Persistence Pays Off — 94 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, August 7, I fished a mother – son trip for Mrs. April Deorsam, and her 10-year-old son Michael. The Deorsam‘s had previously gifted a fishing trip to friends, and those same friends turned around and gifted a fishing trip back. Today was the day the Deorsams chose to redeem it.
TODAY’S DATE: 07 August 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING BEFORE PUBLIC SCHOOL RESTARTS: 13 Aug. 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Michael and April Deorsam of Belton had a true multi-species morning on Lake Belton. We pursued white bass early, sunfish mid-morning, and catfish as a finale.
PHOTO CAPTION: After struggling through the learning curve of bite detection and hooksetting at our first stop for catfish, mother and son cam on strong, landing 9 fish out of 12 bites at our final stop.
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
We met up at 6:20 and had our first fish in the boat by 6:32. White bass fed hard on young-of-the-year shad in water from 21 feet and shallower in the 35 minutes or so proceeding sunrise. As soon as the sun’s direct rays struck the water the action quickly scaled back, and by 7:25, that aggressive feeding had ended. Having seen the same behavior during the summer months for many years, I knew trying to pursue these fish further would be rather anti-climactic.
We changed our focus at this point to targeting sunfish and catfish.
First, we baited out two areas for catfish to return to later after the chum had had a chance to draw fish in. We headed up shallow and targeted sunfish using live bait suspended off bottom by light slip floats presented with bream poles.
Michael was particularly fond of this style of fishing and April quickly grasped that a boat and all the equipment was certainly not necessary to be effective with this technique, and would be something Michael would enjoy doing from the bank and/or from a kayak. April landed her fair share of panfish, as well. After taking our fish count up to 60, I suggested we introduce some variety in order to keep Michael’s interest, so, we went to hit our first area for catfish.
Although neither Michael nor April actually landed a catfish at this first stop, they went through the learning curve that all anglers do during their first time using this tightline tactic I employ with its characteristic light bites. I knew they would do better if they were willing to give this a second try at the second area we had baited previously.
Before heading to that second catfish area, we went back up shallow in order to get a few more “instant gratification“ fish for Mike. He was very focused and now had some experience under his belt from our first effort, and he quickly took our fish count from 60 up to 84 before the bite began to fade simply because he had caught so many fish out of this one, small area.
We closed out the trip with a roughly 20 minute stop at the second area I had baited for catfish. April and Mike landed nine of the 12 catfish that bit taking our final tally to 94 fish, and allowing us to close out the trip on a positive note with two photo-worthy catfish.
As we parted ways in the parking lot, I told Michael that I was most impressed that even after not catching a single catfish during our first attempt, he was willing to stick with it on our second attempt — a great example of “persistence pays off”!
RESULTS: 94 fish, all caught and released
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
SEE THE “SMOKING TACTIC” TUTORIAL HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
OBSERVATIONS:
-USACE has finally reduced the flow of water through the dam to the “normal” summertime rate of 52CFS — just a trickle to keep fresh water moving downstream.
-Fishable topwater action was limited to the 30 or so minutes prior to sunrise with very little “popcorn” schooling witnessed thereafter.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 06 Aug. 2026, approx. 6:05AM …
0 feet 86.5F
5 feet 86.7F
10 feet 86.7F
15 feet 86.7F
20 feet 86.7F
25 feet 86.5F
30 feet 84.8F
35 feet 83.1F
40 feet 80.1F
45 feet 75.2F
50 feet 72.8F
55 feet 70.3F
60 feet 68.1F
Taken on Lake Belton on 28 July 2026, approx. 6:05AM …
0 feet 87.6F
5 feet 87.8F
10 feet 87.9F
15 feet 87.9F
20 feet 87.6F
25 feet 87.0F
30 feet 85.3F
35 feet 83.6F
40 feet 82.1F
45 feet 75.1F
50 feet 72.3F
55 feet 70.0F
60 feet 68.4F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:20A
End Time: 10:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F
Elevation – Lake Belton fell to 0.46′ high, with a 0.04′ loss in the last 24 hours. Flow rate was 52 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 87.5F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S5-8 all morning
Sky Condition: 25% white clouds on a blue sky with Pacific NW forest fire smoke no longer an issue.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 32% illumination
GT = 20
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 1641 – 27 white bass on Cork Rig with Sandy Sandwich Streamer
Area B0045G – 33 panfish on bait under slipfloats
Area B0029G – 25 panfish on bait under slipfloats
Area AUGCAT03 – 9 catfish on punchbait
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