CLIENTS: This S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip was provided, free of charge, to the sons of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rolando Saldana and his wife, Monica. Chase (10) and Christian (7) had never before been fishing. Their mom accompanied them on their first trip. CW2 Saldana is currently deployed to Poland. He has served in the U.S. Army for 14 years.



DATE: 18 July 2024 (AM)



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






PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Chase, Monica, and Christian Saldana with a few of the mature white bass the boys landed in their first 90 minutes on the water.






PHOTO CAPTION: After Christian landed this fish, he suggested he and his brother have a “see who can catch the biggest fish” contest!!!




PHOTO CAPTION: The #12 Pet Spoon was a “dead ringer” for the young-of-the-year shad the white bass are primarily feeding on right now.



WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton



SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: We followed the same successful pattern which has produced plenty of fish to keep kids’ attention ever since the high flows out of Lake Belton ended. We downrigged for the first 90 minutes of today’s trip ( about 10-20 minutes longer than on less clouded mornings). Due to the fishes’ aggressive attitude this morning on the heels of a cold front’s passage, we were able to work baits horizontally and vertically from a fixed position on three occasions after finding them with sonar while downrigging. Once that ended, we then headed up shallow to target panfish with slipfloats and bait, then ended the trip with another round of downrigging for additional, less aggressive, white bass.



LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: The white bass we landed on downriggers all struck #12 Pet Spoons attached to 3-armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at. We worked new prototype lures horizontally, and we worked the MAL Dense with silver body vertically. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/



TALLY: 88 fish caught and released (43 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, & a mixed bag of 40 panfish)



OBSERVATIONS:

1) The lake is still 1.28′ 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: 73F

Elevation: 1.428 feet high and falling with a 541cfs flow, resulting in a 0.14′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 86.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW5-7 all morning following a line of thunderstorms which moved N to S and cleared our area right before 6:15AM on the lead edge of a mild cold front.

Sky Condition: Grey skies slowly lightened to high, thin white cloud cover by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 90% illumination.

GT = N/A



Wx SNAPSHOT:




This was our forecast:




And this was the weather-maker moving south just in time. The blue dot is Lake Belton…






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas 1641 to 016 downrigging for 43 white bass & 1 largemouth bass

Area B0289G for 40 panfish

Area vic 1567 downrigging for 4 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

Awesome community service, Bob 🙏💪

Working with these kids keep me young, and keep me hopping!! Thanks for the note!

Looks like they had a ball!

...

Nice post and fish. Good job as always.