WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, March 15, I fished with returning guest, Dave Knutson, accompanied by two grandsons, J.D., age 14, and his cousin, Anthony, age 11.

Dave, an Austin Police Department retiree, and Anthony reside in the north Austin area, and J.D. came in the day before from San Antonio.

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 23, 29 & 31 March






PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Dave Knutson and his grandsons, Anthony and J.D. with a few of the white bass they caught together during Spring Break 2023.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 15 March 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

The fish are really trying to get in gear for the spring warm-up, but unstable weather has hindered a bit of late. We just went through two days of hard north winds only to have the winds shift 180° and come hard out of the south today.

We experienced a moderate bite over the course of our first three hours on the water during which time my crew of three landed 45 fish. We went nearly fishless for a fourth hour between 11 and noon.

Not wanting to end on a slow note, we pressed on and found one more group of fish, which helped add a final dozen to our count. We concluded at 12:25 PM with 57 fish landed.

During the fishless hour, we found fish consistently, but had them outright refuse our presentations. The fish would either not react at all, or would half-heartedly chase 1 to 3 feet off the bottom and then turn back as our slowly-smoked slabs continued on upwards.

The fish we caught today were all caught on the white, 5/8 ounce, Bladed Hazy Eye Slab, and all of our fish were taken using the slow-smoking tactic. I did not observe other scenarios where I felt a different presentation could have been used.

Of the 57 fish we landed, 4 were short hybrid striper, and the remaining 53 were white bass.

TALLY: 57 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: Fewer and fewer fish are lingering in deep water (over 30′) as the water warms and daylength increases. Many caught fish were oozing eggs or milt today.



WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 8:00A

End Time: 12:25P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Elevation: 14.1 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .05′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 59.4F on the surface

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE11 at trip’s start, steadily increasing to ESE15-16 by noon.

Sky Condition: 80% white cloud cover on a blue sky this morning.

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 45% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0196C – 4 fish

Area 1552 – 30 fish; 2 hops

Area B0005C – 16 fish

Area B0173G – 11 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

Nice post and fish. Good job.