Mixed Bag Summer Fun – 21 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, June 26, I wrapped up the week with a morning fishing trip on Lake Belton with long-time client Gary Jones of Temple, Texas. Gary runs his own very well-appointed Boston Whaler center console, but it has been in the shop so he decided to come out fishing with me in my rig.
TODAY’S DATE: 26 June 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 27-31 July 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Gary Jones with a few of the white bass he landed using MAL Dense Lures worked vertically upward through schools of patrolling fish we found suspended on sonar. Lacking any topwater action, fishing for white bass has gotten pretty tough of late, and this will likely continue as USACE releases flood water through the dam.
PHOTO CAPTION: I continue to set aside a portion of each trip dedicated to catching catfish, typically toward the end of the morning when the white bass & hybrid striper feed is winding down. Gary landed 6 cats today.
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Fishing is always tougher in the summer and this summer, at least thus far, has been a bit tougher than normal, made that way by the high flow of water through the dam, which typically correlates with a near total lack of topwater action by white bass, which would otherwise normally have started around Father’s Day and remained going strong through the first cold front in September.
By comparison, this morning we saw exactly one school of fish come up three separate times over the span of two minutes, each time for about 10 seconds.
After spending some time scrubbing the surface in a number of areas looking for topwater, we spent right up until 10:15 AM working MAL Dense Lures vertically through suspended schools of white bass as they patrolled for shad. Gary put the 15th fish in the boat right at 10:15 and we then set our sights on fishing two different areas both previously baited in order to attract catfish.
After baiting up Gary’s treble with punchbait, he landed four channel cats and a blue cat at our first area, then missed one and connected with a second at our second area. By this time it was about 11:30 and getting noticeably hotter; we decided to wrap up after verifying that this second area we had baited did hold fish.
We wrapped up with 21 fish landed including 15 white bass and six catfish.
I expect the fishing to remain tough and the fish counts to remain fairly low until the USACE stops the flow of water through the dam. At roughly 1/5 of a foot drop per day at a flow of 1,389 CFS, that will take at least 5 more days with just over a foot of floodwater remaining — trouble is, the lower the lake gets, the more USACE tends to lower the flow, thus extending that timeline.
RESULTS: 21 fish, all caught and released by clients
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW WORK AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY:
OBSERVATIONS:
-Persistent morning clouds have kept any early morning bite from developing for quite some time now. Peak bite has consistently been ~8-10A for the past several weeks, today included.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 24 June 2026, approx. 6:20AM…
0 feet 84.7F
5 feet 84.8F
10 feet 84.8F
15 feet 84.8F
20 feet 84.8F
25 feet 84.8F
30 feet 84.5F
35 feet 78.8F
40 feet 74.9F
45 feet 72.5F
50 feet 70.8F
55 feet 69.9F
60 feet 67.9F
65 feet 65.6F
Taken on Lake Belton on 17 June 2026, approx. 6:20AM…
0 feet 84.5F
5 feet 85.0F
10 feet 84.8F
15 feet 84.3F
20 feet 84.0F
25 feet 83.4F
30 feet 79.2F
35 feet 75.7F
40 feet 74.3F
45 feet 71.5F
50 feet 69.6F
55 feet 67.4F
60 feet 65.5F
65 feet 63.3F
70 feet 61.5F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 11:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F
Elevation – Lake Belton fell 0.21′ down to 0.88′ high in the last 24 hours. Flow rate was 410 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 84.7F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S13-15 all morning
Sky Condition: 90% white cloud cover on a pale blue sky, steadily decreasing to 50% by trip’s end
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 90% illumination
GT = 185
Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area vic 960 – 2 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area B0089G – 4 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area 2508- 9 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area JUNCAT03 – 4 channel cat, 1 bluecat over bait on punchbait
Area JUNCAT08 – 1 channel cat
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