Bob Maindelle | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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DO YOU KNOW YOUR GULLS, SIR? — 172 FISH @ BELTON

April 21st, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, April 21, I fished with returning guest and prospective new fishing guide Will Crenshaw who resides on Lake Travis. Joining Will was a fishing buddy of his, Justin Ortiz.

Will is a capable multi-species angler who desires to offer family-oriented fishing trips on Lake Travis. Aside from catching fish today, Will wanted to pick my brain about establishing and maintaining growing a fishing guide business. When you get right down to the nuts and bolts of it, catching fish is actually one of the easier parts of running a fishing business. For that reason, we focused instead on business structure, licensure, insurance, taxes, marketing, logistics, maintenance, access, and other things which all small business owners must contend with themselves.

Here is how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 7 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Aspiring fishing guide Will Crenshaw (left) and Justin Ortiz caught and released 172 fish on a morning favorably impacted by the arrival of a cold front. The majority of their catch was made on the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail.

PHOTO CAPTION: This Franklin’s gull (often mistaken for a laughing gull) and about 10,000 of his buddies are using Belton Lake as a stopover point as they migrate back north. Today, these gulls helped put us on fish in the latter half of the morning as they spotted gamefish feeding on shad in open water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 21 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Thanks to the Corps of Engineers’ new (and unnecessarily complicated!!) system for paying for park access, Will and Justin got held up at the entry to our meeting point on Lake Belton, hence we got started a few minutes late. Fortunately, the heavy cloud cover kept the light level dimmed down, and things did not get started fishing-wise, until after we had launched and begun looking for fish for 10 or 12 minutes, so, the late start really didn’t hurt us.

Surprisingly, despite the violent weather overnight and resulting northwest winds this morning, the threadfin shad spawn was still taking place this morning, seemingly uninterrupted by the weather.

Unlike the rest of the mornings this week, we did not find any shad spawn-related topwater action to sight-cast to. Hence, all of our fishing today was done offshore using both vertical and horizontal tactics.

As is often the case with an incoming cold front, the fishing this morning was above average, and continued to improve as the northwest wind velocity increased.

Fish were aggressive, they were up off the bottom, they were moving parallel to the bottom at a brisk pace, and they reliably ran down, overtook, and struck our MAL Lures.

90% of our fishing this morning was done vertically using the smoking tactic while employing the MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail. The balance of our fishing, done at two separate locations, included, short periods of horizontal casting using the sawtooth method.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

I got a little worried around mid-morning as the gray cloud cover which had kept the light levels dimmed down nicely, began to clear. However, there was no need for concern, because as the skies cleared, the winds picked up and overrode any negative impact the brightening skies may have had. It was during this clearing process that birds, including a few terns, and a lot of Franklin’s gulls (with black heads) begin to work shad over open water, thus helping me identify three fish-holding areas which I had not recently tried fishing. Hopefully, this will bode well for next week’s clients.

By around 11:15, the fish activity level began to slack off, the birds began to settle on the water, and our catch rate began to decline. We stayed until exactly noon and wrapped up with 172 fish caught including one blue catfish, 13, short hybrid stripers, and the balance of 158 white bass, including over a dozen exceeding 13.5 inches.

TALLY: 172 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Franklin’s gulls were very active and helpful in fishing-finding in the latter half of the morning today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:38A

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 14.36 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.18′ rise over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 66.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW9-13 all morning.

Sky Condition: Grey skies for 2 hours, then rapid clearing to 30% white clouds on blue skies thereafter

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 2% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 714 – 54 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1552 (2 hops) – 53 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures

Area B0148C – 29 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 346 – 7 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0043G – 21 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures

Area B0188G – 8 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

HERDING AND HURTING — 107 FISH @ BELTON

April 20th, 2023April 20th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, April 20, I fished with long-time returning guest Matt Laakso from the Austin area.

Matt makes his living as a software salesman, and therefore very much values his downtime in the outdoors.

Matt always fishes with me at least once per year on or around his 23 April birthday. As soon as he steps off the boat, he asks me to put the following year’s birthday trip on the calendar. In this way, he has been able to enjoy some wonderful fishing during the peak spring season for many years now.

Although Matt has brought his adult son, Mitch, out in years past, this year he came out solo as Mitch is out in Arizona making his own way now. (We missed you, Mitch!!)

