Guide Bob Maindelle

http://www.holdingthelineguideservice.com/

(254) 368-7411

Veteran of Military Service This guide served the United States in the military.

Bob Maindelle is the owner of Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too!! He was born into a fishing family in 1969 while his dad was serving in Vietnam. His earliest childhood memories revolve around angling. Pop Pop Hamilton was a commercial fisherman on the Mississippi, mom and dad went fishing on cheap dates as newlyweds, and Uncle Glenn ran a saltwater charter boat out of Shark River, NJ. Bob is now happily married, lives in Salado, Texas, right at the eastern edge of the Texas Hill Country, and is carrying on the family tradition. Bob has fished all over our nation in fresh waters and salt, and with all manner of gear and tackle. In 1991, he graduated from West Point (U.S. Military Academy) with a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental engineering, and spent 8 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, followed by 9 years in industry. He now serves as the Children's Pastor at a large church in central Texas. His business experience from his "previous life" and flexible schedule with his current calling allows him to operate "Holding The Line Guide Service" out of his home on the lakes of this region. He is physically fit, extremely well-organized, very methodical, self-disciplined and detail-oriented. He enjoys introducing beginners to the sport, and enjoys coaching those with a little experience. He enjoys fishing with great fishermen and picking up on tips and techniques from all over the country. He is not so prideful to think that he cannot still learn much from others further down the path than himself. The pursuit of fish is, to Bob, an incomparable, lifelong challenge that tests the mind, the body, and even the will. The timeless variables of weather, wind, forage location, light, temperature and pressure prevent any one day's pursuit from being like the chase of any other day. Every sunrise holds new promise, every storm front brings change, every season nudges fish movements, and though the cycle has repeated since the beginning of time, Bob believes the code will never be fully deciphered. But there are some who understand parts of the code. Bob Maindelle is one. And that understanding breeds a desire to preserve and to protect that same Creation that is pursued.

Latest Fishing Report from Guide Bob Maindelle

Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report - 04 Sep. 2010 - NEW LAKE RECORD!!
This morning I welcomed returning guests Mark L. of Round Rock, and his son, Garrison aboard. This trip was a birthday present for Garrison who just turned 9. Garrison chose two lucky buddies to come along with him -- Sean M. and Chase D. Garrison L.'s pending Jr. more

This morning I welcomed returning guests Mark L. of Round Rock, and his son, Garrison aboard. This trip was a birthday present for Garrison who just turned 9. Garrison chose two lucky buddies to come along with him -- Sean M. and Chase D.

Garrison L.'s pending Jr. Angler Belton Lake Record Blue Catfish!! I was very concerned about our odds today and expressed this to Mark by phone on my Thursday night "check in" call. We saw pre-frontal conditions make for some great fishing on Wednesday, followed by the passage of a mild cold front on Friday, so today's Saturday trip was immediately post-frontal. Fish behave oddly after a cold front's passage, so it was tough to predict what was going to happen. The boys had been so excited for so long, there wasn't any stopping that momentum, so we decided to go ahead with the trip and, when all was said and done, we'd done better than I expected we might. The first positive sign was the appearance of some light on and off topwater action right at (obscured) sunrise. Small schools of white bass fed on and near the top for about 35 minutes between Area 663 and 412. Although this was not strong or sustained, it was evidence of gamefish on the move and that was a good sign given the conditions. All three boys broke the ice here by landing a white bass ... in fact we left here just after 8am with 5 fish boated and the boys now over the learning curve that comes with casting from a moving boat. Next it was on to Area 437 and to the NE of it for some downrigging. We found ample bait here, but gamefish were a bit sparse. We boated 2 short hybrid, and 2 white bass on P12's and P13's ... and then it happened. We took a swing a bit N and E of the track we'd been downrigging on and our "big" rod set up with a hybrid-sized bait went wild, springing free of the downrigger release clip. It was Garrison's turn to man the rod, so he gripped it for all he was worth and began reeling. I thought we were into a hybrid, so, I just turned the boat downwind, asked one of the other boys to reel up the downrigger ball, and I stood ready with the net awaiting a glimpse of Garrison's fish. When the fish finally neared the surface, we all said, "Whoa!" at the same time. Our "hybrid" was a nice blue catfish that decided he needed to feed on a big ol' bait going 3+ miles per hour. A quick check of the records chart (that I always keep onboard) showed this fish would qualify for the Jr. Angler lake record at 3.75 pounds and 21 7/8 inches. After the excitement abated, we got back to fishing, but the fish had done all they were going to do here. We moved on to Area 365 and I trolled a series of staggered ellipses over the N. facing slope at Area 365. Sonar was just lit up with suspended white bass and hybrid from 22 to 27 feet deep over a slightly deeper bottom. We got baits down and started catching fish with consistency. We boated an additional 10 fish (7 white bass, 2 short hybrid, 1 largemouth)in about an hour's time and could have kept right on taking them, but, by now the boys' interest in this method was waning and their curiosity about sunfishing (something I'd mentioned early in the day) was growing, so we shifted gears and pursued the mighty sunfish. We hit just one area (Area 508) and covered it thoroughly. In about 45 minutes' time the boys boated 22 fish including a mix of 20 sunfish (green sunfish, longears, and bluegill) and 2 blacktail shiners. There's just something about that float being pulled under the water's surface by a living thing that really connects with kids. By nearly noon (we fished a little longer than normal for a kids' trip) the boys were beginning to fade and Mark and I decided this was a good time to call it a day. We boated a total of 42 fish on this trip and the boys all headed home happy campers. TALLY = 42 FISH, all caught and released Today's conditions: Start Time: 6:50am
End Time: 1:40pm
Air Temperature at Trip's Start: 74F
Water Surface Temperature: 85.6F
Winds: Variable due to T-storm outflow to the N. and SE breeze in advance of an approaching front
Skies: 60-100% cloud cover with grey cast to the skies.
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Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report - 02 September 2010 - 90 Fish
I returned to Belton today in hopes of finding a bit of topwater action given the pre-frontal conditions forecast for the day. With several trips booked over the next few days and a mild cold front due to come in tomorrow, I wanted to at least figure out where congregations of bait were located to give us a shot at some fish when they get tough over these next few days until the winds turn back from the south. 1 of 9 keeper hybrid I landed today -- 7 on downrigger and 2 casting swimbaits. Things got started around sunrise (though it was obscured) with some light topwater action for about 40 minutes between Areas 663 and 412. more

