CLIENTS: This past Friday morning I wrapped up  the week welcoming aboard returning guests Paul Autry and his 9-year-old son, Parker.  Joining me for the first time was Paul’s younger son, Nobel (age 7), and the boy’s maternal grandfather, Buck Buchanan.  All live in the Round Rock area, north of Austin.  This was one of many trips this year where lake closure forced us to reschedule after May/April rains inundated Lake Belton.

DATE: Friday, 09 August 2024 (AM)

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:  With a pair of elementary-aged boys aboard, I planned ahead to offer a variety of tactic for a variety of species in order to keep the trip engaging.  We started the morning off downrigging in shallow water under low-light conditions for what would be the best quality white bass of the trip.  When that fishing played out as the sun’s direct rays began to strike the water, we headed into shallow cover and invested some time maneuvering in panfish out of the cover they were hiding in as we used floats and live bait to tempt them.

We closed out the trip spending the last 80 minutes downrigging in deeper, open water for white bass.  These fish were smaller, but also incredibly abundant, routinely giving up doubles and triples as we precisely trolled 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 Pet Spoons behind downriggers right above schools of fish as they were revealed on down-imaging and on traditional 2-D sonar.

Just as things were beginning to click on this final downrigging effort, and after we’d already eliminated unproductive water and knew just where to concentrate, I had a printed circuit board go bad on one of my two downriggers.  Not to worry!  We just used the manual clutch to let the baits down to depth and good old elbow grease to haul the weight up by hand from 20-30 feet each time we had that starboard side rod go off.  I hadn’t planned on an upper-body work out this morning, but, I got on anyway!

Paul and Buck were excellent mates, getting and keeping the rods rigged and maximizing the time the lures spent in the water, thus accounting for a great result for the boys.  They even took the boys’ fish off for me.

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  We downrigged with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #12 & 13 Pet Spoons for white bass, and we used live bait under floats with telescoping bream rods to fish for panfish up shallow.  Find three-armed umbrella rigs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

1) Winds were light from the SSE until around 9:15 when cloud cover began to build in from the E, and the winds went ESE6.  This was on the lead edge of a mild front which moved in later in the afternoon bringing some rain to some parts of Bell, Coryell, and Lampasas counties.  As the wind shift occurred, a noticeable increase in “popcorn” schooling by white bass pinning shad to the surface occurred.

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: 6:15A

End Time: 10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 0.01′ high and falling slowly with a 33 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 87.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable thru 9:15A, then ESE6

Sky Condition: Cloudless blue sky thru 9:15, then steadily increasing light grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 22% illumination.

GT = 50

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area B0113G – downrigging for white bass w/ #12 & #13 Pet Spoons under low-light conditions  – 15 white bass 

Area 014 – panfishing with bait and floats in shallow cover — 13 fish

Area B0021G thru B0194C – downrigging open water in bright conditions – 42 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