Fishing 101 (and 102) – 102 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, April 6, I fished with a nice, young, married couple, neither of whom had ever been fishing before — Kevin and Alex Noriega. He was raised near San Antonio and she near Katy, Texas. They have three kids, ages two, four, and almost six, and were hoping to pick up enough about the sport to be able to introduce their kids to it when the time is right.
U.S. Army Captain Kevin Noriega is a graduate of the U.S. Millitary Academy at West Point and is currently stationed at Fort Hood. He is married to Alex Noriega who also serves the military in a civilian capacity on that same post.
TODAY’S DATE: 06 April 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 20 April 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: On the very first fishing trip of her life Alex Noriega wrestled this 4.50-pound Lake Belton hybrid striped bass into the boat with light spinning gear intended for the white bass we were targeting.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Kevin and Alex Noriega took the first fishing trip of their lives today on Lake Belton and Lake Belton did not disappoint. Despite a temperature drop over the weekend and a 48F start this morning, the two landed 102 fish in right at 4.25 hours on the water.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
I was a bit concerned about the fishing this morning due to the cold front that pushed in at mid-morning on Saturday, bringing winds from the north and dropping our temperatures substantially. As I launched the boat before sunrise this morning, the ambient air temperature stood at 48 degrees.
With the water temperature throughout the water column now solidly in the 60s, this served to buffer some of that cold front’s negative impact. The water was definitely more murky as a result of Saturday’s runoff during occasional heavy rains between 9 AM and 1 PM that day.
The fishing got off to a slow start, albeit not atypically slow. We saw the action rise and come to a peak right around 10 o’clock, then began to fall off around 10:40 until the fish activity level dropped to near nothing around 11:30 AM. While the sun was low in the sky, and there was some gray cloud cover in the east, we used 5/8 ounce, white Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs.
Once the catch tempo picked up, the winds picked up, and the cloud cover decreased, I changed over to nickel, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. At the same time I transitioned us from 20 foot depths to 40 foot depths. The nickel plating caught the glint of the sun well, and the extra weight got my two inexperienced anglers to bottom quickly, and helped them maintain contact with the bottom.
We used just one tactic today, and that was the vertical, “smoking“ tactic significantly aided by Garmin LiveScope and a splasher. Realizing that the kind of fishing we were doing was not going to be all that transferable to helping Kevin and Alex get their kids fishing successfully, I paused along the way to introduce them to a few things, like how to take a fish off the hook, how to cast with spinning gear, and I showed them the full complement of panfishing gear I recommended they get for introducing their kids to shallow water sunfish from the bank.
By the end of 4.25 hours time, these very coachable beginners wound up with a 102-fish catch including 101 white bass and one 4.50-pound hybrid striped bass.
RESULTS: 102 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-Lake Belton went from 1.21′ low to 1.14′ low from 1 April to 6 April
-A combined 2.0 inches of rain fell from 5-10A last Thursday and 9A to 1P Saturday.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
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
Taken on Lake Belton on 27 March 2026, approx. 7AM…
0 feet 68.4F
5 feet 68.4F
10 feet 68.2F
15 feet 68.2F
20 feet 67.9F
25 feet 67.6F
30 feet 66.3F
35 feet 64.5F
40 feet 62.9F
45 feet 62.4F
50 feet 60.8F
55 feet 58.7F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:15A
End Time: 11:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F
Elevation: Belton is 1.16′ low with a 10.02′ change in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 60 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 65.8F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: Varying at NE4-10 all morning.
Sky Condition: 30% grey clouds on a white sky for about 1 hour, then quickly transitioning to a cloudless blue sky
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 81% illumination
GT = 50
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area vic 2409- 4 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (5/8 oz. white)
Area 165 – 3 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (5/8 oz. white)
Area 657 – 18 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (5/8 oz. white)
Area vic B0171C – 8 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (5/8 oz. white)
Area B0010C- 65 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. nickel) – two 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