WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, 06 March, I fished with the Greenwood Family from Allen, TX, just north of Dallas.

Mrs. Cynthia Greenwood treated her four daughters, Jocelyn (age 13), Taylor and Reese (11-year-old twins), and Kendall (age 9) to a multi-day, Spring Break 2023 trip to the north Austin area, which included a morning of fishing with me on the waters of Lake Belton.

Cynthia happens to be a guidance counselor in the same school district in which her girls go to school, so the five of them had the same dates off. No, Mr. Greenwood didn’t get “voted off the island”; he had to keep on working this week!

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Peak spring dates are just about gone. Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Here is how the fishing went …






PHOTO CAPTION: That’s mom (Cynthia) in the back, then, from left: Kendall, Taylor, Reese, and Jocelyn enjoying Spring Break 2023 away from Allen ISD up north of Dallas. My five-girl crew landed 151 fish in 4 hour.



WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 06 March 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

The fishing is improving with each passing warm spring day now. The surface temperature is now in the high 50’s and climbing. We’ve got another 2 solid days of warming before the next cold front is due in, but, even it is due to be mild.

There are two distinct fisheries now present for white bass. There are fish locked down on bottom on major topographic features and there are large, slowly moving schools of fish wandering in preparation to spawn; these wandering fish tend to be suspended and clearly traveling in a specific direction. Those fish locked on bottom on topography tend to be harder to catch, fewer in number, and less likely to stay interested very long. Due to their position in the water column, these bottom-oriented fish are also in water several degrees cooler than the 20-25 foot water being used by the migratory fish.

My crew this morning had fished before, but really hadn’t caught fish before, with most of their prior experience taking place on municipal park ponds.

We started with the basics and just kept building on those basics until everyone was catching fish consistently and unaided. We began with how to hold a spinning rod, how to open and close the bail, and how to retrieve the bait smoothly and naturally. We then layered in Garmin LiveScope so each of the ladies could see their retrieve and fish response to it. Then we troubleshot kinks in their methodology and introduced a bit of hooksetting, and that was all it took.

The ladies used white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (only) the entire morning and used them with a slow-smoking tactic.

Here is a link to my tutorial on using the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab with a slow-smoking tactic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ

Our 151 fish tally included 1 freshwater drum, 4 largemouth bass, 6 short hybrid striped bass, and 140 white bass, of which 131 were legal (over the 10″ minimum).

TALLY: 151 fish caught and released

Find Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hook here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: Temperature profile taken on 04 March:

0 feet, 58.6F
5 feet, 58.3F
10 feet, 58.2F
15 feet, 58.2F
20 feet, 57.8F
25 feet, 57.6F
30 feet, 57.2F
35 feet, 56.6F
40 feet, 56.0F
45 feet, 54.9F
50 feet, 53.9F
55 feet, 53.5F
60 feet 53.2F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:40A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 13.95 feet low, 24 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 57F on the surface

Wind Speed & Direction: S10 at trip’s start, increasing to S12 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% thin grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 99% illumination.

GT = 75

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 187 – 22 fish (w/birds)
Area A0160G – 11 fish (w/birds)
Area 294/B0198G – 62 (w/birds)
Area B0021C – 5 fish
Area B0199G – 41 fish (w/birds)
Area 154 – 10 fish



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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec

Bet you stayed busy and earned your fee today Bob.

5 women in the boat? You deserve the Meritorious Achievement medal at minimum!

Awesome post and fish. Good job as always.