3 Generations Keep the 100+ Fish Run Alive

CLIENTS: This morning I welcomed three generations aboard — Joseph Lange, his son, Kenneth Lange, Joseph’s son-in-law, Darian Brown, and Kenneth’s son, Weston Lange.

The Langes all live down in the San Antonio area and came up this way for a Spring Break visit with Darian and his family who live outside Salado.

These fellows put together our third consecutive 100+ fish outing thanks to an early spring warmup taking water temps above 35 feet to 60 degrees or warmer.

TODAY’S DATE: 13 March 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 24 March (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Kenneth, Weston, and Joseph Lange and Darian Brown worked their Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically with a “smoking tactic” very consistently for four solid hours and were rewarded with a catch of 125 fish.

PHOTO CAPTION: When the sun shines brightly, I switch over from white slabs to silver. These nickel-plated Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs got the job done this morning!

PHOTO CAPTION: Kenneth Lange landed our largest of the trip — one of eight largemouth we found mixed in with white bass — making up 6.4% of our catch.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/


WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

It was a one-trick pony kind of morning this morning. Thanks to a pair of chilly consecutive mornings, there was no bird action because there were no white bass up shallow driving shad to the surface.

So, we started and ended our trip in 22-25′ of water and never left that depth during any time in between.

The Bladed Hazy Eye Slab has been “kicking butt and taking names” here in the early spring. The only adjustment I made today (the first day I’ve fished without cloud cover in quite a while) was to replace my white slabs with nickel-plated slabs. Call them nickel or silver or chrome — they are shiny like a shad and I think these do better than opaque colors when the sun is unobscured.

My crew of four fished this one lure just one way — using a “smoking” tactic by dropping the lure to bottom and cranking it only 5 cranks upwards unless sonar showed fish in pursuit.

Occasionally (much less frequently than during my past two trips) there would be a school of suspended fish which cruised by. When they did, I had everyone attempt to reel up their slabs to cross paths with these fish about 2 feet off their noses.

When all was said and done, we hit 5 areas and landed exactly 125 fish including 8 largemouth bass (6.4%) and 117 white bass. No hybrid.

RESULTS: 125 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

OBSERVATIONS:

-Zero topwater action and very scant bird action thanks to a cold snap pushing fish deeper

-Fish were mainly hugging bottom this morning — very few were in suspended schools cruising.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 13 March 2026, approx. 7AM…

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