They Got While the Getting Was Good — 75 Fish

CLIENTS: This past Friday afternoon, March 13, I fished with a crew of five – – an 83-year-old father and his four sons whose ages span 20 years. Joining me were Mr. Tunis Schuurman, and his son‘s Tim, Tom, Bill, and John.

This trip was originally scheduled for Monday morning, March 16, but the forecast called for the bottom to drop out weatherwise from Sunday into Monday as a significant cold front blasted Central Texas with low temps and high winds.

TODAY’S DATE: 13 March 2026 (PM)


NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 24 March (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: John, Tom, Tunis, Bill, and Tim Schuurman “got while the getting was good”, rescheduling their fishing trip before a major cold front set a record for the low temperature on the morning of their originally scheduled date.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/


WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I am rarely a big fan of fishing in the afternoon versus a morning, but in this case, it only made sense.

 The fishing this afternoon was a good bit tougher than it was this morning. Thanks to a cloudless sky all day, the fish were deeper this afternoon than at any point this morning, and they were noticeably more reluctant. This meant we had to put more effort in for fewer fish caught, and it also meant we had to move more frequently as the fish simply lost interest after a certain amount of time spent at each location we went to.

Thankfully, finding fish was not a challenge.

Right up until the final 90 minutes, all of our fishing took place in 36 to 40 feet of water, then fish moved up to 25, then 20, then 18 feet, then, at our last area, we caught them in 12 to 14 feet of water.

 We stuck with the same nickel-plated slabs that served us well this morning up until the midpoint of the trip. Once the shadows started to get long, and because the 13 to 14 mph wind which blew since 11 AM dirtied up the water a good bit, I went back to an opaque, white slab from about 5:30 PM on.

We used only the smoking tactic fishing these slabs vertically with the aid of a splasher and Garmin LiveScope.

When all was said and done, we landed exactly 75 fish, all of which were white bass.

I felt we did the best we could with the hand of weather we were dealt in the short window while all four brothers who live out of town/state were all together for a spring visit.

RESULTS: 75 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

OBSERVATIONS:

-As is often the case, the PM bite was shorter and weaker than the longer, stronger AM bite. In this case, we landed 60% of what the morning bite yielded.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 13 March 2026, approx. 7AM…

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