Day: March 17, 2025

A Chilly Spring Break Part 2 – 51 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS:  This morning, Monday, March 17, part two of Texas Spring Break 2025 began. I welcomed aboard Dimitri Hammond and his 12-year-old son Vaylen. The two had limited prior fishing experience, so, we reviewed the basics of using spinning gear for casting before we left the dock.  Both picked up the fundamentals quickly, and we were off to hunt fish.

DATE: Thursday, 17 March 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING:  25, 26 March (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 29 March (AM)

 

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: 12-year-old Vaylen Hammond and his dad, Dimitri, joined me for a Spring Break trip which has been three years in the making thanks to busy schedules and more.  The pair wound up boating 51 fish on a combination of horizontal and vertical tactics.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We had a little interruption in the recent warming trend over the weekend, and temperatures fell to 42° at sunrise this morning with no cloud cover, but at least a little wind all morning, and in part made up for those cold, bright skies.
We started this morning‘s trip in mid depths as the shallow water which has been holding fish routinely was devoid of fish on this cold morning. We used sonar and located some low light fish in the first 90 minutes of the morning in 14 to 18 feet of water. These fish responded well to a MAL Original worked horizontally with a sawtooth method. We fished three locations over this span of time and put 36 fish in the boat.
When this mid-depth bite wound down, we moved to deeper (and also cooler) water and worked much more slowly with white, 5/8 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs in 30 to 40 feet of water to bring our final total up to exactly 51 fish.
100% of this morning’s catch consisted of white bass.

RESULTS: 51 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and the MAL Original with chartreuse tail to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. No helpful bird activity this morning
  2. The long warming trend halted over the weekend with overnight temps in the 40’s the past several mornings.
  3. Mulberry leaves sprouted; live oak catkins and old leaves are falling; turtles sightings are becoming more common.

 

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: 42F

Elevation: 2.79′ low

Water Surface Temp: 58.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were manageable all morning with just a ripple from the SW until ~10A, the building quickly to SSW16+

Sky Condition: Wispy, high, white clouds at <5% on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 90% illumination.

GT = 0

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0127C  – 15 fish sawtoothing MAL Originals

Area vic B0116C – 7 fish sawtoothing MAL Originals

Area vic 788 – 14 fish sawtoothing MAL Originals 

Area vic 0147 – 11 fish slow-smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 1882 – 4 fish slow-smoking Hazy Eye 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