Happy Birthday, Junior! — 47 Fish, Belton Lake, 07 July 2014

This morning I fished with Mr. Doug Stephen and his son, Doug Jr.  Doug contacted me some time ago and requested a trip to celebrate his son’s 15th birthday, and today was the day we made that happen.

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Doug Stephen treated his oldest son, Doug Jr., to a fishing trip for his 15th birthday.

The Stephen family (mom, dad, and four kids aged 4, 10, 15, and 17) is from Temple, TX.  Doug works as a correctional officer at the state prison in Gatesville.  He and Doug Jr. work together in the children’s ministry of Canyon Creek Baptist Church.

Today turned out just right as the weather was good and both fellows had solid casting skills which allowed us to capitalize on all of the topwater action we encountered today.  As they have for the past two weeks, white bass and smaller hybrid striped bass fed hard on topwater for the first 30 minutes of light up shallow.  Shortly after that bite died, a deep, open water surface bite materialized, allowing us another 40+ minutes of solid catching as we pursued these fish with the trolling motor on high, using long, accurate casts so as to keep our distance from these schools and not spook them.

Around 7:30a when the topwater bite was over for good, we shifted to live baits fished at 24-29 feet deep over deeper water and drew a limit of 5 fish, each 18+ inches long into our baits and into our net.  This bite lasted about an hour and then dropped off.

We probed the depths with downriggers set at 24-27 feet deep after seeing scattered fish on sonar, landing a white bass and a largemouth.  The better news was that as I watched sonar as we downrigged, I spotted additional large hybrid loosely grouped at 23-29 feet deep over deeper water.  This led me to put away the downriggers and get our livebaits back down in front of these fish.  In the closing 35 minutes of our trip we landed a second legal limit of five 18+” hybrids.  By 10:25 all had come to a crawl and we headed to the dock.

TALLY = 47 FISH

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:00 am

End Time:  10:25 am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  82.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW7-10

Sky Conditions:  Fair & cloudless

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1271-302 Low light topwater

**Area  300 – began a 1,500 foot chase of loosely connected schools of white bass and hybrid headed generally SSW

**Area 1400 5 hybrid on live bait

**Vicinity of Area 508-1408 downrigging to probe for fish

**Area 1408 5 hybrid on live bait

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com