A MUCH BETTER SECOND HALF — 102 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning, April 28, I fished with Josh Welch and brothers Preston and Mason Ellis.

Josh runs a land development company, Weltex Investments, LLC., here in Central Texas, and the Ellis brothers run Ellis Air, an HVAC company also based here in Central Texas.

Josh had originally scheduled with me back in February, but one of his party members took ill. We rescheduled for June, but this morning when a sonar training student had to postpone due to illness, Josh was able to move his schedule around and enjoy the more productive fishing of April versus that which I would anticipate will be slower in June. Here is how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 21 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Preston and Mason Ellis and Josh Welch with a sampling of their 102 fish catch on Lake Belton just hours before a major weather event would move through Central Texas dumping 2+ inches of much needed rain.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Preston Ellis, a regular weekly participant in the 3X9 Series bass tournaments held on Stillhouse, landed this magnum white bass which taped 15.25 inches.  It came on a sight-cast MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail under birds.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 28 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

I had the fellows meet me at 6:45A hoping we would find white bass & hybrids pushing spawning shad onto the shoreline and enjoy some fast-paced fishing before the sun got too bright, however, due to the lack of wind impacting the shoreline from any given direction, there was a very weak spawn this morning. We had one smallmouth jump off at the boat, and another small white bass swipe at a lure at the end of a retrieve, and that was all we could garner in the shallows during the first part of the morning under low light conditions.

From that point forward we fished for heavily congregated fish in deep, open water, which we found primarily using side imaging, and we also enjoyed two episodes of fishing beneath Franklin’s gulls, which pointed the way to additional open water, active fish.

The first gull activity we got into was a bit misleading, as there were only small groups of fish, well dispersed, and scattered about on a fairly featureless bottom. The gulls reflected this in that, although they were flying and feeding, they were here, there, and everywhere over about a half mile of lake.

We caught about two dozen fish in this scenario, putting in a lot of effort to do it both vertically using a smoking tactic and horizontally using the sawtooth method. It is tough to leave bird activity and head out to try to find fish when you know there are at least a few fish around, but, this morning that decision made the difference between a 50-60 fish trip and a 100+ fish trip.  Indeed, at the 3-hour mark on a 4 hour trip we had only 47 fish in the boat, but ended up with a total of 102 thanks to a strong 75-minute run as fog dimmed the light level and the winds ramped up.

After leaving those birds, we found two large, active groups of heavily congregated and bottom-oriented fish which perked up nicely once we got atop them and started working MAL Lures through them. As the second group was tailing out on us, we spotted our second helpful bit of bird activity.

Although this only lasted about 25 minutes, there were far more fish present beneath these birds, and we were able to take our fish count from 47 up to 71 in a matter of minutes.

Our final 31 fish of the day came at our last stop and over another short, 20 minute span. As the wind ratcheted up several miles per hour in a matter of minutes, the fish just came alive and began to suspend as much as 5 to 6 feet up off the bottom. The higher up in the water column the fish were, the more aggressive they tended to be. LiveScope helped everyone work their lures right past the noses of these shallowest fish, and we racked up our final 31 fish to put our trip total right at 102 before we called it a good morning and headed for lunch.

Our catch consisted of 1 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, 14 short hybrid striped bass, with the balance being white bass of multiple age groups. Our white bass catch included one fish landed by Preston which went 15 1/4 inches. It’s body condition was not great, but it is good to see Belton Lake fish reaching that sort of length.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 102 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Lack of wind overnight led to a very weak threadfin shad spawn this morning; we caught no fish up shallow via sight-casting during this low-light window.  Our 2nd half of the trip was more productive than the 1st, as a thin, low fog layer moved in and dimmed the light a bit, and as the wind speed increased throughout the four hour trip.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Elevation: 14.24 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.16′ rise over the last 24 hrs. thanks to heavy rains Wed. night

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6 building to SSE14 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 50% white clouds on a blue sky with a white haze through 9:30, then an unusual mid-morning light fog moved in from the SE and kept it dim the remainder of the trip.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 56% illumination.

GT = 205

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 2049 – 27 fish on smoked and sawtoothed MAL Heavies; 2 short hops

Area  717- 20 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1055 – 71 fish on MAL Heavies sight-cast or counted down to fish under Franklin’s gulls

Area 404 – 31 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

 

 

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

YEAH, BABY! — NO BABIES!! — 117 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, April 27, I fished with returning guests Stiles and Sarah Parker from Liberty Hill, Texas. The Parkers have been clients for many years and have brought parents, relatives, and business clients out with them on my boat through the many seasons they’ve been with me.

Now the parents of two kiddos not yet in school, a day without babies was pretty appealing, and Lake Belton was the place Stiles and Sarah chose to spend it.

I enjoy fishing with all my clients, but, when I have clients who are already knowledgeable anglers, it makes the day less demanding and more enjoyable.

Couple with that the ideal weather scenario we happened into today, and the stage was set for a wonderful result.

Here is how the fishing went…

 

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 21 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Stiles and Sarah Parker on a parents’ day out fishing trip on Lake Belton.  Good skills and good weather equaled a 117 fish catch.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Stiles picked up this pretty bit of bycatch as more than white bass cashed in on the threadfin shad buffet in shallow water right as the sun was coming up.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 27 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

We got going at 7:05 this morning just as the last gray cloud cover from last night’s violent cold front was about to clear from west to east.  As the clouds moved on, the skies brightened and the wind slowly but steadily increased. This all made for a very cool, dry, pleasant spring morning.

I was uncertain as to what the overnight  cold front was going to do in regards to this morning‘s threadfin shad spawn, so I planned for most of our trip to involve vertical work.

Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when I spotted a flock of Franklin’s gulls accompanied by blue herons and white herons all gorging themselves on the strongest batch of threadfin shad I’ve seen spawning thus far this spring. These shad were in at least a 6 foot band from the shoreline outward, and the entire cove we found them in had the shoreline covered in this manner – – about an eighth of a mile worth of millions of bait fish.

Long story short, we sight-cast to these fish for an incredible 2.5 hours. After the sun brightened the sky and the fish left the bank, the white bass continued to herd them toward the surface in open water just yards offshore from where the spawning had occurred. Stiles and Sarah cast MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails directly into the visible commotion, let the lure fall a few seconds by counting to between four and six, and then began a moderate to fast plain-Jane retrieve.

In addition to white bass of all sizes and a few small hybrid stripers, they also landed a largemouth bass and a smallmouth bass during this time.

This action ended right at 9:30.

From that point until we wrapped up at 11:15 AM, we hopped to five different open water areas where side imaging revealed large concentrations of white bass. We fished the same lure vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. We watched as the fish got increasingly reluctant in terms of their willingness to chase a lure any distance off the bottom. We wrapped up with 117 fish landed, including 103 white bass, 12 hybrid, striped bass (all short), one largemouth, bass, and one smallmouth bass.

As we departed, the straight line winds were pushing 16 to 17 mph with gusts over 20.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 117 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: I observed the strongest threadfin shad spawning activity of the spring to date this morning.  The temperature profile was as follows:

0 feet, 68.4F
5 feet, 68.2F
10 feet, 68.1F
15 feet, 67.2F
20 feet, 66.6F
25 feet, 66.3F
30 feet, 66.0F
35 feet, 65.3F
40 feet, 63.2F
45 feet, 61.9F
50 feet, 60.8F
55 feet, 59.8F
60 feet, 58.9F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:05A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Elevation: 14.40 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.06′ rise over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW6 at trip’s start, ramping up to NW16-17 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Bright blue skies all morning.

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 46% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 389 to 1021 – 81 fish on  MAL Heavies counted down both near spawning shad and under birds (2.5 hours)

Area  vic 1482 – 13 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0075C – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0043G – 4 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0069G – 13 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

 

 

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

THREE GENERATIONS ABOARD — 86 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, April 26, I fished with returning guest Ronnie Everett, this time accompanied by four first time guests — Ronnie’s son, Nick, and Nick’s son, Landon, as well as Ronnie‘s son-in-law, Allen Frei, and his son, Everett, made up this three generation trip.

Landon and Everett are nine and seven years of age, respectively, and were real troopers. Neither one whined about the cool, drizzly conditions we faced all four hours, and, when I offered to extend the trip after a pretty slow start, they were ready for more!

Here is how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 7 and 21 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Allen Frei, Ronnie, Nick, and Landon Everett, and Everett Frei with a few of the white bass they worked for this drizzly spring morning.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 26 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

The weather was pretty snotty this morning — a good bit snottier than forecast. The temperature hung right at 66F all morning, with a fine mist falling the entire time. Visibility varied, and the fishing rose and fell as the ambient light level rose and fell.

As was the case yesterday, fish were not all that difficult to find, but, once found, there was no guarantee that they were going to be able to be worked up into a frenzy. In most cases, the fish expressed an initial interest in our baits, and then settled down very quickly. Thus, we had to move frequently to keep fish coming over the side.

We relied on the MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tail worked vertically with a smoking tactic to catch the vast majority of our fish this morning. Birds assisted us on two occasions, albeit briefly. These Franklin’s gulls would rest in large flocks out in open water with a few scouts out flying. Once those scouts spotted white bass, and/or hybrid striper hitting shad on the surface, the scout gulls would call to the rest and a brief flurry would take place until the fish settled back down.

After the first round of bird action, we still had plenty of fish around, but they did not show interest in chasing lures, so I actually ran the downriggers for about 20 minutes allowing us two sets of doubles and a handful of singles on #13 Pet Spoons run behind three-armed umbrella rigs. This also allowed for a little variety for my younger two guests.

Our best run of fishing came between 11 and noon, which also coincided with the brightest conditions of the morning. During this time, the two boys and their dads continued working MAL Heavies vertically, while Ronnie and I cast horizontally, working the same bait back to the boat with a sawtooth method . Any fish I hooked I immediately handed off to little Everett.

When all was said and done, we landed 86 fish including two largemouth bass, 12 short hybrid striped bass, and 72 white bass.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 86 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Pretty tough fishing on a second day of heavy overcast and easterly winds.  Franklin’s gulls showed the way to the best fishing.

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 14.40 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.03′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 65.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE11 all morning.

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies all morning with a nuisance drizzle the entire time

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 37% illumination.

GT = 95

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

 

Area 1292 – 11 fish on smoked MAL Heavies (2 hops)

Area 487 – 13 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 845 – 10 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & w/ ‘riggers and Pet Spoons under tentative gulls

Area 2029 – 4 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 187 – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0004C – 20 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0031C – 7 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtooth MAL Dense Lures under  gulls

Area 714 – 15 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtooth MAL Dense Lures under  gulls

 

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

WORD OF THE DAY: SUBDUED – 83 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, April 25, I fished the third trip of the spring of 2023 with a contingent of the Oliver family.  Joining me this morning were brothers Joe, Jack, Jamie, and Jeff.

Joe originally scheduled this trip almost a year ago, hoping his dad who was in his 90s, might make this trip in celebration of his birthday. “Pa“ went to be with the Lord just a few weeks ago, but the brothers decided to use the opportunity for a mini-reunion and a chance to see their mom.

Here’s how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 7 and 21 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Jeff Oliver from Sugarland, TX, took our largest fish of the trip.  This 5.50-pound hybrid striper took his MAL Heavy Lure worked vertically with a “smoking tactic” under gulls in the 10 o’clock hour.

PHOTO CAPTION:  The Oliver brothers:  Jack, Joe, Jamie, and Jeff, with a shot of some of the better whites they took both vertically and horizontally before all were released to spawn and bite again.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 25 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

Today stood in pretty stark contrast with the morning-long, very aggressive bite I experienced with my foursome from yesterday. Everything seemed more subdued this morning. The wind was lighter, the air temperature was balmier, the shad spawn was weaker, the bird activity was more scant, and the fish were largely reluctant all morning.

We had no problem finding fish, and most all of the schools of fish we found included individual fish which responded, but they did not respond aggressively, they did not respond in strong numbers, nor for very long spans of time.

