Belton Lake Hybrid Striper Fishing Guide Report, 22 May 2013, 35 Fish






This morning I welcomed Keller M. and his father-in-law, Bill, aboard.


Keller (L) and Bill (R) with a pair of fish caught early on while the patchy fog was still not yet cleared off.

This 4.25 pound hybrid striped bass of Keller’s would be our largest fish caught on this outing.

Keller is an anesthesiologist with 28 years of service at Scott and White in Temple, and Bill, an Austinite, is now retired from Texas Instruments and dabbles in British antiques with his wife.


Our conditions this morning were a bit tough — calm and bright — following last night’s storm passage that dropped 0.6 to 0.9 inches of rain area-wide and cooled us off a bit.


All but one of our fish were caught in the first 3 hours of the trip (and the majority of those came in the first 2 of those 3 hours) while the sun’s angle was lower and the little wind that did blow today was moving the water.


We caught fish at both Area 835 and Area 1209 on live shad in 38-40 feet of water.


At both areas, the fish first presented on sonar in a feeding posture, up 12-18 inches off bottom and with multiple fish showing at each location. At both areas we drew a response from the fish within minutes of getting positioned over top of them and getting baits adjusted to within 2 feet above them. The problem was (as is typical in weather conditions like this) that the first few fish to perk up and feed did not begin a “chain reaction” causing other schoolmates to become competitive and begin feeding as well. Instead, we picked up fish one at a time, albeit consistently.


Under breezier, cloudier conditions it is not uncommon to have 3 – 4 baited rods go down simultaneously as a school of hybrid gets aggressive. By comparison, we only had one instance this morning where 2 rods were down at the same time, otherwise, it was one rod at a time.


Despite the fishes’ lackadaisical attitude, we still managed to boat some very nice fish today, including 4 fish over 4 pounds, with the largest of the bunch landed by Keller. That fish went right at 4.25 pounds (pictured above).


I used smaller shad today as a hedge against the tough bite and this paid off well for us. We missed very few hybrid, if any, and were able to convert many of the blue catfish bites into landed fish, as well.


From 10am on, we landed only one more catfish — a channel cat.


Bill stated it well quoting a Mexican guide he’d fished with who understood the predictability of a midday lull — “We can fish at midday and not catch fish, or we can nap at midday and not catch fish.”


We decided by 11:15, that either lunch or a nap was definitely in order, as the fishing had definitely ended.


TALLY = 35 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 59F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 72-73F

Wind: Winds were <3mph from the SSE.
Skies: Skies had patches of fog at sunrise, clearing quickly thereafter to clear blue.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas