He Flexed for Fish and Family — 20 Fish

CLIENTS: This past Friday afternoon, November 28, I fished a short “Kids Fish, Too!“ afternoon trip with three generations aboard. While only the children, ages five, eight, and nine, did the fishing, the adults aboard helped me help the kids be successful. Joining me was Mr. Manuel Pena, the President of the Austin Fly Fishers and a retired Austin Police Department policeman, and Manuel‘s son and daughter, Matt and Amanda. Matt‘s son, Max (age 8) and Amanda‘s kids, Camila (age 9) and Joaquin (age 5) rounded out our crew.

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.

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Wednesday, 10 December 2025 (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Joaquin and Amanda Bustillos, and Manuel, Camila, Matt, and Maxwell Pena with a few of the white bass the kids captured on a pretty tough set of weather conditions prior to a cold front’s arrival.

PHOTO CAPTION: 5-year-old Joaquin Bustillos was so excited upon landing a fish with his grandpa, Manuel, that he “flexed” and winked for the camera!!

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The difficult morning conditions I experienced over on Stillhouse continued to hinder us a bit this afternoon on Lake Belton. High winds, dark, gray skies, and humidity all in advance of our next cold front, plus the several days which have transpired since our last cold front, all worked together to dampen the bite.

Fish were actually difficult to find, and then, when we did find them, they took a lot of convincing to get to bite and typically did not stay interested very long.

Whenever young kids are aboard, I always am concerned about going for any length of time without seeing fish come aboard, knowing that their level of patience is low. So, we hopped around and used vertical tactics, horizontal tactics, and even a touch of downrigging on two occasions in order to put the 20 fish in the boat which the kids were able to land. This catch included one short hybrid and 19 legal white bass. The three techniques we used all accounted for six or seven fish.

For the first time in a long time, multiple areas I checked simply did not have enough fish present for kids to fish for. I typically look for areas really teeming with fish when kids are present so that the fishes’ competitive nature gets them stirred up and biting, even if they are not all that hungry.

I normally don’t anticipate finding fish up shallow in the afternoon, but this afternoon it was so dark that the low light level brought on by the heavy cloud cover allowed fish to move up, unhindered by any bright sunlight or any unclouded sky.

Our next cold front is scheduled to move in on Sunday. Things will spike as the cold front moves in, then that solid action will typically play out right up until the next cold front moves in after that. So it will go through the winter months.

RESULTS: 20 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH THE MAL LURE WITH A SAWTOOTH METHOD:

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON FISHING AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY USING THE “SMOKING” TACTIC:

OBSERVATIONS:

-White bass are falling into typical autumn patterns, but multi-day warmups between cold fronts tends to mute the impact of falling water temperatures.

-Very dark, murky skies hindered the fishing, and high winds through sunset kept us off several areas which have produced well of late.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Temperature profile measured on Belton around 6:45A on Thursday, 27 November …

Compare to temps taken on Lake Belton around 6:30 AM on Saturday, 22 Nov. 2025…

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 1:50P

End Time: 5:20P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: Belton is 0.24′ low with a .02′ fall in the last 24 hours with USACE releasing 261 CFS.

Water Surface Temp: 68.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13-15 all afternoon

Sky Condition: 100% thick grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 55% illumination.

GT = 85

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST 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