I Had Some Reservations about these Turkeys: Mike & Craig — 45 Fish, Belton

This morning I welcomed aboard Craig Pettigrew, CEO of ReserveFishing.com, and Mike Shouse, Regional Director for the National Wild Turkey Federation.  Beyond catching fish, the point of this trip was to allow these two organizations to interact and search for a win-win arrangement to allow the NWTF to bolster its fundraising efforts by offering guided fishing trips to its own members, booked through ReserveFishing.com
 


Mike (on left) boated our largest hybrid striped bass today on a large gizzard shad fished at 17 feet down over a 30 foot bottom.

Craig (on left) took this nice 4.125 pound largemouth from the same area, also using a large gizzard shad nose-hooked with a circle hook to allow for a healthy release.

The NWTF is dedicated to the conservation of the wild turkey and preservation of the American hunting heritage.  And think of ReserveFishing.com as Expedia for anglers — they work with a host of fishing guides and help link the fishing public up with those reputable, professional guides they choose to do business with.

As Mike and Craig got to know one another personally and professionally, I tried to stay in the background and keep us within casting range of biting fish.  We definitely took a step back on Monday with a strong, late season cold front that dropped water surface temperatures over 3F.  Today was warmer, but the wind still had a bite to it and the fish were definitely more tentative than before the front.  Shad were also more difficult to come by; in fact, I observed no shad spawning behavior at all today.

We made 4 stops and caught fish at the first three of them.  The action was definitely front-loaded into the first half of the trip today, as our first area produced best, our second area second best, and so on. 

The live bait bite was off a bit today as the fish just didn’t want to commit to grabbing and going with our baits.  Instead, we had a lot of “thumped” baits that were killed by biting fish, but still left intact on the hook.  We had a lot of fish mouth the baits partially, only to have the bait pull out of their mouths as we tried reeling them in indicated “tail grabbing” instead of taking the bait by the head where the hook was located.  We actually caught the majority of our fish on carefully worked Cicada bladebaits along the bottom in 21-25 feet of water.  Our large fish, both hybrid and largemouth bass, all came on shad, however.

By trip’s end we’d put together a nice take of 45 fish including both quality and quantity.  We got to share some fishing stories, some God-moments in our lives, and enjoy the company of fellows with a shared interest in the outdoors.  A good day!



TALLY = 45 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:55a
End Time: 12:20p
Air Temp: 43F at sunrise.
Water Surface Temp: 63.2F 
Wind: S9-14
Skies: Fair
Other Notes: GT60

Areas Fished with success:

**1370     Netted shad here
**1369   Mostly white bass on bladebaits; reluctant on live shad (using larger gizzards today)
**983     Fish suspended from 17-22 feet over a 29-30′ bottom.  Picked up whites, 2 hybrid and 1 largemouth
**1371  Fish in bottom fourth of water column; picked up 1 hybrid and several white bass on shad







Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas