This past Monday I fished with long-time buddies Rick Klein and Randy Pritchett. Both fellows are retired now, and were therefore able to enjoy the uncrowded conditions offered on a weekday trip.

Here in 36 feet of water was the first quantity of fish of any significance we encountered this morning.  Each white “grain” in the center bottom of the screen up off the continuous white bottom is an individual fish.  The Christmas tree-like object to the left of the scattered fish “grains” is a very tightly bunched school of small white bass and small hybrid stripers.
We fished Belton today targeting white bass and hybrid striped bass. For the second trip in a row now on Belton, we experienced a very late developing bite. In fact, our first four hours on the water were nearly fishless, with one smallmouth bass hooked and lost, one drum hooked and lost, and two drum  and one blue catfish landed. We struggled with easterly winds all the way up until around 1030, when the winds begin to shift south of east and increased in speed substantially. This wind shift, accompanied by increased cloud cover, seem to turn fish on, albeit still not tremendously. I extended our trip by about 90 minutes, and only during this time did we find any significant concentrations of catchable fish.

We located fish at two distinct areas approximately 200 yards apart, and in roughly 36 to 40 feet of water. We worked silver, three-quarter ounce TN T180 slab in a smoking fashion in order to keep the fish coming over the side. Experimenting with a straightforward jigging tactic did not do nearly as well. Even when we found fish, the size was generally small. We landed 33 fish in these most productive last 90 minutes and roughly a third of these were keeper whites, with the remainder being small whites and short hybrid no more than 11 inches in length. As the wind speed continued to increase and occasional waves broke over the bow we decided to wrap it up as the bite was beginning to wane. At this point, Murphy’s Law really kicked in. The wind was blowing hard and as I tried to crank my outboard it made a sound that wasn’t quite right. Long story short, I wound up hand cranking it to get it running, then the alternator few fuse blew setting off an alarm we had to listen to all the way back to the boat ramp. When we beached, the wind was blowing so hard Rick and Randy had to babysit the boat to keep it from washing up on the shore while I got back down to load onto the trailer.

There is always a transition after turnover when the fishing gets tough, and we are still in that time right now. Add to that unfavorable wind and weather conditions, and we got very deep, scattered, tight-lipped fish that were just hard to get on and stay on. This definitely wasn’t one of those days that will go into the record books. I’m actually looking forward to the decreasing water temperatures to cause these fish to bunch up, to move less, and for some stability to kick in through the winter months. For our efforts today we landed 36 fish.

 

TALLY = 36 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  12:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  53F

Water Surface Temp:  69-70F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NE10 at sunrise, shifting and increasing to ESE20+ by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Light grey skies

Other: GT=5

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area   930/717

**Area  1467

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

On Saturday morning, 01 Nov., I fished with father and son team Norman and Fred Peterson.  Norman now resides in Round Rock, TX, and Fred in Austin, TX.  Fred is a former saltwater fishing guide out of the Galveston area, and Fred has been in the semi-conductor business in Austin for over 20 years.

This was the scene beneath the boat as hundreds of frenzied white bass and hybrid stripers went on a strong feed with the shift of the winds from north to east late this morning.

(L to R) Norman Peterson and his son, Fred, were the first clients this autumn to enjoy a 100+ fish trip for white bass and hybrid striper that annually accompanies the fall of our water temperatures out of the 70’s and into the 60’s following turnover.  More such 100+ fish days are sure to follow in the next 3-4 weeks.

Norman and Fred share birthdays in October, and have made it a tradition to do a father & son fishing trip in October each year to celebrate.  Unfortunately, our first scheduled date for that trip was a rain-out with high winds, thunder and lighting back on Oct. 11th.

The weatherman significantly missed today’s forecast which, on Wednesday called for the arrival of a cold front (which actually came in on Friday), and was then revised calling for E to ESE winds at 7 for the morning hours today.  What we actually experienced was continued northerly winds at 13mph+ through about 10:15 with a fairly quick shift to the east and a wind velocity reduction to around 11mph at that time.

We struggled in our first 3 hours on the water, landing only 2 drum and missing 2 other fish during that time.

Once the wind shifted to the east, the fish put the feedbag on and we went right to work to take advantage of the window of opportunity now opened to us.  We encountered fish at 3 distinct areas, but each was within 80 yards of the other in 42-56 feet of water.

The go-to tactic was smoking with slabs, and the go-to slab was the silver, 3/4 oz. TNT 180.  Anticipating some fast fishing like we experienced, I swapped out the original beaked hooks with straight-point #5 Gamakatsu trebles in order to make unhooking fish go as quickly as possible.  When you encounter large schools of fish like this (as is common in November), you really need to be prepared to make hay while the sun shines.  When the bite starts, you’ve go to do all you can to keep the fish coming over the side or else they will slack off and be very difficult to get interested again.  So, no snacks, no peeing, no photos, just fishing until the bite dies off on its own.  I even have backup rods ready to go in case a big tangle or snag occurs.

For our efforts today we boated exactly 105 fish including 2 drum, 1 legal hybrid striped bass, and a mix of 102 short hybrids and both keeper and short white bass.

November is the normally the 2nd most productive month of the entire fishing year.  If you’ve been thinking about getting on the water, do it now before our water temps slide into the 50’s and the fish get sluggish.

 

TALLY = 105 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  12:40p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  46F

Water Surface Temp:  71-72F

Wind Speed & Direction:  N13 at sunrise, shifting and tapering to E11

Sky Conditions: Post-frontal, bluebird skies

Other: GT=30

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1383/297 – reluctant white bass and 2 caught drum

**Area 1464/512/1403 – 103 of 105 fish caught here

**Area 1465 – worth a future look — lots of fish, just not turned on when we got to them

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com