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

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