WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, 22 March, I fished with brothers-in-law, Ronnie Everett and Terry Shumate. The two are also partners in the same small business – – Everett’s Acoustics LLC, which specializes in acoustical ceilings, commercial doors, bathroom partitions, interior demo, metal stud framing, and drywall.

I happened to meet Ronnie at the Harker Heights Neighborhood Walmart Market while fueling up my boat. We struck up a fishing conversation and, as a result, he came out fishing for white bass with me today, and now plans to bring his grandkids out, as well.

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: Brothers-in-law and business partners Ronnie Everett (left) and Terry Shumate boated 106 fish on Lake Belton under classic spring weather conditions this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 22 March 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Our weather situation was much improved this morning, in that we still had gray skies, but with ample light coming through the cloud cover, and we had a continuing south-southeast wind, which eventually got up to 16 mph with stronger gusts.

That is a very good weather set up for spring time white bass. We found and caught fish steadily over the entire four hours on the water, but that span from 9:45 through 10:45 was a definite peak with a higher catch rate.

Birds were present, and in some cases, helpful, although you really needed to study their behavior to help you get on fish, as many of these birds are distracted by shad now rising up near the surface as they begin to prepare for spawning.

All but a handful of our fish were taken on the white, 5/8-ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab for fish in 25 to 30 feet of water. These fish were tightly schooled together and fairly obvious on well-tuned side-imaging sonar.

Once we found them, I used the i-Pilot Link interface with my trolling motor to park on top of the fish. We then proceeded to fish for them vertically using Garmin LiveScope to track fish response to our presentations.

We did a good bit of moving around today, finding that the fish would only stay interested for perhaps 10-15 minutes at a clip. Even though fish would still be present after this span of time, they only half-heartedly followed the lure upwards, if that. Moving frequently helped us stay on fresh, aggressive fish.

When all was said and done, Terry and Ronnie landed exactly 106 fish, including 6 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, and 98 white bass. Our 100th fish came aboard at exactly 11:57, and the fellows managed the last six fish as I was prepping the boat to head in.

TALLY: 106 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: We took as many fish this morning in 4 hours as we did in 5 hours the day before, thanks to brighter and breezier conditions today. We had to move frequently — as soon as the fish indicated a loss of interest in chasing our baits.



WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 8A

End Time: 12 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 14.23 feet low, 24 CFS flow, .01′ fall over the last 24 hrs.

Water Surface Temp: 58.3F on the surface

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 at trip’s start, increasing steadily to SSE16 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 1% illumination.

GT =65

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1000 – 8 fish

Area B0064G – 9 fish

Area 1917 – 7 fish

Area 1934 – 7 fish

Area 2027 – 2 fish

Area B0009C – 44 fish

Area vic B0199C – 5 fish

Area 0147 – 7 fish

Area vic B0187C – 17 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.

Fantastic report and job on finding the fish for your clients, Ronny and Terry!