white bass spinner

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

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

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

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

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on July 13th and 15th. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jacob, Josh, Jace, and Scott Sutphen with a few of the Lake Belton white bass we really worked for today under bright skies and near-calm wind conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

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

HOW WE FISHED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

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

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

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

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

Water Surface Temp: 83.6F

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

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

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 57% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT:

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

Area vic BDH005

Area vic 489

Area B0098G

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec #mepps

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

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

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

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

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

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

HOW WE FISHED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TALLY: 160 fish caught and released

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

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

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

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

Water Surface Temp: 80.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE5-8 all morning

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

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 14% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

Bob Maindelle

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

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

Fishing Report

Holding The Line Guide Service

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

WORE OUT BOTH ARMS! — 160 FISH @ LAKE BELTON