Area 1799, 1793, and vic B0017G – 23 white on smoked MAL Heavy Lures

Area 2126 – 5 sunfish on bait under floats

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

A Two Hour Tour, A Two Hour Tour — 37 Fish for Lieutenant Rankin’s Kids

August 11th, 2025August 11th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, August 11, I conducted a SKIFF trip for the Rankin family currently stationed at Fort Hood and living in Copperas Cove. U.S .Army First Lieutenant Cody Rankin serves as a physician’s assistant and was recently separated from his family while involved with coursework at another post.

Mrs. Kimberly Rankin reached out to me during this absence and we set this trip up just days before the boys head back to public school.

Working the rods this morning were Easton (age 10), Greyson (age 8), and Hudson (age 6).

ABOUT SKIFF: SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009. SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru. S.K.I.F.F. provides kids of military members separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish. SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member, and kids of bona fide disabled veterans. I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411 to make your reservation.

TODAY’S DATE: Monday, 11 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Thursday, 21 August (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Greyson, Easton, and Hudson Rankin with a portion of their 37 fish catch made in just 2 hours on Lake Belton this morning.

FIND CORK RIGS & OTHER WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Kim let me know in advance that the boys would likely not all make it for the full 3.5 hours given their prior experience fishing for panfish at the city park pond in Copperas Cove. I planned our activities accordingly so the boys could get some exposure to at least two different sorts of fishing even if the morning were shortened up a bit.

We got going a few minutes before sunrise and experienced a 75 minute white bass bite which started shallow, transitioned out to deeper water, then dissipated right around 8 AM.

During this time, the boys landed 32 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 6 hybrid striped bass, and 25 white bass (one of which was short). These fish were taken on downriggers working 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons selected to imitate the threadfin shad these fish were feeding on.

Kim let me know that the younger two boys were getting “antsy“ just as the white bass bite was dying down, so, we made a quick transition to fishing up shallow for sunfish. I believe Easton would have hung with me all morning, but the younger brothers started to wane after the novelty of the first few sunfish coming aboard wore off.

We wrapped up right around the two hour mark.

The boys landed a total of 32 fish on the downriggers, and they put an additional five bluegill in the boat for a grand total of 37 fish during this, the ninth SKIFF trip of the 2025 season.

RESULTS: 37 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

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

OBSERVATIONS: Belton is now 0.91′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 338 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 05 August …

0 feet 86.7F

5 feet 87.0F

10 feet 87.0F

15 feet 86.8F

20 feet 85.5F

25 feet 85.0F

30 feet 84.5F

35 feet 83.8F

40 feet 83.3F

45 feet 82.6F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 81.1F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:35A

End Time: 8:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 0.91′ high with a 0.05 fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 338 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 87.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S2-4

Sky Condition: Cloudless with a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 93% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic B0132C thru 813 – downrigging for mixed bag of 32 whites/hybrid

Area B0036G – 5 sunfish on bait under floats

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

Like Fishing’s Version of Bow Hunting — 70 Fish

August 8th, 2025August 8th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning I welcomed Chase and Steph Labenski aboard as chaperones to their three kids – Peyton (10), Emmie (7), and Parker, who turned 6 today. This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip, so, the kids did all the fishing while mom and dad helped me make the kids successful. Chase and Steph covered down on the two younger kids really well, and ten-year-old Peyton, who enjoyed her independence anyway, was able to operate on her own with just a bit of coaching from me, thus leaving me free to oversee everything, take fish off, rebait hooks, and untangle lines.

TODAY’S DATE: Friday, 08 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Thursday, 21 Aug. (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Emmie, Chase, Peyton, Stephanie, and Parker Labenski with fistsful of sunfish the kids landed in shallow cover this morning — 70 fish in all.

FIND WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Between August’s heat pouring on and the crazy mixing of water we’ve experienced with this rare July flooding, white bass fishing had become very, very difficult. We spent just a short time hitting a few high percentage areas with downriggers under low-light conditions and, finding nothing to get excited about, devoted the lion’s share of this trip to the pursuit of sunfish up in shallow cover.

Conditions are excellent right now for this, as the lake us just under 1.5′ high, thus, the water is right up in the shoreline vegetation which was growing at the lake’s edge before the flooding. This creates a great “edge” of brush which stops abruptly and has fish very concentrated right now.

We used finesse hooks, weights and balsa floats with poles and worm segments to routinely fool bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, longear sunfish, and young largemouth bass into biting to the tune of 70 fish by the time young Parker wore out around the three-hour mark.

I really like to show youngsters how to fish this way, as it is something which can be transferred directly to their own “home” waters, without the need for a boat, sonar, or an abundance of gear. The fishing is close-in and intimate, like fishing’s version of bow hunting.

RESULTS: 70 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

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

OBSERVATIONS: Stillhouse is now 1.69′ high with a 0.14′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 567 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:15AM, Friday, 08 August …

0 feet 87.2F

5 feet 87.5F

10 feet 87.5F

15 feet 87.3F

20 feet 87.3F

25 feet 86.8F

30 feet 85.6F

35 feet 83.8F

40 feet 82.6F

45 feet 80.9F

50 feet 79.1F

55 feet 78.5F

60 feet 77.8F

65 feet 76.8F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 9:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 1.69′ high with a 0.14′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 567 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 87.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S4-7 all morning

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

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area SH0121C – 37 panfish on bait

Area 1416 – 17 panfish on bait

Area SH0126C- 16 panfish on bait

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

Running Out of Summer — 121 Fish

August 7th, 2025August 7th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, August 7, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too! “ trip just for the grandchildren of Mr. Doug Streater. Manning the rods and reels this morning were brother and sister team Colby and Camryn Anthony, ages 16 and 13 respectively. The kids’ summer is winding down, with most local school districts going back in session early next week.

TODAY’S DATE: Thursday, 07 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Thursday, 21 Aug. (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Colby Anthony, Doug Streater, and Camryn Anthony with a few of the quality white bass the kids landed this morning in an intense, but brief, feeding window.

PHOTO CAPTION: Well, you can’t do much better than that. Three fish — one on each of the three Pet Spoons trailing behind the three-armed umbrella rig we downrigged through aggressively feeding white bass and hybrid striped bass just before sunrise.

PHOTO CAPTION: During the same feeding spree which produced the triple for his sister, Colby landed our largest fish of the trip — this well-proportioned hybrid striped bass. It, too, fell for a downrigged Pet Spoon.

FIND WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We started the morning off anticipating a white bass/hybrid striped bass bite by bottom oriented fish in 20 to 30 feet of water behaving just as they did the day before.

That bite did come to fruition, but only lasted about 40 minutes. I expanded my search Into adjacent waters once the initial feed seemed to be tapering down, with no results. I then checked two other areas which had routinely been holding fish recently, again, without result. At this point, we changed over to fishing in shallow cover for abundant sunfish.

The kids really got the hang of this quickly and, given their age, manual dexterity, and prior fishing experience, had little trouble keeping their baits close to fish holding cover without getting snagged excessively. By the time 3 1/2 hours had lapsed, we’d seen 104 panfish come over the side of the boat.

With Lake Belton now under 2 feet high, the remaining high water is right up into the base of a lot of shoreline terrestrial vegetation, thus really concentrating the sunfish well right now.

We wrapped up the trip with exactly 121 fish caught and released.

RESULTS: 121 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

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

OBSERVATIONS: Lake Belton is now 1.34′ high with a 0.20′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 1,393 CFS. What topwater white bass action we saw was scattered and quite brief.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 05 August …

0 feet 86.7F

5 feet 87.0F

10 feet 87.0F

15 feet 86.8F

20 feet 85.5F

25 feet 85.0F

30 feet 84.5F

35 feet 83.8F

40 feet 83.3F

45 feet 82.6F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 81.1F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 1.34′ high with a 0.20′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 1,393 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 86.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S3-5 all morning

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

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 97% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 1070 to 1657 – 17 white bass/hybrids downrigging Pet Spoons

Area B0168C – 32 panfish on bait

Area 1753 – 72 panfish on bait

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

And the Biggest, Smallest, and Most Fish Awards Go To… – 81 Fish

August 6th, 2025August 6th, 2025 by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, August 6, I welcomed back Gary and Sherrie Delz serving as chaperones to three of their grandchildren. Joining me for the second time this summer was Dylan, age 11, and for their first time aboard I welcomed Harper, age 9, and Liam, age 7 — all siblings.

TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 06 August 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Thursday, 21 Aug. (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 30 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Gary, Harper (9), Dylan (11), Sherrie, and Liam (7) Delz with a few of the white bass we took early on in the trip under low light conditions while downrigging before switching over to panfishing up shallow.

FIND WHITE BASS/HYBRID LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

After seeing the results for white bass steadily dwindle as the August heat has begun to pour on and the flow through the dam has much reduced, I planned to head out this morning to hunt for white bass as long as they remained findable and active, then to target sunfish thereafter.

We got going a bit before 6:45 AM, got downriggers in the water, spotted fish in 24 to 34 feet of water using side imaging, marked those fish, then drove back over them with the downriggers and caught them for about 70 minutes’ worth of action resulting in a total of 18 white bass and 3 short hybrid stripers, all coming as singles, doubles, and triples. These were all taken on #12 Pet Spoons fished behind three-armed umbrella rigs.

Once the white bass disappeared, I expanded my search, and, after not finding any additional fish to target within a period I felt was reasonable given my three young anglers’ attention spans, we changed over to fishing for pa fish up shallow by around 8:10 AM.

From this point forward, the kids competed mightily with one another for one of the three $5 dollar prizes their grandparents offered.

Up for grabs was the award for biggest fish, smallest fish, and most fish.

Liam clinched the biggest fish by the time we wrapped up our downrigging efforts with his 15.25-inch hybrid striper. Harper, who also did well on the white bass, was very consistent with her hooksetting, and wound up landing the most fish. Dylan deftly handled his panfish pole and managed to boat a 2.25-inch juvenile bluegill sunfish, thus earning him the smallest fish award.

When all was said and done, the kids had landed a total of 81 fish, including 18 white bass, 3 hybrid, striped bass, and 60 assorted panfish.

I anticipate the white bass fishing will remain very difficult until we get our first taste of fall-like weather starting with a few cold fronts in September. Until then, the white bass fishing is going to be a bit of a grind.

RESULTS: 81 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

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

OBSERVATIONS: Lake Belton is now 1.51′ high with a 0.25′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 1,394 CFS.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 6:15AM, Tuesday, 05 August …

0 feet 86.7F

5 feet 87.0F

10 feet 87.0F

15 feet 86.8F

20 feet 85.5F

25 feet 85.0F

30 feet 84.5F

35 feet 83.8F

40 feet 83.3F

45 feet 82.6F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 81.1F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 1.51′ high with a 0.25′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 1,394 CFS

Water Surface Temp: 86.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S4-6 all morning

Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover on a clear blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 92% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 1804 to B0104C – 21 white bass/hybrids downrigging Pet Spoons

Area 502 – 21 panfish on bait

Area 492 – 12 panfish on bait

Area 166 – 27 panfish on bait

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