Want to Buy: Quail Sonar – 72 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, June 30, I fished with Allen Boyer and Mike Clark. Allen had previously done sonar training with me over on Stillhouse, and this was my first time meeting Mike. Allen is semi-retired from the Dallas area real estate industry, and Mike runs a local roofing company and does general contracting work in this area.
Mike’s a dog-loving bobwhite quail hunter and when he saw how Garmin LiveScope made fishing come alive, he wondered if such a device might soon be developed for quail!
TODAY’S DATE: 30 June 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 28-31 July 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Allen Boyer and Mike Clark landed a 2-man limit of white bass (50 fish, all 10 inches or more) in under 2 hours this morning — a wonderful turnaround now that the water flow through the dam has been reduced significantly (from 1386 CFS last week to 224 CFS today).
PHOTO CAPTION: After the white bass fishing tapered off around 3 hours after sunrise, we retooled and targeted catfish, landing 7 channel cat before wrapping up for the morning.
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
A very helpful thing has occurred in our Lake Belton fishery, and that is an extreme reduction in the amount of flow going through the Lake Belton Dam. The USACE has reduced the flow down to 224 ft.³ per second now that the lake is but about 6/10 of a foot high.
As I had hoped it would, fishing improved markedly. For the first time all summer, we were able to catch fish via downrigging for a sustained period of time. We alternated between downrigging and casting the MAL Dense with silver body out horizontally using the sawtooth method for our first hour, then downrigged exclusively for the second hour.
After the fish began to show a reluctance to chase fast enough and far enough horizontally to catch up with the downrigged, the Pet Spoons I was using (three #13s on two 3-armed umbrella rigs for a total of 6 bait in the spread), we relied on side-imaging to find fish in deeper water, Spot Locked atop them, then worked the very same MAL Dense lures vertically using the smoking tactic.
By the 3 hour and 15 minute mark, Allen and Mike had landed 65 fish including 62 white bass, one hybrid, striper, and one largemouth bass. We invested the last 45 minutes or so of the trip in fishing for catfish with punchbait over an area I had previously baited.
This yielded seven channel catfish. We closed out the morning right at the four hour mark with 72 fish landed. This was, by far, the most interested I have seen the white bass since Belton began to rise and the water began to flow heavily through the dam in late May.
RESULTS: 72 fish, all caught and released by clients
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW WORK AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY:
OBSERVATIONS:
-USACE scaled the release of water through the dam way back and the fishing improved, literally, overnight. Flow today was 224 CFS.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 24 June 2026, approx. 6:20AM…
0 feet 84.7F
5 feet 84.8F
10 feet 84.8F
15 feet 84.8F
20 feet 84.8F
25 feet 84.8F
30 feet 84.5F
35 feet 78.8F
40 feet 74.9F
45 feet 72.5F
50 feet 70.8F
55 feet 69.9F
60 feet 67.9F
65 feet 65.6F
Taken on Lake Belton on 17 June 2026, approx. 6:20AM…
0 feet 84.5F
5 feet 85.0F
10 feet 84.8F
15 feet 84.3F
20 feet 84.0F
25 feet 83.4F
30 feet 79.2F
35 feet 75.7F
40 feet 74.3F
45 feet 71.5F
50 feet 69.6F
55 feet 67.4F
60 feet 65.5F
65 feet 63.3F
70 feet 61.5F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:40A
End Time: 10:50A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F
Elevation – Lake Belton fell 0.04′ down to 0.64′ high in the last 24 hours. Flow rate was 224 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 85.2F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S8 to 12 all morning
Sky Condition: 60% white cloud cover on a blue sky, steadily decreasing to 40% by trip’s end
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 100% illumination (full moon was yesterday)
GT = 35
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 709 to 614 – 53 fish downrigging Pet Spoons on a pair of 3-armed umbrella rigs w/ brief stops to sawtooth MAL Dense lures, esp. in first hour
Area vic 171 – 3 whites on smoked MAL Dense lures from off bottom
Area vic 788 – 3 whites on smoked MAL Dense lures from off bottom
Area 1822 – 2 whites on smoked MAL Dense lures from off bottom
Area 2392 – 1 hybrid, 3 whites whites on smoked MAL Dense lures from off bottom
JUNCAT09 – 7 channel cat over bait 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