CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, April 9, I welcomed aboard a crew of five for a morning of live bait fishing on Lake Belton. Joining me were Justin and Daylan Sharrock, Shane LaCanne, Kyle Kohring, and Shayne Wilson. The four men have been friends for many years now, and Daylan is Justin‘s 16-year-old son.
Justin is a public school teacher and coach in the Austin area, Daylan is working his way through high school, Shane is engaged in the Central Texas real estate market, Kyle works for a retail food manufacturer, and Shayne is a salesman in the packaging industry.
DATE: Thursday, 08 May 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: 12 June (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Justin and Daylan Sharrock, Shane LaCanne, Kyle Kohring, and Shayne Wilson, each with a white bass taken from 23-41 feet of water on live shad.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left with a mixed bag of freshwater species landed on live bait today: from left: Justin Sharrock with a blue catfish, Daylan Sharrock with a hybrid striped bass, Kyle Kohring with a largemouth bass, and Shane LaCanne with a white bass. We also caught one freshwater drum — 5 species in all today.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:Northerly winds continued today following heavy storms on Tuesday morning. The shad spawning activity under cool, clear conditions was minimal this morning.
As we got going, there was about 40% white cloud cover on a blue sky with winds picking up from the northwest to around 8 to 9 mph. As mid morning approached, the winds slacked off, and the skies cleared. In our final hour, the winds picked back up, still from due north, and light gray cloud cover filled in to about 85% coverage.
Today I went back to fishing live bait, as this crew’s desire was to land hybrid striped bass, and the odds of doing so are greatly enhanced using live shad. As a result, our numbers came down, but the quality of the fish and average size was certainly better than would be experienced with using lures only.
We fished four locations today all using freshly caught threadfin shad on downlines with rods kept in rod holders to avoid premature hook sets.
Our catch was a mixed bag of white bass, hybrid striped bass, blue catfish, largemouth bass, and a solo freshwater drum thrown in for good measure.
I have all of my fluorocarbon leaders cut to the same exact length so that when the egg sinker above the leader contacts bottom, two cranks of one of the matching set of six Ambassador round reels will bring the baited hook to exactly one foot above the bottom. Depending on what shows on sonar and the size and species of fish we were catching, I had my crew adjust their baits anywhere from 2 to 3 cranks off bottom.
We fished until 11:40 AM and by that time had landed a total of 97 fish with the largest being a 4 pound hybrid striper, with numerous blue cat in the 3+ pound range.
RESULTS: 97 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
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS:
- Threadfin shad spawn was back on after brief interruption due to a cold front Sat. – Mon., 3 – 5 May.
- No helpful bird activity.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
This was the previous water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow measured with a FishHawk TD device around 11:15AM, Friday, 02 May…
This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:40AM on Thursday, 24 April
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 11:40A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F
Elevation: 2.59′ low (a 0.06′ rise in 24 hours)
Water Surface Temp: 72.1F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: NW8-9 and slowly easing back to calm by mid-morning before picking back up to due N10-12 in our final 70 minutes
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning with light fog at (obscured) sunrise
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 86% illumination.
GT = 135
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
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