central texas fishing guide

Seventy Fish and a Hat

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS:  This morning, Friday, April 18, I fished with a crew of four including three generations of Van Ripers, and one of their relatives. Joining me was George, Geoff, and Greg Van Riper, and Matt Bouton. George is a retired US Army aviation officer (Viet Nam era helicopter pilot), Jeff is a high school math teacher in the Killeen school district, as well as a golf coach there, Matt is in his junior year studying economics at Texas A&M, and Greg is working his way through public school.

DATE: Friday, 18 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  02 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left:  George and Geoff Van Riper, Matt Bouton, and Greg Van Riper (Geoff’s son), all with some of the white bass they landed under high wind conditions using mainly live bait with a few bouts of slab fishing thrown in when the conditions looked right on sonar.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Geoff Van Riper came up with our largest hybrid of the trip.  This one struck a large, live threadfin shad in 31 feet of water.  It weighed 4.75 pounds.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The 800 pound gorilla in the room today was the wind.  The wind situation was such that I was not sure we were even going to be able to get this trip in safely until the mid-week wind forecast throttled back on the forecast windspeeds and I decided to at least give it a try. The wind did force us to change our meeting location, and prohibited me from fishing the productive areas I had been fishing for the last several weeks.

The wind simply impacted everything negatively — from getting from Point A to Point B, to getting baits in the water efficiently, to detecting bites  — but, we persisted!

We started off the day on a windblown point, picked up six fish by working three-quarter ounce, silver, Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically, but as soon as the sun got above the horizon and began to warm the atmosphere, the wind ratcheted it up to over 16-17 mph and we had to come off that exposed area .

I wound up fishing the remainder of the trip in the Leon River arm and relied mainly on live bait to get the job done.

When all was said and done, this crew of four landed exactly 70 fish, including white bass, largemouth, bass, blue catfish, and hybrid striped bass. At each of the several locations we fished, I noted something in common. That was that quality white bass were most routinely caught off bottom but were very lackadaisical, whereas we also found very small white bass suspended and zipping around, looking for the source of the noise coming from the splasher. A few times when I felt Greg needed a change of pace to keep him engaged, I had him work a slab vertically when everyone else stuck with bait, and during those times, he pulled up small white bass from the upper half of the water column which chased his slab, as we observed together on Garmin LiveScope.

We wrapped up at 11:45 and I knew the ride back was going to be a wet challenge.  We were doing great until Geoff’s hat (an Alamo hat with sentimental value) blew off.  We took on some spray in the maneuvering required to get back to the hat before it sank, but, other than that, we got back to the dock unscathed.
Happy Easter — Christ has risen!

RESULTS:  70 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Threadfin shad spawn continues.
  2. No helpful bird activity.
  3. High SE winds prohibited travel on exposed areas of the lake today.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F
5 feet 68.4F
10 feet 67.4F
15 feet 65.9F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.3F
30 feet 63.5F
35 feet 62.6F
40 feet 61.9F
45 feet 60.0F
50 feet 59.2F
55 feet 58.2F
60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F
5 feet 63.1F
10 feet 62.9F
15 feet 62.9F
20 feet 62.9F
25 feet 68.2F
30 feet 62.6F
35 feet 61.4F
40 feet 60.6F
45 feet 59.4F
50 feet 59.4F
55 feet 59.0F
60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 3.27′ low

Water Surface Temp: 67.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE16-20 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% thin, grey cloud cover for 3 hours, then clearing to a white, hazy sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 81% illumination.

GT = 55

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 0363 – 6 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0085C – 28 fish primarily on live bait

Area vic 0181 – 25 fish primarily on live bait
Area vic B0079C (2 hops) – 11 fish on live shad

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

‘Twas a Bad Day to be a Shad — 90 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS:  This morning, Thursday, April 17, I fished with returning guests, Dr. Jim Wood and his friend and former coworker, Sky Sparks. Jim is a retired surgeon and wound care specialist now residing near McGregor, Texas, and Sky drove in for this morning‘s trip from the Killeen, Texas, area.

I was concerned about wind velocity this morning and actually changed our meeting location because after I got up this morning and did a physical weather check outdoors, I noted the winds were stronger than were forecast. In hindsight, we could have stuck with our original plan, but better safe than sorry.

DATE: Thursday, 17 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  02 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left:  Sky Sparks and Dr. Jim Wood with a few of the white bass they caught using a variety of tactics as the warming spring weather has fish metabolism on the rise creating an aggressive bite.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Sky Sparks displays a hybrid striped bass, a largemouth bass, a blue catfish, and another hybrid striper — all caught on live shad fished near bottom under very windy conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We mixed it up a little bit this morning given that shad are fairly easy to catch here in the midst of their spawning season, and given that we did well on bait and artificial lures earlier this week, we put both to use this morning and put together a 90 fish catch.

I started the trip off fishing out from a south-facing bank, which was pounded overnight by the wind, and which shad were spawning on. Both white bass and hybrid striped bass were patrolling this area . We used silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with a  “smoking” tactic until the sun got high enough to brighten the skies through the gray layer of cloud cover.

This brightening triggered some scattered topwater action, although the heavy wave action served to hinder it.  At this point, I moved us to an area where topwater action took place  in abundance yesterday, and although we did catch fish there, the topwater action did not really materialize, and it was clear that the number of fish in that area was not near what it was yesterday. From there, we took one more stab at working slabs vertically, picking up a few more fish before spending the remainder of the trip trying to tempt some legal hybrid (18 inches or larger) into biting shad fished on downlines.

The live bait produced exactly 50 additional fish, including three legal hybrid striped bass, several short hybrid, a single largemout bass, four blue catfish, and an abundance of white bass 90% of which were legal.

Although the fish were still hitting at the time I’d normally be wrapping up, and while I never stop a trip by the clock, but rather based on fish activity, I felt it was prudent to leave the exposed area we were in while the winds were still tame enough to do so without giving my clients a rough and or wet ride back in.

RESULTS:  90 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP:  Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Threadfin shad spawn continues.
  2. No helpful bird activity.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F
5 feet 68.4F
10 feet 67.4F
15 feet 65.9F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.3F
30 feet 63.5F
35 feet 62.6F
40 feet 61.9F
45 feet 60.0F
50 feet 59.2F
55 feet 58.2F
60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F
5 feet 63.1F
10 feet 62.9F
15 feet 62.9F
20 feet 62.9F
25 feet 68.2F
30 feet 62.6F
35 feet 61.4F
40 feet 60.6F
45 feet 59.4F
50 feet 59.4F
55 feet 59.0F
60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:05A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 3.24′ low

Water Surface Temp: 68.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE13-16 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% thin, grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 81% illumination.

GT = 65

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 0363 – 8 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0391G – 23 fish on MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic B0191C – 9 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic 150 (2 hops) – 50 fish on live shad

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

No Bait Today & the Whites Came to Play – 178 Fish on MAL Heavies & Hazy Eyes

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, April 16th, I fished with returning guests Gary and Rachel Davidson from Kerrville, Texas. They brought two friends along with them – Ryan Johnson and Ronnie Langford — both from the Texas Hill Country out near Lake Buchanan.

DATE: Wednesday, 16 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  02 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 21 June (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rachel and Gary Davidson, Ryan Johnson, and Ronnie Langford with a portion of their 178-fish catch made on

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

After two consecutive days fishing live bait targeting hybrid striped bass, I shifted gears this morning and targeted white bass using artificials. The shad spawn was going on this morning and that got the bite off to an early start. It tapered up to a peak about two and three-quarter hours long, then tapered back down to nil by 11:30.

In order to familiarize my two new guests with the vertical tactics we be using today, I equipped them with the silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab, and we worked them vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope and a splashing device used to draw fish to the boat and keep them there.  We continued on with this tactic at a second location, putting a total of 50 fish in the boat before making a move to a third area and changing up our presentation.

At this third area, birds (gulls, and turns) gave away the location of topwater feeding whites in fairly shallow water . As I slowly crept into this area so not too spook anything, I noted white bass of all sizes pinning schools of shad up against the surface and feeding heavily on them there. I rearmed everyone with different rods and reels equipped with MAL Heavy lures with chartreuse tails and put everyone to work casting out horizontally, and using a modified sawtooth method to bring the lures back. By “modified”, I mean I did not have them open the bail to allow the lure to sink quickly because that was not an issue in this fairly shallow water.