The best run of the morning came from about 9:45 through 10:30 when a large flock of Franklin’s gulls began to feed on shad being driven to the surface in about 28 feet of water. Even so, the fish pushing them were individual fish or fish in small pods of two or three. During this run, although we did get results fishing vertically using the “smoking” method, our most productive presentation was with the MAL Dense Lure with white body and chartreuse tail fished with the sawtooth tactic for fish observed out to the side of the boat via side-imaging using the sawtooth method.

After this activity died down and the birds began to rest on the water, the fishing got very tough right up through our 11:30 quitting time. We went back to vertical presentations for fish which were tightly grouped, and bottom-oriented. We hopped around to three or four different areas, each producing just four or five fish in the first few drops of the lures, then they grew quickly disinterested.

Our final count was 83 fish which included two legal hybrid stripers, 10 short hybrid, and 71 white bass up to 13.75 inches.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 83 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  The word for the day was “subdued”.  Everything in nature just seemed to be functioning at about half of the energy level one would expect in late April, especially given that the weather was at least cooperative.

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 14.36 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.03′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 64.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE6 all morning.

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 28% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 0363 and 358  20  fish on MAL Heavies counted down over whites on spawning shad in shallow water

Area 1482 – 7  fish on smoked MAL Heavies (all small)

Area 355 – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies under tentative gulls

Area 952 (multiple hops) – 36 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtooth MAL Dense Lures under  gulls

Area 1489 ( 2 hops) – 7 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1552 – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

 

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

THE WHITES CAUGHT THE WHITES — 200 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Monday, April 24, I fished with returning guest, Mr. Ronnie White. The last time Ronnie fished with me he brought three of his grandsons along for spring break – Reid, Braxton, and Brayton. This time, he brought his son, Justin, and two more grandsons, Jacob and Joshua, along.

Justin and the boys, 11-year-old twins, drove up from south of Austin to spend Saturday and Sunday with grandparents prior to this morning‘s trip, and then joined me around 7:10A to hunt for white bass.

Here is how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 7 and 21 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ronnie, Jacob, Joshua, and Justin White with a portion of their 200-fish catch, all taken on MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails on Lake Belton following a weekend cold snap.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Justin White took our single largest fish of the trip.  This was the very first fish landed after we began working lures horizontally with a “sawtooth” tactic under feeding Franklin’s gulls.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Joshua White took this just-legal Belton Lake hybrid striped bass on an MAL Heavy Lure worked vertically with a “smoking” tactic.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 24 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

I wasn’t certain how this weekend’s crazy weather was going to impact the fishing. We experienced a record low for April 21 yesterday with a 49°F air temperature prior to sunrise. This morning’s temperature at sunrise was only 50F, but fortunately the rain chances dropped out of the picture overnight. So, we were faced with a cool, cloudy, spring day, which was quite comfortable with appropriate clothing on.

As we got going right around 7:10 AM, I was encouraged as I saw white herons fidgeting along the bank indicating they were finding spawning shad to consume.  As we headed for our first location, I saw more white herons, blue herons, and Franklin’s gulls all vigorously working a wind blown shoreline. There was a roughly 1/8 mile segment of bare limestone shoreline which was being used by millions of spawning shad with some gamefish in the mix, as well.

I had suggested to Ronnie that he coach the boys on casting with spinning gear over the weekend so if we encountered this scenario we could take full advantage of it. Ronnie took me up on that, and that investment paid off, as we put our first dozen fish in the boat by casting MAL Heavies with chartreuse tails using a countdown method into this action.

Unfortunately, the only time the sun showed all morning was just as these fish and birds were getting going, and that bright sun pretty quickly killed that shallow water action.

For the remainder of the trip we worked MAL Heavies both vertically and horizontally for very aggressive, heavily congregated fish in anywhere from 28 to 38 feet of water.  We fished five areas after the spawning-related action dried up, with the last area made obvious to us by the feeding activity of Franklin’s gulls.

Whenever side-imaging and down-imaging indicated that fish were only directly beneath us, we used the smoking tactic to work the MAL Lures vertically. On occasions, where greater numbers of fish appeared to the port or starboard side of the boat than beneath the boat, I put all four anglers to the side (for safety) with the most fish showing on side-imaging and had them cast horizontally using the sawtooth method to catch fish in that manner. By 11:30, they landed our 200th fish with the fish activity dropping off rapidly.  Yes, the Whites caught the whites!!

