Fishing with a Legend – 72 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, August 12, I conducted the 13th SKIFF trip of the 2026 season. Joining me was the father and son team of Kevin Lonzo and Legend Baxley, age 8. Kevin is a disabled veteran who served two enlistments based at Fort Hood as a US Army mechanic.
ABOUT SKIFF: Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (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, The Great Place Spouses’ Club, The Great Place Thrift Store, and VFW Post 4008 in Belton, TX. SKIFF 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. We’ve provided trips for over 660 children, and those kids have landed over 18,000 fish.
TODAY’S DATE: 12 August 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 19, 20, 26, 27 Aug. 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Legend Baxley’s dad, Kevin Lonzo, helps him display the two largest of the 29 catfish he landed as we fished punchbait in a windy stretch of the lake under a new moon.
PHOTO CAPTION: Legend Baxley got to cash in on all of the low-light bite which white bass have been engaging in very routinely since the flow of water through the Belton Dam was all but halted at the end of July. Sightcasting Cork Rigs with Sandy Sandwich Streamers
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
This morning‘s fishing was essentially a cookie-cutter version of yesterday‘s fishing. We had abundant white bass action early, cooperative sunfish action at mid-morning, and very aggressive catfish action in the last 90 minutes of our trip.
Although the white bass were difficult to see because of a significant chop on the water, and because whites typically do not feed quite as heavily at the surface in windy conditions, the spotting of fish to sightcast to was a little tough this morning, but, we managed exactly 25 fish sightcasting with the Cork Rig and Sandy Sandwich Streamer combination, then “mopped up“ with downriggers pulling three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 Pet Spoons after the fish left the surface. From about 7:30 to around 8:15 we targeted sunfish up in shallow using slip floats and live bait. Legend got the hang of accurately presenting his bait early on and he was able to catch 12 sunfish in short order.
We closed out the trip with a 90 minute stretch of catfishing in about 27 feet of water fishing over bait we dropped between the end of the white bass fishing and the start of the sunfishing. We returned to this chum and fished punch bait. Once again, the bite was remarkably aggressive with many strikes occurring the instant the bait came to rest just inches off bottom. Many times we watched multiple catfish compete to get to the bait first via Garmin LiveScope, and at no time did we need to wait for more than one minute (literally) to get a bite.
Legend struggled a bit to get the hang of setting the hook, despite practicing this before we let his first bait down, although that is not uncommon for kids his age. We found the secret was to have him place both hands on the rod to avoid the temptation of just reeling once he felt a bite as he was apt to do while holding the rod with his right hand and having his left hand place on the reel’s handle.
Legend landed exactly 29 Catfish, including a roughly 50-50 mix of channels and blues.
RESULTS: 72 fish, all caught and released
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
SEE THE “SMOKING TACTIC” TUTORIAL HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
OBSERVATIONS:
-USACE has finally reduced the flow of water through the dam to the “normal” summertime rate of 52CFS — just a trickle to keep fresh water moving downstream.
-Fishable topwater action was limited to the 40 or so minutes prior to sunrise with very little “popcorn” schooling witnessed thereafter. The chop created by higher than normal windspeeds made spotting fish more difficult this morning.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 11 Aug. 2026, approx. 6:05AM …
0 feet 86.5F
5 feet 86.7F
10 feet 86.7F
15 feet 86.7F
20 feet 86.7F
25 feet 86.2F
30 feet 85.1F
35 feet 82.6F
40 feet 80.3F
45 feet 76.3F
50 feet 71.6F
55 feet 69.4F
60 feet 68.2F
Taken on Lake Belton on 06 Aug. 2026, approx. 6:05AM …
0 feet 86.5F
5 feet 86.7F
10 feet 86.7F
15 feet 86.7F
20 feet 86.7F
25 feet 86.5F
30 feet 84.8F
35 feet 83.1F
40 feet 80.1F
45 feet 75.2F
50 feet 72.8F
55 feet 70.3F
60 feet 68.1F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:20A
End Time: 9:50A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F
Elevation – Lake Belton fell to 0.22′ high, with a 0.05′ loss in the last 24 hours. Flow rate was 52 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 86.5F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S7-14 all morning
Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover on a blue sky
Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area vic B1802- 31 white bass on Cork Rig with Sandy Sandwich Streamer, then downriggers to mop up
Area 502 – 12 panfish on bait under slipfloats
Area AUGCAT05 – 29 catfish on punchbait
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: https://www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle