CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, July 26, I fished with a trio from the north Austin area. Mr. Wes Stearns came along as a non-fishing parent to help me help his son, Knox, and Knox’s buddy, Mason Salas, be successful. Wes and Knox have been out with me previously, but during the cool months, so, today’s hot weather tactics were new to them.



DATE: 26 July 2024 (AM)



NEXT OPEN DATES: Monday, 29 Jul. (AM), and Thursday, 01 Aug. (AM)








PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Wes Stearns, Mason Salas, and Knox Stearns with a few of the quality Lake Belton white bass we took early on in the trip as the boys sight-cast to fish feeding on the surface as just the lightest of breezes rippled the lake before sunrise.



WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton



SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED: Ever since the flow of water through the dam was significantly reduced, the fishing has followed a very definite morning pattern, with quality fish moving briefly shallow to feed, occasionally doing so near or on the surface (especially before and after the full moon), then quitting within ~70 minutes of starting. Getting going early (well before sunrise) has been the key to cashing in on this, mainly via downrigging to both cover water and to keep baits precisely positioned.

Today, now five days after the full moon, I began to see some topwater action here and there after it all but disappeared. This morning, we downrigged and put nice legal white bass in the boat before some topwater action broke out. The boys then sight-cast for about 40 minutes, adding 31 more legal fish to our count.

After the topwater died, we went right back to downrigging, albeit in deeper water, adding a final five legal whites to the count before these fish shut down. From this point on, we found an abundance of fish, but all of them were short. Regardless, the boys enjoyed “smoking” their MAL Mini lures up off bottom thru these fish and watching them respond on Garmin Live Scope. They added 88 white bass, 1 short hybrid, and 1 freshwater drum to our tally before this bite died.

We wrapped up with one more brief round of downrigging, picking up a triple, before heading in at 10AM.



LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: The white bass we landed on downriggers all struck #12 & #13 Pet Spoons attached to 3-armed umbrella rigs fished precisely with downriggers to control the depth they were presented at. Fish taken via sight-casting, and fish taken on the smoking tactic were all caught on MAL Minis. Find umbrella rigs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/



TALLY: 138 fish caught and released, including 136 white bass (91 short, 45 legal), 1 short hybrid, and 1 freshwater drum



OBSERVATIONS:

1) Topwater action bounced back today, 5 days after the full moon.

2) Early downrigged fish showed a preference for the #13 Pet Spoon, and those fish taken via sight-casting regurgitated shad closer in size to the #13 Pet Spoon.

3) USACE stopped running water through the dam for the first time since May’s flooding.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:15AM on July 25 …

0 feet 86.2F
5 feet 86.7F
10 feet 86.7F
15 feet 86.1F
20 feet 85.9F
25 feet 85.9F
30 feet 85.9F
35 feet 85.3F
40 feet 84.5F
45 feet 82.9F
50 feet 81.5F
55 feet 80.7F
60 feet 79.6F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:10A

End Time: 10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 0.75 feet high and falling slowly with a 33cfs flow, resulting in a 0.04′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 83.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NE breeze under 6mph all morning

Sky Condition: Light fog gave way to

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 68% illumination.

GT = 25



Wx SNAPSHOT:







AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area bank to vic 1804 – downrigging leading to sight-casting under low-light conditions for 40 quality white bass
Area vic 1923 – downrigging for 5 additional quality white bass right at sunrise
Areas B0290G & B0292G – smoking MAL Minis for 90 fish
Area vic 210 – mid-morning downrigging for 3 small, suspended 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

Hopefully the top water bite just keeps getting better.

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As always. Solid post with some solid fish and smiling anglers. Good job.