WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning I fished with father-and-son team Michael and Ben Crabtree from The Woodlands, TX, near Houston.  They came down to visit grandparents and show off Ben’s newborn brother.

We postponed this trip to this morning after our originally chosen date (this past Saturday) turned out to be a 4-hour rain event during which I fished instead with a hearty all-adult crew to avoid the wet, damp conditions for Michael and Ben.

This turned out well for them, as we had dry, bearable conditions this morning after a cool start around 46F.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Michael Crabtree and his 10-year-old son, Ben, enjoyed a “personal best” day of fishing this morning, landing 50 fish in just a tad under 4 hours.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 15 March 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Last week’s warm rains, warm temperatures, and high, steady winds significantly warmed Lake Belton.  We now sit at 57F from the surface down to ~20 feet deep.  This has fish and bait up in the water column (not necessarily over shallow bottoms, but up high in the water column).

We spent our first hour or so chasing birds which were chasing bait begin chased by gamefish.  These fish showed themselves in about three distinct locations, but, in all three scenarios were moving pretty quickly, so pinning them down long enough to catch more than a few was not all that likely.

I took a few swats at these, landed a few, but then decided we’d look for larger, less mobile schools using sonar.  I believe this worked to our benefit as we were able to “camp out” on three groups of fish and enjoy consistent fishing.

The first group of fish we found held the greatest number of fish and these fish were of the best average size, but, these fish were also the most lethargic.  We worked our tails off with 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs for these fish when they first presented on bottom, then with MAL Lures when they began to suspend, all for just 17 fish landed.  Granted, Michael and Ben were still working through a learning curve here on hook-setting and fish-landing, but we missed just a few others – these fish were just not really turned on.

The second area gave up mostly small fish and the fishing lasted only 20 minutes or so before the fish turned off.  This was in ~34′

Our last area was the best producer numbers-wise, and gave up a mixed bag on quality.  It was also the deepest area we probed this morning, at about 50′ (again, we caught fish up off bottom).

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:    Temperature profile:

0 feet 57.5F

5 feet 57.5F

10 feet 57.5F

15 feet 57.4F

20 feet 56.9F

25 feet 55.4F

30 feet 54.5F

35 feet 53.9F

45 feet 53.7F

45feet 53.2F

50 feet 52F

55feet 51.6F

60 feet 50.2F

65 feet 48.3F

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:40A (Daylight Saving Time began yesterday)

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Elevation:  0.77′ low with a 0.00’ 24-hour change and 26 CFS flow thru the dam.

Water Surface Temp: 57.5 F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were SSE7-11 the entire trip.

Sky Condition: Murky grey skies with light to moderate rainfall 100% of the trip.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 4% illum. (2 days past new moon)

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1859  (under birds)

**Area  V B0111C

**Area 737

**Area  B0150C/B0037C

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, March 8th, I fished with John Reed and Chad Makosky.

John retired as a senior non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, then went to work for Walmart, opening the Harker Heights main store (Sporting Goods Dept., of course), where he then stayed on for 13 years before retiring for good at age 62.

Chad is John’s neighbor and works for Frito-Lay doing truck deliveries in Coryell and Lampasas counties.

Being the frugal sort of fellow I am, I asked Chad if he got a good employee discount on chips, etc.  He said no, but, that employees do occasionally get to dine on expired goods.  I don’t know if you’d call that a silver lining kind of deal, or not!

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: John Reed and Chad Makosky with a few of the stubborn white bass we boated today on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 08 March 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing was pretty one-dimensional and tedious today.  Although fish were not all that tough to find, only a single school we located ever really fired up and bit consistently, and even that school did so for just a short while.

We encountered very few suspended fish today.  Rather, LiveScope revealed fish traveling very tight to the bottom.  It was kind of funny because these fish were definitely moving, but only horizontally.  Generally speaking, they were reluctant to cant skyward and chase a bait any distance.

We tried snap-jigging, snap-jigging with a slow lift added in, and slow-smoking.  The slow-smoking is what caught the fish today, but we had to watch 40 or 50 other disinterested fish go by to get that one over-achiever to fire up and come after us.

We had post-frontal, calm, bright conditions yesterday, with radiational cooling due to clear skies overnight, and, although this was the first day of returning southerly winds, those calm, clear skies and cool temperatures are what started this day off.

At the one area where we did have fish fire up briefly, we also had fish moving horizontally in the lower third of the water column and up off the bottom.  I tried using an MAL Lure, and, although we caught a few on it, the results were no better or worse than the slab produced, so, we stuck with the 3/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab since it could be moved more slowly than the MAL.

We put together a catch of 43 fish today, including 39 white bass and 4 drum.  Hybrid, even undersized ones, have been curiously absent from the catch for quite some time now.

By 11AM we’d landed the last fish we would catch, although we searched a while longer at various depths and locations.

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 43 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   All of the areas we fished produced best in the first few minutes following our arrival, and then fell of sharply thereafter.

Temperature profile:

0 feet 52.9F

5 feet 52.9F

10 feet 52.6F

15 feet 52.2F

20 feet 51.9F

25 feet 51.7F

30 feet 51.1F

35 feet 50.2F

40 feet 49.5F

45 feet 49F

50 feet 48.7F

55 feet 48.4F

60 feet 47.9F

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:40A

End Time: 11:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Elevation:  0.72′ low with a 0.00’ 24-hour change and 26 CFS flow thru the dam.

Water Surface Temp: 51.5 F 

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were calm at trip’s start, and then started SSE around 8:15A, tapering up to SSE6-7 for about 90 minutes, then settling back to SSE5 for remainder of trip.

Sky Condition: Cloudless sunrise, slowing increasing to 40% light white cover

Moon Phase: Waning crescent at 24% illum.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**vic 1738/B0013G, B0151C, 1859, B0145C (best producer with 3 short hops), B0050G

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, March 6th, I fished with Michael Hoyson, his son, Jack Hoyson (age 11), and Jack’s cousin, Layton Macha, age 13 (the son of Michael’s sister).

Michael is the owner of Hoyson Auto Care LLC off of Business 190 in Killeen, right near Tightlines Premium Fishing Tackle.  This is where I take my guide service tow vehicle and my wife’s vehicle for preventive maintenance.

It was during one of my recent visits to Michael’s business that he and I discussed the possibility of getting Jack out on the water under conditions where he could really catch a bunch of fish.

Today was the day!  The boys stayed very focused and did very well even though we had to grind it out with but a single technique all morning.

Around 9:40, Layton decided to take a break, shake out his wrist, and have a seat.  Since I now had only two anglers to assist, I decided to sneak in a quick snack — a granola bar and a piece of string cheese.  Well, you’d think I’d violated Layton’s constitutional rights when I bit that string cheese crossways.  He half yelled, “What are you doing that for?”   I asked him what he was referring to and he pointed to my sting cheese.  He told me I am supposed to peel it length-wise AND that it tastes better that way!

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Layton Macha, Michael Hoyson, and Jack Hoyson each with a pair of white bass taken from over 50 feet of water on a still-chilly Lake Belton with surface temperatures around 50F.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 06 March 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I was excited as far back as Tuesday of this week to see this morning’s weather shape up as it did — with the passage of a mild, dry cold front, complete with us finishing our trip before the winds fell from peak velocity.

The fishing followed a bell-shaped curve this morning, with a tapering up beginning at sunrise, to a peak around 8:40 which extended to around 10:40, then sharply tapered back to nil by 11:00AM.

As has been the case on my previous two morning trips on Lake Belton, we caught our first fish of the morning shallow, and they were a good bit smaller than the deeper fish we would catch the remainder of the trip.

Regardless of time or depth, we took 100% of our catch on my 3/8 oz., white Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook.  We had numerous fish regurgitate whole or partially digested shad at boatside this morning, and these slabs were a dead-on match size-wise for the bait these fish were eating.

We used a very straight-forward slow-smoking tactic.

Yes, it takes a bit of patience to wait on a 3/8 oz. slab to fall through 50 or 60 feet of water, but “it’s worth the wait”!

