CLIENTS:  This morning, Friday, July 18, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with the Denman/Cousens families of Salado. Providing the supervision and greatly appreciated assistance was grandpa Bob Denman, and his daughter, Courtney Cousens. Doing the fishing were five-year-old Colson Cousens, seven year-old Adley Cousens, and the kids’ 35-year-old uncle (Courtney‘s brother), Skylar Denman.

TODAY’S DATE: Friday, 18 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 04 Aug. (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 09 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Courtney and Adley Cousens, Bob Denman, Colson Cousens, and Skylar Denman.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Today’s weather was a continuation of the mild weather we’ve enjoyed all week, and today’s fishing was a continuation of the solid fishing we’ve enjoyed all week, greatly supported by that weather.

When summertime weather gets stable, the fishing gets very consistent — and all of this, despite the fact that we still have a great amount of flood water on our area lakes.

We got going at 6:40 AM, experienced about 45 minutes’ worth of light topwater action spread over a good bit of acreage. Once the sun rose and cleared the clouds in the eastern sky, that topwater action ended for good. For the next 2+ hours we did very well with the kids staying engaged in the downrigging.

We ran two downriggers, each with an umbrella rig equipped with three #12 Pet Spoons. The kids continuously landed singles, doubles, and triples. Although side-imaging routinely revealed large schools of fish out to the port or starboard, I found these fish move so quickly in the hot, summertime water that trying to Spot Lock on them, then get baits down to fish effectively can typically not be done by the time the fish move off. I tried this one time this morning, and given the kids’ limited experience with fishing vertically with spinning tackle, decided it was not more productive than downrigging, and we went back to that method.

We closed out the trip leaving the last 30 minutes or so open for fishing up shallow for sunfish mainly as an activity we could transition to knowing that the kids would get bored with the downrigging sooner or later, even though it was producing fish so well. The flooded brush makes the shallow water sunfishing more difficult than it would be otherwise, but, the kids managed to land eight sunfish under balsa floats, using bits of worm as bait.  They landed 4 panfish each.

We closed out the trip right at the 3.5 hour mark with exactly 82 fish landed.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Fishing is getting “summertime tough” with white bass suspending more than using bottom, and focused on young-of-the-year shad which are hard to imitate with live or artificial baits.  If no topwater is encountered, the trip is going to be a tough one so far as white bass are concerned.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 10:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 7.88′ high with a 0.20′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 3047 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 82.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S2 increasing to S11

Sky Condition: 30% grey cloud covering increasing to 60% white cloud cover on a hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 42% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 183 – 12 white bass, 4 small largemouth bass on Cork Rigs at obscured sunrise

Area B0016C to B0125C – 62 white bass on downrigged Pet Spoons w/ one stop to smoke/sawtooth MAL Heavy Lures

Area 504 – 8 panfish on bait under slipfloats

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Thursday, July 17, I fished with returning guest Jimmie McCormack, accompanied by a friend of his and first-time guest of mine, Jason Pessa. This morning‘s trip was the fourth installment on what will be 13 sampling efforts conducted on Stillhouse hollow from April 2025 to April 2026 in an effort to compare the quality and quantity of white bass in Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir with that of the population in Lake Belton.

Helping with the measuring and weighing of each and every white bass landed this morning were Morgan Locklin and Mervin Narito.

ABOUT THE WHITE BASS STUDY: This study takes place from April 2025 through April 2026. On one designated day each month during that timeframe, anglers will assist in collecting white bass from Belton and from Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir using traditional rod and reel tactics.  All fish will be released. Those participating will receive a $50 discount per trip. The dates remaining open are as follows:

August 2025:                    14^th Thursday – Belton – OPEN

September 2025:             20^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN

October 2025:                  18^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 25^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

November 2025               8^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 15^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

January 2026                     17^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN

February 2026                  14^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 21st Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

March 2026                      11^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN / 12^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

April 2026                          15^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN / 16^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

TODAY’S DATE: Thursday, 17 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 04 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 09 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:   Jimmie McCormack and Jason Pessa supported the 13-month-long Temple College study of white bass populations on Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow, helping collect 151 fish for the study, and an additional 6 non-study fish, all in a 4-hour morning trip on this, the first day Stillhouse Hollow reopened following a short, flood-related closure from 13-16 July.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This collection effort was up in the air until around 5 PM last night when the USACE determined it was once again safe to open the Stillhouse boat ramp at Union Grove Park.  We hastily remade our plans and met up at that park at 6:45 AM this morning. The water level was nearly 10 feet above conservation pool level, and I had not fished on Stillhouse since prior to Father’s Day back in late June. I was a bit concerned about locating quantities of fish for my two anglers to catch, but 25 or 30 minutes into the morning, that concern proved to be for naught.

We looked over four areas during our four hour trip. The first area had just a bit of low hydrilla growth on the bottom, but I had seen both shad and white bass present. We caught only a handful of fish there, but it at least gave me a clue as to which depth the fish and bait were going to be located in.

I decided to put downriggers down as we made our way a short distance to the second area I’d hoped to scan with sonar. Along the way, we picked up several white bass and saw enough suspended fish present to make me think the area was worth spending some time in. As we were getting ready to drop both ‘riggers down once again, my down-imaging and 2-D Sonar lit up with signatures of white bass from bottom all the way up halfway into the water column. I immediately scrambled to get us re-rigged to fish vertically with MAL Heavy lures using a smoking tactic, enhanced by Garmin LiveScope, and we stayed on those fish for nearly 2 1/2 hours which is actually pretty unheard of in the summer months.

It was here that Jimmie told Jason concerning the effectiveness of Garmin LiveScope, ” If you’re not ‘Scopin’, you’re just hopin’!”

Once the vertical bite went sour, we pulled a few more fish using MAL Heavy lures fished horizontally with a sawtooth method, and once that dried up, we once again began downrigging, as I kept an eye primarily on side-imaging to see if we could find any additional concentrations of fish. At one area, as as the downrigger balls showed clearly on 2-D sonar, I saw about a dozen or more fish surge up off the bottom over 12 feet vertically to come and inspect the downrigger balls. I knew these were active fish and felt we could catch them by using MALs vertically with a smoking tactic.

This turned out to be true. We fished another hour on that group of fish taking our fish count up to 157.

With about 20 or 25 minutes left in the trip and the bite beginning to wane, I suggested we go look for some additional fish on similar bottom topographies at mid-lake. Although we did find fish and bait, by this time, the feed was done and we did not add any more fish to our count.

We wrapped up the morning with exactly 157 fish landed, of which 156 were white bass, with one freshwater drum thrown in for good measure.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Stilllhouse peaked yesterday afternoon and began to fall.  It reached a high of 9.94′ above full pool and has since fallen 0.30′ thanks to USACE’s release of 2558 CFS.
2. Water is beginning to clear, even in the most flood-impacted upper third of the reservoir.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:  This reading was taken around 6:20A, Thursday, 17 July 2025…

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 9.64′ high with a 0.30′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 2558 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 84.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S5 increasing to S11

Sky Condition: 30% white cloud cover on a hazy sky.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 54% illumination.

GT = 15

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic SHFL24012 – 3 fish on smoked MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 032 – 85 fish initially detected while downrigging, then caught on smoked and sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area 2117 – 69 fish initially detected while downrigging, then caught on smoked and sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Wednesday, July 16, I welcomed to returning guests aboard as we continued our effort at fish collection in support of a study being conducted by Temple College which will compare and contrast the white bass populations on Lake Belton and on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.  Joining me this morning doing the fishing was Mr. Otto Riedel and Mr. Dwight Stone, both from the Georgetown, Texas, area.  Also aboard were student researchers Caleb Fry and Caroline Vanderburg.

ABOUT THE WHITE BASS STUDY: This study takes place from April 2025 through April 2026. On one designated day each month during that timeframe, anglers will assist in collecting white bass from Belton and from Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir using traditional rod and reel tactics.  All fish will be released. Those participating will receive a $50 discount per trip. The dates remaining open are as follows:

August 2025:                    14^th Thursday – Belton – OPEN

September 2025:             20^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN

October 2025:                  18^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 25^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

November 2025               8^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 15^th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

January 2026                     17^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN

February 2026                  14^th Saturday – Belton – OPEN / 21st Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

March 2026                      11^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN / 12^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

April 2026                          15^th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN / 16^th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 16 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 04 August (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: Saturday, 13 September (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Dwight Stone and Otto Riedel captured over 100 Lake Belton white bass this morning — each one was weighed and measured in an ongoing study comparing white bass populations in Lake Belton with those in Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

For a second day in a row, we enjoyed an obscured sunrise and a sky with mostly cloudy conditions all morning, as well as a gentle south-southeasterly wind enough to make it comfortable to be outside and to ripple the surface, thus reducing the amount of penetrating light.

These conditions kept the white bass feeding well all morning. We successfully employed three tactics.

Early on, when the fish were in the shallowest water they would be in all morning, we used MAL Heavy Lures with a sawtooth tactic, fishing these lures horizontally.

Once the sun rose and brightened the skies, the fish moved out deeper. We continued using the sawtooth method successfully, and also mixed in some vertical smoking each time Garmin LiveScope (which I left operating continuously) indicated a heavy congregation of fish had moved directly beneath the boat.

Once the sawtooth method and smoking method began to get ignored, I felt it was time to cover ground horizontally, using our third successful tactic of the morning. We downrigged through to the end of the trip using a pair of downriggers, each equipped with a three-armed umbrella rig, with #12 Pet Spoons on the business end of those umbrella rigs.

We caught fish continuously, coming in the form of singles, doubles, and triples with fish ranging from two itty-bitty white bass in this year’s year class, all the way up to our largest between 14 1/2 and 15 1/4 inches with a majority of the fish somewhere in between.

This morning, the worsening topwater trend finally bottomed out, as I spotted no top water feeding by white bass whatsoever at any point in the morning.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Lake Belton was still rising thanks to multiple rounds of flooding rains which began on July 4.  USACE is now releasing over 3,000 CFS to stem the tide.  I hope we’ll see our first drop in the next day or two.  We gained another 0.25′ overnight.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 8.10′ high with a 0.25′ rise in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 3052 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S6 increasing to S11

Sky Condition: Mostly cloudy skies and large banks of clouds moved along by the wind prevented direct sunlight from striking the water’s surface this morning for any significant length of time.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 65% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic  B0014G (on slope toward deep water)  – 22 whites, 1 hybrid on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 0186 – 10 fish on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area B0171C  thru B0293G – 72 fish downrigging twin umbrellas, each with three #12 Pet Spoons

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Tuesday, July 15, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!“ Trip for the Pittenger Brothers – Cade (11), Luke (9), and Lane (9), all capably chaperoned by their grandfather, Randy Pittenger. If the name sounds familiar, it is because Randy is with the City of Belton Chamber of Commerce.

Randy had the boys in for a visit for just a brief window. We tried to get on the water yesterday, but training thunderstorms drowned us out. This morning‘s weather cooperated and we were able to catch fish from start to finish for a full 3.5 hours.

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 15 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Wednesday, 30 July (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 02 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Lane, Randy, Luke, and Cade Pittenger with a portion of the boys’ 58-fish haul taken under flooded conditions with Lake Belton still on the rise.  The lake is currently 7.94′ high.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

As the sun began to come up in the east through a low cloud bank, I kept a sharp eye out for topwater, action, but it seems the incoming flood water has caused that to diminish. There was some spotty topwater now and then, but it was both brief, and minimal. Having been through numerous summertime flooding scenarios through the years, my experience told me to look shallow. As I did, sonar revealed white bass and shad in abundance in shallow water.

I started the boys off casting MAL Heavy Lures with silver blades and chartreuse tails using a sawtooth method to contact fish. I had the boys move back-and-forth from the port to the starboard side as side-imaging revealed schools of fish accordingly.

That effort landed our first seven fish of the day before the fish pushed out of shallow water as the skies brightened.

Next, I rigged up the downriggers and got twin ‘riggers working with Number 12 Pet Spoons (six of them) working simultaneously. We fished through what I felt was the peak bite of the morning, right up until about 8:40, consistently landing singles, doubles, and triples, and taking our fish count up to 39 fish.

With about an hour left in the trip, I made a move after I felt this first group of fish had gone past peak. I found fish in 24 to 28 feet of water at the third location we fished. At first, I Spot Locked on them and had the kids smoke the same MAL Lures vertically up off the bottom. This accounted for a few fish, but the fish were moving very rapidly in this hot water, and they would not stay under the boat, even with a splasher going.

I wrapped up the trip by downrigging in this same area, and the kids took their final count up to 58, capping off the morning with one final triple on the downrigged Pet Spoons.