The boys had just about worn out, so, I suggested we wrap up on a good note before diminishing returns kicked in.

Our 200 fish catch included 22 hybrid striped bass of which 2 were legal, 3 freshwater drum, and the balance white bass.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 200 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  Despite the cold snap, shad spawning continued this morning.  Once again, Franklin’s gulls were very active and helpful in fishing-finding in the final 75 minutes of the trip.

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 50F

Elevation: 14.36 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.00′ rise over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 64.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE8 all morning.

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies after ~7:50A

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 20% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 1080 thru 1078 – 12 fish on MAL Heavies counted down over whites on spawning shad

Area  1552 – 22 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1945/B0148C – 17 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1325/150 – 34 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0198G/B0005C – 115 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures (3 short hops)

 

 

 

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

DO YOU KNOW YOUR GULLS, SIR? — 172 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Friday, April 21, I fished with returning guest and prospective new fishing guide Will Crenshaw who resides on Lake Travis. Joining Will was a fishing buddy of his, Justin Ortiz.

Will is a capable multi-species angler who desires to offer family-oriented fishing trips on Lake Travis. Aside from catching fish today, Will wanted to pick my brain about establishing and maintaining  growing a fishing guide business. When you get right down to the nuts and bolts of it, catching fish is actually one of the easier parts of running a fishing business. For that reason, we focused instead on business structure, licensure, insurance, taxes, marketing, logistics, maintenance, access, and other things which all small business owners must contend with themselves.

Here is how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 7 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Aspiring fishing guide Will Crenshaw (left) and Justin Ortiz caught and released 172 fish on a morning favorably impacted by the arrival of a cold front.  The majority of their catch was made on the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail.

PHOTO CAPTION:  This Franklin’s gull (often mistaken for a laughing gull) and about 10,000 of his buddies are using Belton Lake as a stopover point as they migrate back north.  Today, these gulls helped put us on fish in the latter half of the morning as they spotted gamefish feeding on shad in open water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 21 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

Thanks to the Corps of Engineers’ new (and unnecessarily complicated!!) system for paying for park access, Will and Justin got held up at the entry to our meeting point on Lake Belton, hence we got started a few minutes late. Fortunately, the heavy cloud cover kept the light level dimmed down, and things did not get started fishing-wise, until after we had launched and begun looking for fish for 10 or 12 minutes, so, the late start really didn’t hurt us.

Surprisingly, despite the violent weather overnight and resulting northwest winds this morning, the threadfin shad spawn was still taking place this morning, seemingly uninterrupted by the weather.

Unlike the rest of the mornings this week, we did not find any shad spawn-related topwater action to sight-cast to. Hence, all of our fishing today was done offshore using both vertical and horizontal tactics.

As is often the case with an incoming cold front, the fishing this morning was above average, and continued to improve as the northwest wind velocity increased.

Fish were aggressive, they were up off the bottom, they were moving parallel to the bottom at a brisk pace, and they reliably ran down, overtook, and struck our MAL Lures.

90% of our fishing this morning was done vertically using the smoking tactic while employing the MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail. The balance of our fishing, done at two separate locations, included, short periods of horizontal casting using the sawtooth method.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

I got a little worried around mid-morning as the gray cloud cover which had kept the light levels dimmed down nicely, began to clear. However, there was no need for concern, because as the skies cleared, the winds picked up and overrode any negative impact the brightening skies may have had. It was during this clearing process that birds, including a few terns, and a lot of Franklin’s gulls (with black heads) begin to work shad over open water, thus helping me identify three fish-holding areas which I had not recently tried fishing. Hopefully, this will bode well for next week’s clients.

By around 11:15, the fish activity level began to slack off, the birds began to settle on the water, and our catch rate began to decline. We stayed until exactly noon and wrapped up with 172 fish caught including one blue catfish, 13, short hybrid stripers, and the balance of 158 white bass, including over a dozen exceeding 13.5 inches.

TALLY: 172 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  Franklin’s gulls were very active and helpful in fishing-finding in the latter half of the morning today.