Because the boys caught so many fish this morning, they had the opportunity to learn a lot via repetition.  Some of the “rookie” mistakes they made at the start of the trip (poor hooksetting, retrieving too fast/too slow, reeling hooked fish up too far toward the rod tip, etc.) were things of the past by trip’s end.  These will be lasting lessons learned for them going forward.

Come on spring time!!

We ended our morning with 128 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 4 freshwater drum, and 123 white bass.

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 128 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  1) As a mild, dry cold front which arrived mid-afternoon yesterday continued to blow in, the fish were energized and stayed fairly aggressive (given the ~50F water temperature) through around 10:20AM. 2) Suspended fish showed up routinely this morning.  Almost all were moving faster than the bottom-huggers, chasing shad, and were willing to bite.  They were far fewer in number than those on bottom, however. 3) No helpful bird activity.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:45A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Elevation:  0.71′ low with a 0.03’ 24-hour rise and 26 CFS flow thru the dam.

Water Surface Temp: 49.9 F 

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NNW11 at sunrise, peaking at NNW14 between 8-10AM, then settling back to NNW12 thereafter.

Sky Condition: Cloudless all trip

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 45% illum.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

** vic B0096C, 472, 1945

 

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, March 5th, I fished with returning guest George Van Riper of Harker Heights, and his 12-year-old grandson, Kaden Howley.

George is a retired U.S. Army helicopter pilot who was drafted during the Vietnam War from his childhood home in northern New Jersey.  He made a career of flying Cobra attack helicopters.

Kaden is a student in the Killeen Independent School District and is a promising young soccer player.

Kaden’s grandmother contacted me back in early January with a very specific request which led us to choose this date for Kaden’s trip.  Because of Kaden’s growing interest in fishing, and the fact that Kaden’s previous trips with me had not included casting (we jigged vertically and/or downrigged), she asked that I take Kaden at a time when he could have some exposure to that horizontal casting discipline.

As we began this morning’s trip, I did a quick intro to casting spinning gear, and explained how releasing the line too early results in a “pop fly”, and how releasing the line too last results in a short “line drive”.  George volunteered that his wife calls those pop fly casts “moonshots”.  Kaden did a great job today minimizing moonshots!

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Fat and sassy was the name of the game this morning!  What a quality catch of white bass we enjoyed today.  Only 1 short fish in a take of 46, and many big, wide, plump egg-laden females included in the catch for George Van Riper and his grandson, Kaden Howley.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 05 March 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Having chosen this date back in early January to attempt to get Kaden out on the water under conditions when he could catch fish by casting horizontally, we focused on fish which could be taken in that manner, ignoring other opportunities.

Casting to white bass at this time of year requires that they not be in deep water, and that they be quite active so as to be willing to chase down a horizontally moving lure.

Fortunately, things came together for us, as we were able to find shallow, willing fish up through around 10:15AM.  It made me a bit nervous driving right past at least three flocks of gulls which I knew full well were gorging on shad and sunfish killed by white bass below them in deep water in order to find fish which, in a “normal” year should be in under 30 feet by this time (and knowing this has been far from normal with the recent winter storm dropping water temps lower than they’ve ever been on these reservoirs).

The shallower the water, the more handy side-imaging is to keep from having to drive directly over fish which we might spook if only relying upon 2D and/or down imaging sonar.

We fished at four distinct locations, each one having multiple schools of 20-30 white bass patrolling in the area, as seen on side-imaging before we Spot-Locked out away from them and cast to them.

We started and ended with the smaller, 1/2 oz. Cicada while the bite was ramping up and as it was tapering off, and used the larger 3/4 oz. Binsky blade bait while the action was at peak condition.

Although we saw a mild, dry cold front come in later in the day, we really did not enjoy a benefit from it this morning as the winds were calm, then began SW increasing to 12-13, and swung WSW but decreased slightly in the final hour.

Fishing was moderately paced thanks to the still-cold water, but consistent.  We never had any lulls in the action more than a few minutes in length until the fish began to shut down around 10:15.  After this time, the mid-depth bite on blades was over and we spent  our remaining time using LiveScope to present small, 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs vertically to increasingly stubbborn, bottom-hugging white bass.

We fished an hour beyond this slow down and landed only 5 more fish during this time, all of which came in the first 25 minutes of that hour.  Our last 35 minutes proved fruitless as I looked but found only scant bait and even more scant gamefish action.