I returned to Belton today in hopes of finding a bit of topwater action given the pre-frontal conditions forecast for the day. With several trips booked over the next few days and a mild cold front due to come in tomorrow, I wanted to at least figure out where congregations of bait were located to give us a shot at some fish when they get tough over these next few days until the winds turn back from the south.

1 of 9 keeper hybrid I landed today -- 7 on downrigger and 2 casting swimbaits. Things got started around sunrise (though it was obscured) with some light topwater action for about 40 minutes between Areas 663 and 412. There were short hybrid and a mix of sizes of white bass in on this feed. I found the blade bait worked best as it allowed me to cover top, mid-depth and bottom all with one lure. A big thunderstorm cell S. of Waco fell apart around 8am, and some outflow air from that brought dark skies, a cool N. breeze, and some light rain from 8am to 8:30am and put a damper on the fishing. As soon as that passed and the skies began to brighten, the fish fed again on top for about 10 more minutes. By now I'd bagged 25 fish. Once the last of the topwater died, I moved on scouting for more fish and bait. I found bait and hybrid striped bass just off bottom in 17-22 feet of water between Areas 437 and 615. I boated 9 keeper hybrid, 1 short hybrid, and 3 white bass here. All but 2 of these came on downrigged P13's (white) and P14's (silver). Once this went soft, I moved on. I found fish just NE of Area 365 on the N facing slope here and vertical jigged and smoked a mix bag of fish including 2 largemouth, 1 crappie, 3 drum, and 3 white bass. I next moved to Area 508 and fished from there to to the shore. Despite strong sonar readings, I didn't manage to hook any fish in the deeper water here, but observed fish feeding on the surface now and then toward shore. I crept in there, waited with a Spook Jr. at the ready and cast once the fish broke the surface. I boated 2 smallmouth on back-to-back casts this way -- man do those brown bass jump!! Those fish went 14.50 inches and 15.25 inches and were plump and healthy. I headed to between Areas 387 and 565 and found well-grouped, suspended schools of white bass and short hybrid here on sonar. I buoyed them, came back around with the trolling motor and hovered over them using a slab to jig and smoke for these fish. I boated an additional 23 fish in a very short period of time. When these fish quit, the feed was done, as there was from that point on not a single shad flicking, no more fish surface feeding, no rough fish rolling -- just nothing. I planned to head back in, but, before doing that I wanted to test a new artificial panfish bait by Berkeley as a possible alternative to live worms when fishing with kids. The bait far surpassed my expectations and actually outperformed live bait when you consider the time not spent re-baiting and the time not spent disgorging deeply hooked fish. That was time well spent to gain some confidence in that product before trying it out with kids on board. I boated 18 fish on this bait at Area 663, including 16 bluegill sunfish, 1 longear sunfish, and 1 large blacktail shiner. In all, I boated 90 fish today and found several concentrations of bait. Hopefully, this bait will stay put through the weather change and take some of the guesswork out of finding them once we return to the water after the front's passage. TALLY = 90 FISH, all caught and released Today's conditions: Start Time: 6:50am
End Time: 1:40pm
Air Temperature at Trip's Start: 74F
Water Surface Temperature: 85.6F
Winds: Variable due to T-storm outflow to the N. and SE breeze in advance of an approaching front
Skies: 60-100% cloud cover with grey cast to the skies.
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SKIFF Trip # 9 for the 2010 Season - 30 August 2010 - 39 Fish
S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers' Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) exists to take the children of deployed and deceased soldiers on professionally guided fishing trips at no charge to the family. These trips are provided through my guide service, Holding the Line Guide Service, with funds generated by the Austin Fly Fishers, and with the support of businesses and individuals from all over the U.S. Here is my report for today's trip... Dear Austin Fly Fishers, Today, Monday, August 30th, I fished with Gage (age 8) and Mason (age 6) Tocci, the two eldest sons of U.S. more

