Quid Pro Quo — 50 Fish, Belton Lake, 18 Jan. 2014

This
morning I fished with fellow guide Dean Stovall of Whitney’s Almost Everything Outdoors over on Lake Whitney.  He and I met last weekend at the Central Texas Boat Show and hit it off.  Long story short we did a little bartering this morning.  I fine-tuned Dean’s sonar, while he showed me a few techniques he employs which I’d never experimented with before.



Fellow guides Dean Stovall (Lakes Belton/Whitney) & Bob Maindelle (Lakes Belton/Stillhouse Hollow) teamed up today for a 50-fish catch-and-release outing on Belton.  Here, Dean holds a nice Belton hybrid striped bass he caught from a suspended school of fish which Bob had dialed in on sonar.  Both guides fish year ’round.  Dean can be reached at 254-721-3512; Bob can be reached at 254-368-7411.


The fishing this morning was fairly “technical”, but productive as we had the first returning south wind begin to push today after several days of northerly winds and high, clear skies.

We encountered some early, helpful bird activity beginning around 8:30a, and then birds worked sporadically over top of fairly lethargic, suspended fish in deep water thereafter.

We had our best success on white bass when the fish we found were bottom-oriented and fairly tightly grouped up.  After mid-morning, such action was hard to come by, so, instead, we focused on the tougher-to-catch but still accessible suspended fish.

On these suspended fish, we encountered them in 46-51 feet of water, and they appeared from 20 to 45 feet down, with only occasional fish actually appearing on bottom.  We hovered over top of these fish, spotted them on sonar, adjusted our presentation to be at their depth, and then finessed our baits to tempt them.

When all was said and done, we’d cooperated on putting together a string of exactly 50 fish, all caught and released, including 47 white bass, 2 hybrid striped bass, and 1 largemouth bass.

We enjoyed one another’s company and sharing our experiences in the fishing guide business.

TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released

GO TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE HOME PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 8:00a
End Time: 12:00p
Air Temp: 33F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 49F 
Wind: Calm for first 90 minutes, then a light breeze at 6-7 from the SSE, building and shifting to SSW14 by trip’s end
Skies: Clear
Other Notes: GT30

Areas Fished with success:
**  187 (15T)
**  1324 (20T, 2L)



Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Leave a Reply