Three Generations “Pooled” Their Efforts – 58 Fish

CLIENTS: On Wednesday afternoon, December 10, I fished a breezy afternoon trip with three generations of the Wilhite family. Joining me was grandpa Tom, his son Keith, and Keith’s sons, Jesse (age 14) and Benjamin (age 22). Keith’s wife was also due to join us, but, unfortunately, was not feeling well as the boys got ready to head to the lake.

The Wilhites run a swimming pool business in the Waco area and have strong, long-time family ties to Central Texas.

TODAY’S DATE: Wednesday, 10 December 2025 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 16 December 2025 (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jesse, Tom, Benjamin, and Keith Wilhite with part of their Lake Belton catch on an afternoon trip targeting white bass.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jesse wound up landing our largest fish of the trip — this hybrid striped bass which went just over 18″ and was released in great condition.

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


WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
I originally had this trip planned for Stillhouse because the forecast indicated a very mild, dry, cold front was to move in over the afternoon hours. That forecast revised this morning, indicating the cold front was moving faster and would be blowing stronger, thus ruling out the open water options which have been producing on Stillhouse. I made a last-minute change over to Belton so we’d have at least a few places with fish-holding potential that were not in totally exposed areas until the wind began to die off in the last two hours prior to sunset.

I also prefer to fish morning’s due to their longer, stronger bite, but Keith was concerned about his dad tolerating the cold this time of year, so, we went for the more comfortable temperatures of an afternoon trip (and still bundled up just for an extra “layer” of insurance!).

As I’ve often experienced when cold fronts blow through, our fishing was strong as the wind’s velocity was increasing. This got us through about the first 75 minutes of the trip. After that, the winds peaked, then began to fall off, and the fishing fell off with it.

The common thread I found everywhere we searched for fish today was that bait was heavily concentrated between 26 and 31 feet. Hence, this is the bottom depth where I looked for white bass, and, indeed, all the feeding white bass we found were located this afternoon in that depth range.

100% of the fish caught today were taken on the white, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs worked with a slow-smoking tactic.

When all was said and done, my four-man crew landed a total of 58 fish primarily coming off of four distinct areas. This catch included one freshwater drum, two largemouth bass, two hybrid striped bass, and 53 white bass.

RESULTS: 58 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 from 1-5 December. 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, although lots of birds have now showed up (several hundred).



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 142 – 12 fish on slow-smoked slabs

Area 1815 – 20 fish on slow-smoked slabs

Area B0026G – 8 fish slow-smoked slabs

Area vic 302 – 18 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

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