CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, November 7, I fished with first time guests, Mike Kasberg and Boyd Rowden. The two have been friends from high school and are now retired after careers as music educators and professional musicians.

The two frequently fish Lake Buchanan together, but after following me for quite some time on social media, thought it would be neat to come observe the methods I use for finding and catching white bass on Lake Belton to see what might be adapted to their “home” lake.


DATE: Thursday, 07 November 2024 (AM)



NEXT OPEN DATES: 29 November, 2-6 December (weekday AMs). Next Saturday opening: 30 November (AM)






PHOTO CAPTION: Fellow retired professional musicians Boyd Rowden (left) and Mike Kasberg have been friends since high school. They took a little road trip in from Kerrville to check out the white bass action on Lake Belton. That fish in Mike’s right hand went 15.25″.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

For the second consecutive day, light winds, this time coupled with very heavy cloud cover, hindered our efforts. Generally speaking, when skies do not brighten around sunrise due to cloud cover, white bass ease slowly into feeding — much more slowly than otherwise. They also tend to use shallower water on cloudy days versus clear days.

Hence, all of our fish-finding today was done in under 30 feet of water, as our efforts to find fish deeper than that were not rewarded. The vast majority of our fish were taken with the smoking retrieve using MAL Originals with chartreuse tails in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

In our final hour on the water, as wind speed maintained at around 5-6 mph, but our sky conditions brightened to the brightest level we would encounter, we began to witness some light topwater schooling action.

During this time, I had both men cast out horizontally and use a countdown method to allow their lures to sink below the surface to the level which fish were holding and feeding. At first a 9 count worked, then a 12 count, before the fish quit chasing shad and headed back to bottom.

When all was said it done, my two-man crew landed exactly 70 fish including 67 white bass and three largemouth bass. Our single largest white bass was 15.25 inches.


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



RESULTS: 70 fish, including 3 bass and 67 white bass.



LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We primarily used MAL Originals (w/ chartreuse tails) vertically & horizontally today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/



OBSERVATIONS:

1) We are in a solid, classic autumn pattern now, which should hold up until the water temperature near bottom falls to around 60F

2) Mornings are much more productive than evenings at this point in the fall.

3) Post-frontal, near calm, heavily overcast conditions negatively impacted the bite this morning.



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, 01 Nov….

0 feet 75.3F
5 feet 75.3F
10 feet75.6F
15 feet75.6F
20 feet 75.6F
25 feet 75.6F
30 feet 75.3F
35 feet 75.3F
40 feet 75.3F
45 feet 75.3F
50 feet 75.3F
55 feet 75.3F
60 feet 75.2F
65 feet 75.1F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 12P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 2.25′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow; .02′ rise in last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 72.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE4-5 all morning

Sky Condition: Dark, heavily clouded grey skies through 10:50A

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 34% illumination.

GT =65



Wx SNAPSHOT:








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1658 – 7 fish smoking MAL Originals & sawtoothing White Tornados

Area vic 1921 – 5 fish smoking MAL Originals

Area B0316G – 21 fish smoking MAL Originals

Area vic 138 – 3 fish smoking MAL Originals

Area 1819/1624 – 28 fish smoking MAL Originals & counting them down to suspended fish

Area vic 1827 – 6 fish smoking MAL Originals



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

Nice post and fish. Good job as always.

Was a great time fishing with Bob! He knows his white bass fishing! I learned new fishing techniques as well as picked his brain on electronics!