S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers' Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) exists to take the children of deployed and deceased soldiers on professionally guided fishing trips at no charge to the family. These trips are provided through my guide service, Holding the Line Guide Service, with funds generated by the Austin Fly Fishers, and with the support of businesses and individuals from all over the U.S. Here is my report for today's trip... Dear Austin Fly Fishers, Today, Monday, August 30th, I fished with Gage (age 8) and Mason (age 6) Tocci, the two eldest sons of U.S. Army Captain Gary Tocci and his wife, Mrs. Destini Tocci, of Ft. Hood, Texas. The boys' dad is currently deployed to Iraq for a 12 month tour where he serves as a Medical Service Corps officer (a physician's assistant) running a clinic in Baghdad. The boys' mom homeschools the family's four children and remained home with her younger two children. A gentleman by the name of Phil Moore, who serves as a deacon and Sunday School teacher at the Tocci's church, accompanied the boys for today's excursion.

U.S. Army Captain Gary Tocci's boys, Gage and Mason, with Mr. Phil, a family friend from church, enjoying our 9th SKIFF trip of the year. We met at 7am, got everyone fitted with lifejackets, did some dockside casting lessons with closed-faced reels, and headed out to hunt for fish. Fishing has been tough ever since our nearly month-long high pressure system was broken by a cold front last Wednesday, but, slowly, the action has picked up since that time. We began the day using downriggers run just above small "wolfpacks" of suspended white bass holding just above the thermocline which is now set up and very apparent on sonar at 28-29 feet. We rigged up with customized Pet Spoons and went to work. Gage, who had never caught a fish in his life, was the first to spring into action as his rod got hit first. He followed instructions well by taking the rod in hand, reeling in all slack, popping the line out of the release clip, and then playing the fish right into the waiting net. That fish went 12.75 inches and earned him a Texas Parks and Wildlife "First Fish" Award. Little brother Mason was not to be outdone and soon had on a fish of his own -- a white bass taping in at just a shade under 11 inches. And so it went for about 2 1/2 hours as we fished over Areas 248 to 186, 056, and to the E. of Area 644, finding fair amounts of fish but very little bait, thus making us work for every fish we caught as the fish just weren't really turned on. By 10am the boys had boated 7 gamefish each -- 12 white bass and 2 largemouth. With the winds picking up, the fishing getting a bit soft, and the novelty of downrigging beginning to wear off, we decided to change modes and do some panfishing. We headed to Area 189, beached, and fished out of the stern. The boys rigged up with pieces of worm under slipfloats and literally brought fish in left and right for about 45 minutes until we'd caught all there was to catch within the radius they could reach with their rigs -- 25 fish in all -- consisting of bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, longear sunfish, and blacktail shiners. Once the fish slowed down, we agreed it was a good time for another "fast" boat ride, this time back to the dock. We took some photos of the larger fish we'd boated and then released them back into cooler, deeper water to fight another day. Along the way today we learned about patience, about culling, about buoys, about blue herons, about how a livewell works, about sonar, about where to touch and not to touch a fish, and much, much more. We caught a grand total of 39 fish today and had a lot of fun doing it!! Thank you for the part you've played in making this day happen for these young men. Sincerely, --Bob Maindelle less

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