Happy Birthday, Colton! — 127 Fish, Stillhouse, 23 May 2015

This morning I fished with Colton Price and two of his buddies, Lee Hosie and Jack Wronski, in celebration of Colton’s 18th birthday.

 

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From left: Jack Wronski, Colton Price, and Lee Hosie with a few of the better white bass we caught today on slabs.

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This trip was in celebration of Colton Price’s 18th birthday.

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Jack Wronski with one of the 127 fish we boated today.

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Lee Hosie, who once fished for mackerel off the coast of Scotland, added his fair share to our tally today.

Colton lives at Stillhouse Hollow Lake and is in his junior year at Salado High School.  His friends both drove in last night from Katy, TX, where Colton used to live.  Lee is a senior about to graduate from Katy High School, and is on his way to LeTourneau University to study mechanical engineering, and Jack is a junior at Faith West, a private Christian school near Katy.  Baseball is the glue that bonded all three of these fellows together.

As I awoke this morning I saw flashes of lightning to the SE and heard the low rumble of distant thunder.  I checked out the weather radar and saw two small, fast moving storm cells right along I-35 — one near Jarrell and the other down by San Marcos.  The first one passed on by before we launched, and the other forced a 15 minute off-the-water break at mid-morning, but otherwise we lucked out and had very manageable conditions.

Today was the first time our winds have had a southerly component in quite some time and the fish responded well despite the turbulent atmosphere.  We caught fish over the entire course of our 4+ hours on the water, with the best fishing coming just after the second storm cell passed, when skies were brightest (although still quite grey) and the wind peaked at ~11mph for a short time.

Every last fish we caught today came on a 3/4 oz. Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 slab in white color fished using a “smoking” technique.  During the first half of the trip the fish were active enough to migrate towards the commotion caused by other fish being caught, thus minimizing the amount of moving we had to do to stay in the fish.  Towards the end of the trip, as the fish got more and more lethargic, we would typically catch a few fish as soon as we dropped our slabs upon arrival at a new location, but then would have to move a few boatlengths to continue to get bit, as the fish were unwilling to travel very far despite the commotion caused by schoolmates being caught.

The boys were all very competitive and insisted on keeping individual fish counts to see who was in the “Lee-d”, and, as you might imagine, the banter level remained quite high the entire trip.

By 11am, although fish were still able to be observed on sonar, they had done all they were going to do for this morning, and we called it a good day right there.

TALLY =  127 Fish, including 2 drum and 125 white bass  — all caught and released
GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 71F

Water Surface Temp: 75-76F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-8

Sky Conditions: Greyed over skies with occasion rain

Other: GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 088-312

 

 

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

Will the Luck Hold Up? — 54 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow, 22 May 2015

This morning I finished with Cody Cooper and Garrett Walker on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, targeting white bass.

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From left: Garrett Walker and Cody Cooper worked up a tally of 54 white bass today using slabs in 25′ on Stillhouse Hollow.

 

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Garrett Walker landed our largest white bass of the trip right around 9:00am as we saw the “beginning of the end” of the morning bite begin to occur.

Cody serves as the operations manager at Cooper & Bright, a long-time, family-owned plumbing business in Killeen.  Garrett does tile work both independently, and for Carothers Homes.

I met Cody about 3 weekends ago as I was concluding a trip on Stillhouse.  He had just finished up checking some juglines in his jonboat and heard that the party I’d taken had just boated over 50 fish as we took a few photos of the larger ones at the boat ramp.  On the spot he gave me a $100 bill as a deposit and said, “I want to go catch 50 fish, too.”  So, today my work was cut our for me, and, around 9:30am, Cody’s goal was realized.

The fishing was strongest in the first two hours of the day, tapered off in the third hour, and virtually shut down in the final hour on the water.  Our first three hours yielded 51 fish and our last hour yielded only three.

The low pressure which has controlled our weather and brought us an abundance of rain and moisture, continued today giving us an east wind and drizzle the entire time. Although the fish certainly fed, and we were able to do quite well, they certainly were not frenzied at any time, and most all of the white bass we boated had concave bellies, and looked a bit gaunt, indicating they haven’t fed much since the cold front moved through two nights ago.  None of our fish regurgitated food or defecated digested shad.

I anticipate that when our winds turn southerly we will see another very heavy feed, but we’ll see.

All of our fish were caught between 25 and 27 feet deep today using a smoking tactic as we rigged up with 3/4 ounce Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 slabs in a white color.

As the fellows departed they told me of their weekend plans to head to the Windstar Indian Casino just across the Texas/Oklahoma border.  We’ll see if their good luck holds up.

TALLY =  54 white bass  — all caught and released
GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 69F

Water Surface Temp: 75-76F

Wind Speed & Direction: E9-10 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Greyed over skies with constant light drizzle.

Other: GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1563

**Area vicinity  1567/312

**Area vicinity  804/1156

 

 

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

North Wind’s a Wildcard — 73 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow, 21 May 2015

This morning I fished Stillhouse for white bass with returning guest Ken Wilkins and his friend, Dwain Halm, who joined me for the first time today.  I was really looking forward to this morning trip, mainly because Ken is a very enthusiastic fisherman who is not set on any one particular species, lake, or technique.  He just likes to catch fish and is flexible in how we make that happen.  In preparation for today’s trip, I put in about 3 hours’ worth of scouting around on Stillhouse this past Tuesday and found 4 distinct areas that held fish.  I sampled the action, catching just 5 fish at each location and then moving on while the feeding window was open.  Today, that scouting paid off as we caught all of our fish on 3 areas, 2 of which were among the 4 I’d scouted Tuesday.

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Ken boated our best fish of the trip today — this nice largemouth was one of two he pulled out of a school of white bass using a slab in ~26 feet of water.

 

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Just minutes after Ken pulled up his largemouth, Dwain’s rod bowed deeply and he came up with this channel cat no doubt vacuuming up regurgitated shad that our white bass expelled as they were being brought in.

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67 of our 73 fish were white bass, mainly in the 2-year old class with some 1 and 3 year fish thrown in for good measure.

Ken is a salesman for Tex-Mix Concrete and Dwain runs his own small business, a window coverings business based in Round Rock, TX.  The two men first got to know one another years ago when their boys, now around age 18, started playing baseball together as youngsters.

Mother Nature definitely tossed us a curveball overnight.  Earlier in the week, Thursday’s forecast was for light, easterly 2-4mph winds with abundant cloud cover.  What we got was a 15mph NNE blow at daybreak in the wake of a mild cold front’s passage last night.   The north wind is always a wildcard in the warmer months.  It can kill the fishing, spur the fish into strong feeds, and everything in between.  What we found today was somewhere in between.  The fish were definitely still willing to feed, but, after an initial blast of enthusiasm spurred on by competition, the novelty of our lures wore off, and we had to go hunt more fish.  Of the 3 areas where we found active fish, the first provided moderate action, the second provided the best action, and the last provided short-lived action, as is common at the tail end of the morning bite.

We found all of our fish on bottom in 25-27 feet today, and found fish suspended at that depth out over deeper water, as well.  The Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 was our go-to bait in 3/4 oz. white. A “smoking” retrieve was the go-to method.

TALLY =  73 Fish, including 3 largemouth bass, 2 drum, 1 channel catfish, and 67 white bass — all caught and released
GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:20a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F, falling to 63F

Water Surface Temp: 76F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE15 for our first 30 minutes on the water, then dropping back to NNE10-11mph for the middle 2.5 hours of the trip, and then ramping back up to NNE13 for the remainder.

Sky Conditions: Greyed over skies on the heels of a mild cold front’s passage last night

Other: GT = 50

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vicinity 088/129

**Area vicinity 638/639/1565

**Area vicinity 1566

 

 

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

The Skipper’s in Shimski — 105 Fish, SKIFF Trip #2015 – Stillhouse Hollow

This morning I conducted the fourth SKIFF trip of the 2015 season, treating Austin Bayless, age 12, and his sister, Chloe Bayless, age 6, to a free fishing trip on Stillhouse Hollow while their dad, U.S. Army Captain Wyatt Bayless, is away on assignment to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.
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Austin Bayless displays our largest fish of the morning — a nice largemouth bass that fell for a jigging spoon.  It weighed in at 3.25 pounds on a certified scale.
Mrs. Jennifer Bayless dropped the kids off at lakeside promptly at 7am and, after a short safety briefing, we were on our way to hunt for fish.  Mrs. Bayless was going to use the time without kids to get the house squared away for Wyatt’s return this coming week, after a ~5 week absence.  By mid July this family will “PCS” (made a permanent change of station) away from Ft. Hood to San Antonio where CPT Bayless will work with ROTC cadets at the University of Texas — San Antonio for a 3-year tour.
We started off downrigging in the low light created by the heavy cloud cover, and picked up 8 white bass of various sizes on our Pet Spoons before spotting a large school of fish holding tight to the bottom after about 40 minutes of trolling.  We used the Spot Lock feature on the Minn Kota Ulterra trolling motor to hold right on top of these fish for over 3 hours.  As soon as we got our lures down amongst the fish, they responded aggressively, thus allowing for a “smoking” tactic to be employed.  As we reeled fish in, most every time I observed several other fish from the school chasing the hooked fish up from the bottom.  At one point in time, one of these “chasers” got a bit too close to his buddy and got hooked, thus allowing Austin to bring in a double!
At age 6, Chloe’s attention span lasted about 2 1/2 hours, and after that we had to find some other jobs she was interested in.  Her favorite was “net-girl”.  I equipped her with my live bait net and, each time Austin or I landed a fish, I would unhook it, deposit it in Chloe’s waiting net, and she would (quite ceremoniously) deposit it back into the lake on the side of the boat opposite Austin and me.  When the novelty of that wore off, I gave her my “thumping stick” — a device I use to tap on the bottom of the boat to create commotion and attract fish.  She belted out a couple nice rhythms and kept the fish consolidated underneath us quite nicely.  Finally, when the novelty wore off on that task, we took to creating boat titles for ourselves.  Austin’s vast knowledge of nautical lingo kicked in here, and he helped us determine that I would be serving as ‘skipper’, he would be the ‘first matey’, and Chloe would be the ‘deck hand’.  Too many ‘Wicked Tuna’ episodes I reckon.
Somehow, we got on the topic of the zebra mussel invasion of Lake Belton.  I explained how the larval stage of this invasive species can be transported by water in a boat’s bilge or livewell, and how, if a lake gets infected, damage can result to the balance of that lake’s ecosystem.  Austin said, “So the zebra mussels can put a lake in some deep ‘shimski’?”   I knew he meant ‘kimchi”, but I asked, “Shimski, huh?”  He replied, “Yeah, that’s something my PaPa says.”
There were no dull moments this morning!!

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service, thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

 

A huge thanks to all the supporters of SKIFF nationwide!  If you have donated money, donated gear, provided “Outdoor Professional” discounts to us, conducted fundraisers, referred children or their parents to SKIFF, arranged for publicity, or for whatever else you may have done, seen or unseen, — THANK YOU!

TALLY = 105 FISH, all caught and released (103 white bass, 1 drum, 1 largemouth bass)

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  73F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-12 the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100%  cloud cover.

Note: Lake has risen ~2 feet since last Sunday but has not discolored or seen a lot of flotsam come in

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

**Area 1563-1564

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Transition Underway — 26 Fish, Belton Lake, 14 May 2015

This morning I fished on Belton Lake with returning guests Ken Wilkins of Tex-Mix Concrete and Tony Bagliore of Tony Bagliore Concrete.
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Ken took our best fish of the trip this morning — this smallmouth bass that hit a large, live threadfin shad fished at 35′ over a 40 foot bottom.  It weighed in at 3.00 pounds on a certified scale.

The annual spring hybrid bite tied to the spawning of the threadfin shad is now past peak.  One of the signs of this is a reduced occurrence of shad spawning in the shallows, and the appearance of young of the year shad (often pursued by white bass) on the surface of the reservoir.  Both of these signs were evident today.

I was able to net enough shad for today’s trip, albeit with more effort required than for any other trip thus far this season.

We fished a number of areas today from as shallow as 18 feet to as deep as 40 feet, but never really experienced a solid feed where the fish got excited and competitive and “turned on” to our live baits well.  As often happens when the bite is tentative, we had a rather high number of “pull downs” that failed to result in boated fish.  Often this is due to technique, but that wasn’t the case today, as both Tony and Ken are experienced in the use of circle hooks.

We boated a mixed bag today consisting of hybrid striped bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, white bass, blue catfish, and a single spotted bass.

I’m officially closing out the Spring 2015 chapter of live bait fishing for another season and will now begin to pursue fish strictly on artificial baits, spending a majority of the time on Stillhouse.

TALLY = 26 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  1:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  73.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light SE2-3mph for the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100%  cloud cover.

Note: White bass feeding on YOY shad in most of Leon arm.

Other: GT=100

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 691

**Area 1560

**Area 509

**Area 1561-1562

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Now, Tell Me About this Contest?!? — 53 Fish, Stillhouse, 09 May 2015

This morning I fished on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir in pursuit of white bass with Jake Soukup and Chris DeWitt.
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 Jake displays 2 of the 53 fish we boated today on a combination of downrigged Pet Spoons, slabs, and bladebaits.
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Today’s trip was a personal best for both Chris and Jake as they boated more fish in this trip than in any other trip either had ever been on  – a grand total of 53.

Jake and Chris are both Specialists in the U.S. Army working in Army Aviation, specifically, with the Apache attack helicopter.  They share a common interest in fishing and contacted me about a month ago to schedule this trip after finding me using a Google search.

When Jake and I first spoke, he told me about a fairly elaborate contest that he and about 5-6 other friends had entered into.  The way I understand it, the entire group agrees upon a contest start date and end date — typically around a 9-month span.  During that time, each participant weighs and photographs each fish they catch using a Berkley digital scale.  The fish are released, but the cumulative weight is tallied.  At the end of the 9-month period, the person with the highest cumulative weight is declared the winner.  What does the winner get, you may ask?  The same group has developed plans for a grand trophy rivaling the size and appearance hockey’s Stanley Cup.  Now, this Stanley Cup of Angling has never actually been made, but, just the idea of winning such a grand prize, even if it is in a conceptual state only, is evidently enough to keep these guys going.

And so it was, for every one of the 53 fish we put in the boat today, a quick weight was taken, along with an accompanying photo!

Fortunately, the fish cooperated sufficiently this morning to help advance both Jake and Chris in their standings.  We shoved off right at 6:45am, and were into fish within 10 minutes.  At first we downrigged for high-riding suspended fish up high in the water column taking advantage of the minimal light available there.  As the wind and light level increased, the fish pushed down in the water column and began to feed within a few feet of the bottom.  By 8:45am a full-on feed was going on, allowing us to put over 30 fish in the boat over the next hour.

Every last fish we boated today was a white bass, ranging from 1-3 years old and going from 0.25 pounds up to just a shade over 1 pound (remember, we actually weighed EVERY one!!).

As the action was ramping up and tapering down, we boated fish on Pet Spoons fished on a tandem rig behind downriggers, and, when the feed was peaked, we caught them within feet of bottom on slabs and bladebaits worked horizontally.

We finished up with 53 fish, with only 1 fish landed in the final hour on the water.

 

TALLY = 53 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Water Surface Temp:  74F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE12-13 for the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100% heavy cloud cover.

Note: Most fish showed evidence of feeding on mayfly nymphs, as well as shad.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 088/129

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This is Exciting! — 13 Fish, Belton Lake, 07 May 2015

This morning I fished on Belton Lake with 7-year-old Rachel Ansley and her PaPa, Norm Dobias.
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Rachel’s largest fish of the trip was this just-legal 18″ hybrid striped bass taken on a live shad set at 27 feet over a deeper bottom.
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Rachel’s first fish of the trip was this blue catfish that hit a cut bait.  Can you guess what the grandkids call Norm??
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And the prettiest fish award goes to … this smallmouth bass!

Norm treated Rachel’s sister to a fishing trip over the winter, and today was Rachel’s turn.  Actually, it was Rachel’s turn quite some time ago, but a loved one in Norm’s family passed away on the first date we had scheduled, and one of Norm’s grandchildren was born prematurely, so the family has been spending a lot of time at the hospital.

Rachel is a sweet, friendly, curious young lady who caught on quickly to all I introduced her to on today’s trip, and who asked a lot of good questions about how things work.  Her family is a part of Temple Bible Church and homeschools Rachel and her siblings.  Thursdays are a scheduled break from bookwork, and usually involve adventures with PaPa Norm.

On today’s trip we experienced a slow start in the first 2.5 hours, and then things picked up a bit during the last 2+ hours on the water.  At first we had some difficulty finding fish, and then we had a tough time getting the fish we found to bite.  I compared notes with one retired guide, one other guide who was on the water today, and another recreational fisherman, and all reported tough, slow conditions, including difficulty in getting fish they did find to strike baits.

Rachel wound up with a nice variety of fish, including  1 blue catfish, 2 white bass, 1 longear sunfish, 1 smallmouth bass, and and 8 hybrid striped bass.

Nearly every time a fish would take an interest in a live bait and begin pursuing it, we could see this play out by watching the rod tip and sonar.  As we did, Rachel would say, “This is exciting!”, referring to the sense of anticipation that the rod was about to go down under the weight of another fish taking our bait.

 

TALLY = 13 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  68F

Water Surface Temp:  72F on lower lake

Wind Speed & Direction: SE12 for the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100% heavy cloud cover.

Other: GT=20

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1559

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

We’re Squinting Now! — 29 Fish, Belton Lake, 05 May 2015

This morning I fished with Robert and Karen Spencer on Lake Belton in pursuit of hybrid striped bass.  The two have been married for 36 years, and fishing has been a part of their marriage right from the start.
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Although our target species was hybrid striped bass, this 2.75 pound Belton Lake smallmouth took the prize for the largest fish boated today.

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Largemouth bass made up the majority of our catch today.  Easily 60% of our 29 fish catch consisted of this member of the black bass family.

A stiff south east wind was up and blowing before sunrise and stayed consistent at about 14 mph for the duration of the trip. We got going at 8:15 AM and experienced slow fishing for the first 3+ hours. During this time we boated only five fish, including two hybrid striped bass, two white bass, and one smallmouth bass.

Early in the trip I commented to Karen about how dark the skies were with heavy clouds. There is a certain level of light which, when it develops, seems to turn the fish on. I’ve noticed that when it is completely cloudy, but still bright enough to have to squint without sunglasses, or to just need to put sunglasses on, that particular level of light seems to turn the fish on. Indeed, right around 11:45, when the clouds thinned enough and had occasional breaks in them and began to let sunlight through, our results begin to improve substantially.

I extended our trip, and we fished for an additional 2+ hours, over which time we put an additional 24 fish in the boat. These fish all came off of one area and included primarily largemouth bass, with a few smallmouth, hybrid stripers, and white bass mixed in.  We were fishing with our baits set at 25 feet over a 32 foot bottom on a gentle slope.

Both Robert and Karen are shooting sport enthusiasts, and so I got to learn a little bit about their hobby as we fished together.  I always like to ask people about their favorite past fishing experiences, and this couple did not have to put much thought into recalling their favorite two adventures. The first was an airboat trip for redfish on the Texas Gulf Coast, and the other was a beach fishing trip targeting bull sharks and blacktip sharks which, in addition to the sharks, landed this pair a 6’8″ tarpon as an unexpected bonus.  It was interesting to me to learn that the sharks they landed were actually tagged for scientific research and then released.

When all was said and done today, we boated exactly 29 fish. This was a pretty tough day, as is common with strong easterly winds.

 

TALLY = 29 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15a

End Time:  2:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  67F

Water Surface Temp:  71.9F on lower lake

Wind Speed & Direction: SE14 for the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100% heavy cloud cover until 11:30, then brightening and reducing to 80% cloud cover

Other: GT=45

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 835

**Area 509

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

TAUNTING! — 14 Fish, Belton Lake, 02 May 2015

This morning I fished on Belton Lake with Phil Duff and his 10-year-old grandson, Bishop.  Phil’s intent was for Bishop to do all the fishing as he just looked on.
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Bishop was treated to this morning’s hybrid striper trip on Belton by his Grams and Grandad Duff.