Our grand total this morning was 58 fish including 57 white bass and one largemouth bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Lake Belton was still rising thanks to multiple rounds of flooding rains which began on July 4.  USACE is now releasing over 3,000 CFS to stem the tide.  I hope we’ll see our first drop in the next day or two.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 9:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 7.91′ high with a 0.84′ rise in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 3049 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 83.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S4 increasing to S9

Sky Condition: A low, grey cloud bank kept the direct sun from striking the water until ~80 minutes after sunrise, afterwhich there was still 50-60% clouds on a hazy sky.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 75% illumination.

GT = 15

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic  B0014G to shore – 6 whites, 1 largemouth on sawtoothed MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 1822 – downrigging twin umbrellas, each with three #12 Pet Spoons, for 32 fish as singles, doubles and triples

Area vic 1620 – smoking MAL Heavy Lures lead to downrigging 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

CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, July 11, I fished a short, two-hour, Kids Fish, Too! trip with three- and six year-old brothers accompanied by both their father and grandfather. Joining me were Bary Gould, and his son-in-law, Shawn Lee, and Lee‘s two boys, Atlas (6), and Oso (3).

The men both operate one of the Central Texas teams of Birdcreek Roofing.

TODAY’S DATE: Friday, 11 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Wednesday, 30 July (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 02 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left rear: Bary “Bobby” Gould and his son-in-law, Shawn Lee, with Shawn’s sons, Oso (age 3), left, and Atlas (age 6).  The men helped the boys land 57 fish in a short, 2-hour “Kids Fish, Too!” trip just for the kids.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Some light, pre-sunrise topwater action broke out as I was preparing the boat for my guests’ arrival. Fortunately, a low bank of gray clouds developed in the east and kept the sun from shining directly on the water for a little while. Once Barry, Shawn, and the kids arrived, we really hustled to get the kids in lifejackets, everyone aboard, and get out to the topwater action we had sighted. This action continued for about 40 minutes in two different locations, allowing us a catch of 28 white bass and one smallmouth bass before the sun finally cleared the clouds and put the fish down for good.

We picked right up where the fish left off by downrigging out in slightly deeper water where we picked up another 13 fish, including four sets of triples and a single. With about 40 minutes left before the men had to depart, the kids showed signs of waning interest in the downrigging, so, we changed things up one last time and went up shallow in search of sunfish. The crew landed a total of 15 bluegill sunfish with bait under slip floats. It was now about 8:35, so we brought lines in, took a few good photos, and delivered this crew back to dry land for an on-time departure.

Our total count today was 57 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Fishing is getting “summertime tough” with white bass suspending more than using bottom, and focused on young-of-the-year shad which are hard to imitate with live or artificial baits.  If no topwater is encountered, the trip is going to be a tough one so far as white bass are concerned.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 8:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 4.59′ high with a 0.30′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 3009 CFS. This was the first day Belton saw falling water since the July 4 flooding.

Water Surface Temp: 82.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S4 increasing to S7

Sky Condition: A low, grey cloud bank kept the direct sun from striking the water until ~40 minutes after sunrise, afterwhich there was <10% clouds on a hazy sky.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 99% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 2107 – 7 white bass on Cork Rigs at obscured sunrise

Area B0014G to shoreline – 21 white bass, 1 smallmouth on Cork Rigs w/ sun obscured by grey clouds

Area B0293G thru B0171C – 13 white bass on downrigged Pet Spoons

Area 1753 – 15 bluegill on bait under slipfloats

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

CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, July 9, I conducted the seventh SKIFF trip of the 2025 season. Joining me this morning was the family of U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Norman Bretz — Mrs. Natalie Bretz and her three children, Jayden (16), Adyson (14), and Logan (13).  The Bretz family resides in Copperas Cove and await SFC Bretz’s return from southwest Asia, after which he will retire after 20 years of service, primarily in the Cavalry.

TODAY’S DATE: Thursday, 10 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Wednesday, 30 July (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 02 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Adyson, Logan, and Jayden Bretz with some hard-earned white bass caught on a day with a lot working against us, including rising flood water, a high flow of water through the dam, a full moon, and cloudless skies.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

It was a tough, tough morning.  With very little cloud cover at sunrise, a few pods of surface feeding fish could be seen spread far and wide, but, they only stayed up for seconds at a time.  After about an hour after sunrise, even the little bit of cover we did have burned off and it was bright from that point forward, just about guaranteeing no more topwater would materialize.

