Fished 2 Hours & Got the “Hail” Out of Dodge — 26 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, May 6, I welcomed longtime client, Dwight Stone aboard, accompanied by a first time guest, Mr. Chester Collinsworth, both from Georgetown, Texas.
Dwight and I had been comparing notes about weather for this morning‘s trip as far back as Sunday, and we hoped we might just get a full trip in even as we were getting launched this morning. The National Weather Service did not call for any weather of concern prior to around noon, but, Mother Nature had different ideas. This cold front did not come in mildly temperature-wise, nor gently wind-wise.
TODAY’S DATE: 06 May 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 08 June 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Dwight Stone and Chester Collinsworth picked up one limit in our weather-truncated 2-hour trip on Lake Belton this morning. A severe thunderstorm warning (with a hail core) was issued for Bell, Coryell, and Lampasas counties and the western skies looked ominous, so, we played it safe and cut it short.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
With the water temperatures now in the low 70s, the fish were actually biting pretty well given the change of weather and very dark skies we had to deal with. It seemed that as soon as we found fish, they would fire up and bite, but then lose interest pretty quickly, forcing us to go find more fish.
We did this over the span of four areas in 27 to 41 feet of water. As I cranked up the motor and planned on heading west of our fifth location, I saw the skies looked particularly dark. I looked up a local forecast and the NWS website and found a severe thunderstorm with a hail core had, literally, just been issue. It was located down by Llano and KWTX indicated that Bell, Coryell, and Lampasas County would be affected by the 10-11 AM hour. We decided to cut at that point and conclude with just a half morning under our belt.
By that time, Dwight and Chester had picked up 23 white bass and 3 largemouth bass, all coming on white, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, all worked with a smoking tactic at a cadence of 106 handle turns per minute on the Florida Fishing Products Bahia 1000 reels I dedicate to that tactic.
RESULTS: 26 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-The shad spawn abruptly halted this morning right as the lead edge of a wet cold front passed through around 6:15AM. Shad were contentedly spawning along the shoreline, and as soon as the north ripple began and the temperature dropped suddenly, they were gone.
-An early May cold front hit this morning taking the pre-dawn air temperature of 75F down sharply to 57F by 11AM.
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: 9:10A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F at sunrise, then falling sharply
Elevation: Belton is 0.39 high with a +0.04′ change overnight. USACE is releasing 61 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 72.1F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: N13-15 all morning
Sky Condition: 100% thick grey cloud cover all morning w/ drizzle thanks to an incoming cold front.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 79% illumination
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 2446- 4 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area B0202C- 8 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area B0026G- 3 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. white)
Area 2450 – 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