Here is how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 7 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Both hybrid striped bass like this one, and white bass, were herding (and hurting!), spawning threadfin shad up in shallow water for an extended period of time this morning, thanks to thick, grey cloud cover. This one fell for a shad-imitating MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail.

PHOTO CAPTION: Matt took this sweet pair of 14″ white bass while working a MAL Heavy in open water over 16-18 feet of water after the skies brightened and the fish pushed downward and outward away from the shoreline.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 20 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

We got going right at 7:15 AM under fairly thick gray cloud cover, and with a very light drizzle falling – – just enough to make you want to put on a rain jacket.

As was the case yesterday, white bass and hybrid stripers pushed up from out of deep water and were herding (and hurting!) shad up against a wind blown shoreline, using fellow schoolmates, the bank, the bottom, and the lake surface as objects to trap these spawning threadfin shad against.

I brought a cork rig for Matt after seeing yesterday’s churning action under similar conditions, but, we fairly quickly put that away after recognizing 1) there were far more fish beneath the surface than actually at or on the surface, and 2) that the choppy surface made it tougher than need be for the fish to find the streamer behind the cork.

I switched Matt over to an MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail. When fish were visibly boiling on the surface he would sight-cast to them and immediately begin his retrieve. If no fish were visible as he was preparing to cast, he would go ahead and cast, count the lure down anywhere from 3 to 6 counts, and then begin a straight, moderate retrieve. This accounted for 23 fish before the slowly brightening sky conditions pushed the gamefish back down toward bottom and back out toward deeper water.

After this, we observed birds working over a patch of open water of approximately 14 to 18 feet deep with occasional fish breaking the surface individually. Seeing this, Matt continued to cast horizontally using the countdown method and added another 11 fish to the count.

Once that shallow water action died, it was deep, open water, vertical work using MAL Dense Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope for the remainder of the trip. We hit four areas, each, giving up a fair number of fish, and finally left them still biting, albeit not overly aggressively, at 11:45 AM.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Matt’s final tally was exactly 107 fish, including 3 legal hybrid striped bass, 7 short striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 96 white bass.

TALLY: 107 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures and the Cork Rig here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Temperature profile to 65′ taken on 19 April…

0 feet, 67.8F
5 feet, 67.4F
10 feet, 66.9F
15 feet, 66.4F
20 feet, 66.0F
25 feet, 65.9F
30 feet, 65.3F
35 feet, 64.5F
40 feet, 63.8F
45 feet, 62.9F
50 feet, 61.9F
55 feet, 59.8F
60 feet, 57.8F
65 feet, 57.4F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 14.54 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .02′ rise over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 67.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 to 10 all morning.

Sky Condition: Grey skies all morning.

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1793 – 23 fish on sight-casting and counting down MAL Heavies

Area 1728 – 11 fish by counting down MAL Heavies

Area 1290 – 20 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1374 – 7 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures

Area 953 – 13 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0054G – 33 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

…HE WOULD DO WELL WITH KIDS! – 113 FISH @ BELTON

April 19th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, April 19, I fished with returning guest Dwight Stone of Georgetown, and a friend of his, first-time guest Kevin King.

Dwight is several years into retirement from the restaurant business, and Kevin is still working in the refrigeration industry, focused on supporting restaurants.

As our trip came to a close, Dwight was telling Kevin about his positive experiences having grandkids come out on the boat and fish with me. Kevin looked squarely at Dwight and said, “Yes, after dealing with the two of us for four hours, I can tell he would do well with kids!“.

Here is how the fishing went…

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 7 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Dwight Stone and Kevin King with Lake Belton white bass taken on MAL Lures. We sight-cast, smoked, and sawtoothed ’em today.

PHOTO CAPTION: This 8.75-pound bluecat slammed a MAL Heavy Lure which Kevin was working up in the upper third of the water column over ~14 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 19 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

This morning, we launched in a fine drizzle with the warmest, darkest, and cloudiest early morning conditions facing us thus far this week. The air temperature was 66F. This worked to our benefit, as it kept nearly all boat traffic off the lake, and it extended the duration of the shad spawn, keeping these baitfish shallow well into the first hour after sunrise.

