Marital Advice and Other Free Stuff – 117 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, May 11, I fished with long time guests Frank Sumner & Mike Tracy. Frank treated Mike, his pastor at New Beginnings Church in Harker Heights, to a morning fishing trip on Lake Belton targeting white bass.
Along the way we had a good-natured discussion about living peaceably with the opposite sex, and how free stuff often is not exactly what it seems.
TODAY’S DATE: 11 May 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 15 June 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: U.S. Army veteran Frank Sumner and his pastor, Mike Tracy, “wore ’em out” this morning in the first three hours of our trip when winds and cloud cover created ideal conditions for “smoking” MAL Dense lures vertically.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Severe weather passed through the area around 8:30 last night as a cold front caused high winds, minor hail, and thunderstorms to develop along its edge, and those thunderstorms remained in place for several hours afterwards, dropping from 0.2 to 1.25 of rain on the area.
Despite technically being a cold front, there was not much of a temperature drop, hence, pre-dawn temperatures were still at 63° with abundant gray cloud cover up until around 9:45 AM.
The fishing definitely seems to have turned a corner for the better. We picked up right where we left off last week with two men boating over 100 fish this morning.
The shad spawn was quite heavy this morning with a lot of accompanying bird activity.
Despite the cloud cover, we were able to get on fish right away. We landed 30 fish in our first hour, 44 fish in our second hour, 32 fish in the third hour, and then things began to deteriorate quickly as the winds began to slack off, and the skies begin to clear such that direct sunlight shown through for the first time all morning.
Under the heavier early morning cloud cover, we fished white, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs for the first 15 or 20 minutes, but the fish followed them so aggressively and for such distances, that I knew we’d be able to catch them on MAL Dense Lure. I switched everyone over to the MAL Dense (with silver body) and never took them off until our final stop after the fish had already shown a reluctance to chase with our worsening conditions.
Garmin LiveScope signaled just when to move their lures upwards, and the splasher kept a steady feed of fish coming under the boat.
We wrapped up at 11:10 AM with exactly 117 fish boated. This included 2 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, 1 short hybrid, striped bass, and 112 white bass. All but one of the white bass were of legal size.
RESULTS: 112 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-Strong threadfin shad spawning activity this morning
-Fish got going early and stayed biting strong for ~3 hours today.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 05 May 2026, approx. 6:40AM…
0 feet 72.2F
5 feet 70.8F
10 feet 72.1F
15 feet 72.1F
20 feet 72.1F
25 feet 71.6F
30 feet 71.3F
35 feet 71.2F
40 feet 69.6F
45 feet 65.3F
50 feet 63.2F
55 feet 61.1F
60 feet 59.4F
Taken on Lake Belton on 29 April 2026, approx. 6:45AM…
0 feet 74.3F
5 feet 74.2F
10 feet 74.0F
15 feet 74.0F
20 feet 73.0F
25 feet 71.5F
30 feet 69.1F
35 feet 68.6F
40 feet 68.1F
45 feet 65.9F
50 feet 63.1F
55 feet 60.1F
60 feet 59.4F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 11:10A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F at sunrise (obscured)
Elevation: Belton is 0.79 high with a +0.40′ change over the weekend thanks to Sunday night’s cold front and associated rain to our northwest in the Leon River watershed. USACE is releasing 410 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 71.1.F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: NNW10 for 3 hours, then tapering down to NNW5 in final hour
Sky Condition: Thin grey cloud cover for 3 hours, then clearing quickly to 20% patchy white clouds on a blue sky in final hour.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 32% illumination
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 1606- 8 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area 1579 – 8 fish on MAL Dense w/ silver body
Area 2462 – 14 fish on MAL Dense w/ silver body
Area 2445 – 57 fish on MAL Dense w/ silver body
Area 2463 – 22 fish on MAL Dense w/ silver body
Area B0107G – 8 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. nickel)
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