I should note that Gary and Rachel are very good temperate bass anglers, spending most of their time on Lake Buchanan after whites, hybrid, and full-blooded stripers.  Gary likes to experiment, and, on this trip he brought a bait normally used for deadsticking (a jighead with soft plastic) and used it whenever everyone else was using slabs vertically.  This larger bait which hangs horizontally got, on average, larger white bass, but, also invited missed strikes as smaller fish still struck at it, so he wound up landing fewer fish when using that tactic.  Despite the difference in bait, the presentation (“smoking” it past suspended fish or up and away from bottom-oriented fish) remained essentially the same.
Over about 1.75 hours’ time, this aggressive feeding behavior continued, allowing us to tally a catch of 106 additional fish before leaving this bite behind as fish pushed out of shallow water due to brightening conditions. From this point on, the bite got softer and softer.
Despite finding groups of fish, we could only keep them teased up enough to strike for a few minutes before they lost interest altogether. This happened three times at two different areas and finally, around 11:30, we called it a good morning with exactly 178 fish landed.

RESULTS:  178 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: Silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Threadfin shad spawn continues.
  2. Helpful bird activity witnessed around 8:15, which led to about 1.75 hours of successful fishing in the area the birds indicated.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F
5 feet 68.4F
10 feet 67.4F
15 feet 65.9F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.3F
30 feet 63.5F
35 feet 62.6F
40 feet 61.9F
45 feet 60.0F
50 feet 59.2F
55 feet 58.2F
60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F
5 feet 63.1F
10 feet 62.9F
15 feet 62.9F
20 feet 62.9F
25 feet 68.2F
30 feet 62.6F
35 feet 61.4F
40 feet 60.6F
45 feet 59.4F
50 feet 59.4F
55 feet 59.0F
60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 3.22′ low

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE6-9 for about 90 minutes, then shifting S and ramping up to 13-16 thereafter

Sky Condition: Increasing thin, grey cloud cover all AM going from 30% to 100%

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 88% illumination.

GT = 105

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 676 – 12 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0074G  – 38 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0391G to B0166C – 68 fish fish on MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic 031 – 18 fish fish on MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic B0191C – 7 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic B0310G (2 hops) – 35 fish on Hazy Eye Slabs

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

The Hunt for Hybrid Continues … 111 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, April 15, I fished with a crew of five targeting hybrid striped bass with live shad on Lake Belton.  Joining me was a crew of five including Harris Young, Craig Hunter, Tim Long, Austin Long, and Joey Sapien.

A mild, dry cold front pushed in overnight resulting in more comfortable temperatures, some high, thin, but complete gray cloud cover by mid-moring, and north-north east winds straight line at 13 to 15 with higher gusts.

DATE: Tuesday, 15 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  02 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Harris Young, Craig Hunter, Tim Long, Austin Long, and Joey Sapien each with a nice Lake Belton hybrid striped bass landed on live shad fished on downlines during the annual threadfin shad spawn.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Joey Sapien landed our heaviest hybrid of the trip in the final fifteen minutes before the fish quit feeding.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Tim demonstrating to his son, Austin, “how it’s done”.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

This wind shift shifted the location of spawning shad, and the fish chasing after them and consuming them.
When I located fish today (between 25 and 41 feet), we fished with tight down-lines rigged up with a trolling sinker to which a leader with kahle hook with mono tag were attached. I nostril-hooked all of the shad, and the mono tag prevented them from slipping too far up the hook shank .
We caught a wide variety of fish, including smallmouth bass, freshwater drum, blue catfish, yellow catfish, white bass, and hybrid striped bass.
We fished five areas today, finding fish at four of them. The first and the last both gave up legal hybrid , whereas the other two produced only white bass, albeit well-proportioned, mature fish with many exceeding 13 inches.
By 11:35 the bite had run its course and my crew had landed 111 fish, including 17 legal hybrid striped bass.

RESULTS:  111 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used only live bait today. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Threadfin shad spawn continues.
  2. Helpful bird activity witnessed in the first 45 minutes as laughing gulls pointed the way to spawning shad with white bass and hybrids in pursuit.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 6:55AM on Tuesday, 15 April…

0 feet 68.4F
5 feet 68.4F
10 feet 67.4F
15 feet 65.9F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.3F
30 feet 63.5F
35 feet 62.6F
40 feet 61.9F
45 feet 60.0F
50 feet 59.2F
55 feet 58.2F
60 feet 58.0F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April…

0 feet 62.9F
5 feet 63.1F
10 feet 62.9F
15 feet 62.9F
20 feet 62.9F
25 feet 68.2F
30 feet 62.6F
35 feet 61.4F
40 feet 60.6F
45 feet 59.4F
50 feet 59.4F
55 feet 59.0F
60 feet 58.0 F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 3.17′ low

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNE13-16 all morning

Sky Condition: Increasing thin, grey cloud cover all AM going from 30% to 100%

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 175

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 008 (2 hops) – 36 fish on live shad

Area vic 1013/1552 – 29 fish fish on live shad

Area vic 187 – 35 fish fish on live shad

Area vic B0308G – 43 fish on live shad
Area vic B0299G – 11 fish on live shad

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

Hybrid Striped Bass on Live Threadfin Shad – 81 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS:This morning, Monday, April 14, I fished with a crew of four gentlemen, all retired, from the Georgetown, Texas, area. Joining me were Doug Roper, Rob Andrews, Danny Marriott, and John Kelley.

