WHO I FISHED WITH: This evening, Monday, March 13, I fished with Steve Niemeier, his granddaughter, Macy Fowler (age 14), and Macy’s friend, Noah Lanham (age 14).

Macy and Noah have been friends since they first had class together back in the third grade.

Steve, a CPA, was fortunate to swing a few hours off just days before the 15 March corporate tax filing deadline.

Here’s how the fishing went …

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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

Next available dates are 22, 29 & 31 March





PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Noah Lanham, Steve Niemeier, and Macy Fowler with a nice mess of white bass taken from a mobile, suspended school at our first stop of the afternoon using Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 13 March 2023 (PM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Thanks to a dry cold front, which began moving in in the early morning hours Sunday, we had cool, clearing skies and a stiff northwest breeze, which maintained a steady velocity from about noon until about a hour before sunset and then tapered down from NNW11 to NNW6.

We caught fish from start to finish tonight with our first success coming by parking atop a large, migrating school of suspended white bass, the location of which was indicated to us by the presence of gulls feeding over top of them. As we eased over top of these fish, the thumper really drew them in and, thanks to previous experience fishing in this manner with me, everyone was able to capitalize on the abundant number of white bass present, as seen on Garmin LiveScope.

The trick was to bring the Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs we were using (white, 5/8 oz.) into the path of these moving fish, giving them a chance to see the bait just slightly forward of and above their “nose level”. This did the trick for 55 fish, all of which were quality white bass, most exceeding 13 inches, with nice, plump proportions.

Next, we spotted birds working a shallow flat. I moved the boat into about 6-8 feet of water, just upwind of these fish and had everyone cast directly downwind, toward the bank, using MAL Heavy Lures with the lures landing in under 2 feet of water. The white bass were chasing mature threadfin shad all over the place and were pretty rowdy doing it. We took 31 more fish doing this, not including a 28-pound longnose gar which Steve snagged in the back.

Finally, with less than 40 minutes before the sun set (and before the white bass shut down), we hit two more areas, the first produced 14 short fish under a handful of gulls. These fish were all suspended and were taken by picking them off one at a time as they swam beneath the boat, as observed on Garmin Live-Scope. We took our tally to 100 fish here, then moved to try to find one more school of large fish before concluding our evening. We found one last school in ~22 feet of water and they were right on bottom. We picked up a final 13 fish here and took a chilly ride back in to the boat ramp.

TALLY: 113 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: The dry cold front really got the fish turned on today as the winds stayed up all day.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 3:15P

End Time: 7:25P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 14.00 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .01′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 60.4F on the surface

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW11 at trip’s start, then tapering back to NNW6-7 by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: Clear, bluebird skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 67% illumination.

GT = P

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0202G – 55 fish

Area 1662 – 20 fish

Area 1673 – 11 fish

Area B0065C – 14 fish

Area B0185C- 13 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

Good times. Solid post and fish. As always good job.

Bob do you use Binoculars for spotting the birds? And if so what power do you find is best for boat use?
Brad

rbait,
Bob don't need no stink'in Binoc's. The dude is a former U.S. Army trained assassin with the eye's of an eagle, the reflexes of a tiger and the cunning of a fox.

Brad, I actually use a small spotting scope. It is an inexpensive, 12X50, waterproof version by Eyeskey.

I prefer this over binoculars because I can hold this and use it with one hand while keeping my other hand on the steering wheel. Binos require 2 hands for adjustment.

Hope that helps!

Interesting. I have never used a spotting scope. Seems like the 12x magnification might make it jerky on a boat. Thanks.

Rebait, true, you can't expect clear viewing while skipping over whitecaps, but, you can certainly hold still enough while motoring over a rippled surface. I typically do my glassing while my clients are fishing so I can anticipate the next stop or two that we'll make, thus, I'm doing that while the boat is on Spot-Lock.