WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, April 6, I fished with Mr. Shawn Ely from near Moody, TX.
Shawn was the perfect fit for this day of pretty crummy weather. I was originally scheduled to have a dad and his three kids on the water this morning, and, although they would have most certainly caught fish, the conditions they’d have to endure to do it would likely have dampened the enjoyment of that trip.
On short notice Shawn stepped in. He grew up in the outdoors, owns two boats of his own, is a student of white bass fishing, can handle a rod well, and knew enough to dress appropriately for both the wet and the cold.
Here is how the fishing went…
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Next available dates are June 01, 06-08 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Shawn Ely with a pair of Lake Belton white bass which went right at 14″ and fell for an MAL Dense worked “sawtooth-style”.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 06 April 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
As we got going, I knew Shawn’s goal was more to learn about approaches to finding and catching white bass than to actually reel in hooked fish. I asked him before we ever wetted a line, “How can I help scratch where you itch when it comes to white bass?”.
As we spoke about this, I listened and tried to come up with a plan on how best help given the weather conditions we faced, and the point of the season we are in.
The first thing I knew I could accomplish was introducing Shawn to the “Sawtooth Method” of working an MAL Lure.
Indeed, we worked MAL Dense Lures (white body, chartreuse tail) for a full 3.5 hours of our 4 hours on the water. We covered every aspect: from fighting slack, to hooksetting, to boat positioning, to reading birds, to spinner startup, to speed control, and more. One of the big lessons Shawn came away with on this topic was how little I rely on sonar for fishing horizontally after initially finding fish.
Here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
Another area we touched on addressed the question: How few fish is too few to stop and fish for? On this matter I tried to point out both large and small schools of white bass and the thought process I went through on deciding whether or not to stop based on what I observed.
We got to compare notes on side-imaging from my Humminbird Solix 15 with his Garmin unit.
Finally, in our final half-hour on the water, we really shifted gears as the fish were wrapping up their morning feed and getting sluggish. I introduced Shawn to the use of a slab in conjunction with the “easing” tactic, which is something I’ll use through the end of May for very stubborn fish, typically right at the beginning and end of a morning trip. This was very sonar intensive, as Garmin LiveScoped helped advise us when to keep the slab moving upwards as fish were chasing, and when to stop lifting and allow the lure to return to bottom.
It was a real joy to have an experienced angler on the boat who could appreciate little technique nuances as Shawn did, and who could make small, on-the-spot technique adjustments to enhance success.
If there was one odd thing we agreed upon it was this: today’s fishing was almost too easy in that because we did not struggle to find fish, Shawn didn’t get to really see what ferreting out the locations of active fish looked like — they were just everywhere!!. But, neither of us complained about that!
When all was said and done, we landed 122 fish, including 2 largemouth bass and 120 white bass with about 20% of those whites running short.
TALLY: 122 fish caught and released
Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: The cold front which passed yesterday morning stalled to our SE and occluded. It then generated rain all day today.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:25A
End Time: 11:55A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F and falling to 48F
Elevation: 14.28 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .01′ rise over the last 24 hrs. thanks to passage of a violent, albeit brief, thunderstorm right at sunset Monday night and additional rains on Wednesday and this morning.
Water Surface Temp: 63.4F on the surface. (a ~2.4 degree drop from yesterday)
Wind Speed & Direction: NW6-8 most of the morning (and significantly less than the NW14-18 called for)
Sky Condition: Moderate grey cloud cover all morning with one ~25 minute round of rain at mid-morning with a light sprinkle falling in our final 40 minutes on the water, as well.
Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.
GT = 55
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area 01899 thru 2029 – 111 fish over 3.5 hours all on sawtoothed MAL Heavy
Area 817 – 11 fish easing slabs for demo purposes as fish were getting lethargic
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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