The Spawn is On! – 108 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Friday, April 10, I fished with returning father-and-son team Tom and Barrett Nichols. Although the family is originally from California, Tom resides north of Austin looking after his elderly mother. Barrett, who now works out in Montana in the Bozeman area, flew in this weekend to spend some time with family here in Central Texas. No sooner did Tom and Barrett step aboard then they reminded me they had landed 99 fish on their previous outing with me on Stillhouse and desperately wanted to beat that record today.
I told them the conditions were right, but they would need to be willing to be coached when I saw things in their technique that needed to be tweaked in order to be more successful. They agreed they would be as flexible as possible, so we proceeded from there.
TODAY’S DATE: 10 April 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 28 & 29 April 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: I used some hand-picked large live baits to put down on tightlines after Tom and Barrett had cleared 100 fish in an attempt to target a few larger fish. That plan worked out well with 4 of our final 7 fish being legal hybrid.
PHOTO CAPTION: Despite being spawned out, the bellies on these white bass are beginning to plump up again as they gorge on threadfin shad which are now spawning all over the lake.
PHOTO CAPTION: These were fish #100 and 101, thus eclipsing the father-and-son duo’s previous personal best of 99 fish landed in one trip.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
This morning was the warmest, most humid, and cloudiest morning of the week. The thick cloud cover kept the first half hour on the water pretty tame. The threadfin shad spawn seems to have turned on literally overnight. There were a lot of shad spawning in a lot of places from the main lake well up into the Cowhouse Creek and the Leon River.
When the threadfin shad spawn, game fish tend to get drawn shallow early on.
Having seen this play out in years past, I focused our efforts in the 20 foot range while the skies were still dark. This worked out very well. Side-imaging indicated where fish were, the Spot Lock function, and i-Pilot Link combination allowed me to position the boat atop of these fish, and then we proceeded to stay in visual contact with the fish via Garmin LiveScope while using white, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs to connect.
As the morning moved on, the winds came up and the clouds thinned. This caused a bite to move out steadily deeper. We caught fish in the 30 foot range at mid-morning, and in our final hour and a quarter we got them in the 40 foot range. As we made that move out to 40+ feet, the sun was beginning to appear, so, I changed father and son over to nickel-plated slabs.
At exactly 10:41, Tom and Barrett had landed exactly 101 fish thus meeting their goal. I offered at this point that they might consider using handpicked, large threadfin shad to intentionally target larger fish, including hybrid striper, large white bass, and blue catfish. Both were game for changing our plan for a shot at better quality. That worked out well with four of our last seven fish being legal hybrid stripers.
Our final count today was 108 fish that included nine hybrid striped bass, four blue catfish, two largemouth bass, and the balance consisting of white bass.
RESULTS: 108 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-The threadfin shad spawned heavily this morning thanks to balmy overnight winds and temps.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 09 April 2026, approx. 6:55AM…
0 feet 69.2F
5 feet 69.4F
10 feet 69.1F
15 feet 68.4F
20 feet 67.9F
25 feet 67.6F
30 feet 66.9F
35 feet 66.0F
40 feet 64.4F
45 feet 62.3F
50 feet 61.2F
55 feet 60.3F
Taken on Lake Belton on 02 April 2026, approx. 7:20AM…
0 feet 70.2F
5 feet 69.9F
10 feet 69.4F
15 feet 69.0F
20 feet 68.6F
25 feet 68.4F
30 feet 68.1F
35 feet 68.1F
40 feet 67.9F
45 feet 65.9F
50 feet 63.7F
55 feet 61.7F
60 feet 60.0F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:15A
End Time: 11:25A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F
Elevation: Belton is 1.22′ low with a 0.00′ change in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 60 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 69.2F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SE5-8 all morning
Sky Condition: 100% grey clouds all morning with rapid clearing around 11:10A, just as we were wrapping up
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 45% illumination
GT = 60
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 2429 – 21 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area 2430- 8 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area vic B0297G- 32 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area Vic B0012C – 21 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area Vic 105 – 26 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. nickel)
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: https://www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle