He Needed to Do 2 Things Well … and Did! — 104 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, April 23, I fished an annual birthday fishing trip with long-time client Matt Laakso from the Austin area. I always enjoy having Matt out as he is a hunting, fishing, and shooting enthusiast and has a liking for efficiency. Whenever we wrap up our trip, he always books ahead for his birthdate the following year. With his birthdate falling in the last half of April, that is right at the beginning of what I feel is the best of two fishing “windows” all year – – from late April to the end of May, and again from mid October to the end of November.
Although the weather was not ideal this morning and that we had thicker cloud cover than I like to see, there was nothing either of us could do about that, so we took lemons and made lemonade.
TODAY’S DATE: 14 April 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 28 & 29 April 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Matt Laakso has spent many birthdays on Lake Belton with me in pursuit of white bass. Last year, he was the first to participate in Temple College’s white bass study on this body of water.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
We were able to find fish quite consistently after the very dark first 30 minutes passed by, and we did not have to fish other than vertically using the smoking tactic.
Because the skies were so gray, I chose to stick with white, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab all morning. As our bite wound down at several areas we fished, I did throw the MAL Dense whenever I saw fish out to the port or starboard side. This typically added another three or four fish to the count, and then we moved on. As always, Garmin LiveScope was directly responsible for putting fish in the boat as it allowed us to visually see fish which were following and overtaking our lures, thus letting us know when to continue reeling, or when to drop our lures back to the bottom.
In four hours’ time, we landed 104 fish including 103 white bass and one freshwater drum.
As I mentioned in the title, Matt needed to do 2 things well today. First, he needed to retrieve his slab smoothly. Thanks to lots of prior experience doing this exact tactic with me in years past, he did so. Second, he need to keep right on reeling at the same cadence which attracted fish in the first place when LiveScope indicated a following fish was overtaking. This is a bit more challenging and really determines how close to full potential a trip winds up being. In Matt’s case, he missed very few fish due to stopping or slowing his retrieve prematurely. And, whenever he did stop or slow down too soon, he self-diagnosed this.
It is not coincidental that at that point in the trip (our final 50 minutes or so) when the winds were highest and the conditions the brightest, we enjoyed our greatest catch rate, landing 40 fish from one area.
One significant observation I made this morning, supported by side-imaging was that a lot of game fish were drawn shallow right before, during, and after first light by the spawning threadfin shad. I wonder now if it takes some time for those fish to go back out into the 10 to 20 foot range as sunrise drives the shad back out into deeper water. Just something I’m going to look more closely at going forward.
RESULTS: 104 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 spawn was going full bore this morning.
-Thick, gloomy clouds were an issue yet again today. The fish stayed fairly subdued most of the morning.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 23 April 2026, approx. 6:50AM…
0 feet 68.6F
5 feet 68.6F
10 feet 68.6F
15 feet 68.5F
20 feet 68.5F
25 feet 68.5F
30 feet 68.5F
35 feet 68.5F
40 feet 65.6F
45 feet 63.8F
50 feet 61.7F
55 feet 60.4F
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
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:15A
End Time: 11:25A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 69F
Elevation: Belton is 0.09 high with a +0.01′ change in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 61 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 69.2F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10-12 all morning
Sky Condition: 100% grey clouds all morning with little thinning.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 45% illumination
GT = 35
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area vic 676 – 11 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white) & MAL Dense w/ silver body & chart. tail
Area B0025G- 15 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white) & MAL Dense w/ silver body & chart. tail
Area vic 083- 25 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area vic 098- 7 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area vic 682 – 6 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area vic 1386- 40 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white); 2 short hops
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