This morning I fished with the Oliver clan on Belton Lake.
From left: Amber, Joe, Paw, Jeff, and Jack, each with a white bass taken from aggressive topwater feeding which took place from 6:55 to 8:10am .
Paw, now 86, was in top form today regularly taking white bass and hybrid on top, on slabs, and on the downriggers. This beefy hybrid is one of the larger hybrid we landed this morning.
Amber caught the day’s first fish, last fish, and largest fish!
Joe Oliver, recently retired as the athletic director at Central Texas Christian School in Belton, put together this family outing and included his dad, Joe (Paw) Oliver, two of his brothers, Jack and Jeff, and his daughter, Amber. It was a bit of a squeeze, but we made it work just fine.
Once again, the fish did not disappoint when it came to a topwater bite kicking off in advance of sunrise. Thanks to some low, grey clouds in the east, the direct light of the sun did not hit the water until well after sunrise, and therefore the topwater period was extended. We got exactly 74 minutes of aggressive surface feeding, giving us continuous shots at fish ranging from small, 7-8 inch white bass, up to larger, stocky hybrid that taped around 15-16 inches. Although our catch included a greater percentage of “keeper” white bass (~13 inches) than the past several trips have, we did not find any keeper hybrid interested in our wares today. The Cork Rig with my hand-tied flies designed to match the forage size worked very well once again for consistently fooling these surface feeders.
Once the topwater action died, things got very quiet for the duration of the trip. We experienced the 8:30 to 9:30am lull that has been a part of my morning trips on Belton for several weeks now, taking just 5 white bass on downriggers around the 30 foot mark during this time.
The resurgence of activity by 9:30 to 10:30 and beyond did not rise to anywhere near the level it has been at over the past few weeks. Right around 9:30 we found a bottom-oriented school of white bass, hovered over them and worked slabs vertically. Although everyone caught at least one fish out of this school, the fish never really got excited enough to coalesce under the boat and chase hooked schoolmates toward the surface, etc. This “patch” of fish dispersed in about 10 minutes’ time, and we continued the search with downriggers. We never found another dense, bottom-oriented school to slab for, and so continued with the downrigging regimen right to the time we finished up, regularly catching small whites, and closing the trip out with an “11th hour” blue catfish brought to net by Amber.
“Paw” just went through, and is now recovering from, surgery to correct an aneurysm in his abdominal aorta, so we were all glad to see him up and able to get outdoors and “hang” with the young folks for a full 4+ hours this morning.
TALLY = 63 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F
Water Surface Temp: 84.6F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE2-5
Sky Conditions: Thin, grey, low cloud cover to the east before and at sunrise, clearing to 30% clouds on a fair sky.
Note: Lake has dropped 0.03 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 593.93 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool
Other: GT= 45
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1393 to 1119 topwater at first light (74 minutes)
**Area 1271 slow downrigging
**Area 1576 slabbing
**Area 154/1081 downrigging for sparse whites
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com