WHO I FISHED WITH:

This morning, Wednesday, March 27, I fished with returning guest, James Copeland, accompanied by first time guests, Ben and Evan Hayes.

James is in the mortgage business and did business with Ben and Evans father who was in the title business, eventually working with Ben and Evan as they grew into the family business.


My next open dates are: 2, 5, & 11 April (AMs)

Here is how the fishing went…






PHOTO CAPTION: Ben Hayes took our largest fish this morning, just a few minutes after the first winds of the morning began to blow. This fish inhaled his 3/4 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.





PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ben Hayes, James Copeland, and Evan Hayes with a few of the 76 fish they landed, mainly on MAL Originals worked with a sawtooth method.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 27 Mar. 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

For the second consecutive morning, the air temperature at sunrise was 45° and the winds were calm. The winds stayed calm until around 10 AM. There was a low deck of gray clouds during this time.



I moved the trip start time back to 8 AM to eliminate waiting through some of the cold, calm conditions, but we still had to bide our time until the wind kicked in.



Prior to 10:10 AM, my crew of three had landed only seven fish, but ended up with a total of 76 fish in five hours’ time — a testament to just how keyed these fish are to wind.



During the slow two hours, fish were still able to be found, but simply would hardly budge for any presentation, vertical or horizontal. Those fish we did catch fell for the white, 3/4-ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.



Once the wind began to blow, the fishing picked up very rapidly with horizontal presentations outproducing vertical presentations from that point on.



The vast majority of our fish today were taken on MAL Original lures with both white tails and with chartreuse tails. James, Ben, and Evan used the sawtooth method with a total of seven turns of the reels handle per iteration. I had the metronome set to an 80 BPM setting in order to keep them from reeling too fast or too slow.



Our 76 fish consisted of exactly 74 white bass, 1 hybrid striped bass, and 1 freshwater drum.



Fish are definitely re-populating on topographic features and are using the 29-34 foot depth range quite consistently.

Find the MAL Original and the 3/4-ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/


TALLY: 76 fish caught and released



OBSERVATIONS: Here is the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on March 26 …

0 feet, 62F
5 feet, 62F
10 feet, 62F
15 feet, 62F
20 feet, 62F
25 feet, 62F
30 feet, 62F
35 feet, 62F
40 feet, 61.9F
45 feet, 61.4F
50 feet, 56.0F
WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 8A

End Time: 1:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation: 11.59 feet low, 33 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 62.0F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm thru 10A, then slowly picking up from the south, peaking at S8 by 10:40A

Sky Condition: Low, thin grey cloud layer at 80% slowly clearing to cloudless by 1P

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 99% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Best areas were B0064G and B0066G


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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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As always. Smiles say it all.