WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Thursday afternoon, April 21st, I fished with returning Mike Shouse, accompanied by his son-in-law and my first-time guest, Reed Neinast.

Mike serves as a Texas State Board Member and as a Government Affairs Liaison with the National Wild Turkey Federation.  Reed makes his living doing business as a consultant in Katy, TX.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on May 11^th and June 21st.  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:   We hit into some long, girthy white bass this afternoon as the grey skies kept the light level down, and the hard southerly winds continued to blow for the fourth consecutive day.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Oftentimes when we enjoy extended success at one area, bottom-feeders like catfish and drum move in after the white bass regurgitate their food and defecate as a stress response to being caught.  This matter sinks to bottom, gives off a fishy odor, and draws such odor-sensitive creatures.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (PM), 21 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

As afternoon fishing trips often do, this afternoon’s trip started off slowly and ended with a bang in the final 40 minutes prior to sunset, and just beyond.

The fish were fired up all day, and there was no time, even when things were slower, where we couldn’t find or catch fish, rather, it was just a matter of how many fish we had to present to in order to get bit (the look to catch ratio).

We started the afternoon off out in deeper (42′) water, and gradually worked our way up shallower as the light level dimmed down.

We used MAL Heavy Lures (barbless with chartreuse tails) for all but the final 30 minutes of this trip.

For the first three hours, we fished vertically, smoking these lures up off bottom and watching Garmin LiveScope to gauge fish response.

At our second to last area, in approximately 22′, although we had fish under the boat and were catching them, I could see larger schools moving parallel to us out to the port side as I let side imaging scroll while we stood still on Spot-Lock.  Seeing this, and despite a fair crosswind, I had Mike and Reed cast horizontally out to these fish and retrieve using a sawtooth tactic.  This worked quite well and accounted for 61 fish in under an hour’s time.

Just as the sun set into a western cloud bank (not below the horizon), these fish let up and quit feeding.  Our count stood at 151 fish.

As I looked around, I noted three blue herons looking fidgety.  I kept watching them without crowding them and, in just a few minutes, they put us onto our grand finale.  White bass had pushed both shad and American silversides (a longer, cigar-shaped minnow) up shallow and were chasing them, herding them against the shallows.

I switched the fellows over to MAL Original Lures rigged up on 8-foot spinning rods with large arbor reels which I typically use for topwater fish in the summer.  These allow long, lobbed casts and allow us to stand off from the fish and not spook them.  Long story short, Mike and Reed added another 50 fish to our count in exactly 27 minutes.  Once we hit over 200 fish, the fellows decided they’d done enough and we headed on in with 201 fish on the clicker.

A complete description of this “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Our final tally of 201 fish consisted of 3 short hybrid striped bass, 1 blue catfish, 197 white bass.

Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 TALLY:  201 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Here is the water temperature profile I measured this afternoon:

0 feet 71F
5 feet 70F
10 feet 69.2F
15 feet 68.6F
20 feet 68.4F
25 feet 68.1F
30 feet 68.1F
35 feet 67.8F
40 feet 66.9F
45 feet 65.1F
50 feet 63.3F
55 feet 62.9F

 

 WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 3:45P

End Time:  8:00P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 3.73 feet low, 0.0’ change in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:   SSE13-14 all afternoon

Sky Condition: 80-90% light grey clouds

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 72% illumination.

GT = 95

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0002G/B0067G, 387, B0181C, vic B0126C, 691, and 0188

 

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 #mepps

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Thursday morning, April 21st, I fished with returning guest Matt Laakso of the Austin area.

Matt has made it a tradition for many years now to accompany me for a guided fishing trip on the occasion of his birthday.  As soon as the trip concludes, he has me put him down for the same time the following year.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next openings will be on May 11^th and June 21st.  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:   Matt Laakso and I “worked ‘em over” for a 101 fish catch using a variety of tactics as the white bass bite intensifies.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 21 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

For the third consecutive day, a stiff southerly wind continued to blow since early Monday morning.  That, along with abundant grey cloud cover, made the conditions excellent once again for white bass fishing.  Add to that the steadily rising water temperature, and the stage was set for catching!

We began our trip up shallow, in under 15’, tossing MAL Heavy Lures out horizontally and retrieving them with a sawtooth tactic.  This produced 28 fish before the congregation of fish we were targeting dispersed.

As we began searching for our next location to focus on, a white flurry of activity caught my eye.  Up inside a wind-blown cove, a flock of laughing gulls were wheeling and dipping as they fed on shad being forced to the surface by white bass below.

No need to comb over large tracts of bottom tediously using sonar when this was going on!  We drove straight to the birds and started casting and catching.

When the fish showed themselves, we cast the lighter MAL Original Lures to them and retrieved with a steady cadence right away.  When the fish sounded, we let the lures sink 6 seconds and then retrieved steadily.  The action was hot and heavy.

While Matt was working in the bow, I headed back to the stern briefly and rigged up a topwater bait for him (a clear Spook Junior) so we could enjoy the visual display the white bass put on as they chopped at that bait from beneath.  By the time the action died, we’d added 22 more fish to our count, which now stood at 50 fish.

To clarify, this action was mainly just beneath the surface.  This was NOT the kind of prolonged feeding on the surface which we normally encounter at sunrise and sunset in the heat of the summer.

Once the topwater action faded, the rest of our catching took place out in deeper water.  In fact, the rest of our fish came from two areas, both in 42’.  For these fish, we use MAL Heavy Lures  (barbless, chartreuse tails) in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope to draw fish up off bottom and catch them as they chased our baits.  A complete description f this “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Even on his birthday, Matt had to get back to his home office to get some work done, so, when we beat that 100 fish mark in right at 4 hours on the water, we pulled the plug and headed on in.

Our final tally of 101 fish consisted of 1 short hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, 1 white crappie, and 98 white bass.

Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 TALLY:  101 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The first glimpse of white chasing shad aggressively to the surface took place this past Friday, but, this morning’s episode was much longer, more widespread, and involved a whole lot more fish.

 WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time:  10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 3.73 feet low, 0.0’ change in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:   SSE9-11 all morning, which was lighter than forecast

Sky Condition: 100% light grey clouds most of the morning; some light, intermittent sprinkles fell in the last hour.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 72% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 0169, 0182, B0184C, B0005G

 

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