CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, April 23, I fished the second of 26 special fisheries research trips taking place between now and April 2026. These trips are aimed at collecting white bass so they can be measured, weighed, and released in support of a study conducted by students and faculty at Temple College comparing the populations of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir and Lake Belton.
Doing the catching this morning was returning guest Matt Laakso, and doing the research was Dr. Jason Locklin, Caleb Fry, and Mervin Narito.
If you would like to be a part of this effort, and get a $50 discount for the (very) minor inconvenience of having researchers aboard, please consider the following dates and contact me ASAP…
June 2025:18th Wednesday Belton – OPEN OR 19th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN
July 2025:16th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 17th Wednesday – Stillhouse – OPEN
August 2025:14th Thursday – Belton – OPEN OR 15th Friday – Stillhouse – OPEN
September 2025: 20th Saturday – Belton – Open OR 27th Saturday – Stillhouse – FILLED
October 2025: 18th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 25th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN
November 2025: 8th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 15th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN
December 2025: 06th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 13th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN
January 2026: 17th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 24th Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN
February 2026: 14th Saturday – Belton – OPEN OR 21 Saturday – Stillhouse – OPEN
March 2026: 11th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 12th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN
April 2026: 15th Wednesday – Belton – OPEN OR 16th Thursday – Stillhouse – OPEN
DATE: Wednesday, 23 April 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Matt Laakso enjoyed a multi-species catch this morning as just about every species in Lake Belton which eats shad visited his hook. Not shown are the blue catfish and freshwater drum that Matt also added to his catch — 67 fish in all.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
We had some turbulent weather pass through between 3 and 5 AM this morning. This came in the form of a line of thunderstorms from the west. After the storms cleared, it was humid, balmy, gray, and with light southwesterly winds. As I picked my crew up at the dock, I felt encourage by the conditions, but, on our way to our first area, all of that moved off to the east, and we were left with high-pressure conditions with just the lightest ripple on the water from the east-northeast. We struggled to even find fish to fish for for about 90 minutes until the winds picked up and shifted just south of east. From that point on, we managed to catch consistently.
Once again, while things were tough (as the bite was starting and again as it was tapering off), fish would not stay excited very long about chasing artificial baits, yet, when live baits were presented, these same fish hit without reluctance. Once the bite really turned on, and fish begin to move up off the bottom, then artificial baits caught fish just fine.
Matt really enjoyed the variety of fish he caught – – one of the benefits of fishing live bait. Over our 4+ hours on the water we landed white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, blue catfish, and freshwater drum. By the time the morning by started to shut down around 11:20, we’d put 67 fish in the boat. Once 11:30 arrived, the fish were completely shut down, not even responding to live bait.
RESULTS: 67 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO THE “SMOKING” RETRIEVE: 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: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS:
- Threadfin shad spawn continues.
- No helpful bird activity.
- Just as fish were first turning on, they quickly got excited and just as quickly lost interest in artificials; live bait was the key to continuing to catch fish during this time
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…
This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:15A
End Time: 11:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F
Elevation: 4.24′ low
Water Surface Temp: 66.7F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for first 90 minutes, then ESE5-6 thereafter
Sky Condition: Thin, grey cloud cover for just 15 minutes then quickly cleared to
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 23% illumination.
GT = 55
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area vic 1798 – 14 fish initially on smoked Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, then on live shad
Area vic 1614 – 30 fish – initially on bait, then bite improved as wind got stronger, and switched over to smoking Bladed 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