We had some other environmental factors working against us, as well, including another 0.20 feet of flood water coming in, an increased flow (3013 CFS) through the dam, and a full moon.   I would not be encouraged by any one of those, but, to have them all occur on one morning was pretty tough.

I covered A LOT of water looking for schooled, aggressive fish.  Bait is everywhere, thus making it easy for gamefish to feed at will on these small, slow young-of-the-year shad.  Essentially, if you don’t find them on topwater this time of year, its is likely going to be a grind, and that’s just what it was today.

Fortunately, around 9:15, side-imaging showed a nice pod of fish holding on bottom in about 30 feet of water.  We already had the downriggers working, so, I marked them, had the kids adjust the depth of the ‘riggers’ balls, and we went to those fish.  We got a very positive response from the fish, then continued to take advantage of what side-imaging had uncovered.  Up to that point, we’d only landed 6 fish, but took our count very quickly up to 25 as the kids landed singles, doubles, and triples on the 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.

Once the fish showed a reluctance to chase any longer, I pinpointed two additional schools of fish and the kids worked MAL Heavy Lures vertically through them aided by Garmin LiveScope.  They added another six fish to our count before we wrapped up for good around 10:30 as the winds pushed 14mph and the bite died.

I really appreciated Natalie’s help — she got a license so she could be “hands-on”, and she pitched right in there working the downriggers, taking off fish when things got a bit crazy, and untangling lines when need be.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Fishing is getting “summertime tough” with white bass suspending more than using bottom, and focused on young-of-the-year shad which are hard to imitate with live or artificial baits.  If no topwater is encountered, the trip is going to be a tough one so far as white bass are concerned.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:55A

End Time: 10:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 4.89′ high with a 0.18 rise in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 3013 CFS. Belton should begin falling slowly later today.

Water Surface Temp: 82.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S7 increasing to S13

Sky Condition: 30% white cloud cover on a hazy sky at sunrise, decreasing to 10% coverage with Saharan dust filtering some light out

Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Areas 178 thru B0109G – downrigging transitioning to smoking with MAL Heavy Lures accounted for 25 of our 31 fish in this location.

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

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, July 8, I conducted the  sixth SKIFF trip of the 2025 season. Joining me this morning was U.S. Army veteran Troy Hensley Junior, a disabled combat veteran of the War in Iraq, and two of his sons, Trace (age 10), and Joshua (age 5).

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 08 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Monday, 28 July (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 02 August (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  U.S. Army Iraqi War veteran Troy Hensley Jr. brought his sons, Trace (10 and Joshua (5) aboard for a morning of fishing on this, the sixth SKIFF trip of the 2025 season.

PHOTO CAPTION: 10-year-old Trace Hensley landed our largest fish of the morning when this hybrid striped bass came up from the depths and slammed the bait behind his cork while fishing a Cork Rig for white bass schooling on the surface.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Thanks to flooding on both Cowhouse Creek and in the Leon River due to heavy rains the morning of 07 July, Lake Belton, rose rapidly (2.30 feet) in the last 24 hours, thus prohibiting access to the floating courtesy docks. Regardless, the water on the lower end of the lake remains clear and free of debris, at least for the time being.

The heavy cloud cover at sunrise delayed the start of this morning‘s feed, but, around 7:15 AM, things begin to happen with white bass forcing shad to the surface in great numbers and on a widespread basis. This went very strong through about 8:30. After that, pods of fish could still be seen here and there, but nothing to the extent that the prior hour and a quarter presented.

During this feeding spree, Troy and I cast Cork Rigs to the fish. Trace retrieved his own Cork Rig whereas Troy worked the Cork Rig until a fish was hooked then handed it off to Joshua. In this manner, the boys reeled in exactly 60 fish. As the top water action was dying down around 8:30, the boys were also getting a bit disinterested, so, we change tactics, moved up shallow, and pursued sunfish in the newly flooded terrestrial vegetation, using slip floats with bait beneath. This accounted for an additional 25 sunfish. We wrapped up at about 10:10 AM with a total of 85 fish landed and released.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Fishing is getting “summertime tough” with white bass suspending more than using bottom, and focused on young-of-the-year shad which are hard to imitate with live or artificial baits.  If no topwater is encountered, the trip is going to be a tough one so far as white bass are concerned.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:25A

