CLIENTS: This past Tuesday morning, March 11, I welcomed aboard Bob Keith and his 13-year-old grandson, Zach Freeman. I’d previously fished with Bob and Zach’s brothers. Zach was keenly aware of his brothers’ results, and wanted badly to catch more on his trip than then did on theirs. Here is how he accomplished that goal.

DATE: Monday, 11 March 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES: 18, 25, 26 March (AM)






PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Grandfather and grandson Bob Keith and Zach Freeman were a deadly duo. They put a total of 105 fish in the boat during their four-hour Spring Break 2025 trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Although the fishing was productive, it was a bit of a one-trick-pony. Every last one of the fish Bob and Zach landed came on one lure used on way, and that was the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab used with a “slow-smoking” tactic described below.

We fished a total of five areas, and the approach at each was identical: find fish with well-tuned side imaging, mark and return to the fish with i-Pilot Link technology, get the thumper going to hold and consolidate the fish, then use the lure and tactic mentioned above to work the fish as long as they stayed interested.

RESULTS: 105 fish, all caught and released



TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “EASING” WITH A SLAB: Click here for tutorial

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO SNAP-JIG: Click here for tutorial



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:

No helpful bird activity.
The warming water it increasing fish metabolism and that is trumping some otherwise troublesome weather conditions.


LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 3:15PM on Wednesday, 12 March. …

0 feet 60.3F
5 feet 59.6F
10 feet 59.0F
15 feet 58.6F
20 feet 57.4F
25 feet 56.9F
30 feet 56.5F
35 feet 55.6F
40 feet 54.9F
45 feet 54.7F
50 Feet 53.6F
55 feet 53.2F


This was the previous 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: 8A

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Elevation: 2.59′ low

Water Surface Temp: 54.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were light and southerly until picking up very suddenly from the SSW, going quickly to 16mph.

Sky Condition: Clear, bright skies all morning.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 94% illumination.

GT = 105



Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 817 – 6 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B0118C – 39 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B201C – 15 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B243G – 13 fish slow smoking slabs

Area vic B0152JWC – 32 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

The smiles always keep coming. Nice post and fish. Good job.

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