WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, March 23rd, I fished with first-time guest Spencer Brown Jr. of Waco.

Spencer is self-employed with his kids all through college and working now, and he just decided to take a break from the daily routine to come out and wet a line and enjoy the early spring weather.

He wasn’t out to break any records or land any trophies, so, he requested a start time of 9AM to make the drive to Lake Belton a bit more leisurely. So, we had from our 9AM start to about noon (when the fish have been shutting down following the morning feed) to catch what we were going to catch.

Here is 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 April 13 (PM), 26 (AM), and 27 (AM)




PHOTO CAPTION: Spencer Brown Jr. of Waco came out with me solo this morning. We fished at a leisurely pace for just 3 hours (9 to noon) and landed 50 fish on both the MAL Lure and the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.





PHOTO CAPTION: Fishing was most productive when the fish got aggressive for about an hour and positioned up off bottom like this. Otherwise, the fish were tight to the bottom this morning and much harder to fool. When we saw these fish in this posture, the MAL Heavy Lure (chartreuse tail) far outproduced the slab.


WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 23 March 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Our weather today was pretty decent – we had grey cloud cover and a stiff SSE breeze at 16-17. There was, once again, a definite “peak bite” this morning around 10-11A. During this time the fishing was easy as the fish positioned up off the bottom by several feet and aggressively chased both the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab and the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail. This was my very first attempt at the use of the MAL vertically so far this calendar year since the water chilled to below 60F back in December.

Outside of this peak time, the fishing was more demanding, and the use of a smooth, continuous retrieve was critical. At first, Spencer was having a hard time getting his retrieve smoothed out enough to keep his bait from surging and slowing repeatedly on its way up off the bottom. I just sat and watched him do what he was doing for several iterations and identified the problem. Not only was he turning the reel’s handle with his left hand, he was also moving the rod slightly forward and backward with his right hand as he reeled. This combination caused the rod tip to bob up and down and his presentation to go largely ignored. As soon as we identified and corrected that, his catch rate increased immediately.

There was some bird action, but in each case I found very sparse (but very aggressive) fish under the birds pushing bait to the surface. The number of fish under the birds was generally not sufficient to stop for with expectations of catching quite a number of fish beneath them.

We wrapped up right at noon with exactly 50 fish, including 2 freshwater drum, 1 hybrid striped bass (short), and 47 white bass.

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: Water temperature profile:

0 feet, 64.1F
5 feet, 62.6F
10 feet, 61.1F
15 feet, 60.3F
20 feet, 60.1F
25 feet, 60F
30 feet, 59.4F
35 feet,59.2F
40 feet, 58.9F
45 feet, 58.7F



WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 9A

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 14.24 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .01′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 64.1F on the surface thanks to warmth and mixing by wind overnight

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10 at trip’s start, increasing steadily to SSE16-17 with higher gusts by trip’s end.

Sky Condition: 100% heavy grey cloud cover with “squinting” level of light coming thru the clouds

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 4% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0121C – 6 fish

Area B0056G – 7 fish

Area B0009C – 2 fish

Area B0208G – 20 fish

Area B0064G – 15 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 as always. Good job.

Fantastic report and job on finding the fish for your client, Spencer!