Birds of a Feather! 49 Fish, Belton Lake Hybrid Fishing, 14 May 2014

This morning I was joined by father and son team Doug and Clark Bird for a morning of hybrid striped bass fishing on Belton Lake.  Doug is now 74 years old and is a retired saltwater fishing guide originally from Canada.  Clark lives in Jonestown, Texas, near Austin and works for AT&T’s cell phone division.

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Clark hoists two of our larger hybrid taken today on live shad.  These two both hit in our final hour of fishing.

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Doug (L) and Clark (R) each boated these fish in our first 40 minutes on the water.

 

After a full day of a hard,cooling, drying north wind and pressure rising to its high point following our recent cold front’s passage, the weather took a bit of a toll on the fishing today.  For starters, there were no spawning shad to be had for bait (I used previously netted bait to avoid disaster), and our trip definitely got off to a slower than normal start.

We fished two areas through 9:30am, and, although we caught fish at both, the bite was hard to get going and never did sustain.  Typically, once we have been on an area with baits down and chum in the water, once a fish or two is caught, the rest of the nearby population of fish gets excited and begins to turn on, as well.  We did not see that happen early this morning.  By 9:30, we’d only boated 14 fish.

I made a move to deeper water near where I’d encountered a strong bite yesterday, only today we found the fish in 46 feet of water, suspended heavily at 36 feet, but also holding on the bottom.  This action provided a mix of keeper hybrid, short hybrid, white bass, and a few blue catfish.  We were able to catch fish on both shad and slabs, with the slabs accounting for more numerous, smaller fish, and the shad accounting for fewer, but larger hybrid stripers.

 TALLY = 49 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

 

Start Time: 6:55a
End Time: 11:00a
Air Temp.: 52F
Water Surface Temp.: 69.2F
Wind: NNW13-17
Skies: 10% clouds on clear sky
Other Notes: GT35

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

** No Spawning Shad observed today
** 835 – 11 Fish
**151 – 3 Fish
**1204 – 35 Fish

 

Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas