Summer Suspension – 52 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, June 11, I welcomed back the father-and-son team of Jonathan and Jacob Manning. Jonathan comes from a line of local home builders with their roots in Copperas Cove.
Back in 2017, Jacob landed the still-current Lake Belton record smallmouth bass in the Junior Angler category. That fish went 20.125 inches.
TODAY’S DATE: 11 June 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 10, 14 July 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jacob (age 17) and Jonathan Manning with a few of the shad-gorged white bass they landed on a clouded, breezy morning on Lake Belton working MAL Dense lures vertically (smoking) and horizontally (sawtoothing).
PHOTO CAPTION: And here is that same father-son duo back in 2017 with Jacob’s still-current Lake Belton record smallmouth bass (Jr. Angler category) at 20.125 inches.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
With typical summer patterns now setting in, most of the white bass action I am finding is coming from highly mobile, suspended schools of white bass, chasing shad. The higher in the water column and the faster moving these schools are, the more likely they are to strike. Those fish found down on the bottom are very difficult to convince. Also, the greater the number of individuals in a school, the more competition that results, typically yielding a better result.
Today, the majority of our success came from working MAL Dense lures with chartreuse tails and silver bodies upwards either from off bottom or at least from beneath suspended fish using the smoking tactic. Schools varied in size from just 3 to 5 fish on up to larger schools with 50 to 60 individuals.
All of the fish we found today were in under 42 feet of water.
Only one time did we find fish primarily using bottom and that was on slowly sloping terrain in right at 40 feet of water.
Once again, the wind was blowing a chop just shy of white capping before sunrise, so any topwater action that may have existed would have been extremely difficult to spot, although it is certainly time for topwater action to start kicking in.
In that one location where we found fish making use of the bottom, they were spread over quite an area, so, after using the smoking tactic, we changed over to the sawtooth method once the fish lost interest directly beneath us. That accounted for an additional seven fish in the boat.
We had to stop right at the four hour mark today due to an appointment Jonathan had made previously. At the four hour mark we had landed exactly 52 fish including 49 white bass and 3 freshwater drum. After dropping father and son off, I went and checked an area had baited for catfish as a backup plan, or simply for variety’s sake, and in about 10 minutes time landed two channel datfish and a blue cat on doughbait.
RESULTS: 52 fish, all caught and released by clients
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW WORK AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY:
OBSERVATIONS:
-USACE shut down the flow through the Belton Dam going from a rate of 412 CFS to just 64 CFS over the weekend, then reopened the gates, running 1060 cfs beginning on Monday, 08 June. That flow continued today, 11 June.
-No helpful bird action today.
-Lake Belton fell 0.13′ to 2.14′ above full pool
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 08 June 2026, approx. 6:25AM…
0 feet 81.9F
5 feet 81.9F
10 feet 81.9F
15 feet 81.9F
20 feet 79.7F
25 feet 76.7F
30 feet 74.3F
35 feet 73.3F
40 feet 72.0F
45 feet 70.5F
50 feet 67.8F
55 feet 65.0F
60 feet 63.1F
Taken on Lake Belton on 02 June 2026, approx. 6:35AM…
0 feet 82.5F
5 feet 82.6F
10 feet 82.1F
15 feet 81.5F
20 feet 80.2F
25 feet 76.6F
30 feet 74.8F
35 feet 73.3F
40 feet 71.7F
45 feet 70.3F
50 feet 67.4F
55 feet 64.4F
60 feet 62.0F
65 feet 60.6F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:30A
End Time: 10:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F
Elevation – Lake Belton fell 0.13′ down to 2.14′ high in the last 24 hours.
Water Surface Temp: 81.9F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SE11-14 all morning
Sky Condition: 70% grey cloud cover on a white sky all morning with only a few brief breaks of direct sun
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 17% illumination
GT = 50
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 579- 10 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area 2490 – 4 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area 2491 – 13 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area 2492 – 5 white bass on smoked MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended
Area 2492 – 20 white bass on smoked & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail) suspended & from bottom
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