CLIENTS: Mr. Cody Ballew chaperoned his two sons, Emory (11) and Owen (7), for a kids-only fishing trip on Lake Belton this morning. The Ballew family is from the small town of Frost, population 620, located on Highway 22 between Corsicana and Hillsboro.



DATE: 17 July 2024 (AM)



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






PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Owen and Emory Ballew with a portion of their 89 fish catch from Lake Belton this 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 1.25 hours of this 3.5 hour trip. During this time, the kids landed 55 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 due, in part, to the chop on the water. After the low-light bite died at 7:50, we invested about an hour into panfishing up shallow, adding another 23 fish to our count using slipfloats and bait. We closed the trip out with a final round of downrigging, which added a final 11 fish to our count, including 9 short white bass and 2 short hybrid.



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: 89 fish caught and released (64 white bass, 2 hybrid striped bass, & a mixed bag of 23 panfish)



OBSERVATIONS:

1) The lake is still 1.42′ 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 around 10AM on July 17 …

0 feet – 86.4F
5 feet – 86.4F
10 feet – 86.4F
15 feet – 86.1F
20 feet – 86.1F
25 feet – 85.9F
30 feet – 85.5F
35 feet – 84.5F
40 feet – 83.4F
45 feet – 81.9F
50 feet – 81.2F
55 feet – 80.3F
60 feet – 79.7F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:20A

End Time: 9:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Elevation: 1.42 feet high and falling with a 541cfs flow, resulting in a 0.20′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 86.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-10 through 9:15, then dropping to <SSE4 as high, off-white cloud cover moved in

Sky Condition: High, thin clouds gradually thickening over the course of the morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 82% illumination.

GT = 65



Wx SNAPSHOT:







AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 813 to 811 to B0279G downrigging for 55 white bass

Areas B0158C & B0029GC for 23 panfish

Area B0023G thru 1579 downrigging for 9 white bass & 2 hybrid

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

Keep those memories coming. Solid post and fish. Good job as always.

Looks like you showed those two boys a great time....