CLIENTS: On Tuesday morning I fished with returning guest A.J. Shiller, accompanied by his sons, and my first-time guests, Easton (9) and Colson (5).  A.J. and I agreed a kids-only package would be just right, hence, our focus was on keeping fish coming over the side of the boat and on variety to keep the kids engaged.

DATE: Tuesday, 13 August 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES:  14 & 15 Aug. (AM & PM)

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: A.J. and I agreed that, given the kids’ ages, keeping the fish coming over the side of the boat was Priority #1.  So, if whatever we were doing slowed down, we moved on to the next thing.

We started the morning downrigging successfully under low-light conditions, but quickly transitioned to sight-casting for topwater fish until that ended abruptly at sunrise.  We then began downrigging again, but only for a short while, taking our total to 20 fish.

We then moved up shallow into flooded brush and proceeded to wear out the panfish, with the boys landing a variety of 54 fish on bait presented under floats.  When that began to taper off, we headed out for yet another adventure.

By this time, the sun had been directly shining on the water for quite some time, thus getting the algae blooming, which, in turn brought shad near the surface, with white bass in hot pursuit.  We began downrigging for these fish and landed a single, a double, and a triple, before the action exploded on the surface, thus revealing an area the fish and bait were using heavily.  We brought the fish under the boat with the splasher and the boys worked MAL Minis smoked right up off the bottom to add a final 77 fish to the count, most of which were smallish, ending the morning at 157 fish as this late morning bite began to wane.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 Pet Spoons for white bass, we “smoked” MAL Minis & MAL Originals vertically and we sawtoothed with both horizontally.  Find three-armed umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 157 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

1)  First solid, sustained topwater morning action since Aug. 4 witnessed this morning.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 5:50 AM on Friday, August 9 …

0 feet 87.6F

5 feet 88.2F

10 feet 88.5F

15 feet 87.2F

20 feet 86.2F

25 feet 85.6F

30 feet 85.3F

35 feet 85.0F

40 feet 84.5F

45 feet 83.7F

50 feet 81.9F

55 feet 80.7F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 0.14′ low and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow. 0.04′ drop over the last 24-hours

Water Surface Temp: 88.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-9

Sky Condition: 25% white cloud cover with a noticeable haze

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 59% illumination.

GT = 35

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic 027 thru 813 — 20 fish w/downrigging transitioning to sight-casting, then back to downrigging either side of sunrise

Area B0289G – 54 sunfish in shallow brush on bait under floats

Area Vic 1581 – downrigging transitioning to an excellent vertical smoking bite under the splasher for 83 fish

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