WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 26 April, I fished with returning guests Dwight Stone of Georgetown, TX, and his son-in-law, Josh Rogers of Killeen, TX.
Dwight is a well-rounded outdoorsman, comfortable with both rod and gun, and is retired from the restaurant business. Josh is busy with a wife, two young kids, and a family-owned car business based in Florence, TX.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next opening will be on 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: The Bearded Wonders — Josh Rogers and his father-in-law, Dwight Stone enjoyed great spring fishing, enhanced by frontally-impacted weather to put together a 2-man catch of over 300 fish.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 26 April 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
The fishing was already good thanks to stable, warming water, but, we got a “bump” this morning thanks to the wind and cloud cover left in the wake of yesterday’s frontal passage. We spent a short amount of time looking for a shallow bite this morning, and, after finding little in about 25 minutes’ worth of effort, we headed out deeper, found biting fish, and the rest was history.
We fished three areas ranging from 28 to 42 feet this morning, all on gently sloping terrain, and all in wind-exposed areas. Our first area produced 37 fish, our second area produced 36 fish, and our final area produced 229 fish. After we’d wrapped up, I checked one more area just briefly in a bit of a scouting effort for tomorrow, and we put a quick 3 fish in the boat there and headed in for lunch.
The fishing was nearly identical at each location. We found fish with sonar, Spot-Locked on them, got them stirred up by presenting MAL Dense lures (with chartreuse tails), and began catching fish. There was then a “snowball effect” — as we caught more fish and created more commotion, more and more fish were drawn to us and the fishing got easier as the time spent atop those fish moved on.
At each area we had fish at every level in the lower third of the water column continuously, and the higher up in the water column the fish were, the more likely they were to chase. We caught 100% of our fish this morning on the MAL Dense using a smoking tactic.
Noting the tendency which fish up highest off bottom had to be more aggressive, we made sure we reeled at least 2-3 cranks beyond these fish to give them time to show us if they were willing to chase (as viewed on Garmin LiveScope). If they chased, Dwight and Josh kept reeling until they either got hit or the fish turned away.
After this morning’s trip, I took my slab rods out of the boat, as we’ll only be relying on the various weights of MAL Lures from this point through to the end of May.
A complete description of this “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Our final tally of 305 fish consisted of 1 short hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 303 white bass.
Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 305 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Perfect conditions yielded incredible results today as stable, warming water and wind and cloud cover from yesterday’s frontal passage paved the way to a hot, extended bite this morning.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:45A
End Time: 11:00A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F
Elevation: 3.75 feet low, 0.2’ rise in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 66.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: NNE 12 for the first 3 hours, then varying from 7-10 in the final hour
Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud cover for the first 3 hours, then clearing quickly to 10% white cover on a blue sky in the final hour
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 19% illumination.
GT = 25
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas 1805, v1544, 1945, 1731
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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