Danny specifically booked this trip to target hybrid, striped bass, so we, spent 4+ hours this morning in pursuit of that species using lively threadfin shad as bait.

DATE: Monday, 14 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  02 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Doug Roper, Rob Andrews, Danny Marriott, and John Kelley each with Lake Belton hybrid striped bass (a.k.a. wipers) which we took on tightlined livebait .

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We searched five areas this morning finding fish at the last four in depths between 25 and 41 feet (shallower early, moving deeper with increasing light). The fish we found were very tight to the bottom this morning , which informed me on how far I should have my crew fish their baits up off bottom. We used a fairly simple rig, tying my main line to a trolling sinker with swivels on either end of the sinker, then attaching a fluorocarbon leader to a kahle hook to which a mono tag was attached to prevent baits from riding too high up on the shank of the hook.

We fished directly under the boat with tight lines and with rods placed in rod holders (I use Bee-Ready holders — simple and effective and bulletproof).

We used large, live threadfin shad which I netted and then culled for size.  My net choice is a heavy Fitec tape net with 5/16-inch mesh and 7-foot radius.  This small mesh allows smaller shad to slip out of the net (not through the mesh) without getting hung by their gills, so, no net cleaning is necessary, nor are any hung shad present to slow the net’s descent on subsequent throws.

At each location, we began getting hits before we could get all four baits in the water.

By the end of the morning, my crew had landed 81 fish, including a mix of white bass, hybrid, striped bass, and blue catfish. A total of 12 legal hybrid were included in this mix of 81 fish.

RESULTS:  81 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used only live bait today. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Threadfin shad spawn continues.
  2. No helpful bird activity.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April

0 feet 62.9F
5 feet 63.1F
10 feet 62.9F
15 feet 62.9F
20 feet 62.9F
25 feet 68.2F
30 feet 62.6F
35 feet 61.4F
40 feet 60.6F
45 feet 59.4F
50 feet 59.4F
55 feet 59.0F
60 feet 58.0 F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 02 April…

0 feet 65.6F
5 feet 65.6F
10 feet65.6F
15 feet 65.5F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.9F
30 feet 64.4F
35 feet 63.1F
40 feet 62.0F
45 feet 60.9F
50 feet 57.8F
55 feet 57.6F
60 feet 57.4F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 3.15′ low

Water Surface Temp: 64.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE12-14 all morning

Sky Condition: ~20% white cloud cover on light blue skies all AM

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = 140

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 363 – 21 fish on live shad

Area vic B0026G – 8 fish on live shad

Area vic B0243G – 9 fish on live shad

Area vic B0308G – 43 fish on live shad

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

De-stressing for the Homefront Parents — 104 Fish with the Curtis Family

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On Friday morning, April 11, I conducted the fourth SKIFF trip of the 2025 season. Joining me was the family of U.S .Army Staff Sergeant Jovan Curtis Sr., who is currently deployed to South Korea where he serves as a heavy equipment mechanic. His wife, Jewels, and their three children, Maliah (16), Jaylah (10), and Jovan Jr. (8) came out with me for a much-needed stress break.

Beyond the stressors of being a single parent during a lengthy deployment, Mrs. Curtis was also dealing with a recent car accident, as well as some uncertainty about her employment with the Veterans Administration.

Not long after launching, SSG Curtis was able to “tune in” through Facetime from halfway around the world and got to see and hear his kids catching their first fish on their first time on a boat!!

ABOUT SKIFF:  SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009.  SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru.  S.K.I.F.F. provides kids of military members separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish.  SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member.  In mid-2019, SKIFF began providing trips to kids of bona fide disabled veterans.  I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round.  Call or text 254.368.7411.

 

DATE: Friday, 11 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  02 June (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 14 June (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jaylah (10), Maliah (16), Jewels, and Jovan Curtis with a few of the white bass we targeted on Lake Belton following the passage of a mild, dry cold front late in the afternoon the day prior.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  While protecting her manicured nails all set for her prom this coming weekend, Maliah did her best to display this 9-pound smallmouth buffalofish which struck her slab.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Jaylah landed this nice hybrid striped bass from out of a school of larger white bass we encountered late in our trip.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Twice during this trip Jaylah landed 2 fish on 1 lure at the same time.  These fish were very aggressive.  Even if they weren’t hungry, they’d still chase after something just to keep another schoolmate from getting it first!

