With a Name Like “Bass”, You’ve Got to Fish Well — 85 Fish
CLIENTS: This morning, Thursday, April 9, I fished with Mr. Jerry Bass, an octogenarian now residing in Temple, Texas. Jerry and I first got acquainted when I made an error in piecing together an order he had made from my WhiteBassTools.com website.
Jerry was gracious in accepting my offer to make things right and we wound up hitting it off and fishing together today. This was a departure from Jerry’s normal pursuit of largemouth bass in his own boat on Lake Belton.
TODAY’S DATE: 09 April 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 24 & 28 April 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Jerry Bass landed white bass, hybrid striped bass, and a blue cat today as he intentionally tried to overcome a lifetime of bass-fishing habits to adapt to the peculiarities of white bass fishing for one morning — and did well at it!
PHOTO CAPTION: Although spawned-out white bass now make up the lion’s share of our catch, we still landed a few white bass dribbling eggs or milt today.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
As we made our way to our first fishing area this morning I told Jerry there are two significant differences in the pursuit of white bass versus largemouth. The first is getting away from the “spot“ mentality given that white bass constantly roam in search of bait and do not hold up in structure like ambush-feeding fish do. The second difference is that white bass do not require a super hard hook set. This is because the tackle is lighter, the hooks are of finer wire with sharper points, and white bass are typically just nipping at a lure instead of engulfing it like fish with larger mouths often do.
This morning was the cloudiest of all mornings this week so far and also the warmest and most humid. For this reason, we stayed up shallow longer and caught more fish in under 25 feet than we did up to this point this week.
That shallow water fishing was comprised mainly of using the sawtooth method with MAL Dense lures, and accounted for over 20 fish before the fish moved out deeper.
After we began to have some thinning of the clouds and the light intensity got enough to force us to squint without sunglasses on, we moved out to deeper, clearer water and stayed there for the remainder of the trip. As we fished this deeper clear water, I changed us over to nickel-plated three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs.
We found multiple large schools of fish in this deep water in the 40 foot range, but only the first school we found really got fired up and stayed chasing long and hard. Around 10 o’clock, the clouds increased, and we actually had some light sprinkles fall. Right at this time, the fishing dropped off sharply. We could find fish rather easily, catch a few as soon as we dropped down among them, but they just would not stay interested for any sustained length of time.
By trip’s end, we had seen exactly 85 fish come over the side of the boat, including 3 hybrid striped bass, 1 blue catfish, and 81 white bass.
RESULTS: 85 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-Water in the tributaries is settling noticeably after getting pretty silty following Saturday’s rain and wind.
-As shown below, the water temperature underwent a net cooling this week as compared to the week prior.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Lake Belton on 09 April 2026, approx. 6:55AM…
0 feet 69.2F
5 feet 69.4F
10 feet 69.1F
15 feet 68.4F
20 feet 67.9F
25 feet 67.6F
30 feet 66.9F
35 feet 66.0F
40 feet 64.4F
45 feet 62.3F
50 feet 61.2F
55 feet 60.3F
Taken on Lake Belton on 02 April 2026, approx. 7:20AM…
0 feet 70.2F
5 feet 69.9F
10 feet 69.4F
15 feet 69.0F
20 feet 68.6F
25 feet 68.4F
30 feet 68.1F
35 feet 68.1F
40 feet 67.9F
45 feet 65.9F
50 feet 63.7F
55 feet 61.7F
60 feet 60.0F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:15A
End Time: 11:35A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F
Elevation: Belton is 1.22′ low with a 0.02′ change in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 60 CFS.
Water Surface Temp: 69.2F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SE6-9 all morning
Sky Condition: 100% grey clouds all morning with light sprinkles after 10A
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 55% illumination
GT = 10
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area vic 2427- 17 fish on MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail)
Area vic B0172C -3 fish on MAL Dense Lures (silver body, chartreuse tail)
Area 2422 – 5 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. nickel)
Area 2428- 28 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. nickel)
Area 2405- 8 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. nickel)
Area Vic B0054G – 24 fish on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (3/4 oz. nickel)
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