WHO I FISHED WITH:   This past Monday, May 3rd, I fished with Jack Oliver and his three sons, Asa, Isaac, and Eli, as well as Jack’s brother, Joe, and one of Jack’s old high school buddies, Darrell Connally — a six man crew.

We planned back at the start of the year for this to be a hybrid striper-focused trip, but the hybrid fishing has been a big disappointment thus far — I’m not catching them, my fellow guides are not catching them, the bank fishermen fishing the morning shad spawn aren’t catching them.

This is normally the time of year for big numbers of these quality fish, but, thus far, it has been a bust.

Jack and I discussed this several days prior to this trip and agreed we’d give it a few hours right off the bat, but that I’d come prepared to change over to targeting white bass if the hybrid did not materialize yet again.

PHOTO CAPTION: First-time guest Darrell Connally of Waco scored one of the two hybrid we labored long and hard for this morning.  No, it’s definitely not “hybrid time” — in fact, I’m wondering if there will be a “hybrid time” this spring at all.

PHOTO CAPTION: Long-time client Asa Oliver took the other of the two hybrid we scored on live shad this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: Isaac Oliver came up with a surprise … this 7-plus pound smallmouth buffalo slammed his live shad and was cleanly lip-hooked with the Gamakatsu Kahle-style hooks we set out this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 03 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

We put in 2.75 hours of effort trying multiple areas which typically hold hybrid by mid-April. Now, in early May, there are still precious few fish in these areas.  During this time we landed 2 legal hybrid, 1 blue cat, 1 smallmouth buffalo, and 4 white bass on large, hand-picked, quality threadfin shad.

With so few hybrid to show for our efforts, and under ideal conditions (grey skies with good southerly winds), we decided at that point to change our focus to white bass.

We found fish at three distinct areas and, after extending the trip by about an hour, managed to put a total of 84 more fish in the boat — all white bass — for a grand total on the morning of 92 fish.

Unfortunately, the early hunt for hybrid came at the expense of targeting white bass during the better (low light) portion of the morning, but, it was a risk we were willing to take.  IF the hybrid turn on this year, one party willing to roll the dice like this will be the first to cash in.  One silver lining: with some operations taking their business to other lakes due to Belton’s poor hybrid action thus far this season, there is now no crowding to contend with on weekdays.

The white bass are quite abundant and continue to filter back downstream following their annual spawning run.  The rigors of spawning and the rising water temperature have these fish hungry and feeding aggressively for long periods of time. Even when the weather is off, these fish can still be caught in abundance right now.

We gave the original MAL Lure a workout with 6 rods going constantly and everyone tuned in with Garmin LiveScope to make up for some lost time in loading up on the white bass we caught and released.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 92 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Shad were running hard in a number of areas this morning, thanks to a balmy southerly wind and an air temperature greater than the water temperature experienced overnight.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:00A

End Time: 12:00 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation:  0.56 feet low, +0.13 24-hour change, 26 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 66.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: S12-14 the entire morning with gusts 15-16

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover at trip start time, steadily clearing to blue skies with <20% white cloud cover by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Last Quarter with 53% illum.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 835 to 344 – 5 fish on live shad including our only 2 legal hybrid

**Area B0083G – a suspended band of white bass between 45-50 feet which were tapering off as we encountered them

**Area 1469 to 295 – caught most of our white bass here with 6 short hops

**Area B0077G – added a final 12 to our count here around noon as the bite was shutting down quickly

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning, May 1st, I conducted the third SKIFF trip of the 2021 season.

SKIFF is an acronym for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. It is a program now in its 12th year, sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers, and supported by individuals and entities, all of whom desire that kids separated from a parent by that parent’s military duty, be given an opportunity to experience the outdoors through fishing during that time of separation, free of charge.  The program offers a time of respite for the home-front parents who made need a short break from single-parenting.

This morning I was joined by 15-year-old Matthew Merchant of Copperas Cove.  Matthew’s dad, US Army Captain Courtney Merchant, is currently separated from his family attending a course qualifying him to become a hospital chaplain.  He has been away from his family for over a year’s time now.

Following Chaplain Merchant’s graduation later this month up in Washington, the entire family will relocate from Fort Hood to Fort Gordon, Georgia.  Having been the son of a soldier and having attended three high schools in four years, I sympathized with what Matthew and his sister, Allison, are facing.

PHOTO CAPTION:   Matthew Merchant, son of US Army Captain Courtney Merchant and his wife, Michelle, enjoyed a catch of 137 fish on Stillhouse.  This trip, offered free of charge, was sponsored by the Austin Fly Fisher’s SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) program.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 01 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

This trip came together, literally, overnight.  I had another trip planned with a pair of brothers, aged 12 and 14, but, when their mom saw the rainy forecast, she opted to reschedule.  I knew there was great potential for success given the low pressure system causing the rain, and, since I’d fished with Matthew once before and knew he was pretty resilient, offered to take him on last-minute’s notice.

As I arrived at lakeside and prepped for the trip, I did so in a steady, light rain.  As Matthew arrived at 7:30AM, we got him into a “loaner” rainsuit, as it was still raining.  It continued to rain as we made our way to our first fishing area, but then had stopped by the time we arrived.  It never rained another drop for our entire 4 hours on the water.

We spent an unproductive first hour flat-line trolling in shallow water because 1) it was so grey and gloomy, I felt shallow water fish would be our best option (where light was penetrating to bottom well), and 2) I suspected late-returning spawned out white bass would be around.  This did not work out.

I began searching deeper and we finally put the puzzle together finding fish around the 30-foot mark, just as they have been at Belton Lake lately.  We fished 4 areas successfully, all with vertical tactics using the MAL Lure on spinning gear.  Each scenario was nearly identical … we’d spot fish on sonar holding within a foot of bottom, Spot-Lock atop them, get them stirred up by working our lures, then, once the first fish or two was hooked, the whole school in that vicinity would engage and we’d catch the fire out of them for 10-15 minutes until the flurry settled back down, tapered off, and necessitated a move.

Sonar was the key today.  There were no birds feeding, no bait skipping on the surface, no fish boiling, nor any other clue to the fishes’ presence other than sonar signatures.

We finished up at 11:30 with 137 fish landed, 100% of which were white bass.

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 137 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Rain driven by low-pressure often yields better than average results and, as was the case today, just about cleared the lake of other boaters/anglers.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation:  0.27 feet low, +0.01 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE9-11

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning; sun breaking through as we arrived back at the dock

Moon Phase: Last quarter; 53% illumination

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0005C – 52 whites on MAL Lures

**Area vic 810 – 10 whites on MAL Lures

**Area vic 547 – 32 whites on MAL Lures

**Area vic 074 – 43 whites on MAL Lures

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday evening, April 29th, I conducted the second SKIFF trip of the 2021 season.

SKIFF is an acronym for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. It is a program now in its 12th year, sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers, and supported by individuals and entities, all of whom desire that kids separated from a parent by that parent’s military duty, be given an opportunity to experience the outdoors through fishing during that time of separation, free of charge.  The program offers a time of respite for the home-front parents who made need a short break from single-parenting.

On this SKIFF adventure, I welcomed aboard Mrs. Ashley Patton and her two daughters, Willow and Athena Tripp.

The girls’ father, U.S. Army Sergeant Brian Tripp is currently away from Fort Hood attending short-term training at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.  Tripp, who has served for nine years, serves soldiers by providing communications connectivity to remote locations.

Patton is herself a veteran, having served as a U.S. Army combat medic.  She and Tripp met while on active duty.

Patton heard of the SKIFF program through a posting on the Fort Hood Area Events Facebook page.

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Athena Tripp, Ashley Patton, and Willow Tripp with a few of the 38 white bass the girls landed from over 30 feet of water using MAL Lures as a wet cold front moved into Central Texas on Thursday afternoon.

PHOTO CAPTION:  We started off simply by fishing with pole and float for sunfish at the trip’s start, and got more technical as the afternoon moved along.  Here is Willow Tripp with her largest bluegill sunfish.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Athena Tripp didn’t let a little cool drizzle ruin her after-school fishing trip.  This was one of the first sunfish she landed from shallow water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (PM), 29 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

As a mild, wet cold front made its way into Central Texas, Patton arrived at Lake Belton around 4:30 p.m. after picking her girls up from school.

