Day: April 26, 2014

An Angling Angle — 39 Fish, Belton Lake, 25 April 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This
afternoon I was joined on Belton Lake by returning guests Diana Angle
and her nephew, Tom Vilalta. This time, Tom’s mom (Diana’s sister) Donna
Vilalta joined us for the first time.  We got going at 4:15 and fished right until dark.


 
Diana Angle traveled 1,300 miles to battle this bad boy!!


Donna had her hands full when this fish started smoking her drag.

Tom was all smiles when he caught up with his mom and aunt and got on the board with a hybrid of his own! 

Diana, who works as a government contractor on the Aegis Missile system in California, visits Tom regularly.  Tom is an infantryman currently assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division, and Donna is retired and lives in Riverside, California

The first two hours were very slow on areas that, just hours before during today’s morning trip, were producing very well.

Around 6:10p we hit into our first consistent fishing and that went strong right up until 7:40p when the deep water we were fishing began to get dark and me made a move into shallower, brighter water conditions hoping for a twilight bite.

At that first location we caught a mix of legal and short hybrid, a few white bass and a few blue catfish, taking our tally up to 34 fish.

At our final stop of the evening, we added a final 5 fish to our tally.

Our entire catch this afternoon came on live threadfin shad fished vertically beneath the boat on a tightline.


TALLY = 39 FISH, all caught and released


GO TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE HOME PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 4:15p
End Time: 8:30p
Air Temp: 80F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 66-68F 
Wind:  ESE10 
Skies: Clear fair skies
Other Notes: GT40

Areas Fished with success:

**1376 Netted shad here
**953 fished here 1.5 hours
**1190/1067 fished here 0.75 hours








Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

Click It! — 73 Fish, Belton Lake, 25 April 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This
morning I fished with Mr. Calvin Mitchell of Hutto, Texas, and his 12
year old son C.J.  Calvin is a U.S. Army veteran of 6 years now working
as a FEDEX deliveryman.   We targeted Belton Lake hybrid striped bass
using live shad fished directly beneath our boat in 29-36 feet of water.

 
Calvin and C.J. pose with one of our better shad-caught hybrid from this father and son trip.


To keep it all “legit”, I use a clicker to account for every fish we boat so as to provide very accurate statistics in reports like this one, and to have as valuable historic data when I look at my notes from years past.   

This father and son team had never been out on a boat together before so just that was a new experience for them.  They have fished before, but it has been a once-a-year and fairly unproductive arrangement, so, they were really hoping to “take it to the next level” today.

Once again the Lord blessed me with a very easy bait gathering process (300+ baits in one throw), so we got off to a timely start with an ample quantity of shad.

We fished 3 areas today and caught exactly 73 fish including a 40/60 split of keeper/short hybrid striped bass, plus 5 white bass and 3 blue catfish.

Our first 4 fish boated all exceeded 3 pounds, so, when a smaller fish was caught, Calvin laughed as we returned it to the water saying that before today he would have considered that small one a large one.  I told him I was proud to help him recalibrate his fishometer.

Our trip began a bit slow thanks to a residual north wind going slack and bright sun.  By 8:30, however, a nice 8-10 mph E. breeze began and this caused the fishing to pick up within 15-20 minutes of its arrival.

At the last of the 3 areas we fished today, a mixed school of white bass and short (12-13 inch) hybrid stripers clearly appeared suspended at 15-25 feet below the surface.  Because these smaller fish will usually kill or steal more bait than they will take well, we switched over to slabs and put the last 10 or so fish in the boat on lighter spinning gear more well-suited to these smaller fish.

We had a treat on our way in … 3 Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Wardens pulled alongside of us for a routine inspection.  My boat is squared away so there were no issues and the inspection was over in no time.  Then, the game wardens offered C.J. a ride on their law enforcement boat (with about 3 times the horsepower I have!).  They jetted C.J. around for a few minutes and then dropped him off where his dad and I were.  Thanks, Game Wardens Bernstein, Valchar, and Wilson!

As I walked up to the parking lot with Calvin after the trip he told me that he and C.J. agreed before meeting up with me this morning that this would be a great day if they caught 20 fish.  Our catch of 73 made the grade!





TALLY = 73 FISH, all caught and released


GO TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE HOME PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:45a
End Time: 12:00p
Air Temp: 55F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 64-65F 
Wind: Light NW winds at trips start, turning E8-10 by 8:30
Skies: Clear fair skies
Other Notes: GT0

Areas Fished with success:

** 1376 Netted shad here
**1374/835   Fished here 1.5 hours
**152  Fished here 0.75 hours
**953  Fished here 1.75 hours








Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas