On the Fly! — 42 Fish, Fishing Belton Lake with Carroll Hall

This Tuesday morning I fished with Mr. Carroll Hall of south Austin, TX.

Carroll boated this beautifully colored green sunfish from out of just 2′ of water where rock, wood and weeds all came together in a protected cove.  Check out the turquoise lines under the eyes and the bright orange trim around the tail.

Carroll got “hooked” on flyfishing soon after retiring and after giving thought as to how to best fish the Hill Country rivers that surrounded him.  One springtime trip to the Llano River for white bass after accumulating just enough gear to be dangerous, and the deal was done.  Like many things in the universe of angling, the genre of flyfishing has many sub-categories.  Carroll has really taken to, and excelled in, the arena of flycasting.  He’s actually become certified by the International Federation of Fly Fishers (IFFF) as a Certified Casting Instructor.  I can attest personally, after spending one coaching session with him, that he is a very good coach in that he knows his subject AND, more importantly, can tactfully and clearly communicate what the student must do to improve.  Beware: He does assign homework!!

Because there has been such consistent topwater action in quite a number of locations on Belton since about a week before our last new moon, I invited Carroll out today hoping that “streak” would continue, thus allowing him to land some fish on the fly.  He and I fished with live bait for hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake back in the spring, and he let me know he wanted to be made aware of any opportunities for catching fish on the fly as the season progressed.

We met at 6:30am and Carroll was fast to his first fish by 6:55am.  The fish did indeed show up, but, the feed was shorter and weaker than average, and the fish we encountered were on the small side, but, the challenge was to catch fish on the fly in slack water, and we did just that.  By the time the ~46 minute long feed ended, Carroll had boated a combination of 5 white bass and hybrid striper with a few more having pulled loose.  Carroll’s arsenal consisted of a 5 weight rod with full-floating line, a leader tapering to ~6 pound test, and a fly of my own design intended to imitate the small forage we’ve been encountering.

When the surface action died, it died hard.  As it died, a stiffer SSE breeze developed and made any further action that might have developed very difficult to spot.  At this point we transitioned to an even lighter 4 weight flyrod with full floating line and used a series of nymph patterns to target sunfish in wind-protected shallow cover.  In about 75 minutes of fishing, Carroll hooked and landed 9 green sunfish and 1 bluegill.  A gold-ribbed Hare’s Ear Nymph worked best.

We closed the trip out today spending our last 90 minutes in pursuit of deep, schooled white bass using “gear” instead of flyrod and reel.  I was able to locate two distinct schools of white bass in about 22 feet of water and get them excited enough to begin chasing the lead slabs we offered.   As the first school cooled off, I downrigged to locate the second school, thus giving Carroll some hands-on experience with the downrigging equipment.  Carroll’s son, daughter-in-law, and 2 grandchildren live near Puget Sound, and he’s often observed salmon anglers using these devices but never knew exactly how they were rigged.  We managed to boat several white bass during this “show and tell”, including a double (two fish on the same umbrella rig landed at the same time).  Between the slabbing and the downrigging, we put a final 27 fish in the boat and called it a day around noon.

TALLY = 42 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  84.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9

Sky Conditions:  Thin, grey, low cloud cover to the east before and at sunrise, clearing to 10% clouds on a fair sky.

Note: Lake has dropped 0.04 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 593.96 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 80

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1585 topwater at first light

**Area 1583 panfishing

**Area 1081 downrigging to find fish; smoking slabs to catch them

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com