I fished an “exploratory” trip on Belton today after spending the last several weeks on Stillhouse exclusively. Stillhouse still has a good bit of hydrilla which up until this most recent cold front has been holding sunfish which give me a “backup” plan when I conduct trips for younger kids.

One of six keeper hybrid I boated today amidst a mixed bag catch of 114 fish, mainly taken by way of vertical jigging with a TNT 180 3/4 oz. slab

In my advertising, discussions with current and future clients, etc., I “close the season” for kids 2nd grade and younger at this point in the year and focus on adults, teens and older kids as the fishing will be more technical from this point on through around the Spring Break time in March.

I enjoy fishing Belton in the cold months as there is always the shot at some quality hybrid that Stillhouse doesn’t offer. Oftentimes bird activity can be helpful at Belton, but, as of this fishing trip, no large numbers of birds had yet migrated down.

Today, I boated a total of 114 fish in 11 hours of focused fishing. There were definite spikes in activity between 7:30a-8:30am and again from 2:30 to 3:30pm, and a definite lull from noon to 1:30pm with otherwise average fishing outside of these times. We had such wacky weather today that I don’t think these peaks and valleys in activity will hold up over time. We had pre-frontal warming today with a wet, warm SE wind up to 15-16mph mainly in the morning, with afternoon winds settling to calm by 5:00pm.

In some years we’ve seen bird activity by this first week of November, but I saw very little in the way of birds today so far.

A summary of success is as follows:

Area 952 (BA:3T) — 6 keeper hybrid on slab/swimbait

Area 953 — 2 whites, 1 channel cat on slab

Area 954 — 20 whites/hybrid on slab; left them biting

Area 955 and to the S. of it — 24 whites/hybrid on slab

Area 956 — 7 whites on slab

Area 957 — 29 whites, 1 drum on slab; left them biting

Area 958 — 10 whites on swimbait

Area 930 — 14 whites

TALLY = 114 FISH, all caught and released

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 5:30p

Air Temp: 67F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 67.1F.

Wind: Winds SE14-17 all morning, lightening up by 11:00, then puffing and gusting through 3:00 at no more than 11mph, then going slack by sunset.

Skies: Skies were 100% greyed over.

Rylan with the first fish of his lifetime which earned him a TPWD “First Fish” certificate.

Aedan with 1 of 103 fish we caught on TNT180 slabs on this cloudy, windy, warm day just right for white bass fishing!

A screenshot off of my Lowrance HDS-10 sonar unit showing the fish in absolute overdrive from bottom to top this afternoon literally hitting anything that moved!

The S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) Program exists to take the children of deployed or deceased soldiers on fishing trips at no charge to the soldiers’ families as a way of showing our support for our troops and providing a respite for their spouses. The following is a note to SKIFF supporters about this most recent outing…

Saturday, 05 Nov. 2011

Dear Austin Fly Fishers and Friends of SKIFF,

Today I fished with 12 and 8 year old brothers Aedan and Rylan Acheson of Harker Heights, TX. These boys are the sons of Major Eric Acheson and his wife, Rachelle. Eric is currently serving as an Army doctor with the 102nd Forward Surgical Team

at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Bostick in the Kunar Province of NE Afghanistan.

As icing on the cake, Grandpa Randy (Rachelle’s dad) came along for the fishing trip. He and his wife drove in from Magnolia, TX, for a whirlwind weekend which included a football game, Rylan’s 8th birthday party, our SKIFF fishing trip, and attending church on Sunday where Aedan gave a report about a recent mission trip he attended.

After watching the weather reports very closely following our mid-week cold front, I saw a wind shift to the south, cloud cover, and good wind velocity called for and just knew this was going to be good!!

As we began at 3:00pm the wind was a bit too stiff for safe boat control out in open water given my pretty inexperienced crew, so, we sought out some protected water near Area 885 and ran downriggers until the winds let off a bit. We managed to boat 2 white bass and 1 largemouth as we waited, which included the first fish Rylan had ever caught in his life, thus earning him a TPWD “First Fish” certificate.

After about 40 minutes or so the winds came down from 17-18 mph to 14-15 and we made a go of it.

From 3:45 to 6:45 we fished over top of three “humps” out in open water (Area 232/950/951, Area 949, and Area 915). Each topped out at about 36-41 feet deep.

At each location, the scenario was the same … aggressively feeding white bass were positioned in a feeding posture within 18 inches of the bottom and on the windward side of the humps. At times the fish were so aggressive and competing with their schoolmates so strongly that our slabs wouldn’t make it to the bottom before being struck at by a fish, often resulting in hookups.

The boys and their grandpa kept reeling ’em in and I kept my forceps handy and just went from person to person unhooking fish, keeping lines untangled, and coaching to make sure everyone’s technique was remaining effective.

By the time our daylight failed us, we’d boated exactly 103 fish. We had been anticipating the possibility of hitting the century mark once we put fish number 80 in the boat, but I had told all three that it was a race against time, as there comes a point where the light level gets too dim and the feed stops very suddenly. Armed with this knowledge, Aedan, Rylan, and Randy stayed extra focused on making every cast count and on boating every hooked fish with no “long distance releases”. So, with this big buildup, you can imaging there was a lot of cheering going on when that 100th fish came over the side!!

Thank you all for the contributions you make in terms of both time and money so that unforgettable outings like this can take place even if the one who would normally be tending to such things is serving half a world away!!

Sincerely,

Bob Maindelle

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 3:00p

End Time: 7:00p

Air Temp: 70F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~66.4F

Wind: Winds were S13-18.

Skies: Skies started off fair with rapidly increasing grey cloud cover to the point of totally obscuring the direct sun.

Joseph B. of Willow Springs Elementary School in Killeen landed the first fish of his lifetime this morning, thus earning himself a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish Award”.

Joseph proudly displays the first fish he’d ever caught. This was a 14″ largemouth bass that fell for a Pet Spoon downrigged from 14 feet of water over a 25 foot bottom. Joseph caught it using a conventional reel.

The last fish of our trip was a very nice 13″ white bass which Joseph caught on a lead slab in 39 feet of water using spinning tackle.

Joseph was battling this fish less than 15 minutes into our trip this morning as a mild ESE breeze helped to bring some warming following our first mild freeze and light frost of two nights previous.

We used a combination of 2 downriggers and 2 flatline trolls to fool a total of 7 fish (3 largemouth and 4 white bass) caught by 9:00am, and another 3 fish (2 whites and 1 largemouth) escaping before we boated them as Joseph went through the learning curve that every young fisherman does.

By 9:00, the winds went flat calm and the fishing got very tough. With surface temps now in the mid-60’s, our shallow sunfish bite is nearly completely over. We did poke around over two typically productive hydrilla beds and caught 2 small sunfish and were fortunate to find even those.

By 10:15, a promising breeze had begun from the SE, and began increasing and swinging SSE by 10:30. We visited a few deepwater breaklines and high spots and finally found a small concentrations of white bass right at Area 232. We jigged until Joseph caught one using this technique so he’d have exposure to and success with the use of spinning gear. Once we cleared that hurdle it was time to head back in to meet Aunt Marisa at the boat ramp.

Joseph independently boated 10 fish all by himself today. Way to go, Joseph!!

TALLY = 10 Fish, all caught and released

Start Time: 7:40a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 47F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~66.7F

Wind: Winds were ESE7 prior to sunrise, going flat calm until 10:20, then coming on strong from the SSE at 13-14 by 10:30.

Skies: Bluebird changing to fair.

I postponed today’s trip with clients due to the timing of arrival of another significant cold front. As evening neared and the winds began to slack off, I went out on Stillhouse to see if our first gulls and terns may have made it down, but found none so far.

I did some graphing…

…and found a nice school of white bass right on top of Area 921 in 39-40 of water.

Of course you can’t leave home with at least a slabbing rod on the boat even if you are just bird-watching, so I teased this school up to make a nice shot on sonar and took a screenshot simultaneously with traditional sonar (top)and with DownScan (bottom), just for comparison’s sake.

I boated 8 fish from that school in as many drops and then left them alone … but with fair warning that I’d be back!!

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:00p

Air Temp: 57F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~67.4F

Wind: Winds were N13 and tapering to N8.

Skies: Bluebird.