WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning, April 19th, I fished with first time guests Mike and Randall Stone, and returning guest Shawn DeJournett.

All three men are U.S. Army veterans, and both Shawn and Randall now continue to serve as police officers — Shawn in Killeen and Randall in San Antonio. Mike, who retired as a Field Artillery First Sergeant, now makes a living selling real estate.

Here is how the fishing went …

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My next openings will be on May 11th and June 21st. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trip (until mid-March 2023).






PHOTO CAPTION: From left: New boat record-holders for most fish caught on a half-day trip – Mike Stone, Randall Stone, and Shawn DeJournett, all U.S. Army veterans. Yes, Mike looks like the not-so-handsome brother on the old TV show Simon & Simon!!




PHOTO CAPTION: Although I’m pretty careful about getting my fingers dinged up as I unhook and release fish, things happen when handling 392 of them in a short span of time.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 19 April 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

As the winds turned back out of the south following a northerly blow yesterday, those winds were accompanied by grey cloud cover and humid conditions — a perfect spring weather setup.

We caught fish continuously from start to finish this morning — 4+ hours of solid catching.

I welcomed the three men aboard at 6:50AM; by 7:45AM we had already boated 70 fish. This was just the start of a phenomenal day.

As I searched our first area I intended to fish, I noted the fish were moving very fast — they were obviously frenzied and chasing shad which were headed up shallow to spawn.

Although I brought my slab rods, they never got touched all trip. Instead, after seeing the results I’d experienced with some relatively inexperienced clients both before and after the Easter weekend, I brought rods rigged with MAL Heavy Lures with barbless hooks to make the catching easier on both me and the fish. The speed at which I saw the fish moving on Garmin LiveScope let me know they would be keen on chasing the MAL.

The fishing played out identically at each of the five areas we fished. I initially spotted fish with side-imaging, Spot-Locked atop of them, got baits down and working, then observed the fish rise up off bottom and begin to fill the lower third of the water column. As we caught fish, the commotion those hooked fish created drew more fish, and the whole thing snowballed.

We took 70 fish at our first area, 15 fish at our second stop, 16 fish at our third stop, 75 fish at our fourth stop, and then we really hit it big as the wind ramped up so high that the handful of smaller boats on the water headed for more protected areas. Our final stop produced an incredible 216 fish. We fished that area for over two solid hours.

Our final count was 392 fish. Congratulations, fellows!!

My previous boat record, taken by a party of five anglers on May 25th, 2021, was 389 fish landed on a half-day trip by Joe and Jeff Oliver, Donna Hine, Larry Lattimer and Larry Haynes.

During both record-setting trips, we used MAL Heavy Lures exclusively, and used only a “smoking” tactic fully described here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Our final tally of 392 fish consisted of 7 short hybrid striped bass, and 385 white bass.

Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 392 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: This has been a windy spring. I’ve had to recalibrate my own tolerance of wind in order to run trips this spring. I’ve had to get accustomed to boat spray by dressing for it and having clients do the same. I’ve had to become okay with the trolling motor occasionally popping out of the water and making a racket. I’ve had to be okay with excessive boat movement even while on Spot-Lock, etc. The bite is definitely not hindered by the wind, in fact, strong wind enhances fish feeding. If you run from the wind, your results will suffer.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F

Elevation: 3.62 feet low, 0.01’ fall in last 24 hours, 31 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 66.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE16 at trip’s start (much higher than forecast), settling down to SE13-14 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 50-60% light grey clouds on a hazy white sky most of the morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 90% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0194C, 187, B0118C, 081, 953



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

Great, detailed report - as usual. Congrats on the record. After reading, I'm thinking my wind tolerance needs to be re-calibrated as well! I've noticed your trips mention C&R for the most part. Do you ever keep any fish?

No, sir. I've run my guide business for 17 years now and have never cleaned a single fish. I founded my business on the catch & release practice for conservation's sake and have never looked back. Having clients who are also conservation-minded is wonderful, as we often have many other things in common, as well, which we get to discuss as we fish together for several hours. Thanks for asking!

--Bob

Awesome!

Great day!!

Interesting about the catch and release part. I figured most people wouldnt go along with that if they were paying for a guide trip. I usually keep some during the spawning run because by then I am usually low on Crappie. There are plenty of times I have no intention of keeping any at all but they end up hooked deep and bleeding so I toss them in the live well. If I am lucky I find someone at the ramp to take them off my hands, if I am unlucky I am cleaning fish when I get home.

JCB, there was a bit of a "leap of faith" at the beginning, because I knew I was not following the 'norm' in establishing an all catch-and-release guide practice. Now, 17 years into it, and at age 53, I've actually had to scale back on the fishing a little and routinely refer folks to other guides because I cannot accommodate them due to an already full schedule. Not too many years back I was accepting 220+ trips per year, routinely taking on two trips per day.

Now, I've set a sustainable pace of fishing weekday mornings only and stay booked up many weeks in advance. I take Fridays to spend with my wife, I take Sundays so the two of us can worship and serve the Lord, and I take some vacation time (to fish on my own!!). That's put me back at 180-200 trips a year, each of which I very much look forward to preparing for and conducting.

As with many things in life, some of the biggest obstacles are imagined. Looking back, I'm very glad I did not compromise for fear of losing a few bucks, all to an imagined obstacle, which, in reality, was not really there at all.

Thanks for your note.

--Bob

I agree completely to keep a small percentage of fish taken or none at all. So many times we sit back and beat our chests when guide(s) keep 25 fish per client ! In most cases said clients do not fish and will simply let their fifty fillets freezer burn and then tossed out. Gut hooked fish, keep em !

Well done Bob! Impressive!

Congrats on the new best! That's impressive on any body of water

Awesome catching and thx for sharing too. C&R is awesome too. The kids smiles are priceless when you put the on fish too.

That’s almost 100 fish per hour! My best day was 38 fish. I’ve got a long way to go to get to those numbers. Loved the report and as soon as my boat is out of the shop, I’ll be back and fishing with new records numbers and fun to be had. Looking to take more people out as guests. That is something I haven’t done while learning how to locate and catch ‘em.

This is incredible. Great job Bob and always love the posts.
Has anyone ever tried smoking the MAL heavy for striper. This seems like quite a bit more fun and active than drowning shad - and that is if you can catch the shad first haha.

AW1511, yes, I have a number of clients on Lake Texoma, Lake Whitney, and on a number of the large reservoirs out west (Mead, Elephant Butte, Mojave, etc.) using MAL Lures very successfully for striped bass. Based on their input, I make available a version of the MAL Heavy with a #2 treble hook instead of the smaller #4 treble which is more appropriate for white bass.

You can see that upsized #2 treble hook version of the MAL Heavy here: https://whitebasstools.com/A2-MAL-HEAVY-WITH-SILVER-BLADE-p334865810

An awesome day with plenty of memories.