CLIENTS: This afternoon I welcomed aboard Julian Benitezpenuelas and his two adult sons, Diego Benitez and Niko Villa, who both flew in very early this morning for a visit from the West Coast. Julian is a retired U.S. Army Chemical Corps officer, Diego runs a telecommunications company in San Diego, and Niko oversees a door-making operation near Eugene, Oregon.

Now, this doesn’t have anything to do with fishing, but, these fellows brought a variety of “snacks”. As they offered me some beef jerky, I checked out the package first. Seeing is was a brand I was familiar with, I accepted the offer. But, later, when they broke out some other snacks I was not familiar with, and then began talking about a “one chip challenge” as they did so, I declined any further sustenance. These things looked like a cross between overgrown Cheetos and French fries, and were coated with a reddish powder looking similar to paprika. The bag was yellow, red, and orange and it had pictures of flames on it — not good for a guy who thinks Pace’s mild salsa is really hot and who uses black pepper sparingly. Then, when Julian (remember, he was a U.S. Army CHEMICAL officer) said he thought the spice on these snacks was synthetic, I knew I’d made the right call.



DATE: Friday, 04 October 2024 (PM)



NEXT OPEN DATES: Next open dates: 17, 18, and 21 Oct. (weekday AMs and PMs). Next Saturday opening: 02 November (AM)








PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Niko Villa, Julian Benitezpenuelas, and Diego Benitez with 6 of the 162 fish they landed in 3 hours’ time working MAL Originals vertically up off bottom through very aggressive fish spurred on by a mild, dry cold front.





WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton



SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Thanks to a mild, dry cold front which began to push into the area around 10AM, complete with a wind shift and increase in wind velocity, the fish were still very aggressively feeding as I returned for this afternoon’s trip following a 4-hour morning trip.

We only fished for three hours this evening as the men wanted to try to catch a young relative’s ball game, but, those three hours were action-packed.

We executed one technique very well, and that was “smoking” MAL Original Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) vertically up off bottom after finding large concentrations of fish using a combination of DI, SI, and 2D sonar.

Once we found them, the splasher helped to draw them in and keep them near, and my guests then observed Garmin LiveScope to watch fish respond to their presentations.

My crew’s results were enhanced by the fact that we did not have to move but twice to stay on top of fish. When we moved, it took me very little time to find additional, biting fish, thus, they maximized their catching time.

In three hours’ time, they landed 162 fish, including 9 short hybrid striped bass, 1 blue catfish, 1 freshwater drum, and 151 white bass.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ



LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We smoked MAL Originals vertically 100% of the time. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/



TALLY: 162 fish, including 9 short hybrid striped bass, 1 blue catfish, 1 freshwater drum, and 151 white bass.



OBSERVATIONS:

1) The number of bottom-oriented schools of white bass now found in deep water AND showing a willingness to remain stationary long enough to allow for presentations to be made for substantial lengths of time have increased sharply; these fish are there to stay, likely until the water temps drop below 60F.

2) The wind shift which took place due to an incoming, mild, dry cold front which hit around 10A kept fish feeding aggressively for the duration of this evening’s three-hour trip.



LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:30 AM on Friday, 04 Oct….

0 feet 80.2F
5 feet 80.9F
10 feet 81.2F
15 feet 81.2F
20 feet 81.1F
25 feet 81.1F
30 feet 81.1F
35 feet 80.9F
40 feet 80.7F
45 feet 80.5F
50 feet 80.3F
55 feet 80.1F
60 feet 79.7F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 3:15P

End Time: 6:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 90F

Elevation: 1.50′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow; .02′ fall in last 24 hours (w/ inflow from Proctor)

Water Surface Temp: 80.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: N11-12.

Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover on a light blue sky.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 3% illumination.

GT = 25



Wx SNAPSHOT:







AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1386 – smoking MAL Originals for 74 fish
Area B0308G – smoking MAL Originals for 69 fish
Area vic 958 – smoking MAL Originals for 39 fish



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

Solid post and fish. Good job.

I hope you didn't have to pronounce that last name...