CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, March 24, I fished with returning guests, Rudy P., And his two sons Max (age 16) and Roman (age 14), visiting from New Mexico. This family has relatives in the Austin area which they came to visit during the boys’ spring break.
It was immediately obvious that these three were in a competition from the moment they stepped on the boat. They kept count, compared sizes of fish caught, and chided one another. One of the best pokes came at Roman’s expense. He was on a bit of a dry run until I got him to slow his retrieve speed down while using the MAL Lure. His dad looked over and said, “Hey, you need training wheels with the rod?”.
Shortly after, Rudy landed our one and only hybrid of the trip. When I informed everyone we’d landed a hybrid, one of the boys asked, “What’s a hybrid?”.
Before I could answer, Rudy told the boys it was a special kind of fish with an electric motor. And so it went….
DATE: Monday, 24 March 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 04, 08, 10 April (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 05 April (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: 103 of 135 fish came on the MAL Original this morning. When side-imaging revealed fish on bottom in ~22 feet of water, I positioned the boat about a cast’s length away from the school and let the games begin.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
A mild cold front moved through the area last night, forcing a severe thunderstorm warning between 7 PM and 1 AM. Although spotty storms cells did develop, the main impact this morning was the clearing, drying conditions which accompanied the north-northwest wind blowing at below 9 mph all morning. I feel the wind shift and increase in velocity helped the fishing this morning until the winds began to slacken in the 11 o’clock hour.
Fishing continued today much as it ended up last week, with fish hanging shallow in the first 2+ hours following sunrise, then being pushed out deeper by the brightening sun thereafter. My three man crew landed 103 fish by 9:35, then added an additional 32 fish by the time we wrapped up around 11:45.
As the shallow water bite was tapering off, I gave my crew some options, and they expressed a preference in fishing deepwater with slabs using Garmin LiveScope, which is something they have enjoyed doing successfully with me previously .
In hindsight, we likely could have caught more fish by trying to follow the fish we’d found shallow as they transitioned out deeper, but the variety was enjoyable. All of the 103 shallow water fish came on the MAL Original with chartreuse tail. All of the fish caught in deeper, clear water were taken on the white, 5/8 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.
No angler photos from this trip. My crew preferred not to have their images appear on social media.
RESULTS: 135 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:
- 2 incidents of helpful bird activity this morning.
- Ratio of mature fish continues to rise with each passing day.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10AM on Friday, 21 March…
This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 3:15PM on Wednesday, 12 March…
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:35A
End Time: 11:45
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F
Elevation: 2.94′ low
Water Surface Temp: 60.3F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NNW8-9 all AM
Sky Condition: Wispy, high, white clouds at <5% on a blue sky
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 28% illumination.
GT = 40
Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area vic B0171C – 59 fish sawtoothing MAL Originals
Area vic B0170C – 18 fish sawtoothing MAL Originals
Area vic 188 – 26 fish sawtoothing MAL Originals
Area vic B0171G – 10 fish slow-smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic B0025G – 6 fish slow-smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic 1798 – 16 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