As the primary guide for the SKIFF program, I was present to welcome the family, provide them with a safety briefing, adjust the equipment to the girls’ statures, and help them be successful.

We began the trip fishing for sunfish with poles to which fixed lengths of fishing line were attached.  We targeted small fish in shallow water with this simple approach, and then layered in more complexity as the trip continued on.

By the end of the girls’ afternoon on the water, they were reading sonar, using custom-made MAL Lures to fish vertically for white bass in water well over thirty feet deep, and they did an amazing job at luring, hooking, and landing fish after fish.

In just over three hours’ time the sisters landed sixty-two fish, including twenty-four sunfish, and thirty-eight white bass.

We fished only two areas for this entire time.  Thanks to the incoming cold front, and despite the uncomfortable conditions above the water line, the fish really turned on as the winds shifted to the north and began to pick up speed.  The white bass we encountered stayed up well into the lower half of the water column the entire time we fished for them in about 32 feet of water.

As is often the case as we watch the fish we are fishing for on Garmin LiveScope, those fish highest in the water column tended to be the most eager to chased down and bite the MAL Lure.

Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Lures, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 62 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  4:30P

End Time: 8:00P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Elevation:  0.86 feet low, +0.04 24-hour change, 26 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 67.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for first 30 minutes, then ENE under 6 for balance of trip

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Two days past full moon

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  504 for shallow sunfish

**Area  1362 for white bass spurred on by incoming coldfront in 32′

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This past Thursday, April 29^th, I fished with Mr. Eddie Dunn of Troup, TX, and his long-time friend and fellow teacher, coach, and school administrator, Joe Oliver.

Back when we first put this trip on the books, we’d hoped to target hybrid, but the hybrid fishing has been dismal thus far this 2021 season, hence, I explained all of our options and our chances of success accompanying those options, and Eddie and Joe decided they would like to chase high numbers of white bass instead, agreeing that the time on the water was as much about fellowship as it was about fish-catching.

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left, Joe Oliver and Eddie Dunn with a few of the 64 fish we took on MAL Lures in the opening 2 hours of our trip, before retooling and dropping live baits down in hopes of luring hybrid striped bass.  They went on to land a total of 77 fish in conditions made tough by a wet cold front moving in.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 29 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

The big story today was the weather story last night.  Starting around 8pm last night, the lead edge of a storm cell moved into Central Texas from the west and cleared out around 4am.  The storm dropped rain area wide and was accompanied by sporadic bouts of violent weather (high winds, hail, tornado warnings, etc.).  Additionally, a mild, wet cold front also advanced into the region causing a wind shift.  This definitely impacted the steady feed of grey clouds and southerly breezes we’ve enjoyed of late, and put the fish off a bit.

The fish were still plentiful and still fed pretty readily, but the numbers of fish seen rising into the water column, and the speed and aggression level they demonstrated were both much reduced versus the past few days with their ideal spring weather conditions.

When I arrived at Lake Belton pre-dawn, the lake was calm, and the skies were grey with thin cloud cover (with indirect moonlight from the near-full moon showing through).  I was reassured that we’d be able to catch fish despite the abrupt change in weather when I witnessed abundant spawning shad this morning at Area SHAD029.

When Eddie and Joe arrived, I went over the correct use of the MAL Lure and we set off to find and catch fish.  By 9:45 they had boated 64 fish (all white bass in the 1, 2, and 3-year class) and we could have kept right on going, however, I offered that we could change things up a bit by running live baits down on tight lines in an attempt to catch some hybrid striped bass.

By now, a light easterly wind was developing and a very fine mist had begun to fall.

We put another 1.75 hours of effort into it, fishing 4 distinct areas.  We found results much the same at the first three in that the out-sized threadfin shad I had hand-culled were attacked by 3- and 4-year class white bass before anything else had a chance to come near.  Once sonar indicated that the whites had saturated the area, we moved on.  We wound up catching 13 more fish, including 12 white bass and 1 smallmouth bass.  We had one pulldown by a hybrid, but didn’t connect with it.

