CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, April 1, I fished with returning guests, Rob Pasichnyk and his friend Ralph Owen. The two gentleman fished with me previously on a mid-summer morning trip after Lake Belton had stratified. This morning‘s trip was quite different both in terms of the locations we searched for fish, and in the way we went about catching them.

DATE: Tuesday, 01 April 2025 (AM)

NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 10, 29 April (AM)

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






PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ralph Owen and Rob Pasichnyk with a few of the 137 fish they landed in a solid spring bite fueled by a returning south wind.





PHOTO CAPTION: Occasionally such thick schools of white bass came by that it createcd competition amongst individuals. Such behavior resulted in a “double” — two fish caught on one lure at the same time for Rob on the 3/4 oz. silver Bladed Hazy Eye Slab!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The big story today was the returning south wind, accompanied by grey cloud cover and warm overnight temperatures. This caused a total about face versus the stubborn, cold-front influenced bite we experienced yesterday.

The annual threadfin shad spawn is now taking place and, in those areas where shad are spawning heavily, there is a low light, shallow water bite by white bass and hybrid striper following the hundreds of thousands of shad which migrate from deep water to shallow water each morning to spawn.

Just as was the case yesterday, we took advantage of that movement of fish into shallow water, and put 35 fish – – a mix of whites and hybrid – – in the boat in under an hour. Although there were fish up shallow to be caught, because of flooded terrestrial vegetation which grew up during the drought is now submerged, getting snagged happens routinely while casting into water less than about 9 feet in depth. For this reason, I targeted fish in more than 16 feet so we could fish vertically for them instead.

We used the silver, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab and the splasher to draw fish in and keep them under the boat. Rob and Ralph used a smoking tactic to retrieve their lure from up off the bottom through fish appearing on Garmin LiveScope, anticipating those fish would overtake and strike the lure. We ended up the trip fishing in ~36 feet of water.

We stuck with this approach all morning, simply moving gradually deeper as the skies brightened and the schools of threadfin shad move further from shore and closer to the lake’s bottom. When all was said and done these two fellows landed a total of 137 fish, including a mix of white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, and crappie.

RESULTS: 137 fish, all caught and released



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

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial



LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used the silver 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs exclusively 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 continues to build.
Areturning S. wind following a one-day cold front scenario turned the fishing back around positively


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: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 2.95′ low

Water Surface Temp: 64.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE7 at trip’s start, slowly building to SE12

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover for the entire trip.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 15% illumination.

GT = 55



Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1579 – 35 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 097- 70 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0138C – 33 fish slow smoking Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 574 – 4 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

Nice post and fish. Good job.

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