 

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We met up at 7:15 this morning with the kids bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, full of energy, and anticipating landing their first fish on what would be their first time out on a boat.

At 10:30, after landing 104 fish, the energy level was considerably lower and everyone looked like they could use a good lunch and a nap!

During this morning‘s trip, we saw the annual threadfin shad spawn continue for the second consecutive day after a four day pause due to a hard cold front the previous weekend. A very mild, dry cold front also pushed in yesterday afternoon. This shifted the winds and dampened the bite just a bit, but the fish were still plenty aggressive.

For simplicity sake, due to their total lack of prior fishing experience, I simply had the kids work silver, 3/4 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically using a smoking tactic in conjunction with the splasher.

The splasher drew in fish and kept them beneath us while the kids worked on exacting their technique. I did not introduce the GARMIN LiveScope until after the kids had the fundamentals under their belt. Even then, LiveScope was far from necessary, as the fish were just that cooperative.

We fished in under 25 feet of water until 10 o’clock rolled around. At that time, the shallow water bite went soft as the sun climbed and the winds slacked off. I made one final move and found fish in 41 feet of water. We put our final 27 fish in the boat at this area, bringing the kids’ tally to104 fish.

Twice during the trip Jaylah landed a double, catching two fish on her lure at the same time, and the big fish award went to Maliah with a 9-pound smallmouth buffalo.

RESULTS:  104 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the silver 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab exclusively to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Threadfin shad spawn resumed yesterday after a four day pause due to a harsh cold front 5-6 April.  Shad were on banks opposite those from yesterday due to light N. wind.
  2. No helpful bird activity.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:20AM on Thursday, 10 April

0 feet 62.9F
5 feet 63.1F
10 feet 62.9F
15 feet 62.9F
20 feet 62.9F
25 feet 68.2F
30 feet 62.6F
35 feet 61.4F
40 feet 60.6F
45 feet 59.4F
50 feet 59.4F
55 feet 59.0F
60 feet 58.0 F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 02 April…

0 feet 65.6F
5 feet 65.6F
10 feet65.6F
15 feet 65.5F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.9F
30 feet 64.4F
35 feet 63.1F
40 feet 62.0F
45 feet 60.9F
50 feet 57.8F
55 feet 57.6F
60 feet 57.4F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Elevation: 3.05′ low

Water Surface Temp: 62.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  N5-7 all morning

Sky Condition: Cloudless, light blue skies all AM

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = N/A

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 748 – 28 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0074G – 3 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 097 – 46 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 1012 -27  fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

California Breakin’ — 241 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: On Wednesday morning, April 9, I fished with three generations aboard. U.S. Marine Corps veteran Richard Smith was accompanied by his son-in-law, James Bliss, and James’ son, Bradley. The Bliss family is visiting Central Texas for their kids’ spring break from San Diego, California.

Everyone had prior fishing experience, and today’s conditions were very good, so the potential for a very productive outing was definitely there.

DATE: Wednesday, 09 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  30 May (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 31 May (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left:  Richard Smith, James and Bradley Bliss worked silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs for 4+ hours and amassed a catch of 241 fish, all caught and released.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We experienced a strong bite from start to finish today fishing mainly 22 to 26 feet deep with the entire trip conducted using silver, three-quarter ounce, Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs fished vertically using a smoking tactic.  Although this tactic seems quite simple on its face, there are some definite nuances which I introduced my crew to as we fished at our first two locations. They just got better and better with each fish caught where speed control, and reaction to a strike were concerned.

Winds started off at around 11 mph from the south and gradually crept up to around 16 mph. Although we had no cloud cover, this wind really kept the fish biting aggressively. It was not uncommon to have fish follow a lure 12 or more feet from the bottom before overtaking and striking it.  Twice during the trip James landed two fish on his slab at a time — one on the treble and one on the stinger.

When we wrapped up at around 11:30, my three man crew’s count stood at 241 fish landed, including largemouth bass, hybrid striped bass, and white bass. Birds were not a factor for our fishing today, although a fellow angler let me know he had fish under birds in the first 30 minutes following sunrise on another segment of the lake.

RESULTS:  241 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the silver 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab exclusively to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Threadfin shad spawn was still paused due to 3 days of cold front-impacted weather.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 02 April…

0 feet 65.6F
5 feet 65.6F
10 feet65.6F
15 feet 65.5F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.9F
30 feet 64.4F
35 feet 63.1F
40 feet 62.0F
45 feet 60.9F
50 feet 57.8F
55 feet 57.6F
60 feet 57.4F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Wednesday, 26 March…

0 feet 67.2F
5 feet 67.2F
10 feet 66.3F
15 feet 63.1F
20 feet 61.2F
25 feet 60.1F
30 feet 59.4F
35 feet 58.9F
40 feet 58.6F
45 feet 57.8F
50 feet 57.4F
55 feet 57.2F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:

Elevation: 3.05′ low

Water Surface Temp: 63.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  S11 at trip’s start, building to S16-17 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Cloudless, light blue skies all AM and PM

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 90% illumination.

GT = 55

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 0363 – 24 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0202C – 25 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0203G  – 11 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 748 – 87 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 097 – 53 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic B0013C – 41 fish on live shad

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

Flippin’ Fish in the Boat — Better than Flippin’ Houses? — 191 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This past Tuesday morning (and evening), I fished a full day trip with Justin Milam and Jason Hamilton.  Justin recently bought a barge in the Northpoint Marine cove and wanted to see some different approaches to fishing for various species on Lake Belton.  He and Jason work together “flipping” real estate.  This morning we fished for white bass under birds early and then mixed in some live shad fishing targeting hybrid.  In the evening, we fished artificials only and actually did better than in the morning, thanks to a consistent SSE wind.

DATE: Tuesday, 08 April 2025 (AM & PM)

NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING:  30 May (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 31 May (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Justin Milam and Jason Hamilton with a few of the mature white bass taken on a combination of live bait and artificials from out of ~30′ this morning, the first day of returning south wind following an unseasonably cold cold front.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I left things alone for three consecutive days as a major, wet cold front blew thru from late Friday through late Sunday, then leaving clear, calm, cold post-frontal conditions in its wake on Monday.  I knew this would zap the shad spawn until at least Wednesday, so, I got back to fishing today as the south wind returned.
We enjoyed some early, low-light bird activity just after sunrise as ringbilled gulls and laughing gulls worked bait pushed to the surface in about 30-35 feet of water by aggressive white bass below.  This lasted about 45 minutes then settled down before reigniting about 75 minutes later.
In the lull, I went out to even deeper water, searched for bait on certain bottom topographies, and fished live shad in an attempt to catch hybrid striped bass.  I normally do not begin fishing for hybrid with live shad until April 14th, and I let Justin and Jason know we were a bit early, thus making them “guinea pigs” where this fishing was concerned.  The livebait fishing went well — we caught fish very consistently, including white bass, short hybrids, largemouth bass, and some bonus bluecats 18-22 inches long.  Still, we did not land any hybrid of legal size.
As we live bait fished, I kept an eye on the area where we’d found bird action earlier.  Once it reignited, we returned to it and caught more white bass, all on a “smoked” silver, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab used in conjunction with a splasher and Garmin LiveScope.   This lasted about 35 minutes.  When it ended, we fished live bait once again through 11:15, resulting in additional white bass, short hybrid, and bluecats.  So ended our morning session with 79 fish landed.
The afternoon portion of this trip actually was more productive than the morning, greatly aided by a consistent south-southeast wind blowing at 5 to 9 mph all afternoon. At just about every location I checked, I was able to find large schools of white bass hugging the bottom which then responded well to a smoked Bladed Hazy Eye Slab cranked directly up off the bottom at a pretty good clip. We hit six areas and put a total of 112 additional fish in the boat, including white bass, hybrid striped bass, blue catfish, and largemouth bass, for a grand full-day total of 191 fish.
At the second to last area we fished we spotted some light, brief topwater action with 3-4 gulls briefly descending on it, but, this quickly dissipated.  Regardless, it revealed fish location and allowed us to take 10 fish on MAL Heavy Lures worked with a sawtooth method.

RESULTS:  191 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the silver 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, and MAL Heavies (w/ chartreuse tail), to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Light but helpful bird action with ringbill gulls and terns in our first 45 minutes
  2. Threadfin shad spawn paused due to 3 days of cold front-impacted weather.
  3. No legal hybrid showing up in our catch yet; and white bass are definitely caught more efficiently with artificials than with bait right now.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 02 April…

0 feet 65.6F
5 feet 65.6F
10 feet65.6F
15 feet 65.5F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.9F
30 feet 64.4F
35 feet 63.1F
40 feet 62.0F
45 feet 60.9F
50 feet 57.8F
55 feet 57.6F
60 feet 57.4F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Wednesday, 26 March…

0 feet 67.2F
5 feet 67.2F
10 feet 66.3F
15 feet 63.1F
20 feet 61.2F
25 feet 60.1F
30 feet 59.4F
35 feet 58.9F
40 feet 58.6F
45 feet 57.8F
50 feet 57.4F
55 feet 57.2F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A, then 3:30PM

End Time: 11:20A, then 740PM

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 40F AM, then 80F PM

Elevation: 2.98′ low

Water Surface Temp: 61.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE0-4 all morning, then SSE5-9 all afternoon with occasional light gusts

Sky Condition: Cloudless, light blue skies all AM and PM

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 84% illumination.

GT = 100

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

AM

Area vic B0026G – 17 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 1205 – 21 fish on live shad

Area vic 1506  – 15 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0245G – 8 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic 081 – 18 fish on live shad
PM

Area vic 081  – 30 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 1544 – 9 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic 1740 –  13 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic B0191C – 38 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic 1733 – 10 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area 097 – 12 fish smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

The Bite Moves Shallow — 225 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS:  This past Friday morning, April 4, I fished with a returning crew of three. Joining me were Kelvin Gladden and his two sons, Kelvin and Tevin. The elder Kelvin is a retired U.S. Army noncommissioned officer now residing in Harker Heights, TX. The Gladden family and some of their friends have been out with me on numerous occasions in all seasons, and on both Stillhouse Lake and Lake Belton.

There was a question mark hanging over today’s fishing in the form of a very uncertain weather forecast. The Gladdens wanted to go even in the rain, so we waited right to the last minute to ensure no hail or lightning was going to threaten during our four hour trip, and once it became clear that those were not a thread, we donned raingear, and it was all systems go.

DATE: Friday, 04 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING:  14 May (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 17 May (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Kelvin, Tevin, and Kelvin Gladden with Lake Belton white bass they endured four hours of rain and drizzle for.  The fish hit both Hazy Eye Slabs worked vertically, as well as MAL Heavy lures worked horizontally, all in under 25 feet of water.

 

  

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We fished five areas this morning, finding abundant fish at four of them. We started and ended our trip vertical jigging in between 20 and 25 feet of water using the silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab. During the middle two hours of this trip , we found fish lightly schooling on the surface thanks to some sparse bird activity. The birds got me close, and sonar helped me find the spot on the spot.

Since these fish were schooled up in many small schools all around the boat, we went with a horizontal tactic, using the sawtooth method with the MAL Heavy lure (silver blade chartreuse).

This was the second day I have observed topwater schooling action by white bass forcing adult shad to the surface, although this morning’s action did not compare in duration or intensity to what I observed yesterday under warmer, brighter, calmer conditions .

When all was said and done, this crew of three landed exactly 225 fish, including one freshwater drum, one largemouth bass, six short hybrid striped bass , and 218 white bass.

Not a single fish came from water deeper than 25′, as the annual threadfin shad spawn has drawn all gamefish up shallower over the past several days, aided by overcast conditions keeping the sun’s direct rays from penetrating into this shallow water.

RESULTS: 225 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the silver 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, and MAL Heavies (w/ chartreuse tail), to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Light but helpful bird action with ringbill gulls and terns.
  2. Threadfin shad spawn continues.
  3. Light topwater action for second consecutive day.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 02 April…

0 feet 65.6F
5 feet 65.6F
10 feet65.6F
15 feet 65.5F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.9F
30 feet 64.4F
35 feet 63.1F
40 feet 62.0F
45 feet 60.9F
50 feet 57.8F
55 feet 57.6F
60 feet 57.4F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Wednesday, 26 March…

0 feet 67.2F
5 feet 67.2F
10 feet 66.3F
15 feet 63.1F
20 feet 61.2F
25 feet 60.1F
30 feet 59.4F
35 feet 58.9F
40 feet 58.6F
45 feet 57.8F
50 feet 57.4F
55 feet 57.2F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 2.90′ low

Water Surface Temp: 64.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  WNW7-8

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover for the entire trip with bouts of rain and drizzle

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 46% illumination.