We wrapped up around 11:45 with 77 fish landed on the morning.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 77 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: I was pleasantly surprised to see shad spawning in the morning calm just before (obscured) sunrise this morning despite the turbulent overnight weather; this is atypical.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation:  0.86 feet low, +0.04 24-hour change, 26 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 67.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for first 30 minutes, then ENE under 6 for balance of trip

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Two days past full moon

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic B0172C; MAL Lures

**Area vic 1369 to 381 with 3 short hops; MAL Lures

**Area B0028C ; Live shad; several large white bass

**Area B0082G; Live shad; several large white bass & 1 smallmouth

**Area 192; Live shad; several large white bass

**Area B0066G; Live shad; no takers

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This past Tuesday, April 27th, I fished with returning guests Jim Wood of McGregor, and Sky Sparks of Killeen.  The two have worked together in the medical field for a number of years, Jim as a physician specializing in wound care, and Sky as a medical scribe.

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left, Dr. Jim Wood and Sky Sparks with Lake Belton white bass in hand.  Post-spawn fish are returning to the lake from out of the tributaries in great numbers, and they are plenty hungry.  These men landed 155 fish this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 27 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

The fishing continues to be on fire for high numbers of white bass.  These fish are returning hungry from their annual spawning migration upstream, and, with water temperature on the rise, they are eating everything in sight to keep up with their bodies’ demands for energy.

Jim and Sky had 115 fish landed before two hours’ time had elapsed this morning, all on the original chartreuse-colored MAL Lure.  Now, many of these fish are small, one-year-old fish which make up the “base” of the age-structure pyramid, but the action was non-stop, aided by ideal weather conditions (grey cloud cover and breeze with a southerly component).

The commonality in the areas these fish seem to be settling in to feed in is slow tapering bottoms adjacent to the river channel in 30-35 feet.  When these fish are feeding and moving, they really show up well on well-tuned side-imaging — like “rice grains” all bunched up together.

At the two hour mark, with those 115 fish landed, and Jim’s wrist already “talking to him”, I offered that we could change things up a bit and head to some different waters in pursuit of hybrid striped bass using live shad on tight lines.  The two were up for a bit of variety, so we retooled and were off to hunt hybrid.  Along the way, we encountered stranded boaters and gave them a tow in, which cost us a bit of time.

I extended the trip to make up for that lost time and, in the two hours of fishing which followed the “rescue”, we landed another 40 fish, which included only one hybrid striper (19 1/16″), as well as a 6-pound blue cat, and another 38 white bass.  Many of these white bass were, on average, of better size than we had taken earlier on lures, as they were hitting shad I had hand-culled for use on hybrid.  Most of these baits would have been impossible for a 1 or 2 year old white bass to mouth, so, our numbers fell, but quality increased.

By around noon, the bite had slowed and Jim’s wrist was approaching immobility, so we called it a good day and headed on in with a total of 155 fish caught and released.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 155 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Thanks to seasonal temperatures so far this week, accompanied by grey cloud cover preventing direct heating by the sun, another slow warmup of the water has begun which is great for the fishing.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:15A

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation:  0.92 feet low, .03 foot 24-hour fall, 26 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 65.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-12 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Full moon

GT = 135

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0079C; MAL Lures

**Area B0074C; MAL Lures

**Area  vic 835-344; live shad

**Area  1552; Live shad, followed by MAL Lures once whites showed up

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This morning’s “trip coordinator” was Jack Oliver, one of the four sons of Billy Joe Oliver, who joined me for his 91st birthday fishing trip last Thursday.

Joining Jack were two other fellows in the same electrical contracting line of work, Lance Gray and Matt Matula, as well as another friend of Jack’s, Mark Kay, who has retired from the natural gas business.

I shared with the fellows that as I considered all the factors in play this morning — a good wind velocity with a southerly component, grey cloud cover, a slight elevation rise due to Friday’s rains, overnight temperatures warmer than the water temperature, a solid week of white bass fishing last week, and experienced anglers joining me this morning — I was very, very encouraged about the prospects for this morning’s results.  A perfect storm was brewing.