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:38A

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 14.36 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.18′ rise over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 66.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW9-13 all morning.

Sky Condition: Grey skies for 2 hours, then rapid clearing to 30% white clouds on blue skies thereafter

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic 714 – 54 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1552 (2 hops) – 53 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures

Area B0148C – 29  fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 346 – 7 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0043G – 21  fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures

Area B0188G – 8 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

 

 

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

HERDING AND HURTING — 107 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Thursday, April 20, I fished with long-time returning guest Matt Laakso from the Austin area.

Matt makes his living as a software salesman, and therefore very much values his downtime in the outdoors.

Matt always fishes with me at least once per year on or around his 23 April birthday. As soon as he steps off the boat, he asks me to put the following year’s birthday trip on the calendar. In this way, he has been able to enjoy some wonderful fishing during the peak spring season for many years now.

Although Matt has brought his adult son, Mitch, out in years past, this year he came out solo as Mitch is out in Arizona making his own way now.  (We missed you, Mitch!!)

Here is how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 7 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Both hybrid striped bass like this one, and white bass, were herding (and hurting!), spawning threadfin shad up in shallow water for an extended period of time this morning, thanks to thick, grey cloud cover.  This one fell for a shad-imitating MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Matt took this sweet pair of 14″ white bass while working a MAL Heavy in open water over 16-18 feet of water after the skies brightened and the fish pushed downward and outward away from the shoreline.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 20 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

We got going right at 7:15 AM under fairly thick gray cloud cover, and with a very light drizzle falling – – just enough to make you want to put on a rain jacket.

As was the case yesterday, white bass and hybrid stripers pushed up from out of deep water and were herding (and hurting!)  shad up against a wind blown shoreline, using fellow schoolmates, the bank, the bottom, and the lake surface as objects to trap these spawning threadfin shad against.

I brought a cork rig for Matt after seeing yesterday’s churning action under similar conditions, but, we fairly quickly put that away after recognizing 1) there were far more fish beneath the surface than actually at or on the surface, and 2) that the choppy surface made it tougher than need be for the fish to find the streamer behind the cork.

I switched Matt over to an MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail. When fish were visibly boiling on the surface he would sight-cast to them and immediately begin his retrieve. If no fish were visible as he was preparing to cast, he would go ahead and cast, count the lure down anywhere from 3 to 6 counts, and then begin a straight, moderate retrieve. This accounted for 23 fish before the slowly brightening sky conditions pushed the gamefish back down toward bottom and back out toward deeper water.

After this, we observed birds working over a patch of open water of approximately 14 to 18 feet deep with occasional fish breaking the surface individually.  Seeing this, Matt continued to cast horizontally using the countdown method and added another 11 fish to the count.

Once that shallow water action died, it was deep, open water, vertical work using MAL Dense Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope for the remainder of the trip.  We hit four areas, each, giving up a fair number of fish, and finally left them still biting, albeit not overly aggressively, at 11:45 AM.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Matt’s final tally was exactly 107 fish, including 3 legal hybrid striped bass, 7 short striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 96 white bass.

TALLY: 107 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures and the Cork Rig here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  Temperature profile to 65′ taken on 19 April…

0 feet, 67.8F
5 feet, 67.4F
10 feet, 66.9F
15 feet, 66.4F
20 feet, 66.0F
25 feet, 65.9F
30 feet, 65.3F
35 feet, 64.5F
40 feet, 63.8F
45 feet, 62.9F
50 feet, 61.9F
55 feet, 59.8F
60 feet, 57.8F
65 feet, 57.4F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 14.54 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .02′ rise over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 67.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 to 10 all morning.

Sky Condition: Grey skies all morning.

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 1793 – 23 fish on sight-casting and counting down MAL Heavies

Area 1728 – 11 fish by counting down MAL Heavies

Area 1290 – 20 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1374 – 7  fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures

Area 953 – 13  fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0054G – 33 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

 

 

 

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

…HE WOULD DO WELL WITH KIDS! – 113 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Wednesday, April 19, I fished with returning guest Dwight Stone of Georgetown, and a friend of his, first-time guest Kevin King.

Dwight is several years into retirement from the restaurant business, and Kevin is still working in the refrigeration industry, focused on supporting restaurants.

As our trip came to a close, Dwight was telling Kevin about his positive experiences having grandkids come out on the boat and fish with me. Kevin looked squarely at Dwight and said, “Yes, after dealing with the two of us for four hours, I can tell he would do well with kids!“.

Here is how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 7 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Dwight Stone and Kevin King with Lake Belton white bass taken on MAL Lures.  We sight-cast, smoked, and sawtoothed ’em today.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION: This 8.75-pound bluecat slammed a MAL Heavy Lure which Kevin was working up in the upper third of the water column over ~14 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 19 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

This morning, we launched in a fine drizzle with the warmest, darkest, and cloudiest early morning conditions facing us thus far this week. The air temperature was 66F.  This worked to our benefit, as it kept nearly all boat traffic off the lake, and it extended the duration of the shad spawn, keeping these baitfish shallow well into the first hour after sunrise.

After witnessing some bird action, we experienced our own action right off the bat by sightcasting to white bass and hybrid stripers blitzing shad on the surface in under 12 feet of water on a wind blown shoreline.

When the shad and/or gamefish were visible Dwight and Kevin sight cast to them and immediately begin retrieving. Otherwise, they tossed out, allowed the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail to sink to a three count, and then began retrieving. We landed 32 fish in this first hour, and those fish were by far the best quality of any of the locations we would fish this morning.

Once that low light, shallow water bite ended, we moved out to deeper water and relied on side imaging to find heavily schooled white bass in 28 to 32 feet of water. Using the interface between the i-Pilot Link system on my Minn Kota Ulterra and my Humminbird Solix 15, I was able to very precisely position atop these fish, despite the stiff wind. Using Garmin LiveScope, we dropped MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails down amongst these aggressive, schooled fish, and then cranked them upwards about six handle turns, watching for follows. If we got a follow, we would keep cranking until the fish either caught the bait or turned away.

We repeated this tactic at five other distinct locations.  Only at the second location did we see fish out to the port side of the boat, thus allowing for the use of the horizontal sawtooth method. Otherwise, all of our fishing today was vertical using the aforementioned smoking tactic.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

When all was said and done, we landed 113 fish, including one freshwater drum, one 8-pound blue catfish, 3 legal hybrid striped bass, 8 juvenile hybrid striped bass, with the balance being white bass.

TALLY: 113 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  Temperature profile to 65′ …

0 feet, 67.8F
5 feet, 67.4F
10 feet, 66.9F
15 feet, 66.4F
20 feet, 66.0F
25 feet, 65.9F
30 feet, 65.3F
35 feet, 64.5F
40 feet, 63.8F
45 feet, 62.9F
50 feet, 61.9F
55 feet, 59.8F
60 feet, 57.8F
65 feet, 57.4F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 14.56 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .05′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-11 building to SSE13 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Grey skies and light drizzle all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 1% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 1793 – 32 fish on sight-casting and counting down MAL Heavies

Area vic 714 – 21 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 294 – 12 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area  vic 953 – 22 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures

Area 714 (2nd stop) – 13 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0169G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic B0171G – 7 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

 

 

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

BUDDIES FROM WAY BACK — 129 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, April 18, I fished with returning long-time client Jack Oliver and four of his buddies from “way back” – joining me was Mark Kay, Barry Gann, Brad Rabbe, and Darrell Connally.

Most of these fellows had memories of friendships together from the town of Robinson, TX, going back to the first grade.

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 June 6 and 7 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Jack Oliver, Mark Kay, Brad Rabbe, Darrell Connally, and Barry Gann with a sampling of the morning’s white bass catch made with MAL Heavy Lures on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jack Oliver landed our largest fish of the trip.  This 5 7/8-pound bluecat fell for the same MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail which fooled the white bass all morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 18 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

With an air temperature right at 10 degrees warmer than yesterday thanks to warming southeasterly winds and overnight cloud cover, we had net warming over the past 24 hours, thus nudging the water temperature up a little bit more.

The white bass fishing is excellent right now with fish feeding on adult threadfin shad very aggressively and willing to chase them down long distances to overtake and eat them.

We got on fish right away this morning and experienced a strong bite up until around 10A.  At this point, we’d already amassed a catch of exactly 100 fish with many of the fish we were catching from the area we were fishing at that time being smallish, so, I left fish to find fish, and at this time it seemed the bite began to slack off as the light level dimmed thanks to increasingly heavy cloud cover.

After 10AM, we found 3 separate schools of fish and had very little interest expressed by any fish in those schools.  So, I kept moving until I found more fish to fish for, hoping both that they would be more aggressive and that the skies would brighten back up a bit.

Both of these things panned out, although the bite never got going back again as strong as it had been up through 10A.

We went on to put a total of 129 fish in the boat.  Every single one of these fish came on the MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail worked with a smoking tactic using spinning gear in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

We fished eight locations today, finding fish at five of them, and landed a total of 129 fish including 1 bluecat, 11 juvenile hybrid striped bass and 117 white bass.

TALLY: 129 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  There was minor threadfin shad spawning this morning on windblown shorelines.  No laughing gull activity observed.

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Elevation: 14.48 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .01′ rise over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 64.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW8 at trip’s start, slowly shifting and building to SSE13 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 70% at trip’s start, increasing to 100% and thickening toward trip’s end, with light rain falling from noon to 1P, then brightening up in the afternoon through 100% grey cloud cover which thinned out.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 4% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 294 – 20 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 958 – 26 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1945 – 54 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0148C – 21 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0185G – 8 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

 

 

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

GPS SAYS IT’S A 10-DAY TRIP — 159 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Monday, April 17, I fished with returning father and son team, Oscar and Mateo, Santiago, accompanied by a new client, Mr. Jonathan, Briscoe’s of Belton.

The Santiagos operate Wooden Woodworks, a custom cabinetry shop based in Salado, TX, and Jonathan is the Assistant Vice President of commercial lending at Horizon Bank in Temple.

As we wrapped up the trip today, I snapped a few photos of my three man crew with a few of the white bass they had landed. Oscar and Jonathan started joking about how it might be to get yanked out of a school of fish in one part of the lake and then released to swim amongst strangers in a different school at a totally different location on the same lake. Jonathan, speaking for the fish, said something to the effect of, “Yeah man, my GPS says I have a 10-day journey back to the ‘hood!”.

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 June 6 and 7 (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Oscar and Mateo Santiago and Jonathan Briscoe with some chunky Lake Belton white bass caught under very pleasant, dry, cool spring conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 17 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

Despite a few negative factors, including bright skies and nearly calm winds, the low to mid 60° water temperature now found from the surface to the bottom of Lake Belton has the white bass truly cranked up. We got on fish early and stayed on fish right to the end today.

There were dribs and drabs of spawning shad on the shoreline this morning, but by observing both birds and fish, I could tell there was much more shad action offshore. One needed only to observe LiveScope for a few minutes while on Spot Lock to see abundant schools of shad racing about just off the bottom with gamefish often in hot pursuit.

We fished vertically exclusively for the first two hours of the trip, then, as the fish begin to really shift into overdrive, we changed over to using a horizontal tactic whenever the vertical fishing showed even an inkling of slowing down.

For our vertical fishing today we chose the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail as our go to bait. When we fished horizontally using the sawtooth method, we went with the MAL Dense with white body and chartreuse tail for that task.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

We fished only five locations today, finding fish at each one, and landed a total of 159 fish including 2 largemouth bass, 11 juvenile hybrid striped bass, and 146 white bass.

TALLY: 159 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  There was minor threadfin shad spawning this morning following an overnight temperature drop to 49F.

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 49F

Elevation: 14.49 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .02′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 64.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW3 at trip’s start, slowly shifting and building to SSE13 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Clear skies for the first 2 hours, then puffy white clouds at 20% coverage moved in from the E

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 9% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area 1188 – 22 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0041G/187 – 30 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0075C – 29 fish on smoked MAL Heavies and sawtoothed MAL Denses

Area 187 – 19 fish on smoked MAL Heavies and sawtoothed MAL Denses

Area 953 – 59 fish on smoked MAL Heavies and sawtoothed MAL Denses

 

 

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