After witnessing some bird action, we experienced our own action right off the bat by sightcasting to white bass and hybrid stripers blitzing shad on the surface in under 12 feet of water on a wind blown shoreline.

When the shad and/or gamefish were visible Dwight and Kevin sight cast to them and immediately begin retrieving. Otherwise, they tossed out, allowed the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail to sink to a three count, and then began retrieving. We landed 32 fish in this first hour, and those fish were by far the best quality of any of the locations we would fish this morning.

Once that low light, shallow water bite ended, we moved out to deeper water and relied on side imaging to find heavily schooled white bass in 28 to 32 feet of water. Using the interface between the i-Pilot Link system on my Minn Kota Ulterra and my Humminbird Solix 15, I was able to very precisely position atop these fish, despite the stiff wind. Using Garmin LiveScope, we dropped MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails down amongst these aggressive, schooled fish, and then cranked them upwards about six handle turns, watching for follows. If we got a follow, we would keep cranking until the fish either caught the bait or turned away.

We repeated this tactic at five other distinct locations. Only at the second location did we see fish out to the port side of the boat, thus allowing for the use of the horizontal sawtooth method. Otherwise, all of our fishing today was vertical using the aforementioned smoking tactic.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

When all was said and done, we landed 113 fish, including one freshwater drum, one 8-pound blue catfish, 3 legal hybrid striped bass, 8 juvenile hybrid striped bass, with the balance being white bass.

TALLY: 113 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Temperature profile to 65′ …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 14.56 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .05′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-11 building to SSE13 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Grey skies and light drizzle all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 1% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1793 – 32 fish on sight-casting and counting down MAL Heavies

Area vic 714 – 21 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 294 – 12 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic 953 – 22 fish on smoked MAL Heavies & sawtoothed MAL Dense Lures

Area 714 (2nd stop) – 13 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0169G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic B0171G – 7 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

BUDDIES FROM WAY BACK — 129 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

April 18th, 2023April 18th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, April 18, I fished with returning long-time client Jack Oliver and four of his buddies from “way back” – joining me was Mark Kay, Barry Gann, Brad Rabbe, and Darrell Connally.

Most of these fellows had memories of friendships together from the town of Robinson, TX, going back to the first grade.

Here is how the fishing went…

Peak spring dates are just about gone. Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 7 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jack Oliver, Mark Kay, Brad Rabbe, Darrell Connally, and Barry Gann with a sampling of the morning’s white bass catch made with MAL Heavy Lures on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jack Oliver landed our largest fish of the trip. This 5 7/8-pound bluecat fell for the same MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail which fooled the white bass all morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 18 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

With an air temperature right at 10 degrees warmer than yesterday thanks to warming southeasterly winds and overnight cloud cover, we had net warming over the past 24 hours, thus nudging the water temperature up a little bit more.

The white bass fishing is excellent right now with fish feeding on adult threadfin shad very aggressively and willing to chase them down long distances to overtake and eat them.

We got on fish right away this morning and experienced a strong bite up until around 10A. At this point, we’d already amassed a catch of exactly 100 fish with many of the fish we were catching from the area we were fishing at that time being smallish, so, I left fish to find fish, and at this time it seemed the bite began to slack off as the light level dimmed thanks to increasingly heavy cloud cover.

After 10AM, we found 3 separate schools of fish and had very little interest expressed by any fish in those schools. So, I kept moving until I found more fish to fish for, hoping both that they would be more aggressive and that the skies would brighten back up a bit.

Both of these things panned out, although the bite never got going back again as strong as it had been up through 10A.

We went on to put a total of 129 fish in the boat. Every single one of these fish came on the MAL Heavy Lure with chartreuse tail worked with a smoking tactic using spinning gear in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

We fished eight locations today, finding fish at five of them, and landed a total of 129 fish including 1 bluecat, 11 juvenile hybrid striped bass and 117 white bass.

TALLY: 129 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: There was minor threadfin shad spawning this morning on windblown shorelines. No laughing gull activity observed.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Elevation: 14.48 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .01′ rise over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 64.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW8 at trip’s start, slowly shifting and building to SSE13 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Grey skies at 70% at trip’s start, increasing to 100% and thickening toward trip’s end, with light rain falling from noon to 1P, then brightening up in the afternoon through 100% grey cloud cover which thinned out.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 4% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 294 – 20 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 958 – 26 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1945 – 54 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0148C – 21 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0185G – 8 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

GPS SAYS IT’S A 10-DAY TRIP — 159 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

April 17th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, April 17, I fished with returning father and son team, Oscar and Mateo, Santiago, accompanied by a new client, Mr. Jonathan, Briscoe’s of Belton.