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left, Jack Oliver, Mark Kay, Lance Gray, and Matt Matula.  These fellows caught and released 364 fish in 4.5 hours on Lake Belton under perfect white bass fishing conditions using MAL Lures in chartreuse.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 26 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

The fishing was just phenomenal this morning.  We fished at six location, finding fish at five of them.  The action began at a modest pace as the sun was rising and was obscured by the grey cloud cover.  As was the case all last week (with 100% cloud cover each morning) the middle two hours of the trip produced best.

Before we headed out, I stopped in about 20′ of water and did a thorough demonstration on how to (and how not to) work the MAL Lure.  With everyone having abundant prior fishing experience, everyone grasped the technique quickly, and so we started catching fish right off the bat with very little learning curve involved.

The fish were really fired up this morning, with occasional bouts of white bass chasing shad all the way to the surface and thus giving their location away.  Every place at which we caught fish had suspended fish on patrol up high in the water column as we arrived, indicating the fish were excited and already feeding; therefore, we did not have to get them excited with the commotion we created.

We worked chartreuse MAL Lures (chosen over the white due to the grey cloud cover) vertically with iron-clad results all morning until the fish finally quit at 11:15.

Because it was obvious that the fish were really fired up today, I did not hesitate to leave fish to find other fish if every single fish we caught at a particular area was short.  Each place we fish certainly gave up short fish, but there were definitely areas which held more large white bass than others — which I suspect was related to the size of the bait (threadfin shad) present.  Last year’s year group was a strong year class, and there are a lot of small white bass at the ‘base of the pyramid’ no matter where you go.

We never left that same 30-35′ band which produced so well last week.

When all was said and done, my 4 clients landed 364 fish.

Prior to this trip, my single best trip with clients aboard took place in early January many years ago.  Harker Heights resident Jerry Worley, owner of the Jerry Worley Insurance Agency, accompanied by two young men he had mentored in his role as assistant youth pastor at Memorial Baptist Church in Killeen, landed 354 fish on a full day trip (sunrise to sunset) just in advance of a major cold front.

That was a full-day trip with three men.  Today’s effort was but 4.5 hours in duration with 4 anglers.  My previous best half-day trip took place earlier this month, on Friday, April 2nd, with 333 fish landed in 4.5 hours, also with 4 anglers.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 364 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:45A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation:  0.89 feet low, .02 foot 24-hour fall, 26 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 66.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12-15 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 99% illum. (full moon tomorrow)

GT = 125

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0170C; MAL Lures

**Area  1369; MAL Lures (saw fish busting shad on top in heavy chop)

**Area  vic 381 with 3 short hops; MAL Lures

**Area  B0147C;  MAL Lures

**Area  818; MAL Lures

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:  Each year for quite some time now, Matt Laakso has booked at least one fishing trip with me on his birthday, April 23rd.  Upon the conclusion of the trip, he has typically asked me to set aside that same date the following year.  2019 was no exception, and I had 23 April 2020 set aside for him.

Last year, COVID-19 forced the closure of all non-essential businesses, including my own, so, upon getting word of that in late March of 2020, I reached out to Matt, and, without batting an eye, he asked me to put him down for his birthday in 2021.  Today we conducted that trip which was 2 years in the making.

Fortunately, Matt’s son, Mitch, was able to make it in from the San Francisco Bay Area to participate.

The details of the fishing are found below, but, you guessed it … at the close of the trip we put another date down for April of 2022, Lord willing and weather permitting!

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left, Mitch and Matt Laakso landed 101 white bass, 1 blue catfish, and 2 legal hybrid during their 4-hour birthday celebration for Matt who turned 54 on this date.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 23 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Having fished every morning this week, I was quite in tune with where the fish were, what they were biting, and when they were biting it.  At the outset of the trip, I suggested that we devote our first 2.75 hours to white bass fishing using MAL Lures in combination with Garmin LiveScope to work for high numbers of post-spawn white bass filtering back down into the lake from up in the tributaries, and then to consider investing the remaining time in pursuit of fewer, but larger, hybrid striped bass.

