Day: March 13, 2025

Am I My Brothers’ Beater? –105 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Tuesday morning, March 11, I welcomed aboard Bob Keith and his 13-year-old grandson, Zach Freeman.  I’d previously fished with Bob and Zach’s brothers.  Zach was keenly aware of his brothers’ results, and wanted badly to catch more on his trip than then did on theirs.  Here is how he accomplished that goal.

DATE: Monday, 11 March 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 18, 25, 26 March (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Grandfather and grandson Bob Keith and Zach Freeman were a deadly duo.  They put a total of 105 fish in the boat during their four-hour Spring Break 2025 trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although the fishing was productive, it was a bit of a one-trick-pony.  Every last one of the fish Bob and Zach landed came on one lure used on way, and that was the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab used with a “slow-smoking” tactic described below.
We fished a total of five areas, and the approach at each was identical:  find fish with well-tuned side imaging, mark and return to the fish with i-Pilot Link technology, get the thumper going to hold and consolidate the fish, then use the lure and tactic mentioned above to work the fish as long as they stayed interested.

RESULTS: 105 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:

  1. No helpful bird activity.
  2. The warming water it increasing fish metabolism and that is trumping some otherwise troublesome weather conditions.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 3:15PM on Wednesday, 12 March. …

0 feet 60.3F
5 feet 59.6F
10 feet 59.0F
15 feet 58.6F
20 feet 57.4F
25 feet 56.9F
30 feet 56.5F
35 feet 55.6F
40 feet 54.9F
45 feet 54.7F
50 Feet 53.6F
55 feet 53.2F

 

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 05 March. …

0 feet 55.3F
5 feet 55.6F
10 feet 55.6F
15 feet 55.6F
20 feet 55.6F
25 feet 55.6F
30 feet 55.6 F
35 feet 54.0F
40 feet 52.8F
45 feet 51.3F
50 feet 50.8F
55 feet 50.8F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 8A

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Elevation: 2.59′ low

Water Surface Temp: 54.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were light and southerly until picking up very suddenly from the SSW, going quickly to 16mph.

Sky Condition: Clear, bright skies all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 105

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 817 – 6 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B0118C – 39 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B201C – 15 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B243G – 13 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B0152JWC – 32 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

Bingo, Bango, Bongo – 171 Fish with the Covingtons

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Monday afternoon, March 10, I fished with three generations of Covington‘s – – grandma Terri Covington, her son, Dave, and Dave’s son, Andy. This trip was in celebration of Andy‘s forthcoming 12th birthday at the end of March. All three have fished with me previously on multiple occasions.

DATE: Monday, 10 March 2025 (PM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 18, 25, 26 March (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Terri, Dave, and Andy Covington with a few of the 171 fish they landed in four hours’ time in celebration of Andy’s upcoming birthday. The fish caught in deep, clear water in our first three hours included a lot of smaller fish.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Fewer, but better quality fish came on MAL Lures worked up shallow in the final hour prior to sunset.

PHOTO CAPTION: As we stayed in one place catching white bass, other fish moved in to vacuum up the regurgitated shad the white bass spit up as they were being reeled to the surface.  These are a few of the bonus blue cat my crew landed.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This afternoon, although skies were bright and cloudless, we had at least a ripple on the surface all afternoon. We enjoyed a full four hours of fishing for moderately active fish. In the first three hours, we fished on bottom in deeper water, around 34 to 38 feet deep, using white, 5/8 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab. I kept everyone reeling up off the bottom at the correct speed by using my fish-attracting thumper as a metronome so everyone turned their reel handles one rotation per thump of the thumper.
With over 140 fish landed in our first three hours, I offered in the final hour that we could keep right on doing what we were doing until the sun set,  or we could move to shallower water and cast MAL Lures horizontally for a change of pace.
Everyone left it to Andy to choose since it was his birthday, and he chose to go up shallow and cast. This worked out well, allowing an additional 31 fish to be landed using the sawtooth method in water under 20 feet deep.
Now, about this bingo, bango, bongo thing … these terms are bestowed individually upon the person in the party catching the first fish, the most fish, and the largest fish, respectively, however the qualifications for “first”, “most”, and “largest” are quite convoluted, and, it appeared to me, defined primarily by Dave who, as the trip concluded, suggested that he earned all of the titles.  I guess you’d say identifying those who earn these titles is much more of an art than a science, as no clear winner was intuitively obvious to me, the casual observer; but then my last name is not Covington.

RESULTS: 171 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 and the MAL Original to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. No helpful bird activity.
  2. The warming water it increasing fish metabolism and that is trumping some otherwise troublesome weather conditions.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 3:15{M on Wednesday, 12 March. …

0 feet 60.3F
5 feet 59.6F
10 feet 59.0F
15 feet 58.6F
20 feet 57.4F
25 feet 56.9F
30 feet 56.5F
35 feet 55.6F
40 feet 54.9F
45 feet 54.7F
50 Feet 53.6F
55 feet 53.2F

 

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 05 March. …

0 feet 55.3F
5 feet 55.6F
10 feet 55.6F
15 feet 55.6F
20 feet 55.6F
25 feet 55.6F
30 feet 55.6 F
35 feet 54.0F
40 feet 52.8F
45 feet 51.3F
50 feet 50.8F
55 feet 50.8F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 3:15P

End Time: 7:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 2.57′ low

Water Surface Temp: 55.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light but steady SW5 all afternoon.

Sky Condition: Clear, bright skies all evening.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 88% illumination.

GT = 65

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0171G – 51 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B0040G – 89 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B0116C – 31 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