End Time: 10:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 4.34′ high with a 2.30 rise in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 82.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S4-9

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover at sunrise, gradually clearing to 40% white cloud cover on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 95% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Areas B0163G thru 2116 – 60 fish on Cork Rigs on topwater from 7:22 to 8:35AM

Area B0289G – 10 sunfish

Area B0163C – 15 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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

CLIENTS:  This morning, Monday, July 7, after a bit of a hiatus as my wife and I headed to Colorado to celebrate our 30th anniversary, I was back on Lake Belton in pursuit of fish. This morning, I welcomed aboard Greg and Lisa Pope from just outside of Salado, and their two grandsons, brothers Jackson (age12) and Jordan (age 10) Pope, from Bryan, Texas.

Although both Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow have risen as a result of the widespread flooding in the Texas Hill Country, neither lake had dirty water or debris in their lower segments, hence, we were able to fish this morning in ways identical to how I would normally be fishing this time of year.

This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip intended just for the kids. They are considerably less expensive than standard trips, 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.  So it was this morning as Greg helped with all of those tasks.

TODAY’S DATE: Monday, 07 July 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Friday, 11 July (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 12 July (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   Mr. Greg Pope and his wife, Lisa, took their grandsons, Jackson and Jordan Pope on a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip tailored just for kids this morning on Lake Belton.  The boys landed 170 fish.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

After a 30 minute rain delay, we got out looking for white bass on top water, but, the turbid weather had them locked down pretty good. After catching just one white bass and one hybrid in three attempts at three normally productive areas, I decided to change over to shallow water sunfishing for the mid part of our trip, then go back to white bass fishing if/when the weather settled.

We hit three shallow water areas, each with rock and vegetation present as cover, and wound up with a catch of 48 sunfish on bait fished under slip floats. With our fish count now at 50 and with about 45 minutes remaining in what I had planned for a 3.5 hour trip, I once again went looking for white bass now that the wind had settled, the skies had brightened, and while the skies were still fully greyed over. I spotted some flashes in the distance, brought out my spotting scope to verify my suspicions, and saw that about an acre of white bass were working over open water. I got to them as quickly as I could, but was sure not to throw a wake over any of these fish. I had my guests help rearrange all the tackle on the boat as I ran to the fish in order to clear the front deck and the area behind it to allow the boys to cast spinning rods rigged with Cork Rigs into the frenzy before us.

In summary, the boys enjoyed an uninterrupted, hour and 15 minutes of top water action as white bass forced shad of all sizes to the surface and fed on them.  Talk about “goal oriented” — they saw in my recent reports that the highest catch of late was 159 fish — a catch made under similar conditions with most fish coming on topwater.  Well, they wanted to top that and requested multiple “extensions” to work to that end.

During this span of time, the two of them landed an additional 120 fish, including 119 white bass and one hybrid striper.  This action finally died by around 11:15 AM.

Our final total was 170 fish.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Fishing is getting “summertime tough” with white bass suspending more than using bottom, and focused on young-of-the-year shad which are hard to imitate with live or artificial baits.  If no topwater is encountered, the trip is going to be a tough one so far as white bass are concerned.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Not measured today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 2.19′ high with a 0.97 rise in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 81.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S9 at (obscured) sunrise, then dying to S2-3 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover with very light rain falling for ~40% of the time on the water (but not enough for raingear)

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 90% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Areas B0158C, B0029G, B0291G – 48 sunfish on bait under slipfloats

Area B0163G – late morning topwater for 119 white bass and 1 hybrid on Cork Rigs

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, June 27, I fished with three coworkers, all part of a commercial construction company – Hill-Wilkinson Company. Joining me were Matt Shem, Seth Rabal, and Gramm Oberman — all avid anglers.

TODAY’S DATE: Friday, 27 June 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Wednesday, 09 July (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 12 July (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Seth Rabal, Matt Shem, and Gramm Oberman with a few of the Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir white bass they took under tough summertime conditions using MAL Heavy Lures smoked vertically.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The typically tough Texas summertime fishing is definitely upon us. Lots of young of the year shad and suspended gamefish are fast becoming the rule.

Before we got started, I let everyone know the fishing would be tough and that we would need to take full advantage of every opportunity we got as schools of patrolling white bass showed themselves beneath the boat via Garmin LiveScope.

With such abundant forage, it is tough to compete with small, slow-moving threadfin shad by the millions while using artificial lures, none of which can practically be as small as these tiny forage fish which the gamefish are feeding on.

My approach this morning was to find fish either on bottom with side imaging, or, more likely, suspended up off bottom using 2-D sonar. When either or both showed any concentration of fish, I use the i-Pilot Link system of my trolling motor to Spot Lock on top of these fish and we worked MAL Heavy lures vertically to try to tempt them.

As is typically the case, and especially in the summer, the more fish present in a given school, the more likely the fish were to aggressively compete with schoolmates and race to the bait.

We moved frequently, whenever the bite waned at a given area. In this manner, we put together a catch of 37 fish including 35 white bass and two largemouth bass.

Knowing that I also fish Lake Belton, Matt asked what my though process was that Lead to us fishing Stillhouse on this trip. I shared that Belton‘s fishing is typically even tougher that on Stillhouse, except when topwater action materializes. That action is far from guaranteed, and, on a Friday with some topwater action having occurred recently, I could only imagine it would be a zoo of boats, chasing whatever topwater schools presented themselves, hence, I opted for the relatively greater peace and quiet over on Stillhouse. Matt, who does not care for fishing in crowds, certainly appreciated that.

After checking with some friends over on Lake Belton, I found the topwater was spotty there this morning.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Fishing is getting “summertime tough” with white bass suspending more than using bottom, and focused on young-of-the-year shad which are hard to imitate with live or artificial baits.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This was the latest water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:30AM on Tuesday, 17 June…

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation: 1.60′ low’ high with a 0.03′ fall in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 83.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S6-10 all morning

Sky Condition: 40% white cloud cover on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 861 thru 1971 produced best, although no area was just loaded up with fish this morning.

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

CLIENTS:  This morning, Thursday, June 26, I fished with Mr. Ken Deweese and his nine-year-old grandson, Dane Deweese, who is visiting for a few weeks from Colorado, along with his two older sisters.

Ken now resides in the Salado area after retiring from 51 years of coaching basketball.  Dane calls him Pappadeaux.

TODAY’S DATE: Thursday, 26 June 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  Wednesday, 09 July (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 12 July (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:   Ken and 9-year-old Dane Deweese teamed up for a multi-species fishing trip which resulted in the catch of white bass, largemouth bass, and bluegill sunfish.

PHOTO CAPTION:   Dane captured our largest fish of the trip.  This largemouth bass was 17″ long and right at 3.00 pounds.  It was caught on a MAL Heavy Lure worked vertically with a “smoking” retrieve.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The summer heat and young of the year shad are heavily and negatively influencing the fishing now. I have begun to see this play out on both Belton and now on Stillhouse. The millions of young of the year shad ranging now in size from 3/4 of an inch to 1 1/4 inches in length are suspended just about everywhere. These little fish are slow and abundant and are so easily fed upon, game fish really need not be interested in anything else.

We put in our first 3 1/2 hours in pursuit of white bass this morning. We started off smoking MAL Lures, but, given the scenario I’ve just described, the fishing is quite technical with no guarantee even a well-placed, well-worked bait is going to get bit. Ken caught a few fish this way before I decided to switch us over to downrigging. The downrigged #12 Pet Spoons caught fish slowly but consistently, and provided us with good quality fish, as well.

After the area we were downrigging in failed to produce any longer, the next fish I found were in timber, so downrigging was not an option. We re-doubled our efforts at getting Dane working his MAL Lure very well when fished vertically, and both he and Ken added fish to our count, taking us to a total of 23 fish landed with about 30 minutes left in the trip. I wanted to leave Dane with some skills he would be able to use if he was not able to be in a boat, so we headed up shallow and closed out the fishing trip catching 8 bluegill sunfish on telescoping rods under floats using live bait. We wound up the trip with 31 fish boated.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Fishing is getting “summertime tough” with white bass suspending more than using bottom, and focused on young-of-the-year shad which are hard to imitate with live or artificial baits.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This was the latest water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:30AM on Tuesday, 17 June…

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:40A

End Time: 10:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 1.56′ low’ high with a 0.02′ fall in the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 81.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Under S6-10 all morning

Sky Condition: 40% white cloud cover on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 484 – 3 white bass smoking MAL Heavy Lures

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