BACHELOR PARTY!! — 145 FISH ON BLADED HAZY EYE SLABS

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Saturday, March 2, I fished with a crew of five on a bachelor party outing in advance of Jeff Rose’s wedding to be held in mid-March.

The five fellows joining me either are now, or have been in the past, affiliated with the Temple Independent School District where they help maintain the district’s bus fleet.

Although all had fished before, none had fished the way we approached the white bass fishing this morning.

Here is how the fishing went…

Next available dates are 27-29 Feb. (AMs)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: John Cooper, Lindsey Davis, George Bell, James Horton, and Jeff Rose with a few of the 145 fish they caught and released this morning, March 2nd.

 

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 02 March. 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

After record high temps around 90F on Monday and Tuesday, we dropped back down with highs at only 54F on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday warmed up, but the lack of cloud cover put us back at 46F on the boat ramp before sunrise this morning.

We had some light fog and (worst of all) calm winds with clear, bright skies until around 9:30.  Our results up until 9:30 reflected the tough conditions with only 6 fish landed in two hours of effort.  At exactly 9:34, the lightest ripple of wind approached from the SW with no calm patches remaining upwind.  The fishing turned around “big time” once this wind began.  From 9:30 until 12:20, my five man crew (now VERY well practiced at the tactics they needed to employ) took full advantage of the improving bite.

The fish went strong for a full hour, then slacked off as the wind slacked off for about 20 minutes  — from about 10:40 to 11:00.  The wind picked back up and then blew even stronger than it did earlier from 11AM until we wrapped up at 12:20.

During the entire morning we used only one tactic and only one bait.  Everyone had the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab tied on and used it with a slow-smoking tactic.  The fish were very choosy as to retrieve speed.  I helped everyone zero in on the correct retrieve speed by using my thumper as a metronome beating faster when the wind blew and the fish swam and chased aggressively, and beating more slowly when the wind was light and the fish were more lethargic.

We closed out the trip with a grand total of 145 fish landed, including 1 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 142 white bass.

Here is a tutorial on the snap-jigging method … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtrnAQ_T94&t=55s

Here is a tutorial on the slow-smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ

TALLY: 145 fish caught and released 

 

OBSERVATIONS:  Here was the water temperature measured in 5′ increments from the surface to the bottom in 50′ this morning, 02 March…

0 feet, 58.3F
5 feet, 58.9F
10 feet, 58.9F
15 feet, 58.7F
20 feet, 58.4F
25 feet, 58.3F
30 feet, 57.1F
35 feet, 55.6F
40 feet, 54.3F
45 feet, 53.6F
50 feet, 52.9F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 12:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 649F

Elevation: 16.84 feet low, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 57.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for 2 hours, then going SW 4-11 for the rest of the morning

Sky Condition: Pale blue skies w/ no cloud cover after a light lake fog cleared by 8:10A

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 61% illumination.

GT = 0

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Vic 350, SH0044C, 2022, SH0260G, SH0268G, SH0269G (3 hops), SH0283G (2 hops), vic 980

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec #austinsubaru

A GUIDE’S DELIGHT – 96 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, March 3rd, I fished with returning guests Tommy and Sylvia Maedgen of Temple, TX.

Sylvia retired from the USDA and Tommy worked for many years for Exide Battery.

The two are very outdoorsy, and (something which contributed to our success today), have both fished with me at this time of year in years past using the same tactics we used today in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope, so, there was essentially no learning curve for them — we got right down to catching this morning.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Steady action from our pre-dawn start to our pre-lunch stop was in store for Tommy and Sylvia Maedgen this morning on Lake Belton.  They landed 96 fish.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Our catch included a whiskered bonus for Tommy from out of 56 feet of water.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 03 March 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going at 6:45AM thanks to a cloudless forecast, and, we caught fish right off the bat this morning.

The first 10 fish we landed were small (last year’s crop) of white bass in what would be the shallowest water (28 feet) we found fish in all morning.  All other areas were deeper and produced consistently larger fish.

Today was really a guide’s delight.  Pretty weather, pleasant, experienced clients, light boat traffic, and a steady bite from start to finish.

We found it necessary to fish only 4 areas this morning, making 2 “short hops” at each in order to maintain contact with the fish once the bite dropped off.

Fishing was identical at each area.  We’d find fish either on down-imaging or side-imaging, Spot-Lock atop them, use the thumper to keep them under the boat and draw in additional fish, and then use a slow-smoking tactic with my smallest slab, the white, 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slab with stinger attached to close the deal.

Perhaps 90% of our fish taken before the wind began around 10:15AM were taken off bottom.  Once the SSE wind began, it steadily increased and the fishing activity definitely spiked.  From that point on, we took more (~60%) of our fish from suspended schools and the balance from off bottom.

By 11:15AM the action was waning and by 11:30AM the fish had shut down.  We never went more than a few minutes without catching a fish all morning, and wound up with exactly 96 fish including 7 freshwater drum, 1 largemouth bass, 1 blue catfish, and 87 white bass.

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 96 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  No helpful bird activity despite the presence of roosted gulls and even a few white pelicans on the water.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:45A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 35F

Elevation:  0.72′ low with a 0.01’ 24-hour fall and 26 CFS flow thru the dam.

Water Surface Temp: 49.5F 

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm thru 10:15A, then a SSE breeze began and slowly tapered up to SSE8 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Cloudless, fair skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 78% illum.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**B0194C/677 – early, low light whites in 28′, 2 short hops for 10 fish

**1209/B0069G – steady bite under calm winds in 55+ feet for 14 fish

**vic 1555 – steady bite under calm winds in 55+ feet for 26 fish

**B0073G – most aggressive bite with first wind of the AM in over 60 feet for 46 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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

ALL ABOUT EATER CATFISH – 21 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Friday evening, May 1st, I welcomed returning guests Rick Powell and Ricardo Cisneros aboard.  During the Coronavirus shutdown, I took my wife, Rebecca, and a handful of friends out fishing specifically for blue catfish on Lake Belton.  Ricardo, who regularly follows my Facebook posts, saw this and hoped to duplicate the effort on occasions where he hoped to catch a few “eating-sized” catfish (12+ inches).

He requested I take he and his friend (and boss) Rick Powell out to show them what I’d learned.

No, I’m not starting to guide for catfish and don’t intend to do so in the future, but, as the fishery offers consistency and as the quality of these fish continue to improve on Lake Belton (due to zebra mussel consumption, I suspect), I will no doubt routinely mix in some catfishing in my multi-species trips. Additionally, my 100% C&R policy still pertains to this species.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: This is what the methods I’ve pieced together (with a good bit of help from Steve Webb) typically produce – smaller “eater-sized” blue catfish, two of which provide 4 fillets — just enough for a 1-person serving if kept and cleaned properly. Most fish are 12-15 inches, like this one held by Ricardo Cisneros.

WHEN WE FISHED:  01 May, 2020, PM

HOW WE FISHED: First, I search for blue catfish concentrations on sonar.  Next, I Spot-Lock and chum with range cubes, then get right down to fishing vertically with my “Catfish Plumb” bait holders tipped with fresh, dead shad or non-stink doughbait.  To enhance things, I’ve brought Garmin LiveScope to bear, which allows slightly suspended fish to be targeted.  Otherwise, the default bait position is just inches off bottom.

Concentration is a must, as the catfish typically take only one swipe at the bait, during which time a quick, hard hookset is a must.

In 3.5 hours’ time, some of which was set aside for Humminbird side-imaging explanation and Garmin LiveScope explanation, we put 22 blue cat over the side of the boat with just as many missed on the hookset.

 

TALLY: 22 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: As I searched for spawning shad, a definite, shallow-water and shad-oriented fishery is also ripe for picking, albeit short-lived with the action drying up about the time the direct sun peeks over the eastern horizon.

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   4:00P

End Time:  7:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 82F

Elevation:  0.77′  high, 0.06 foot 24-hour rise, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  70F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S17 at trip’s start, tapering to S14 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: 30% high white haze on blue skies

GT =28

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic B0073C (fished it at start of trip and end of trip with 2 other non-productive stops in between)

 

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)

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

207 FISH LANDED ON STILLHOUSE / BELTON COMBO TRIP

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Friday I fished a full-day trip with Mike and Laurie Tomberlin from the north Austin area.  Both are high school teachers in separate school districts and took the day off to spend outdoors with one another.  The family owns a deckboat and Mike has his own fishing kayak.  One of the main reasons Mike wanted to book the trip was to experience “off shore” fishing for freshwater pelagics wherein electronics must be relied upon for success.  Mike grew up trout fishing in the West, and then became familiar with sight casting to shallow, visible cover, but knew there was another world of fishing in deeper water that he’d yet to tap into.

So as to do a “reality check” on both Belton and Stillhouse as potential kayak fishing destinations, I showed the couple, by land and by water, the majority of the kayak-friendly access points on both reservoirs.

We fished Stillhouse in the AM and Belton in the PM.

PHOTO CAPTION:    For the relatively infertile waters of Central Texas, these fat egg- and milt-laden white bass are hard to beat quality-wise on Stillhouse this season.  

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Mike took this deep-water largemouth on a slab.  Like people when they spend time out of the sun for long periods of time, these fish get pale, and this fish was no exception.

WHEN WE FISHED:  Friday, 28 February 2020, AM & PM

HOW WE FISHED: We fished Stillhouse from 7AM to 12:15P and then fished Belton from 2:35PM to 6:50PM.

Stillhouse summary – Thanks to a north wind (at a higher velocity than forecast) and clear skies, the bird action was cranked up a notch this morning.  We found our first 3 groups of fish thanks to gull action, and found the white bass feeding in small packs up on mid-depth flats to be a bit more active than with winds from other directions.  By the time the birds quit, we’d already landed over 50 fish, whereas over the past 2.5 weeks, a tally from the mid-teens to the low 30’s was where we typically stood at this point.

After the birds quit, we shifted our focus from flats to the channel and found two distinct congregations of fish right on the channel lip ready to feed.  The first group yielded just shy of 30 fish, whereas the second congregation, which was deeper and much more densely packed together, gave up over 60 fish in our final 90 minutes on the water.

Every fish we landed, which included 1 largemouth and about a dozen drum in addition to all of the white bass, came on the 3/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab with Stinger Hook attached.  A very slow easing tactic was the go-to method save for when LiveScope revealed high, moving, suspended fish.  At such times a slow smoking tactic was employed.

We caught fish from 32 to 48 feet deep. We fished up the morning with 138 fish caught and released.

Belton summary – We faced tougher conditions on Belton in the afternoon in that the N wind had shifted to the SE and lightened up.  There was never a time all afternoon when there weren’t at least patches of calm water and just a very slight breeze rippling the remainder of the surface.  We also had minimal cloud cover until the last hour when a low bank of thin clouds in the west obscured the sunset.

Fish came in spurts this afternoon as we found small, tight groups of fish, caught them, and then had to move to find more fish.  Fish were considerably shallower than on Stillhouse, with most of our catch taken in 18-30 feet of water.  Tapering bottoms were the common denominator this evening, with little going on along the segments of river channel I searched.

One promising sign at the end of the evening came when Mike and I were able to do a short stint of sight-casting to shallow white bass chasing shad to the surface.  This was not wide-spread, and the fish did not remain on the surface, rather, only one or two would pop a shad now and then, but the fact that we found them in 2-6 feet of water and moving that quickly was a sign that winter is relenting.

Aside from this sightcasting with bladebaits for our final 10 or so fish, we landed all of our fish on the same 3/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab with Stinger Hook attached which served us so well on Stillhouse.  69 fish caught and released.

TALLY: 207 fish caught and released

 

OBSERVATIONS:   Shallow, aggressive fish taken on bladebaits at and just following sunset on Belton in 2-6′.

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

AM

Start Time:   7:00A

End Time:  Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  38F

Elevation: 3.26 low, -0.01′ 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   51.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: N7 wind through 10A, then shifting quickly to the SE3, building to SE6, then tapering to SE2 with periods of calm through the midday period

Sky Conditions: No cloud cover

PM

Start Time:   2:35P

End Time:  7:50P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  62F

Elevation:1.55′ low, 0.03′ 24-hour change, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   56.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm to SE3 all afternoon

Sky Conditions: Clear until the last hour when a low bank of thin clouds in the west obscured the sunset.

GT = 0  (?!?)

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

STILLHOUSE

**Area 1512

**Area 1046/2013

**Area 339/1704

**Area 006/1715

**Area 1502

**Area SH0014G

BELTON

**Area 1077/1679

**Area B0003G

**Area vic 1882

**Area vic 1934

**Area 380/B0127C

**Area 172 – Blades 10-12′

**Area B0014G – Shallow blades

 

 

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

50 MPH WINDS & QUARTER-SIZED HAIL — 102 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past  afternoon I fished with Max and Chloe Jorgensen, the 11-year-old twins of Staff Sergeant and Mrs. Jason Jorgensen of Killeen.  SSG Jorgensen, an Army topographic analyst, is currently deployed to Kuwait, leaving behind his wife, twins, and 5- and 2-year old children.  This (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) program trip is intended to give homefront parent, like Susan Jorgensen, a bit of a break, and to give kids something to look forward to while their parent is away.  Scheduling a SKIFF trip is as simple as calling me at 254.368.7411.

 

From left: Max and Chloe Jorgensen with the 5.00 pound largemouth Max reeled in.  This fish came out of 50 feet of water and was, no doubt, attracted by the smaller white bass in the large school of suspended fish beneath the boat.

Max and Chloe with white bass — the species that made up the vast majority of this afternoon’s catch.  These fish were suspended from 25 to 45 feet deep over deeper bottoms.

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass using artificial lures.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday evening, 24 February 2018

HOW WE FISHED:   Fishing was super simple and super productive this afternoon with great conditions prior to the storm.  We fished only 2 locations (with no short hops).  The first area was in 50′, the second in 60′.  At both locations we had suspended fish form up under the boat in 25-45′.  Smoking retrieves of various speeds with both 3/8 and 3/4 oz. slabs did the trick for white bass, hybrid stripers, largemouth bass, crappie, and drum.  I also put out two cutbait rods at our second stop.  They kicked in a few white bass and one largemouth, but the moving artificial baits definitely outperformed them for quantities of smaller fish I targeted with the kids on board.  We boated 102 fish by 5:15p.  At that time weather radar showed a storm cell approaching from the WSW.  We headed for cover and did not get to fish again as the storm activity persisted until after sunset with 50mph winds and quarter-sized hail reported in Morgan’s Point.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:  1) The fish were really fired up this afternoon with perfect conditions (at least until the storm moved in).  We had WSW winds at 12mph, grey cloud cover, and a warming trend with surface temps at 52.5F.  2) In comparing notes with fellow guide Jason Weisberg, the afternoon bite seemed more aggressive; we both observed large schools of suspended fish in deep water readily taking our presentations.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 2:30p

End Time:  6:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  52F

Water Surface Temp:  52.8 – 53.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE6 for first 90 minutes, then dying to nil with fog immediately thickening as the wind died.

Sky Conditions:  Heavy, low cloud cover and fog to the point of limiting visibility to about a mile for the first 90 minutes, then the fog rapidly thickened to under 100′ visibility.

Water Level: Up to 3.11 feet low from 3.46 feet low before this week’s rain

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0041C to B0042C – smaller fish on bottom in 46′ responding to snap-jigging and slow easing for 2 hours

**Area B0042C – larger white bass suspended in two distinct 6 foot bands approx. 12-18′ off bottom and at 25-31′ below the surface.  Slow smoking took fish at first, then, as bite slow with dying wind and increasing fog, deadsticking was required.

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

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