CLIENTS: On Saturday, March 8, I fished with a great, energetic, comical, coachable crew from Symmetry Health Chiropractic Center in Round Rock, TX. Dr. Patrick Lin brought with him Dr. Taylor Bowker, Julissa Gomez, Season Anderson, and Dr. Lindsey Merritt.
We faced weather other than that which was forecast, and that is always a tough curveball to swing at, but, everyone made contact, and we scored some nice runs.
DATE: Saturday, 09 March 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 17, 18, 19 March (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Julissa Gomez, Lindsey Merritt, Taylor Bowker, Patrick Lin, and Season Anderson. This crew put together a 97-fish catch on white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs under tough, wet incoming cold front conditions.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
As we got going around 7A, the weather was just as the weatherman forecast — it was cool and cloudy with NW winds thanks to a cold front moving through north of Waco and up into the DFW area. We were supposed to see winds below 10 mph, continued grey skies, and steady temperatures. Instead, we got gusting winds over 13, rain which was moderate at times, and slowly falling temperatures, all beginning around 7:40A.
The weather we started with was great — this crew landed 30 fish in our first 40 minutes on the water, but, once that first gust of colder wind came in, things changed drastically.
We had no problem finding fish, but, the fish we found were loathe to chase very far or very fast. They often adhered to bottom, and they lost interest fairly quickly, forcing me to move routinely.
Every last one of the 97 fish landed was taken on the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab using the slow-smoking tactic (see tutorial video below). I used my thumper as a dual purpose fish attractor and metronome so everyone kept their lures rising off bottom at the right speed.
In 3 hours and 45 minutes (Pat had to leave 15 min. early to coach his young daughter’s sports team), we fished exactly 6 areas, although I made some short hops at several of these areas using the “Jog” function on the trolling motor when side-imaging reveal fish nearby as we sat fishing using Spot Lock.
Of the 97 fish landed, 5 were short hybrid, 3 were largemouth bass, 1 was a smallmouth bass, and the remaining 88 fish were our target species — the white bass (a.k.a. sand bass, as they are called in north and east Texas).
These folks were troopers as winter threw one last insult our way.
RESULTS: 97 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “EASING” WITH A SLAB: Click here for tutorial
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO SNAP-JIG: Click here for tutorial
LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS:
- No helpful bird activity.
- This wet cold front’s arrival negatively impacted the fishing.
- Moving as soon as a bite let up was key as “diminishing returns” kicked in quickly thanks to the weather
- We had a lot of smallish fish in our catch as often happens when the spawn kicks in and adult fish head to the tributaries
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
This was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 05 March. …
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 10:45A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F
Elevation: 2.53′ low
Water Surface Temp: 54.7F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: NNW13-14 all morning with higher gusts
Sky Condition: Heavy grey clouds all morning with light to moderate precipitation about 50% of the time.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 80% illumination.
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area vic 565 – 30 fish slow smoking slabs
Area vic 826 – 13 fish slow smoking slabs
Area vic B0184G- 12 fish slow smoking slabs
Area vic B0238G- 20 fish slow smoking slabs
Area vic B0192C – 8 fish slow smoking slabs
Area vic 1943- 14 fish slow smoking slabs
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