CLIENTS: This morning, Monday, March 31, I fished with a crew of friends, all in Austin-area law enforcement. Coordinating the trip was longtime client Joey Sapien. Joining him for the first time were Dave Boatright, Cody Jones, and Mark McKinney.

DATE: Monday, 31 March 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 08, 10, 22 April (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR SONAR TRAINING: 12 April (AM)








PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Buddies in law enforcement — Joey Sapien, Mark McKinney, Cody Jones, and David “Boat” Boatright. When I asked Joey, who coordinated the trip, who he was bringing with him, he told me Mark’s the younger one, Cody’s the shorter one, and David’s the older one! This crew landed 67 fish working Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs vertically under tough cold front conditions.



WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

A cold front, which moved slowly in yesterday, creating some turbulent weather ahead of it, left us with leaden gray skies, a brisk north wind at 13+ and an overnight temperature which fell to 57F and did not warm up substantially until well into the trip.

We did well at the beginning of this trip and we did well at the end, but the middle was pretty soft.

The early bite in shallow water and under low light conditions was fueled by the strengthening shad spawn now taking place lake-wide. And the success we enjoyed at the end of the trip was driven by skies which were starting to clear, warm, and brighten.

It’s not that we were not able to find fish. We found scattered, small handfuls of fish just about everywhere we looked, but, they would fire up for all of four or five minutes, allow us to catch a handful, then they would shut down – – not move off, just shut down. They could still be clearly seen on LiveScope and would occasionally halfheartedly chase, but would not aggressively pursue, overtake and bite.

We fished one way with one lureall morning that was using a slow smoking tactic with my thumper doubling as a metronome to help everyone keep a good retrieve speed while using the silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab. I began switching over to this larger, more flashy slab as I saw the shad spawn begin building last week.

We put 20 fish in the boat in our first 40 minutes, just 14 additional fish in the boat in the two hours which followed, and 33 fish in the boat in just under our final hour on the water.

RESULTS: 67 fish, all caught and released



TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”:

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH THE MAL LURE WITH A SAWTOOTH METHOD:




LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the silver 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/



OBSERVATIONS:

No bird action.
Threadfin shad spawn is building.
An overnight cold front put a dent in the fishing


LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

This is the most up-to-date water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10 AM on Wednesday, 26 March…

0 feet 67.2F
5 feet 67.2F
10 feet 66.3F
15 feet 63.1F
20 feet 61.2F
25 feet 60.1F
30 feet 59.4F
35 feet 58.9F
40 feet 58.6F
45 feet 57.8F
50 feet 57.4F
55 feet 57.2F


This was the previous water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:10AM on Friday, 21 March…

0 feet 60.1F
5 feet 60.3F
10 feet 60.1F
15 feet 59.4F
20 feet 58.9F
25 feet 58.6F
30 feet 58.2F
35 feet 57.8F
40 feet 57.5F
45 feet 57.1F
50 feet 56.3F
55 feet 56.0F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:40A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F

Elevation: 2.90′ low

Water Surface Temp: 63.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: N13 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover for 3 hours, with partial clearing to 90% cloud cover by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 8% illumination.

GT = 85



Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B00194C – 20 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 1815- 6 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 1624 – 4 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 0499 – 4 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic 0150 – 18 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic B0022C – 15 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye 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

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Awesome post as always. Good job.