WHO I FISHED WITH:

This morning, Wednesday, April 17, I fished with returning guests, Dr. Jim Wood and his friend, also from the medical community, Sky Sparks.



Jim celebrated his 77th birthday today.

Sky makes his living as a medical scribe. The two men first got to know each other when Jim was practicing and specializing in wound care, and the two have remain friends since then.

Next available dates: Wed., 24 April (AM), Wed., 01 May (AM)

Here is how the fishing went…






PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Jim Wood and Sky Sparks with a few of the fish they REALLY had to work for today. Not one time all morning did we have a single school of white bass become aggressive enough to consistently chase their baits.



WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 17 April 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

In a word, the fishing this morning was … tough. We had next to no wind all morning and a thin veil of fog for the first half of the morning.



I had hoped to get Jim and Sky on some pre-dawn fish blitzing spawning shad up in shallow water. Although we did find plenty of spawning shad, there was not much in the way of gamefish trailing them to feed upon them.



After we left the potential for catching shallow water fish behind around 7:20, I began looking for heavily schooled fish in deep water for us to work vertically for.



After finding a good school, I went to go about setting up on them and I encountered issues with my trolling motor deploying properly. We wound up losing about an hour as my sweet wife hoisted my spare trolling motor into her vehicle and shuttled it out to us at lakeside. With the new trolling motor installed, we set out once again to find fish. It was now 8:20 AM and the winds were still nearly calm.



We would go onto fish 5 areas with the fish behaving in nearly the exact same manner at each one of them. Being heavily grouped and on the bottom, these fish would express interest in the slabs we dropped down to them just for a few minutes after we arrived, allowing a catch of just a handful of fish. After that, the fish would turn off and only halfheartedly follow lures, if at all.



We found that by remaining in an area awaiting the arrival of additional schools of fish to pass beneath the boat, we could catch another one or two or three fish before everything went quiet at each of these locations.



In this manner, we were able to put together a catch of 41 fish including 37 white bass and 4 freshwater drum.



I compared notes with two other regular Lake Belton anglers, and they reported identical behavior under these same, tough conditions. Misery loves company!!



Find the MAL Original and the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab at the Liberty Mart on Adams Ave. uphill from Temple Lake Park, or here: https://whitebasstools.com/



TALLY: 41 fish caught and released



OBSERVATIONS: Light shad spawning activity has reached the main basin. Here is the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on April 10th …

0 feet 68.1F
5 feet 68.1F
10 feet 68.1F
15 feet 66.1F
20 feet 65.6F
25 feet 65.1F
30 feet 64.9F
35 feet 64.5F
40 feet 64.1F
45 feet 63.7F
50 feet 60.9F




WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 12:50P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 9.37 feet low, 33 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 65.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE 0-4 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey clouds all morning, with a light fog for the first 3 hours

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 66% illumination.

GT = 55



Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic B0075C, vic B0280G, B0277G, vic 0005, vic B0157G



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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Hope I look that good and be catching fish at age 77. Doc W

As always. Nice post and fish. Good job.