“Don’t Click Your Chickens …” 17 May 2013, Belton Lake Hybrid Fishing, 71 Fish






This morning’s trip was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip specifically for children. I was joined by 4 year old Ry, his 6 (and three-quarters) year old brother, Jack, and the boys’ dad, Leigh Eidson.


Jack’s fish-fighting prowess shone through this morning. He battled double-digits of keeper hybrid this morning and made things easy on the net man (that’d be me).



Once he warmed up to the whole thing, Ry held his own in the hybrid department as well, actually boating our largest fish of that species this morning.


Back in the winter I was contacted by Mr. Bill Schaffer who is part of the Episcopal Church in Temple, TX. He was organizing a fundraiser for the Christ Church School there and asked if I could contribute to that effort in the way of a donated fishing trip. Long story short, Leigh and his boys “bid” on the trip during the silent auction and wound up coming out with me today. Leigh, a heart-surgeon-in-training, and his wife, Kristy, have the boys enrolled at the Christ Church School.

The conditions were just right today with grey cloud cover, a manageable S to SSW wind, and threadfin shad still in spawning mode.

We found it necessary to fish only two areas today, and the second area was only as a matter of offering variety. Truth be known, we could have stayed at just one location for 4+ hours and continued catching fish as the bite was just that solid this morning.

As we began at Area 835, I explained the basics to both boys. Jack seemed quite eager, and Ry a little uncertain about the whole thing. We got exactly one rod baited and set with a live shad and, before we could even think about getting another line prepared, the first rod went down — a nice hybrid striped bass to start the day! Well, that continued for our first 35 minutes. We literally fished one rod for over half an hour as the fish just immediately attacked every bait we lowered among them. Jack caught most of these single-handedly as Leigh was having to work to convince Ry that this was actually a safe and positive form of recreation.

Finally, we got a second rod in the water. By that time, as often happens in bait fishing, some blue catfish began to move in on our spread. I found that most of the blues were near bottom and that the hybrid striper were much more willing to rise up in the water column for our baits. So, I set cutbait down within 18″ of the bottom to offer a smaller, “Ry-friendly” alternative for him, while keeping lively live baits swimming well off the bottom for Jack to have fun with. By 10am, we’d worked out a very good system to allow both boys to enjoy the day and, as a result, had amassed a catch of 48 fish up to that point.

As the bite began to soften with the brightening sun and late hour, I offered that we could go and attempt to vertical jig for white bass using slabs. I explained to Leigh what this would involve. He felt that he could work with Ry to be successful, so, I would work with Jack to do the same. Off we went to the vicinity of Area 1204. We found some tightly bunched white bass right on bottom in ~47 feet of water and began working our slabs. Over the next hour, we boated exactly 21 white bass and 2 more hybrid striped bass on the trusty TNT180 slabs in both white and silver.

One humorous episode took place as Ry was reeling in one of his catfish. I keep a “clicker” counter, similar to the ones used by stadium personnel to count attendees, to keep a very exact count of how many fish we boat on a given trip. Today I let the boys click the clicker for each fish they landed. As Ry was bringing in his catfish, Jack reached out toward my lanyard to click the counter. I told him we needed to wait until the fish was in the net. I then said, “We can’t count our chickens before they hatch.” I then explained the analogy. In trying to made doubly sure that he “got it”, Jack repeated back to me, “Okay, so you can’t click your chickens …”. Leigh and I both chuckled at that one!

I couldn’t have asked for a better trip for two boys this age. Bill Schaffer, thanks for including me in your fundraiser each year, and Bill Pasko, thanks for helping make sure we had enough bait to go around. I appreciate both of you fellows.


TALLY = 71 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 69.5F

Wind: Winds were S to SSW10-12 for the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were overcast and grey until 9am, transitioning to blue and fair with 30% cloud cover.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas