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…
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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
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