Yearning for Learning — 36 Fish

CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, 02 March, I fished with returning guest Dick Pearce and a friend of his, Jim Colbert, who joined me for the first time.

Dick is in the process of equipping a new boat and wanted to see for himself how some of the equipment on my own boat (especially sonar and trolling motor) meshed with the tactics I employ for year ’round pursuit of white bass.

Since they were not after numbers, I left live shad out of the equation with their consent. We focused on vertical and horizontal tactics with artificial baits for the duration of our morning together.

TODAY’S DATE: 02 March 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 3, 4, 9, 10 March (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Dick Pearce and Jim Colbert, each with some chunky, spawn-filled white bass taken via a variety of tactics we employed to showcase how sonar, trolling motor and white bass tactics all dovetail in this spring fishery.

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


WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We began our morning flatline trolling crankbaits to 1) cover ground, 2) observe side imaging as we did so while providing some insights about this technology, and 3) to get a sense for how active the fish were going to be this morning.

That tactic produced 6 white bass and 2 largemouth and showed me that fish were generally not schooled heavily in several area in under 15′.

We moved deeper and began to employ a number of tactics. Although sticking with just one tactic and allowing Dick and Jim to improve on that would have put more fish in the boat, that was contrary to their purpose, so, instead of just working slabs vertically, I also introduced them to work MAL Lures vertically.

Once that was understood and while side imaging was revealing schools of fish heavily on our port side, I stepped them through the sawtooth method using the new White Bass Mini A-rig. Once they got the hang of that using a heavy bait, I lightened things up by putting MAL Heavy Lures and MAL Dense Lures on and had them use the sawtooth method once again. All of these paid off by putting fish in the boat.

By around 9:15, things started to get tough as the mid-depth bite shut off and we had to press deeper. A handful of gulls pointed the way to some deep fish, but these fish (in water still in the low 50s) were none too aggressive.

Positioning atop these fish allowed me to demonstrate the i-Pilot Link feature shared between my Humminbird sonar and Minn Kota trolling motor which allows for precise, efficient positioning.

We went back to “slow-smoking” the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab, but this time really focused on presenting the bait ~2 feet in front of suspended, moving fish as seen on Garmin LiveScope. This continued to produce until just after 11AM when the fish finally shut down as our cloud cover just about completely dissipated.

RESULTS: 36 fish, all caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:

-fish are definitely on the move to the spawning grounds, albeit in no big rush thanks, in part, to low flow in the Lampasas River – the river isn’t all that low, it’s just not flowing all that much with next to no release ongoing through the dam.

-birds pointed the way to late morning, deep water fish, although these fish were not feeding very hard by the time we found them.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Stillhouse Hollow on 02 March 2026…

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