The Day They’ll Talk About in September – 73 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, May 7, I welcomed aboard returning guests Cory and Hunter Hargrove, a father and son team from Academy, Texas. Joining the Hargroves for his first time aboard was James Ledbetter of Salado. James and cory are brothers-in-law. Cory makes a living as a railroad man and James makes a living as a fireman. Hunter is looking forward to the summer break between his freshman and sophomore years at Texas A&M.
It was downright chilly this morning — more like early March — thanks to damp northerly winds in the wake of yesterday’s cold front passage. I told Cory that when our first touch of cool weather comes in September, some weatherman will tell us it hasn’t been this cool since the 7th of May, as I just don’t see much more cool weather being very likely with next week’s late-week highs near 90.
TODAY’S DATE: 07 May 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 15 June 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Cory and Hunter Hargrove and James Ledbetter with a few of the 73 fish they really worked for under tough, cold-front impacted conditions on a nearly deserted Lake Belton.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
I don’t believe anyone was very confident about what today’s weather would bring, specifically, including me and the weatherman.
I had already postponed this trip once due to weather, and when I saw what looked like a fishable, four hour window, I thought we’d better go for it as I have no May dates left to offer folks in what is normally a very good fishing “window” this time of year.
As we got going, a north-northwest wind with a bit of a bite to it made the 57° outdoor temperature seem cooler than that. The wind was straight line 14 with higher gusts, but, thankfully, would stabilize and decrease over the course of the morning.
Once again, we faced 100% gray cloud cover all morning.
As is typical on a morning with cloud cover, we did not exactly load the boat in our first 45 to 60 minutes or so. In fact, I did more looking than fishing during this time, but, found our first group of fish right about 50 minutes into the morning. That school produced 20 landed fish and multiple missed fish as everyone was working through their learning curve getting down the basics of 1) reeling smoothly, 2) reeling at the correct speed, and 3) continuing their retrieve once fish began to pursue.
Later, as everyone got the fundamentals down, I added in a few “polishing touches” of reminding them not to set the hook at the first sensation of a bite, but rather to do a crank or two on the reel’s handle before doing a hook set, and reminding everyone to leave about 4 feet between their rod tip and their hooked fish once they got that fish to the surface.
With all of these fundamentals and advanced tactics now under their belt, we wound up using one lure one way to account for all 73 fish landed today. That method was the smoking tactic, supported by Garmin LiveScope and my splashing device, as well as a metronome to keep everyone retrieving at the correct speed. The one lure we used was the white, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.
I extended the trip by an hour to make up for the excessive amount of time I spent just looking for schools of catchable fish today. By the time noon rolled around, the 73 fish landed included 71 white bass, 1 largemouth, bass, and 1 short hybrid striped bass. Of the white bass landed, none were short today.
RESULTS: 73 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-An early May cold front hit yesterday morning leaving cloud cover and a stiff N wind in its wake today.
-The shad spawn was weak this morning but still present on heavily windblown south shorelines
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 05 May 2026, approx. 6:40AM…
0 feet 72.2F
5 feet 70.8F
10 feet 72.1F
15 feet 72.1F
20 feet 72.1F
25 feet 71.6F
30 feet 71.3F
35 feet 71.2F
40 feet 69.6F
45 feet 65.3F
50 feet 63.2F
55 feet 61.1F
60 feet 59.4F
Taken on Lake Belton on 29 April 2026, approx. 6:45AM…
0 feet 74.3F
5 feet 74.2F
10 feet 74.0F
15 feet 74.0F
20 feet 73.0F
25 feet 71.5F
30 feet 69.1F
35 feet 68.6F
40 feet 68.1F
45 feet 65.9F
50 feet 63.1F
55 feet 60.1F
60 feet 59.4F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: Noon
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F at sunrise (obscured)
Elevation: Belton is 0.37 high with a -0.02′ change overnight. USACE is releasing 61 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 69.9F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: N14 & gusting for 90 minutes, then settling back to N9-12
Sky Condition: 100% thick grey cloud cover all morning.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 71% illumination
GT = 40
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 2455- 1 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area 2456 – 20 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area 2457- 8 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area 2458 – 33 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area B0058G – 11 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
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