CLIENTS: Jose and Fridae Rodriguez treated their 10-year-old son, Alex, to a fishing trip to celebrate his birthday today. Joining him was his sister, Alayna (age 11), and his buddy, Wyatt Otto (age 12).

DATE: 16 July 2024 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE: Thursday, 01 Aug. (AM)





PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Alayna and Alex Rodriguez and Wyatt Otto with a portion of their 91 fish catch taken on Lake Belton in celebration of Alex’s 10th birthday.

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 kids landed 52 white bass (all legal), with more doubles and triples caught on the 3-armed umbrella rig than singles. The fish were pretty fired up this morning, but did not make much of an appearance on the surface anywhere. After the low-light bite died at 7:50, we searched for about 25 minutes without success for additional groups of white bass to target. We then invested about an hour into panfishing up shallow, adding another 25 fish to our count, including sunfish, largemouth, and smallmouth. We closed the trip out with a final round of downrigging, which added a final 14 fish to our count, including 13 short white bass and 1 freshwater drum.



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: 91 fish caught and released (65 white bass, 1 drum, 3 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth bass, & a mixed bag of 21 panfish)



OBSERVATIONS:

1) The lake is still 1.62′ 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: 10:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Elevation: 1.62 feet high and falling with a 594 cfs flow, resulting in a 0.24′ 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 75% illumination.

GT = 30



Wx SNAPSHOT:








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0104C and B0279G downrigging for white bass

Areas B0035G & B0163C for panfish

Area B0023G thru 1579 downrigging for white bass


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 seeing the young ones fishing. Awesome post.

Are those fish suspended or feeding near bottom Bob?

...

Very Nice

T Bird, the white bass I am catching are all suspended in a horizontal band around the 20' mark. This is where downriggers really shine in that they keep baits exactly where they need to be 100% of the time.

Thanks Bob.