GT = 15

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1579 & B0225G – 32 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0390G – 74 sawtoothing MAL Heavy Lures

Area vic B0391G – 25 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0392G – 104 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

C’mon, Man … It’s Throwback Thursday (for the Three Wise Men)! — 152 Fish

by Bob Maindelle

CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, April 3, I welcomed three brothers aboard – – Steve, Dave, and Tim Wise – – they called themselves The Three Wisemen (I kid you not)!

These brothers have fished their whole lives from the salt waters of Florida to the tannic waters of Minnesota.  They all recounted fond memories of the outdoors and of their dad, who is now in his 90s.  Dad sends the boys an “I’m Still Alive” text each day.  Today’s, shown below, was quite appropriate.

DATE: Thursday, 03 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING:  12, 14 May (AM) 

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 17 May (AM)

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  The Three Wise Men, from left:  Steve, Dave, and Tim holding a few of the 152 fish they landed on a balmy, overcast spring morning on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION:  The “Three Wise Men’s” dad sent them this daily “I’m Still Alive” text.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Dave and Steve have fished with me on a number of occasions in the past, and this was Tim‘s first time to join us. When I asked how come Tim had never joined his brothers aboard my boat previously, he admitted that he really just likes to sleep in.
We had calm, humid, cloudy, springtime conditions today, and although we lacked a bit in the wind department, the gray cloud cover did help keep a bite going from start to finish today.
We started the trip in about 20 feet of water fishing for white bass, which had pushed spawning shad up against a windblown bank. Because the shallows are so full of sticks and other debris which grew up on the land during the past several years of drought, casting into water much shallower than 6 or 7 feet is pretty fruitless due to snagging.
For this reason, I moved us out into slightly deeper water so we could use vertical tactics instead. I equipped everyone with a silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye slabs, got everyone familiarized with how to follow the rise and fall of their bait and fish response to it on Garmin LiveScope , and we were off to the races. We fished two areas over the span of our first two hours and put a total of 50 fish in the boat.
Right around 9:15 AM, the very light southeast breeze stopped and a breeze just slightly east of north began to ripple the surface. The skies grew darker, the air felt heavier, and the light of misty drizzle began to fall. This little tweak in the weather spurred what would be an hour and 30 minutes of near constant topwater action (the first of the year)!
White bass were driving adult shad to the surface in between 16 and 20 feet of water. As the action was getting started, the visible surface feeding was sporadic, so I put MAL Heavies with chartreuse tails on for everyone and the fish just started flying in the boat. Once the schooling got heavier and more consistent, I put clear Spook Juniors on for everyone and we had a sight-fishing fiesta for a solid hour. Once the action went past peak and I could see more fish in the lower half of the water column than in the upper half as I viewed sonar, we went back with the MAL Heavies and fancast.
When this began to wrap up, we had put 151 fish in the boat. Within 20 minutes of wrapping up I offered we could continue casting and catching fish that way, or roll the dice, leave fish to find fish, hoping for some really big post-spawn fish in deep water. The fellows, whose wrists were hurting at this point,  decided the change of pace would be nice, so we made that gamble, went to deep water, but only picked up one more fish as the winds went flat calm once again and the morning bite died for good.

RESULTS: 152 fish, all caught and released

 

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial 

 

LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the silver 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, MAL Heavies (w/ chartreuse tail), and Spook Juniors to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/

 

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  1. First bird action with laughing gulls involved YTD.
  2. Threadfin shad spawn continues.
  3. First topwater action YTD.

 

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 02 April…

0 feet 65.6F
5 feet 65.6F
10 feet65.6F
15 feet 65.5F
20 feet 65.1F
25 feet 64.9F
30 feet 64.4F
35 feet 63.1F
40 feet 62.0F
45 feet 60.9F
50 feet 57.8F
55 feet 57.6F
60 feet 57.4F

This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Wednesday, 26 March…

0 feet 67.2F
5 feet 67.2F
10 feet 66.3F
15 feet 63.1F
20 feet 61.2F
25 feet 60.1F
30 feet 59.4F
35 feet 58.9F
40 feet 58.6F
45 feet 57.8F
50 feet 57.4F
55 feet 57.2F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 2.91′ low

Water Surface Temp: 64.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE7 at trip’s start, dying to calm at 2-hour mark, then picking up ENE3 before going calm again by 10:50.

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover for the entire trip.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 35% illumination.

GT = 85

 

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0194C – 29 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 363- 4 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 097 – 8 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs (2 hops)

Area vic 031/B0074G – 110 fish sawtoothing MAL Heavies and working Spook Juniors on topwater
Area vic 150 – 1 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

 

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle