Wind + Clouds = Fish (89 fish with Marco & James)

CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, March 5, I hosted a father and son team from Georgetown, Texas. Joining me were Marco and James Medrano.

Marco is a captain with the Georgetown Fire Department and has been with that organization for 20 years. This trip was in celebration of James‘s 12th birthday, which came around this past Monday.

I knew Marco and I would hit it off before we even exchanged a word. After all, the guy was bringing his kid out fishing AND he had on a Terry Black’s BBQ hat!!

TODAY’S DATE: 05 March 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 10, 24 March (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: The story in the foreground was written by the story in the background — wind and cloud cover in advance of a forthcoming front really got the fish stirred up and feeding long and hard this morning. James and his dad, Marco, landed 89 fish.

PHOTO CAPTION: Pure aggression this morning! These youngsters fought over the 5/8 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.

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


WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

With a majority of Stillhouse white bass now focused on spawning, fishing in the main lake has started to become a bit difficult. On my last trip there under excellent conditions, we enjoyed only average results — my annual clue to shift focus. This won’t last long as the early spawners return, but that’s where we’re at now.

It is normally around this time where Lake Belton‘s white bass really begin to push into its much longer tributaries.

The fish showed up right on schedule today. Thanks to both abundant wind and cloud cover, we had a solid 3.5 hours of fishing and then a slow taper down in our final 30 minutes on the water.

We followed the fish from the surface where they fed briefly as the sun was rising (although completely obscured by clouds), out into deep deeper – around 30 foot of water where we found them still quite active, but suspended, then, at about the halfway point of the morning, the fish geared back, hit the bottom, but still stayed quite active and allowed us a good catch right on through around 10:10 AM. From 10:10 to 10:40 things got quiet and we only landed a handful of fish during that window before wrapping up.

While the fish were on top, we caught them on the Cork Rig equipped with a Sandy Sandwich Streamer, then, once they left the surface, we used the MAL Original with chartreuse tail to catch them in under 14 feet of water, but along the bottom, with a sawtooth tactic.

Once this dried up, we used LiveScope to track the movements of suspended white bass and used a slow smoking tactic with the white, 5/8 ounce, Bladed Hazy Eye Slab to present this lure moving upward right off the noses of fish moving left and right, parallel to the bottom.

Once the fish finally slowed down and hit the bottom, we continued to use the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab with a slow smoking tactic, only this time using Garmin LiveScope to watch fish pursue off the bottom instead of using it to help intersect their path of travel as we had done on the suspended fish.

In this manner, father and son landed 87 white bass, 1 hybrid, striped bass, and 1 small largemouth bass and right at four hours’ time.

RESULTS: 89 fish, all caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:

-helpful bird activity combined with helpful wind and cloud cover kept the fish biting for 3.5 hours this morning.

-beneficial rains are forecast for the weekend ahead

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 05 March 2026, approx. 6:20AM…

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