We worked the MAL lures in ~30 feet of water in the way described in my tutorial video (link appears below).  I had one dedicated LiveScope monitor for each angler, so both Matt and Mitch had plenty of elbow room.

Due to the foggy conditions we encountered at the beginning of the trip, there was no sudden brightening of the sky as is encountered on a less cloudy/cloudless days.  This nearly always causes the bite to take off slowly, and today was no exception.  At our first area, we could scarcely get fish to follow our lures; at the next area we caught a few, then a few more with a higher level of aggression at our third area, and, finally, we slayed ’em for a good 45 minutes from 9:00 to 9:45AM at our final stop for white bass, taking our total catch to exactly 101 fish by that time.

At this time, I revisited the possibility of taking the live shad I’d come prepared with and putting them down on tight-lines to fish intentionally for hybrid striped bass.  I warned Matt and Mitch that doing so would, at best, be slow fishing, as the hybrid fishery has not gotten off to a strong start so far this spring.

In the next 75 minutes that followed, we used large threadfin shad to provoke 4 takedowns resulting in the catch of one white bass and two legal hybrid striped bass, the largest of which was exactly 5.00 pounds on the certified scale I keep aboard.

This was a great way to end an already productive trip, and added some variety and quality to the “numbers” fishing for white bass we’d done earlier.

Looking back, I do not think it would have been wise to devote an entire 4-hours to chasing hybrid on bait quite yet — I think we just need a bit more heat and stability in the weather before the hybrid switch is flipped on.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 104 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  This was the first morning all week in which the overnight temperature did not drop below the water’s surface temperature.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:00A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation:  0.95 feet low, .02 foot 24-hour fall, 26 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 62.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE10-12 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 82% illum.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0071; MAL Lures

**Area  1369; MAL Lures

**Area  968; MAL Lures

**Area  B0086C;  MAL Lures

**Area  835/1541; first 2 legal hybrid landed on live shad for the 2021 season

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Thursday morning, April 22nd, I was honored to be called upon by the Oliver family of the Temple/Belton area to take Mr. Billy Joe “Pa” Oliver out fishing for his 91st birthday!

We originally had this scheduled for the afternoon, but a late-breaking cancellation opened up the morning for us, which I prefer to fish at any time of year anyhow.

This schedule change allowed for Pa’s grandson, Thomas Oliver, to accompany us, in addition to Thomas’ dad (Billy Joe’s son), Joe Oliver, who has been fishing with me annually for about 11 years now.

Pa is a retired teacher, coach, and principal, Joe is a retired school district superintendent, and Thomas is currently teaching at-risk kids in the Temple school district.

I chose the most wind-protected area with a solid courtesy dock so we were sure not to have any mishaps as Pa transferred from land into the boat and back again.  That went well, and we were soon headed out fishing.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Billy Joe “Pa” Oliver went fishing for his 91st birthday aboard my boat this morning and caught his fair share of the 180 white bass we caught and released.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 22 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

The fishing has been fast and furious and very “cookie-cutter” this week.  The fish have been cranking up right at sunrise and feeding strong through around 10:30A, after which they begin easing off the throttle pretty quickly.

Once Pa got onboard, we had him sit on a water-proofed pillow right on top of my shad tank located in the “pickup bed” of my boat, between the leaning post and the outboard.  From there, he never had to move, save a few raises to allow us to slip a few choice fish in the tank for photos near the end of the trip.  Pa sat facing the starboard gunwale and had a head-on view of the LiveScope, which he took full advantage of.

We used the very versatile MAL Lure in a vertical presentation this morning, coupled with that Garmin LiveScope to “wear ’em out”.

Since Thomas had to get back to his classroom for the afternoon, we wrapped up around 11 AM.  In those 3.5 hours, my three anglers landed a total of 180 white bass.  Once again, not a single specimen of any other species was landed.

One added bonus this morning … around 10:15AM some of the gulls (correctly identified by fellow angler Steve Webb as Franklin’s gulls) which had been flitting around all morning, began to circle and focus on a ~30 yard diameter patch of water.  In the chop, I could see some splashes (of white bass) and flashes (of shad) below the birds.  We hustled over and enjoyed a nice close to the trip with very aggressively feeding white bass located up well into the lower half of the water column just about the time the previous area we were fishing was about to fizzle.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 180 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Early morning white heron/egret activity is beginning to pick up, indicating an increase in shad spawn intensity.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:35A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Elevation:  0.93 feet low, .04 foot 24-hour fall, 26 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 62.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE10-12 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 73% illum.

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1618; MAL Lures

**Area  vic 0187; MAL Lures

**Area  B0071C to B0074C with 3 short hops; MAL Lures

**Area  709;  MAL Lures

**Area  382; MAL Lures (under gulls)

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, April 21st, I fished with returning guests Derrick Fontenot and Veronica Merritt, accompanied by first-timers Myron and Christina Dillingham.

Derrick, Veronica, and Myron are all U.S. Army veterans.  Myron has been on the Houston, TX, police force for 26 years, and Christina is a retired school principal.

We scheduled this trip long ago, anticipating it would fall in the spring “hybrid window” when the fishing for hybrid stripers using live shad goes off the charts, but, thanks to chilly water with at least two more cold fronts on the way, that hasn’t materialized yet (and likely won’t for several more days), so, we agreed ahead of time to focus on the cooperative and abundant white bass which are now present in high numbers after returning from their annual spawning run up the various tributaries.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Christina and Myron Dillingham, Veronica Merritt, and Derrick Fontenot with white bass caught on MAL Lures under unusually cool spring conditions.  The air temperature was just 41F as we launched on this late April morning. 277 fish caught and released.

PHOTO CAPTION: Indoorsy women!

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 21 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

In a single sentence: We found fish on sonar and fished MAL Lures vertically for four hours straight to catch 277 fish.

As was the case yesterday, there are so many fish feeding so aggressively for long spans of time that they really “popped” on well-tuned side-imaging thus making them very easy to spot, even at quite a distance away.  Once found, I used the Minn Kota i-Pilot Link function to direct the trolling motor to the exact location where the fish were holding.  While the trolling motor was performing that task, I handed out rods, got the Garmin LiveScope tranducers aligned, and provided reminders to each client about the technique we’d use, and then let them loose to catch fish.

This morning’s bite was really enhanced by the still-blowing north wind which began with a dry cold front’s arrival around 2P the day before.  This, plus increasing wind velocity and increasing cloud cover, really got the fish fired up and minimized traffic on the lake, as it was only 41F at sunrise.

My crew came prepared for the weather; as you can see from the photo, the ladies brought an “outdoor blanket” which was windproof and waterproof.  However, Veronica discovered she didn’t quite bulk up enough in the sock department as she dressed for the day.  Thinking that Derrick had worn two pairs of socks, she tried to discreetly ask him for one of those pairs of socks.  When he loudly declined the request, the cat was out of the bag.  At one point, Veronica offered to trade Derrick a pair of socks for the chance to reel in a hybrid striper if she were to hook one!  Other attempts at barter (then extortion) were attempted, all to no avail.

The only cure Derrick offered for Veronica’s cold feet was some hot Miller’s Smokehouse BBQ at the end of the morning.

The entire crew was quite competitive.  After reading in my blog about the crew of two which boated 231 fish on their full-day trip two weeks ago, this crew wanted to try to beat that number in half the time, but with twice the anglers.  By the time the 4-hour mark rolled by, they amassed a catch of 277 fish, every last one of which was a white bass — no hybrid, no drum, no crappie, and no largemouth or smallmouth — which is quite atypical.

MAL Lures  are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 277 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: I shook my head in disbelief to see a strong, long-lived shad spawn taking place in the vicinity of Area SHAD 029 with not a single bird cashing in on the easy meals.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:15A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 41F

Elevation:  0.86 feet low, .03 foot 24-hour rise, 26 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 62.2 F

Wind Speed & Direction: NE10-13 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 63% illum.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 0187; MAL Lures for 40 whites

**Area  692; MAL Lures for 110 whites

**Area  B0072C; MAL Lures for 65 whites

**Area  381;  MAL Lures for 19 whites

**Area  968; MAL Lures 43 whites

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec