Thanksgiving Day Fishing with the Knight Family — 33 Fish, 26 Nov. 2015

This balmy Thanksgiving morning I greeted the Knight family of Georgetown, TX, for a morning of hybrid striped bass and white bass fishing on Belton Lake before the feasting festivities began for all of us later in the afternoon.

From left: Robyn, Jaelyn, Jace, and Jeffrey Knight with some of the fish we caught just after it began to brighten up a bit, between 7:15 and 7:45am.

Jeffrey is an irrigation expert with the Ewing company and makes his living teaching customers how to use and troubleshoot Ewing irrigation equipment.  Robyn helps run the family’s small business, also irrigation-related, from their home.  14-year-old Jaelyn and 12-year-old Jace stay busy with school and sports.  The Knight’s came out with me once before during Spring Break 2014 when Robyn researched an all-Central Texas “stay-cation” featuring i-Fly, Top Golf, a visit to the Austin Junk Cathedral, and fishing on Belton with me.

The weather was very unstable today with Gulf moisture streaming in on a SSE wind in advance of an approaching cold front due in tomorrow around 2pm.  We had wind, rain, clouds, heavy clouds, light clouds, and very spotty fishing.

The bird action which has pointed the way to fish for the past 2 trips did not develop until around 10:45 today, and even when it did, it only lasted for about 25 minutes.

We caught a first-light bite and then the late morning bird-bite, with a lot of looking and trying in between, punctuated with occasional success on the downriggers.

When all was said and done, we put a total of 33 fish in the boat, including short hybrid, keeper hybrid, short white bass, keeper white bass, and one largemouth bass.  That hard cold front last Saturday really took the wind out of the sails and things just haven’t bounced back well.  With yet another hard cold front now due in this weekend, the fishing won’t be getting any easier any time soon.

I’m hoping for a pre-frontal bite tomorrow morning, and am then planning to ride out the cold front, staying off the water through Sunday.

 

TALLY = 33 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: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  65.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12-15 entire trip

Sky Conditions:  Heavy grey clouds the entire trip, with occasional short rain showers

Other: GT= 35

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

** Area 1602 to 1617 early downrigging up shallow

** Area 1635 – 2 fish vertical jigging

** Area 172 (vicinity) – downrigging for suspended fish spread throughout water column

** Area 015 to 1641 under birds beginning from 10:45 to 11:15a – casting and jigging in 15-22′

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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