 Grams and Grandad Duff got Bishop a fishing trip gift certificate for Christmas and weather prevented us from redeeming that certificate over Spring Break, so, Bishop has been beyond patient in waiting for this postponement date to roll around.
One of the first things Bishop said following my safety talk and my introduction on how to use the gear was, “You have a lot of stuff on this boat that I’m not familiar with.”   So, I invited him to ask all the questions he cared to so he could learn a few things as we waited on the fish.
We got off to a slow first hour fishing a main lake breakline until a call from a fellow fisherman came in letting me know of some willing fish he had found and inviting us to join him.  Although the bite was certainly not white-hot, it was steady for about an hour from 8-9 am, allowing us to boat 10 fish and miss a few others.
After this short run was over, we headed back out in search of fish once again, finding a few off the Leon River channel, and boating an additional 3 hybrid stripers and 1 blue catfish.  The blue cats have both a distinctive way they bite and way they fight when hooked.  Often times, when fishing is slow, the blue cat will “pester” a live shad just enough to kill it, but not fully swallow it, thus avoiding being hooked.  When I observed that we had a blue cat messing around in our bait spread, I put on a dead chunk of bait to try to allow Bishop to catch it.  I suppose the fish was too small to take the chunk fully in its mouth, as we got a number of pulldowns, but still couldn’t hook the fish.  It was then that Bishop exclaimed, “He’s taunting me!”.  He then set his mind on catching that fish before we departed.  A few minutes later, after baiting up with a smaller chunk of bait, we finally caught that catfish fair and square right in the corner of his mouth.
Without prompting, as we wrapped up our trip, Bishop told his Grandad, “This was fun!”.   And with that, we headed back to the boat ramp.

 

 

TALLY = 14 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  62F

Water Surface Temp:  72F on lower lake

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable until 9:00am, then a southerly breeze began, building to 11-12 mph, then dying back to 7-8mph

Sky Conditions:  Fair and 10% cloud cover

Other: GT=20

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1288

**Area 1344

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Flat Calm – 10 Fish, Belton Lake, 01 May 2015

This morning I fished on Belton Lake with Mr. John Stephenson, Mr. Bob Bearden, Bob’s son, Terry Bearden, and Tucker Glaske.
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From left: Tucker Glaske and John Stephenson with one of the hybrid striped bass we boated this morning.

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WWII veteran and former prisoner of war Bob Bearden, age 92, hung with the young guns today and boated a few fish himself, including this Belton blue catfish.

John is a U.S. Army veteran who, among other things, served as a Bell County Commissioner several years ago.  Bob Bearden is a 92-year old WWII veteran and former prisoner of war.  Terry, who works in the off-shore oil industry, is one of Bob’s five children, and Tucker is an assistant director in the the Development Department at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, where he focuses on fund-raising.

We had a very tough trip this morning thanks to near-windless conditions and bright, cloudless skies, but, that is from my perspective, knowing that Belton is capable of producing much better, and knowing that we are in a season where high numbers of quality fish are very catchable.  Tucker, for example, had an entirely different perspective.  He’d been fishing perhaps only 4 other times in his life and had never caught as many fish during those trips as we did today.

Regardless of the mood of the fish, there was good company and good conversation throughout our time on the water.

Bob chided me about all the tactics and gadgets I employed trying to get stubborn fish to come bite our baits this morning, saying I was creating an unfair advantage, and hinting that I might have to give an account to the Lord about all of this taking advantage of His creatures one day.  They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but, I’d have to disagree, since Bob’s son, Terry, was all for me using sonar, bait, an automatic trolling motor, acoustic attraction, line-counter reels, audible bait clickers and more to put every last fish we could in the boat that we possibly could!!

When we cranked up the outboard to head in, we’d boated 5 hybrid striped bass, 4 blue catfish, and 1 smallmouth bass.

 

TALLY = 10 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  65F

Water Surface Temp:  72F on lower lake

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable

Sky Conditions:  Fair and cloudless

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 346

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com