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
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