Nowhere to Go But Up – 33 Fish

CLIENTS: After very tough fishing the morning prior, I returned to Lake Belton on Saturday morning, Dec. 06, with Mark Ray and Jonathan Brown as we continued in our efforts to collect white bass for the 13-month study on this species being conducted by Temple College.

Mark is a retired painter and member at a church in Temple where Jonathan recently retired as the children’s pastor for many years.

Had the study not required it, I would have chosen Stillhouse for this trip, but, this is one of the several reasons these trips are discounted, so, we pressed on fishing Belton on this date which was established when the study was first designed.

ABOUT THE WHITE BASS STUDY:
Through April of 2026, researchers will be measuring and weighing the white bass captured by my clients to consider establish a baseline of fish quality on both lakes. If you come out fishing with me to help collect these fish, you will get $50 deducted from your fee in exchange for allowing researchers to accompany your party on my boat. We have designated one sampling day per lake, per month through April of 2026. We will still be catching and releasing all fish.

REMAINING OPEN DATES FOR DISCOUNTED WHITE BASS STUDY FISHING TRIPS:

January 2026: 17th Saturday – Belton – OPEN

February 2026: 14th Saturday – Belton – OPEN, 21st Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN

March 2026: 11th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN, 12th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

April 2026: 15th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN, 16th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN

TODAY’S DATE: Saturday, 06 December 2025 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Monday, 15 December 2025 (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jonathan Brown and Mark Ray stayed focused on Garmin LiveScope and their technique to put together a decent catch after a truly tough week of topsy-turvy weather.

PHOTO CAPTION: Due to a very fast cooldown (5 degrees in 5 days), I have changed over from MAL Lures to Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs; I have also begun using the thumper, especially in deep water, now relying less upon the splasher to attract fish from the area surrounding the boat.

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


WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
I can tell you I was pretty anxious about this trip, having come off the single worst trip numbers-wise I’ve ever encountered in over 20 years of guiding just the day before.

The “silver lining” was the weather forecast. Finally, there would be some stability after Thursday’s front and Friday’s post-frontal calm. We were due to have some cloud cover for about three hours and a light SW breeze. Thankfully, this forecast was accurate.

Both Mark and Jonathan are experienced anglers, and, as such, they quickly got the hang of presenting the Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically with a slow-smoking method, and got the hang of doing a bit of horizontal work with the MAL Heavy used with a sawtooth method.

We found our first fish up shallow, in under 20 feet of water. Mark, who had fished Belton three times previously this week, and I both noted that the water had cleared a bit after strong winds on Monday and again on Thursday had stirred the silt up.

I have begun using my “thumper” in water over 20′, but stuck to the “splasher” for shallower water applications. The splasher did bring fish in and although we got a lot of rejections throughout the morning, we steadily put together a catch.

By 9:30, the sun had climbed sufficiently to drive the fish out of the 20-ish foot range, so, we headed deeper. This is where things got trickly. On several occasions we found fish which I was absolutely sure were white bass (as observed on side-imaging), only to have them stay so tight to bottom that they refused to follow a lure upwards at any speed. This happened on at least 5 distinct occasions.

The fish we did catch from deeper water we simply fish which were in the minority and did break away from bottom to give chase, although they were a very low percentage of the total number of fish we observed.

One bright spot for my friends pursuing largemouth bass — the largemouth are becoming more prevalent as a part of my clients’ bycatch, as is typical from Dec. to mid-Feb.

Indeed, 6 of the 33 fish Ray and Jonathan landed were largemouth, with the balance being white bass.

RESULTS: 33 fish, all caught and released


TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

OBSERVATIONS:

-We saw a drastic water temperature decrease (5 degrees F) in less than a week’s time, enhanced by lack of sunlight due to cloud cover all week. Water surface temp. now at ~62-63F, down from 68.5 less than a week ago.

-No helpful bird action on Lake Belton this trip.



LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken around 7AM on Friday, 05 Dec. 2025…

Compare to temps taken on Lake Belton around 6:45 AM on Thursday, 27 Nov. 2025…

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area 657 (3 hops) – 10 fish on both slow-smoked slabs and sawtoothed MAL Heavys in under 22′

Area vic B0172C – 15 fish on slow-smoked slabs

Area B0316G – 8 fish slow-smoked slabs

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