We ended our morning with 46 white bass.

 

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 46 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  5th day of a warming trend with a gentle wind shift bringing in a mild cool front at late morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:45A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F

Elevation:  0.52′ high with a 0.01’ 24-hour fall and 1 CFS flow thru the dam.

Water Surface Temp: 53.4 F 

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were calm at trip’s start, then began SW around 8A, increasing to 12-13, and swung WSW but decreased slightly in the final hour.

Sky Condition: Cloudless, fair skies thru 9:30, then increasing to 40% thin, white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 56% illum.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

** vic 713, Area 731, vic SH0068C, vic 374

 

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, March 4th, I fished with returning guest Dave Ross of Salado.  Dave’s face may look familiar.  He’s one of the pharmacists at the HEB in Harker Heights.

Dave is a well-traveled outdoorsman and recently returned from the tropics where he and a few buddies got into multiple sailfish on trolled livebaits.

Dave recently fished Belton with me to get an overview of what it takes to catch fish on that lake this time of year.  I consider Belton a “quantity” lake (by Hill Country standards), whereas Stillhouse is a quality lake. Dave sampled Stillhouse with me this morning.

Today, we boated two trophy-class white bass exceeding TPWD’s threshold of 15″ for that species, as specified in their Elite Angler table for Big Fish.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: David Ross of Salado with two trophy class white bass taken on bladebaits on Stillhouse Hollow this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 04 March 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

We began at 6:45AM this morning under cloudless skies.  There were two groups of gulls working open water, with more flying than feeding going on.  We saw small, well-dispersed groups of whites on deep flats during this time.  The few we interested really swam quickly after our baits, then many gave up before closing the deal.  We only landed 4 fish in this manner.

The remainder of our trip was spent fishing with bladebaits horizontally adjacent to the river channel.  As the bite got underway, we used the smaller profile, 1/2 oz. Cicada.  Once the bite ramped up, we covered more water more quickly with the 3/4 oz. Binsky.  We pulled fish steadily up until ~11AM when the fish ramped down fairly quickly.  We used a “sawtooth” retrieve on the blades and scored consistently for a total of 46 landed.  Toward the end of the bite, with fish slowing down and suspending, we also managed a few fish on the MAL Lure although the water is still just a bit too cool for really knocking it out of the park on this bait.

Two of the white bass we landed this morning measured 15.00 and 15.50 inches.  For white bass, this is what TPWD considers a freshwater trophy, hence, we completed the required paperwork to get Dave a Big Fish award, which is one step toward Elite Angler status.

Here is the species list with minimum lengths under the Elite Angler Program …

Bass, Guadalupe 14″

Bass, Hybrid Striped 25″

Bass, Largemouth 21″

Bass, Smallmouth 18″

Bass, Spotted 16″

Bass, Striped 35″

Bass, White 15″

Bluegill 10″

Buffalo, Bigmouth 30″

Buffalo, Black 30″

Buffalo, Smallmouth 32″

Carp, Common 30″

Catfish, Blue 36″

Catfish, Channel 30″

Catfish, Flathead (Yellow) 45″

Cichlid, Rio Grande 9″

Crappie, Black 15″

Crappie, White 15″

Drum, Freshwater 25″

Gar, Alligator 72″

Gar, Longnose 50″

Gar, Spotted 42″

Sunfish 10″

Trout, Rainbow 15″

Walleye 25″

 

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 46 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  4th day of a warming trend with a wind shift and mild, dry cold front due in tomorrow.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:45A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Elevation:  0.52′ high with a 0.01’ 24-hour fall and 1 CFS flow thru the dam.

Water Surface Temp: 50.9F 

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm thru 8:25, then a steadily building SW breeze peaking at 12 began to build quickly

Sky Condition: Cloudless, fair skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 68% illum.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

** vic 1538 – deep flat fishing under birds for scant fish – 4 landed on 3/8 oz. slabs

** SH0102C – side of channel for sluggish bottom cruising fish

** SH0106C – best action of the morning on blades for schooled, active white bass with some bird assistance

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec