Mixing it up with Pop Pop – 83 “Kids Fish, Too!” Fish

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, July 6, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!“ trip for three of Mr. Rick Burns’ grandkids. Joining me were Tyler, Lane, and Guen ages 12, 8 and 6, respectively. Rick was a very capable and necessary extra set of hands and eyes given my crew with such a spread in ages and ability levels.

Rick is a retired U.S. Army veteran having served as a senior non-commissioned officer in the Infantry branch.

I particularly enjoy weeks following summer holiday weekends as the traffic is substantially reduced as folks go back to work. It was peaceful and quiet on the water this morning.

ABOUT “KIDS FISH, TOO!” TRIPS:  Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended just for the kids. They are considerably less expensive than standard trips ($215 for up to 2 kids vs. $315 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.

TODAY’S DATE: 06 July 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 28-31 July 2026 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: That’s Rick Burns, my capable first mate, and his grandkids, from left: Lane, Guen, & Tyler.

PHOTO CAPTION: Although detecting bites and timing their hooksets proved challenging, the kids landed catfish during the final “chapter” in our morning which also involved some topwater action, downrigging, and sunfishing.

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We got lines in just before sunrise and picked up a double (2 fish on one three armed umbrella rig, equipped with Pet Spoons) as we downrigged twin rods.

As we covered water slowly, I had an opportunity to look around and spotted some topwater action just as the sun was rising. There was but a few moments’ worth of topwater action, but it lasted just long enough for us to troll into them so as to avoid spooking them, and allow Rick and I to fire casts into the fish and hand off the rods to the kids to have them retrieve back through the fish and hook up. We managed six fish this way before that action. These fish were feeding on adult shad, so the MAL Lure did the trick on those fish.

We now had eight fish in the boat and returned to downrigging until the brightening sun pushed the fish down deeper in the water column at which time they dispersed, quite apparently. By this time, additional singles and doubles on the pair of umbrella rigs we were trolling had produced another dozen white bass, so our count now stood at 20 fish. The two younger kids were ready for a change, so we headed up shallow and targeted sunfish using bream poles. With the water level now stabilizing, the sunfish have really invaded the shallows. At one stop in one cove, the kids picked up exactly 60 sunfish, including bluegill, greens, and longears.

As is typically the case with younger kids, the younger two eventually lost interest in the sunfishing despite the great success, because it required them to do the same thing over and over again for a length of time.

We left the sunfish behind, and I explained the options remaining for our last 45 minutes on the water. I told the kids they could do more downrigging, we could attempt fishing with spinning tackle working MAL Lures vertically for additional white bass, or we could attempt catfishing, although that came with a warning that it would be the most difficult choice. Because the kids had not yet caught a catfish, I think the novelty held some appeal so they chose catfish.

We returned to an area had baited before their arrival, got punchbait down on treble hooks, and the kids caught one blue cat and two channels with about four times more fish missed due to their lack of familiarity with detecting bites and setting hooks, which was to be expected.

As the light wind we had enjoyed all morning began to fail, and the cloud cover began to clear, it got noticeably hotter right at 10 AM, at which time we wrapped up with exactly 83 fish landed.

RESULTS: 83 fish, all caught and released by clients

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton


TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW WORK AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: 

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

OBSERVATIONS:
-USACE scaled the release of water through the dam way back and the fishing has certainly improved. Flow today was 54 CFS for the fifty consecutive day, down from ~224CFS last week.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 01 July 2026, approx. 6:20AM (Note thermocline forming between 35-40 feet!!)

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