WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, April 12th, I fished with long-time clients affiliated with Pride of Texas Irrigation & Landscaping, including the owner, Justin Pride, former employee and friend Brian Badour, and business associate Ricky Guenat of the Pulte Group. The trip was coordinated by Rob Ramey, an employee of Pride of Texas; Rob couldn’t make it because his step-daughter made it to the finals in high school soccer and the family headed to McAllen to watch her play (where they won 12-1!!!).
PHOTO CAPTION: Justin Pride, owner of Pride of Texas Irrigation & Landscaping, with a sweet Lake Belton largemouth bass that took a large, live threadfin shad in 41 feet of water.
PHOTO CAPTION: Despite the post-frontal conditions, the east wind blew hard enough, long enough to stir up a bit of white bass action right around 11:15am. We landed 31 fish in our final hour or so on the water. The fish responded to smoking and then snap-jigging as we used 3/8 oz., white Hazy Eye Slabs/Stingers.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multispecies trip in which we used both artificial and live baits.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: 12 April 2019, AM
HOW WE FISHED:
After a great morning of pre-frontal fishing yesterday, this morning we awoke to post-frontal conditions. Yesterday’s NW winds brought clear, calm, cold conditions overnight, dropping the ambient air temperature to 44F before sunrise this morning. Then, an ENE wind slowly kicked in. Seeing all of this developing while keeping my eye on the forecast, I suggested we reschedule this trip, but my crew simply valued the downtime, fish or no fish, so we pressed on with our plans.
Fishing was predictably slow with scattered, suspended fish that just were not interested in much. We contacted white bass in two locations, one at around 7:45a and the other at around 11:15a. The first school was loosely congregated about 2-3 feet off bottom, and the second was much more dense and aggressive, with far more individuals in that school.
The first school required a snap-jigging tactic, while the second school was active enough to go for a smoking tactic. Once the initial surge of interest waned, we reverted to snap-jigging to add another 10 fish to the tally.
Most places we went we slabbed on one side of the boat and I hung bait out the other side, but the interest in live bait was nearly non-existent this morning with only 2 white bass and 1 largemouth (out of a total of 41 fish) taken on shad.
OBSERVATIONS: Very few birds witnessed on Belton other than black-headed gulls forming up to migrate.
TALLY: 41 fish caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 12:30p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 44F
Elevation: 0.49′ above full pool with a 0.05′ 24-hour drop
Water Surface Temp: ~65.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: ENE all morning, starting at just a ripple, and building slowly and steadily to 13mph
Sky Conditions: No cloud cover.
GT = 63
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area SHAD 21 – 130 threadfin in ~45 minutes’ effort (dark)
**Area vic 381 – light white bass action on slabs ~7:45a
**Area 1917/1362 – bass on livebait at 41′
**Area B00147C/B0066C – 31 white bass in ~7 minutes on slabs via smoking, the snap-jigging
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: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle
Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle