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
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