WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, March 29, I fished with returning guests Gary Jones, a retired banker, and Guy Fowler, who works in real estate. The two have been buddies since they were kids here in the Belton-Temple area.
Not only were the two interested in catching fish, but in observing how I used my boat and equipment as fish-catching tools. The driver behind this was Gary‘s recent purchase of a center-console Boston Whaler which he intends to fish from. Having fished with me several times in the past, he invested in some of the very same equipment I rely on day in and day out to make a living. Guy has been nominated to be Gary’s “first mate” on this Whaler venture.
Here is how the fishing went…
————————————————————————–
Peak spring dates are just about gone. Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php
Next available dates are April 21 (PM), May 15 (AM), 30 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: This fat and sassy Lake Belton hybrid was a welcome sight. It was in great shape and slammed Guy’s MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail.
PHOTO CAPTION: The white bass cooperated well this morning, save for a roughly 30-40 minute span where it got bright at a time when the winds were also still light. Once that thin, grey cloud cover moved in, it was game on — 100 fish on the dot this morning.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 29 March 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
The fishing, once again, followed a normal, bell-shaped curve with the first hour, and the last hour being slower than the peak time span from 9 to 11 AM. A little disturbance in the weather brought some thunder and lightning with an all-night, sparse sprinkle of rain, which dissipated right around sunrise, but left fairly thick, cloud cover in its wake. This caused the fishing to get off to a slow start, but as soon as the sky brightened through breaks in the clouds the fish responded positively.
As we got on top of our first school of fish, we used slabs to catch a mixed bag, including one white bass, one freshwater drum, and one short hybrid, striped bass. Fishing was slow, but Garmin LiveScope revealed a lot of shad in the area, and it was clear the shad were getting more skittish as time went on.
Very suddenly, just as we began to see fish and bait pick up the pace of their movement as we observed them on LiveScope, fish also began to break the surface sporadically around us, and birds immediately queued in on this. We enjoyed a 45-minute run of fish catching, aided by bird activity.
As has been the case in the past few days, we cast MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails out horizontally and counted them down to a six-count before retrieving them directly back to the boat with a plain-Jane, moderately paced retrieve. The only exception to this was if the fellows saw fish within casting range actually busting shad as they were getting ready to cast. When this occurred, Gary and Guy cast just past the fish and immediately started to retrieve without counting down first. This whole scenario accounted for an additional 52 fish in very short order.
After that, the skies began to clear rapidly and the fishing fell off for a bit. After the winds picked back up and some gray cloud cover completely covered the sky, the fishing rebounded. Although the fishing never bounced back as strong as we encountered under birds, the vertical fishing with slabs was very productive, especially for small groups of suspended fish which moved in directly under the boat as we used the splasher, something which I generally switch over to after the water has hit the 60° mark for good.
While fishing for individual suspended fish using Garmin LiveScope like this, it was important to recognize which direction the fish was headed and to get our lures moving right past their noses before they passed by. After Guy and Gary got the hang of this, they went strong for the final 25 minutes of our trip, taking our count of 88 fish up to exactly 100 before we stopped at exactly 12:02 PM following our 7:45 AM start.
In all, we landed exactly 100 fish of which four were hybrid stripers (one legal), one freshwater drum, one largemouth, bass, one crappie, and the remainder white bass up to 13.5 inches.
TALLY: 100 fish caught and released
Find Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: The surface temperature slid a bit further overnight from 59.9F to 59.3 after rising above 60F for the second time this spring back on Monday.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:45A
End Time: 12:05A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 50F
Elevation: 14.32 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .02′ fall over the last 24 hrs.
Water Surface Temp: 59.3F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: NNE2 at trip’s start building to NNE8 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: 100% thin, grey cloud cover, dropping to 70% between 9:15 & 10A, then going back to 100% white-grey cloud cover.
Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 54% illumination.
GT = 205
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area B0212G – 55 fish casting & sight casting to whites under birds with MALs
Area 1679 – 33 fish smoking slabs
Area B0082G – 12 fish on slabs by sniping with LiveScope
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