Plan B: Live Shad – 73 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, May 12, I welcomed back the Gossard trio which included John Gossard Sr., and his sons, John Jr., and James.
John is a Vietnam-era veteran, John oversees the maintenance of a 400+ unit a apartment complex here in Texas, and James is a battalion chief of an Austin-area fire department with 22 years of service under his belt.
TODAY’S DATE: 12 May 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 15 June 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Seeing bright, calm conditions called for today, I planned on using live shad if it got tough. Well … it got tough alright, but the bait worked its magic and the Gossards wound up with a productive morning after all.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: John Jr., John Sr., and James Gossard took an early triple as we worked a shoreline alive with spawning shad in a ~20 minute window before the sun struck the water and shut that down.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
The forecast for this morning was not pretty – – light winds and clear skies. For this reason, I arrived early, threw the cast net, collected an ample quantity of threadfin shad, and then picked up the Gossards and commenced to try to find fish active enough such that the shad would not be required. I had made up in my mind that if we’d not done well at the trip’s halfway point, then I would attempt to find deep, well-congregated fish, and present shad.
That scenario pretty much played out. We found small groups of white bass in 25 to 30 feet of water, but, even though the fish were active, and we caught them, no other adjacent fish would pull in to keep a steady feed of fish coming under the boat to be caught. Essentially, we caught what I first saw indicated on sonar and no more.
So, around nine, I headed to deep, clear water, ran the boat as slowly as it would idle down and carefully studied side-imaging for the telltale sign of bottom-hugging, well-concentrated, white bass.
I found what I was looking for, put the trolling motor on Spot Lock and we never moved until we wrapped up at 11:30 with exactly 73 fish landed. These last 60 fish were all taken on lively threadfin shad. Our catch included, white bass, largemouth bass, hybrid striped bass, freshwater drum, and blue catfish.
To fish these live shad, I prefer “tight-lining” either with rods in rod holders or in my clients’ hands. I prefer short, ~15″ leaders and small, #2 hooks which I snell for the sake of stiffening the hook-to-leader connection. I hook the shad through the nostrils and coach folks not to respond until there is a steady loading of the rod caused by the fish pulling downward.
At no time did we see truly excited fish come beneath us. The fish that we saw on sSonar were all tight to the bottom, fairly slow moving, and were even sluggish about approaching the shad. For every five or six fish that did a “drive-by“ we would get one that would commit to striking. Fortunately, everybody got through the learning curve of when to set the hook pretty quickly, and from then on our hookup percentage stayed strong. We ended the morning with exactly 73 fish landed, of which 63 were white bass, all in which were of legal size.
RESULTS: 73 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-Strong threadfin shad spawning activity this morning
-Strong high pressure set up right over Texas has made for bright, calm weather due to last at least 2 days
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 05 May 2026, approx. 6:40AM…
0 feet 72.2F
5 feet 70.8F
10 feet 72.1F
15 feet 72.1F
20 feet 72.1F
25 feet 71.6F
30 feet 71.3F
35 feet 71.2F
40 feet 69.6F
45 feet 65.3F
50 feet 63.2F
55 feet 61.1F
60 feet 59.4F
Taken on Lake Belton on 29 April 2026, approx. 6:45AM…
0 feet 74.3F
5 feet 74.2F
10 feet 74.0F
15 feet 74.0F
20 feet 73.0F
25 feet 71.5F
30 feet 69.1F
35 feet 68.6F
40 feet 68.1F
45 feet 65.9F
50 feet 63.1F
55 feet 60.1F
60 feet 59.4F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 11:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F at sunrise (obscured)
Elevation: Belton is 0.85 high with a +0.46′ change since May 9th thanks to Sunday night’s cold front and associated rain to our northwest in the Leon River watershed. USACE is releasing 410 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 72.2.F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S0-2
Sky Condition: Patchy, light grey clouds at 30% coverage for about 90 minutes then clearing to an all blue sky with brilliant sun.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 22% illumination
GT = 50
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 0014- 8 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. nickel)
Area 2459 – 4 fish on MAL Dense w/ silver body
Area vic B0145C – 1 fish on MAL Dense w/ silver body
Area 2445 – 57 fish on MAL Dense w/ silver body
Area 2464 – 60 fish on live threadfin 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: https://www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle