CLIENTS: This past Wednesday evening I fished with returning guest Dustin Marsh, a large animal veterinarian based in the Bryan/College Station area who specializes in dairy herd care. Coming with Dustin for the first time aboard my boat was James Becker who makes a living doing all things cattle, including international export.
Based on my observations over the past few weeks, I knew fishing for quality fish was not going to really kick in until after 6:30, so, we met up and “cherry picked” fished in just the final two hours before dark.
DATE: Wednesday, 14 August 2024 (PM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 15 & 26-30Aug. (AM & PM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: James Becker and Dustin Marsh with a few of the 105 fish they picked off using Garmin LiveScope and MAL Originals “smoked” vertically on Lake Belton.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: With just two hours to make it happen, I went with a “high percentage” option as far as fish location was concerned, and that turned out well. We essentially drove right to the fish, Spot-Locked atop of them in ~26 feet of water and landed 63 until the dimming light pushed the fish shallower. We bumped up into 20′, Spot-Locked again, and finished out the trip on this second anchorage, taking our tally up to 105 fish, all caught and released. The only tactic necessary was “smoking” vertically with the MAL Original. This was certainly enhanced by Garmin LiveScope, but that technology was only icing on the cake.
Here is a tutorial on smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We “smoked” MAL Originals vertically for the entire evening to wear out the keeper white bass. Find all MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 105 fish caught and released, including 2 drum, 1 largemouth bass, 5 short white bass, and 97 legal white bass with several exceeding 14″.
OBSERVATIONS:
1) As we hit 8:10P and the fish began to slow down, we found that targeting the highest fish in the water column from any given school outproduced just randomly reeling up through a school of fish.
2) Nothing but undersized fish at several areas through 7P, then quality fish thereafter; this is just the opposite of what I’m seeing in the mornings.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 5:50 AM on Friday, August 9 …
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:35P
End Time: 8:35P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 100F
Elevation: 0.2′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow; .04′ fall in last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 88.9F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S10 all evening
Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover on a slightly hazy blue sky
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 68% illumination.
GT = 50
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
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