CLIENTS: Mrs. Shayla Morris chaperoned her two boys, Christopher (9) and Benny (4) on this free Soldiers' Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip, while U.S. Army Specialist Dustin Morris is deployed to Europe.
 

DATE: 15 July 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE: Thursday, 18 July (AM)





PHOTO CAPTION:  Christopher Morris, the son of SPC Dustin Morris and his wife, Shayla, was eager to learn and did quite well today handling both white bass and panfish as we took to Lake Belton during the cool of the morning.




WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton




SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:  We targeted white bass on an all catch-and-release basis during the first 1.5 hours of this 3.5 hour trip.  During this time, the boys landed 26 white bass. All of these fish were taken on 3-arm umbrella rigs via downrigging.  During the remaining 2 hours we fished flooded shoreline brush for panfish using poles and live bait under slipfloats.




LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  The white bass we landed all struck #12 Pet Spoons attached to 3--armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at.  Find umbrella rigs here: https://whitebasstools.com/




TALLY: 75 fish caught and released (26 white bass & a mixed bag of 49 panfish)




OBSERVATIONS:

1) The lake is still 1.87' high, but the flow of water through the dam has decreased substantially.

2) The water looks like green/brown tea and is darker than usual.

3) All fish were taken in under 21'.




LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device before sunrise on July 12 ...

0 feet 86.1F
 5 feet 86.8F
10 feet 86.5F
15 feet 86.1F
20 feet 85.3F
25 feet 84.7F
30 feet 83.4F
35 feet 82.7F
40 feet 82.1F
45 feet 81.2F
50 feet 79.9F
55 feet 79.2F
60 feet 78.4F




WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 9:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 1.87 feet high and falling with a 1083 cfs flow, resulting in a 0.25' fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 86.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5-8 all morning

Sky Condition: Hazy, cloudless skies

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 65% illumination.

GT = N/A




Wx SNAPSHOT: 








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas B0165C and B0279G downrigging for white bass

Areas 1583 & 492 for panfish







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

Love that smile...

Great post! Good job Sir on taking a soldiers family fishing.