The Santiagos operate Wooden Woodworks, a custom cabinetry shop based in Salado, TX, and Jonathan is the Assistant Vice President of commercial lending at Horizon Bank in Temple.

As we wrapped up the trip today, I snapped a few photos of my three man crew with a few of the white bass they had landed. Oscar and Jonathan started joking about how it might be to get yanked out of a school of fish in one part of the lake and then released to swim amongst strangers in a different school at a totally different location on the same lake. Jonathan, speaking for the fish, said something to the effect of, “Yeah man, my GPS says I have a 10-day journey back to the ‘hood!”.

Here is how the fishing went…

Peak spring dates are just about gone. Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6 and 7 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Oscar and Mateo Santiago and Jonathan Briscoe with some chunky Lake Belton white bass caught under very pleasant, dry, cool spring conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 17 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Despite a few negative factors, including bright skies and nearly calm winds, the low to mid 60° water temperature now found from the surface to the bottom of Lake Belton has the white bass truly cranked up. We got on fish early and stayed on fish right to the end today.

There were dribs and drabs of spawning shad on the shoreline this morning, but by observing both birds and fish, I could tell there was much more shad action offshore. One needed only to observe LiveScope for a few minutes while on Spot Lock to see abundant schools of shad racing about just off the bottom with gamefish often in hot pursuit.

We fished vertically exclusively for the first two hours of the trip, then, as the fish begin to really shift into overdrive, we changed over to using a horizontal tactic whenever the vertical fishing showed even an inkling of slowing down.

For our vertical fishing today we chose the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail as our go to bait. When we fished horizontally using the sawtooth method, we went with the MAL Dense with white body and chartreuse tail for that task.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

We fished only five locations today, finding fish at each one, and landed a total of 159 fish including 2 largemouth bass, 11 juvenile hybrid striped bass, and 146 white bass.

TALLY: 159 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: There was minor threadfin shad spawning this morning following an overnight temperature drop to 49F.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 49F

Elevation: 14.49 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .02′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 64.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW3 at trip’s start, slowly shifting and building to SSE13 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Clear skies for the first 2 hours, then puffy white clouds at 20% coverage moved in from the E

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 9% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1188 – 22 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0041G/187 – 30 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0075C – 29 fish on smoked MAL Heavies and sawtoothed MAL Denses

Area 187 – 19 fish on smoked MAL Heavies and sawtoothed MAL Denses

Area 953 – 59 fish on smoked MAL Heavies and sawtoothed MAL Denses

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

TIME SURE FLIES — 84 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

April 14th, 2023April 14th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Yesterday morning, Thursday, April 13, I fished with first time guests, Patrick and Aubri Lin from the north Austin area. I very much appreciate long time client Dwight Stone referring these folks my way for their father-daughter adventure.

Patrick and his wife, both chiropractors, have a private practice, and Aubri is a homeschooled third grader who, I might add, can handle a spinning rod pretty darn well.

Here is how the fishing went…

Peak spring dates are just about gone. Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 6, 7, and 8 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Patrick Lin and his 8-year-old daughter, Aubri, with some solid Lake Belton white bass taken mainly by working MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails vertically using a smoking tactic.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 13 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Today was the first day of a returning southerly wind after a week of winds from the north following last week’s cold front. As we launched, the winds were still very light from the northeast, then subsided for over an hour, and then got going, gently at first, from the southeast, slowly building up to around 6 or 7 mph.

As I compared notes at the boat ramp with others on Lake Belton, and then by phone with a buddy over on Buchanan, we agreed that the fishing was pretty slow in the first half of the morning, and then began to improve as the winds picked up. Indeed, we only landed 16 fish in our first two full hours on the water, then wound up with 68 additional fish in our final two hours – – a move than four fold increase in our catch in the last half of the morning as compared to the first half.

For all but the final 45 minutes, Patrick and Aubri used MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails fished vertically with a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope. While the fishing was slow, bottom-hugging fish would, on occasion, chase the lure upward, overtake it, and get hooked.

In the final two hours as the fishing improved, fish would rise up off the bottom on their own, drawn there both by the splasher and by the commotion created by previously hooked fish struggling up through the water column, and by released fish swimming back down through the water column.

As we observe quite frequently, whenever those fish are suspended up off the bottom, those individuals highest up near the surface are the most aggressive fish. I advised Patrick and Aubri to try to target those fish individually, and attempt to bring their lures right past those fishes’ noses with the aid of LiveScope. As we sat and caught fish routinely, I regularly glanced at side-imaging, and, from time to time, spotted fishable groups of fish to the port or starboard side of the boat.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

When I spotted this, I coached Patrick through the process of correctly presenting the MAL Dense Lure with a sawtooth presentation. He really enjoyed the casting and found it more engaging, so, for the final 45 minutes he continued to improve his skills using that tactic and caught fish as steadily as Aubri did continuing on fishing vertically.

Here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

Things were going just fine but, quite suddenly, at 12:03 PM, Patrick exclaimed, “Bob, we’ve got to go back! I’ve got to see clients at 1:45, and I didn’t realize it was already past noon.“.

Yes, time sure flies when you’re having fun.

We wrapped up this trip with exactly 84 fish caught and released, including one freshwater drum, one large mouth bass, 11 short hybrid, and 71 white bass.

TALLY: 84 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: The threadfin shad spawn has begun once again after stopping shortly after it began early last week, thanks to the cold weather from last Thursday through early this week.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 12:00P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Elevation: 14.41 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .04′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 64.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NE1-2 for the first 30 minutes, then calm until ~10A, then picking up SE4-6

Sky Condition: Clear skies for the first 2 hours, then puffy white clouds at 10% coverage moved in from the NW

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 49% illumination.

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0067G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 1882 – 10 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic 1544 – 35 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area vic 1389 – 33 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

A PRETTY OBTUSE GUY – 140 FISH @ BELTON

April 12th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, April 12, I fished with returning guests, Dr. Jim Wood and Sky Sparks.

Dr. Wood is a retired surgeon and wound care doctor and Sky makes his living as a medical scribe.

This morning’s weather was nearly cookie-cutter as compared to yesterday, and the fish did much the same things at the same times and in the same places as yesterday.

Here is how the fishing went…

—————–

Peak spring dates are just about gone. Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 01, 06-08 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Dr. Jim Wood of McGregor, TX, and Sky Sparks of Killeen, TX, pair up for a 140-fish morning on Lake Belton. The men worked MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails vertically for the vast majority of their catch on this bright, cool, calm morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 12 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Our first 45 minutes or so were fairly slow as it was dead calm with a bright, rising sun and conditions cold enough to require a couple upperbody layers on, but not quite cold enough for gloves.

While the fish were slow, we used white, 5/8 ounce, bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with an easing tactic to coax lethargic, bottom-hugging fish up off bottom in a attempt to get them to chase and strike our rising baits. We landed four fish this way before departed, hoping to find at least a ripple on the lake’s surface in water more open than the water we were currently fishing.

After finding just the slightest ripple on the water over top of an area which normally produces well this time of year, I watched sonar and saw the telltale sign of bottom-hugging white bass in right at 34 feet of water. As we set up on top of these fish, the commotion we created combined with that of the splasher, began to pull these fish up off bottom very quickly before we even dropped our baits down.

Although I had intended to start off here with slabs, this behavior indicated to me we needed to go with a more aggressive approach, so, I switched everybody over to MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails so we could drop straight down and race these upwards with a smoking tactic. These fish responded well, and we spent 2.75 hours pulling fish after fish from the school, for a total of 110 fish landed at this area.

Whenever the action waned a bit, I kept Jim and Sky working vertically and I worked an MAL Dense out horizontally to draw fish in from around us by getting them to follow the lure (or a hooked fish which I slowly reeled in) back to the boat, thus “restocking the pond” for Jim and Sky.

During this time, we slowly found ourselves surrounded by other boats, but the MAL Heavy really outperformed everything else around us. Observing this, Jim said something to the effect of, “Now, I’m a pretty obtuse guy, but if I was one of these guys in these other boats, I think I would ask, “What the heck are you guys using?”.“

Definition of obtuse according to the Oxford Dictionary: annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand.

By about 11 AM it was clear these fish were slowing way down, so I moved us to the same location where I wrapped up yesterday’s trip with a strong final bite.

What I found directly over the channel were, literally, thousands of white bass milling around about 12 feet up off the bottom in a long school, which was about 12 feet thick. I Spot-Locked atop one portion of the school, got the splasher going in order to hold some of these fish under the boat, and Jim and Sky worked their baits with a smoking tactic, focusing on those fish highest up in the water column.

I don’t know if these fish were spawning (thanks to a lack of flow in the tributaries), or migrating, but they definitely were not feeding. Despite the huge number of fish present, we still had to work for these. One tip I gave Jim and Sky was to single out one fish at the top of the school and try to run their MAL right in front of its nose instead of coming through the fish or behind the fish as it appeared on Garmin LiveScope. We added a final 26 white bass to our count here before calling it a good day as these fish begin to lose interest right at noon.

Our 140 fish haul included one largemouth bass, one crappie, two legal hybrid striped bass, and four short hybrid striped bass, along with 132 white bass.

TALLY: 140 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Here is the water temperature profile down to 45′ taken yesterday (11 April)…

0 feet, 63.8F
5 feet, 63.9F
10 feet, 64.1F
15 feet, 63.9F
20 feet, 63.8F
25 feet, 63.7F
30 feet, 63.5F
35 feet, 62.8F
40 feet, 61.7F
45 feet, 61.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 12:00P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Elevation: 14.37 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .04′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 63.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NE3-4 after the first hour’s calm conditions

Sky Condition: Clear skies for the first 2 hours, then puffy white clouds at 10% coverage moved in from the NW

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 60% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1371 – 4 fish early on eased slabs

Area 717 – 110 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 0158/B0067G – 26 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

GO HORIZONTAL, YOUNG MAN! – 145 FISH @ BELTON

April 11th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:This morning, Tuesday, April 11th, I fished with members of the Oliver family – – some of my oldest clients in terms of years they’ve been coming out with me.

This morning, Jack Oliver coordinated the trip for his three adult boys, Asa, Isaac, and Eli, as well as for two of his three brothers – – Joe and Jamie (we’re gonna get Jeff out before long!!).

As it turned out, a family emergency arose just as we begin fishing our first spot. I took Joe back in so he could tend to that at the same time Isaac, who was arriving an hour late, was just pulling up. So, I only had a net of five people aboard at any given time this morning.

Here is how the fishing went.…

————————————————————————–

Peak spring dates are just about gone. Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 01, 06-08 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left Jamie, Asa, Jack, Isaac, and Eli Oliver with a sampling of the nice fish they caught and released on Lake Belton using the MAL Heavy with a sawtooth tactic.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 11 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

This morning’s conditions were the toughest I’ve faced in quite some time. The cold front, which came in late last week, had its high pressure fully built in this morning, meaning, no cloud cover, bright sunshine, and calm conditions. Accordingly, we struggled not to find fish, but to get fish we found to get excited about chasing and biting our lures.

I found that parking right on top of the most dense schools of fish I could possibly find and using an easing tactic with 5/8 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab at least began to put fish in the boat as one in perhaps every 15 to 25 fish would begin swimming upwards after the lure with enough gusto to overtake it and bite.

Things stayed tough until right around 10 AM when a light northeast breeze begin to move the water and puffy white clouds begin to move in from the southwest.

Things started happening quickly at this point. I combed over an area with sonar and found fish blanketing the bottom, yet not very far up off of it, for a span of about 100 yards. Seeing there was no brush in the area, I moved shallower than, and parallel to, this group of fish hanging on the 28 foot contour mark. I Spot-Locked, put everyone abreast of one another on the starboard gunwale, and had them cast out horizontally using MAL Heavies with chartreuse tails using the sawtooth method.

Immediately, we started boating fish after fish as they came over the side as singles, doubles, and even a few triples. We worked that area thoroughly with two “short hops” after the initial anchorage for about 90 minutes picking up 51 fish there.

Around 11:45, those fish gave out and I made a move and found a nearly identical scenario some distance away. We did the same thing using the MAL heavies with a sawtooth method, and put a final 16 fish in the boat.

Here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

One huge take away today was how much more interested these fish were in a horizontal retrieve than in a vertical retrieve.

Included in our tally of 145 fish this morning were four short hybrid stripers, two freshwater drum, one flathead catfish, one largemouth bass, and 137 white bass, of which approximately 27 were short.

TALLY: 145 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Here is the water temperature profile down to 45’…

0 feet, 63.8F
5 feet, 63.9F
10 feet, 64.1F
15 feet, 63.9F
20 feet, 63.8F
25 feet, 63.7F
30 feet, 63.5F
35 feet, 62.8F
40 feet, 61.7F
45 feet, 61.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 8A

End Time: 12:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Elevation: 14.32 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .00′ change over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 63.8F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NE4-5 after the first 2 hours’ calm conditions

Sky Condition: Clear skies for the first 2 hours, then puffy white clouds at 25% coverage moved in from the SW

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 80% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1819 – 7 fish under low-light conditions on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0016C – 18 fish on eased 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0184C – 12 fish on eased 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 0149 – 41 fish on eased 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0066G – 51 fish on sawtoothed MAL Dense

Area vic 0141 – 16 fish on sawtoothed MAL Dense

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

THAT’S WHAT DADS DO! — 102 FISH, LAKE BELTON

April 10th, 2023April 10th, 2023 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, April 10th, I fished with father-and-son team Joey and Wyatt Sapien.

The fishing was solid this morning after a topsy-turvy weather run over the past 5 days. Thanks to grey cloud cover and a gentle breeze, the fish bit well for the last three hours of our four hour trip.

As we wrapped things up at the close of the trip, Joey semi-exaggerated the events which played out, saying, “Yep, we caught 102 fish, and I landed about 12 of those and also managed to get both of the two snags we had to go get with the trolling motor.”

I told 12-year-old Wyatt, “See that’s the kind of things that dads to to make their sons look good!”.

Here is how the fishing went…

————————————————————————–

Peak spring dates are just about gone. Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are June 01, 06-08 (AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Father-and-son time for Joey Sapien and 12-year-old Wyatt. These fellows took 102 fish on MAL Heavy and MAL Dense Lures this morning on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Wyatt landed the first smallmouth bass of his life this morning, then landed another one about 20 minutes later. Both took the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail counted down to a 6-count.

PHOTO CAPTION: If it eats shad, it ate the MAL Heavy Lure this morning. This largemouth bass and four others like if fell for this threadfin shad imitator; a few others were lost “on the jump” before the made it over the gunwale.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 10 April 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Our first hour was a bit slow as it was pretty gloomy thanks to thick, grey cloud cover and light winds. In our second hour, winds picked up and the sky brightened, although still fully greyed over, and the bite began to develop.

We took 47 of our first 49 fish under birds working bait with white bass and schoolie-sized largemouth below them. When we actually saw fish boiling on shad, Joey and Wyatt cast just beyond them and immediately began to retrieve; otherwise, they counted their MAL Heavy Lures (w/ chartreuse tails) down for 4 to 6 seconds and then began a moderate retrieve straight back to the boat.

This catch included 2 smallmouth bass and 5 largemouth bass.

After this action died we moved on and found another school of white bass well-spread across the bottom in ~28′ adjacent to the channel. I Spot-Locked in deep water and we cast shallower, toward the shoreline using MAL Dense Lures (chartreuse tails) with a sawtooth method.

Here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

We repositioned on these fish three separate times and took our final tally up to exactly 102 fish.

Of the 102 fish we landed, 5 were largemouth bass, 4 were hybrid striped bass, 2 were smallmouth bass, and the remaining 91 fish were white bass, all of which were legal-sized fish including one white bass landed by Wyatt which measured 14 7/8-inches.

TALLY: 102 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: The laughing gulls now make up the majority of the population of gulls still inhabiting Lake Belton. These are not as credible as ringbills and terns.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:35A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F

Elevation: 14.32 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .02′ rise over the last 24 hrs. thanks to 3 days of light rain (which produced very little runoff).

Water Surface Temp: 64.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NE4-5 after the first hour’s calm conditions

Sky Condition: Moderate grey cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 80% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0076C – 49 fish on MAL Heavy Lures sight-cast or counted down

Area B0067C – 53 fish on sawtoothed MAL Dense; 3 hops

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)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com