WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, April 13th, I fished with Mr. Leonard Nu’uhiwa (retired U.S. Army) of Killeen, his son-in-law, James Snyder, James’ son, Simon, and a family friend of the Nu’uhiwas, Mr. Phil Moore (a U.S Army veteran), also of Killeen.
Leonard’s daughter, Janice, a nurse who now resides in the Chicago area, traveled with her family to celebrate Easter with her dad and mom (Ruth Nu’uhiwa) back here in Texas while Simon, age 12, was on spring break.
Janice arranged all of the trip’s details many weeks in advance, and, fortunately, the weather cooperated to provide us with excellent spring time white bass fishing.J
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next openings will be on 11 May and 20 June. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trip (until mid-March 2023).
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: James Snyder, Leonard Nu’uhiwa, Simon Snyder, and Phil Moore
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 13 April 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
After riding a weather roller coaster the previous evening, complete with violent thunderstorms, large hail, heavy rain and no less than two tornados in the county, things settled down a bit overnight, although the wind velocity remained in the teens all night and into the morning.
We experienced a very dim light scenario in our first hour on the water; we actually commented how, at 8:05AM, an hour into our trip, the light level was lower than it was at the 7:05AM start.
With the winds at about 12-13mph from the SW, and with Leonard and Phil being solid fisherman already, I decided to start us off up shallow given the nice warming trend we’ve been experiencing, and the beginnings of the annual spring threadfin shad spawn.
This turned out to be a solid decision as everyone caught multiple fish in short order, even as Simon and James learned to cast horizontally and work the MAL Dense lures I had tied on for everyone just for this situation.
These lures are the heaviest in the MAL Lure family. The lead body really cuts the wind, gets deep quickly, and allows even beginning casters to get sufficient distance to reach well beyond the boat where the fish are.
We landed our first 22 fish on the MAL Dense lures before increasing light levels drove the fish deeper.
We moved with the fish and, once situated atop of them, I retooled everyone with longer rods for fishing the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically. My two rookies did best at this method, mainly because they did not have a reflexive hookset response which is detrimental to landing fish while using this no-slack tactic coupled with no-stretch braided line.
As fish filled in to the port and starboard sides of the boat, I kept Simon and James working vertically, and transitioned Leonard and Phil to casting the MAL Dense lures horizontally. This got everyone in their “sweet spot” just as the fishing was peaking in advance of a minor wind shift to the west and the arrival of clearing skies.
By the time we departed our second area of the morning, the crew had amassed a catch of 93 fish.
Fishing got instantly tougher as the skies cleared and brightened, and as the atmosphere heated up rapidly.
I searched a few areas without success, then found an area with fish holding very tight to bottom – definitely not in a feeding posture. We fished them anyway, as I wasn’t sure at this point that we’d find any more aggressive fish. We put another 14 fish in the boat here, thus breaking the 100 fish mark around the 10 o’clock hour, all on Bladed Hazy Eyes.
We made one final move to deeper water and windier, more open terrain in hopes of finding dimmer bottom conditions keeping the fish in a feeding mode just a bit longer.
We found what we were after in about 32 feet of water. We took a final 35 fish at this area, all on Bladed Hazy Eyes, until the fishing ground to a halt just after 11AM, just as it had done at nearly the exact same time on Monday and Tuesday.
Our final tally of 142 fish consisted of 1 freshwater drum, 6 short hybrid striped bass, and 135 white bass.
Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 142 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Saw fish chasing spawning shad in shallow water for the first time this spring.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:05A
End Time: 11:10A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F
Elevation: 3.60 feet low, 0.11’ rise in last 24 hours, 34 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 66.3
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW13 at trip’s start, gradually tapering up to WSW16 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover thru 10:15, then clearing to 20% white clouds on a hazy blue sky
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 87% illumination.
GT = 35
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
B0014G, B0071G (2 hops), B0004G, vic 327
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
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