Day: April 10, 2015

A Classic “64” Olds — Belton Lake, 66 Fish, 10 April 2015

by Bob Maindelle

This April 10th morning I welcomed back Brian Olds and his father, Mr. Ransom Olds.  Joining me for the first time was Brian’s sister, Brandi.  Brian and Brandi teamed up to take their dad fishing in celebration of his 64th birthday.

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From left: Brandi Lujano, Ransom “Birthday Boy” Olds, and Brian Olds.

Brian works for Dell in Austin, Brandi teaches 5th grade, and Ransom is now retired.  The whole family does a good bit of fishing in both freshwater and salt  — it is their way of celebrating and reuniting.

After a night of wind and brief, intense rainfall accompanied by a significant temperature drop into the high 50’s, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Cold front fishing is always a big question mark, but, as I’ve remarked many times in this spring season, the fishes’ increasing metabolism tends to trump environmental conditions that would otherwise shut down a bite in other times of the year.

Fishing was once again very straightforward.  We found ’em, put down baits, put down chum, and proceeded to reel in the fish.  In fact, the very first shad I dropped down this morning got hit during my “circle hook demo”!!

The cold front definitely did make a negative impact, but there were still plenty of fish to be caught.  The two behavioral things I observed that were different today than during the past week of fairly stable weather with southerly winds was that 1) fish would mouth the baits more frequently, feel the pressure of the rod, drop the bait and not return whereas during the stable weather, they would regularly return for the bait and take it until they hooked themselves.  2) I noted that as the bite began to fade around 11am, cut bait got more attention than live bait.  I think the fish were willing to eat, but not necessarily chase hard after a healthy live bait to do so.

A classic sibling rivalry burst forth at about fish number 2 with Brandi and Brian constantly (albeit good-naturedly) comparing stats and accusing one another of fudging.

Our “fish count” stood at around 53 fish by 11am, with a tentative end time of noon.  We all agreed it would be pretty cool for the group to land 64 fish in honor of Ransom’s 64th birthday, so, we made that our goal.  By 11:50, we’d cleared that hurdle.  Brandi suggested we add “one more to grow on”, so, we put fish #65 in the boat.  Then, as we were clearing lines and reeling in to head back to the dock, Brian coaxed one to strike, making it an even 66 fish boated today.

 

TALLY =  66 Fish, including 1 white bass. 4 blue catfish,  and 61 hybrid striped bass

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:00a

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F

Water Surface Temp: 65F @ lower lake, 68 @ upper lake

Wind Speed & Direction: NE9-11

Sky Conditions: Grey and overcast @ 100%

Other: GT = 40

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1543

**Area  346

 

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

 

Now “Weight” Just a Minute! — 112 Fish with the Oliver Clan, Belton, 09 April 2015

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I enjoyed being on the water with yet another combination of Oliver family members.  Of course Joe, who arranges all of these trips, was present, as was his dad, who we all call “Pa”.  Setting foot on my boat for the first time was Joe’s brother, Jeff, and Joe’s wife Dicque.

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From left: Joe, Dicque, Pa, and Jeff.  Twice during the trip we had a quadruple-header, where all four of the Olivers caught fish as the same time!

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Dicque “Wet Britches” Oliver and her husband, Joe, with one of our largest fish of the trip.

We enjoyed yet another day of very easy fishing for hybrid striped bass.  In fact, lately, more effort has been required to find the bait than to find the fish that eat that bait.  We made just 2 stops today, both in about 27 feet of water.  The process that has been working for us goes like this:  find active fish on sonar, then Spot Lock on top of them, get live baits out, get chum down to cause a stir, then sit back and enjoy the results.

As the 10 o’clock hour came, the winds began to increase, as did the size of the swells.  Dicque chose the front starboard rod and rod-holder as “hers” and therefore had the luxury of sitting on the rear edge of the front casting deck.  As I saw the wave size growing, I let everyone know that we had a special “early warning device” for dangerous wave height aboard, and her name was Dicque.   I explained that the first 63F wave that broke slightly over the bow would so thoroughly soak through the seat of her jeans that she would surely let out an audible noise.

Well, sure enough, in crashed a wave and, just like clockwork, Dicque let us all know about it.  Problem was, we now had water collecting on the floor of the boat sufficient to soak the shoes of Pa and Jeff who were fishing in the stern.  It was then that I made the observation that no matter how many other people stood on a given side of the boat, the water only seemed to collect on Joe’s side.   Joe (a pretty big, athletic guy) said he resembled that remark.  All other Olivers concurred.  As for me, I kept my mouth shut and bailed!

We wound up with 112 fish including 108 hybrid striped bass and 4 white bass.

TALLY =  112 Fish, including 4 white bass and 108 hybrid striped bass

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp: 65F @ lower lake, 68 @ upper lake

Wind Speed & Direction: S11-13, increasing to S14-15 by 10:30a

Sky Conditions: Grey and overcast @ 100%

Other: GT = 40

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1546

**Area  1545

 

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)