I detailed this trip taken on Wed., 05 March, in my weekly fishing column in the Killeen Daily Herald. A "cut and paste" appears below...

NEXT OPEN DATES: 4, 6, 7 March (AM)






PHOTO CAPTION: My brother, Andy Maindelle, joined me on a scouting trip this past Wednesday on Lake Belton which was quite revealing. Among other things, we landed the first fish on faster-moving MAL Originals (versus slower-moving slabs) for the first time since the water temperature fell into the 50s back in early January.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

What a wild week of weather we just witnessed. Drastic swings in air temperature, wind direction, and wind velocity were all a part of the picture this past week.

As I spent some time on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir conducting an on-the-water sonar training session this past Monday, I noted that we had excellent fishing conditions, including manageable winds from the southwest, cloud cover, and a slow, upward trend in water temperature.

Yet, for all those positive factors, fish and birds were scarce.

I have observed this many times over the thirty-three years I have fished here in Central Texas. My belief is that it is at this time when a majority of the reservoir’s white bass population migrates into the Lampasas River to spawn, thus leaving a sparse population in the main lake.

I have also learned that, when this happens, fishing will be hit-or-miss until that same large slug of fish returns from spawning two to three weeks later.

Fortunately, we have another local option in the form of Lake Belton, and that is where I headed in the middle part of this past week to do some scouting in hopes that I could find populations of fish in the main lake and, in doing so, enjoy more consistency than Stillhouse is likely to offer.

On Wednesday, I invited my brother, Andrew Maindelle, along for a half-day, morning scouting effort on Lake Belton. I chose the morning, as that is when I conduct the majority of my guided trips with clients, hence the results would be more applicable to future trips.

My scouting efforts differ substantially from fishing with clients in that my goal is to find a lot of areas holding fish within the four-hour timeframe during which I normally conduct my trips with clients. Sitting atop aggressively feeding fish and catching lots of them would normally be my aim with clients aboard.

As soon as we got on the water, around 7 AM, I took a reading of the water temperature in five-foot increments from the surface down to fifty-five feet (see below).

I noted the fluctuation between twenty-five and thirty feet.

We covered a lot of ground in four hours – from just downstream of the Highway 36 bridge all the way down stream on the Leon River and then back upstream on Cowhouse Creek.

During this effort, we looked at more than twenty potential fish-holding areas and found fish at exactly fourteen of them.

This, in and of itself, was significant. It was clear to me that a proportionally greater number of fish were holding in the main lake at Lake Belton as compared to Stillhouse.

We used two methods to land the seventy fish we caught during this scouting effort – the MAL Original with chartreuse tail, and the white, 5/8-ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.

I was surprised to find fish in as little as twelve feet of water. In such shallow water, white bass tend to spread out horizontally, thus making a horizontal presentation more effective. Additionally, in just twelve feet of water, the chances of spooking fish due to wave-slap on the hull and trolling motor turbulence is great.

I really did not have high hopes that these fish would be aggressive enough to chase the MAL Lure in 55-degree water, but, they did, and it was not just one or two fish, either. By the time our scouting concluded, we had landed twenty of our seventy fish (28%) using this bait with a slow “sawtooth” retrieve.

These were the first fish we caught on the MAL Lure since the water temperature dropped out of the low 60s and into the high 50s back in the first half of January.

As effective as this lure was, we could not get fish in deeper water to go for it, nor did it work well when presented vertically. These two scenarios were where the white slab excelled, worked with a “slow-smoking” style of retrieve.

Based on what I observed in fish behavior and in the water temperature profile, I believe those fish in shallower (and warmer) water were more aggressive due to that extra warmth nudging their metabolism higher than those fish still lingering out in thirty feet of water or more.

A few other things we observed included: 1) that the bite was stronger in the second half of this four hour trip, 2) that the higher off bottom we observed fish when we first detected them with sonar, the more aggressively they bit, 3) that there was no helpful bird activity, 4) that the fish we found shallow were found in the first two hours of the morning, and 5) that the further up the Leon and Cowhouse we went, the more dirty the water became, thanks to the thirty-plus mile per hour winds blowing all afternoon on Tuesday, March 4.

I share all of this realizing a majority of those reading this column do not have the luxury of getting out on the water multiple times each week and keeping up with the subtleties of the behavior of gamefish and baitfish as seasons and weather conditions change.

Hopefully, this will help you make some informed choices as to where to go and what to do when you get there as you venture out on our area lakes. I do stop short of providing detailed location information as, sadly, this has been much abused in the past and, at the end of the day, I make my living by putting people on fish. That task is made more difficult when others fish in locations where I have put in the effort to find fish.

RESULTS: 70 fish, all caught and released


TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”:



TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO SNAP-JIG:



TUTORIAL VIDEON ON HOW TO DO “EASING”:




LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/



OBSERVATIONS:

N/A



LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Wednesday, 05 March. …

0 feet 55.3F
5 feet 55.6F
10 feet 55.6F
15 feet 55.6F
20 feet 55.6F
25 feet 55.6F
30 feet 55.6 F
35 feet 54.0F
40 feet 52.8F
45 feet 51.3F
50 feet 50.8F
55 feet 50.8F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation: 2.51 low

Water Surface Temp: 55.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW13-14 all morning

Sky Condition: Skies were cloudless, but with much particulate matter from strong W. winds the day before reaching 45 mph

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 40% illumination.

GT = N/A



Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1659 – 5 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B0001G – 5 fish slow smoking slabs

Area 0657 – 5 fish sawtoothing MALs

Area 0188 – 5 fish sawtoothing MALs

Area B0171C – 5 fish sawtoothing MALs

Area 1921 – 5 fish sawtoothing MALs

Area 1675- 5 fish slow smoking slabs

Area B0184G/1882- 5 fish slow smoking slabs

Area 1869- 5 fish slow smoking slabs

Area B0201C- 5 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B0098C- 5 fish slow smoking slabs

Area 081- 5 fish slow smoking slabs

Area B0238G- 5 fish slow smoking slabs

Area 1077 – 5 fish slow smoking slabs



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

On Feb 28 late in the afternoon, I caught a half dozen large sand bass using a Bobby Garland crappie bait on a 1/8 oz jig head. Just for fun, I threw a MAL original using a slow saw tooth retrieve and caught a 5.55 lb hybrid. The fish were pretty active on live scope. They were caught in 14' to 18' FOW and the water temp was 50.7F to 52.6F.

I believe that your observation about the hybrid being "pretty active" is the key. There are those days, even in the dead of winter, when the fish just fire up. The come up off the bottom, they compete with schoolmates to get to a bait first, they move more quickly than usual, etc. At those times the MAL Lure (or other baits moving faster than a slab or a deadstick presentation) will get bit. But, playing the odds, times like this are few and far between after the water temp drops below ~59F and until it warms back to it.

One thing is for sure -- we've got 2.5 months of outstanding fishing ahead, Lord willing! I won't be leaving the dock without MALs tied on from now until at least mid December.

I believe that your observation about the hybrid being "pretty active" is the key. There are those days, even in the dead of winter, when the fish just fire up. The come up off the bottom, they compete with schoolmates to get to a bait first, they move more quickly than usual, etc. At those times the MAL Lure (or other baits moving faster than a slab or a deadstick presentation) will get bit. But, playing the odds, times like this are few and far between after the water temp drops below ~59F and until it warms back to it.

One thing is for sure -- we've got 2.5 months of outstanding fishing ahead, Lord willing! I won't be leaving the dock without MALs tied on from now until at least mid December.

As always. Solid post and fish. Good job.