WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, March 20, I fished with returning guest, Terri Covington, the queen of Belton real estate.
Joining Terri was a buddy from church (First Baptist of Belton), Mr. Roger Millstid, who recently moved to Morgan’s Point from the San Antonio area, to be nearer to his son.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 20 Mar. 2024 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
Although this morning’s 48° start was still 11° warmer than yesterday‘s 37° start, the overnight temperatures were still well below the surface temperature of the lake, thus we continued to cool off following last Friday’s cold front.
The fishing was not quite as tough as it was yesterday, but the fish were still far from giddy. We managed a few fish horizontally in under 17 feet of water just after sunrise, picking up seven nice white bass on MAL Original Lures cast into about 20 feet of water and worked with a sawtooth method. That dried up after about 50 minutes.
I did some looking, and scratched at two areas while looking with sonar. The third area I headed to looked pretty good with two gulls working as we approached.
As I got over the patch of water the birds were working, I could see active fish as much as 2 or 3 feet up off the bottom, so I Spot-Locked on them, and we switched over to vertical tactics, employing three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs using a slow smoking tactic and moving the lures at a pace of 93 BPM.
This was our most productive stop of the trip and the action lasted about 30 minutes. As we fished, I noticed increased gull activity back behind us in deeper water – – about 30 feet of water.
I’m motored over toward these fish, and as I got closer, I could see some very light surface activity, despite a bit of chop on the water. I cut the motor a good hundred yards out from this surface activity and trolled the rest of the way in to the fish. As we trolled in, I gave Terri and Roger instructions on how to use a countdown method to target these fish, which were obviously near the surface.
I had them cast, count the lure down four seconds, and then do a steady retrieve at a rate of 105 BPM. They each landed four or five fish that way, after which the fish activity and the bird activity slacked off.
Still seeing plenty of fish on bottom on both down- imaging and 2-D sonar, I switched us back to slow smoking with the slabs, and we landed another dozen or so until finally the activity at this entire area fell to nil.
We continued fishing another 45 minutes or so, and although we found fish, we simply could not get them to chase, nor show any interest whatsoever in our presentations.
We finished the day with 43 fish landed, including one hybrid striped bass, one freshwater drum, one largemouth bass, and 40 white bass.
Find the 3/4-ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 43 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: No spawning activity observed once again this morning thanks to a cold front over the weekend dropping this morning’s low to 48F. Very light surface feeding occurred around 9:45 and lasted about 20 minutes.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:40A
End Time: 11:45A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F
Elevation: 11.93 feet low, 33 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 61.3F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE4-7 all morning
Sky Condition: Grey skies through around 10:15A, then clearing rapidly to 30% white clouds on a blue sky
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 81% illumination.
GT = 105
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
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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