Healy Party boats 86 – Belton Lake Hybrid Fishing, 23 April

This past Saturday morning, April 23rd, I fished with Mr. Dennis Healy of Georgetown, TX, and his sons, Ben and Patrick, both from the Austin area.

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Dennis Healy is retired and has moved from Iowa down to Sun City near Georgetown, thus putting him near his sons.

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Ben Healy is married and works at National Instruments in Austin.

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Patrick is engaged, teaches chemistry to special needs students in the Del Valle Independent School District outside Austin, and both enjoys and makes music.

Flood water continues to backup in Belton, but the rate of rise is decreasing.  At launch time, we were between 8-9 feet above full pool.  The nice thing is that the water is not sufficiently discolored so as to shut down the fishing.

The weather, although far from ideal “fishing weather” (I prefer grey skies and wind), was pleasant to be outdoors in, with blue skies, cool temperatures for the first 2 hours or so, and near-calm winds.

We fished only 2 distinct locations this morning using live bait at the first to put just shy of 30 keeper hybrid in the boat near a deep breakline.  When the initial bite died down, we did a short hop just a few yards away and nearer to the breadline and continued getting bit.  Once the bite died at this location for good, we moved to a second area, on a similar breakline, and this time worked slabs for more but smaller fish.  In our final hour on the water, my 3-man party put 55 fish in the boat.

I’ve often commented in my logs in years past at this time of year how the rising water temperature and rising fish metabolism seems to trump all other conditions, including less than ideal weather like the post frontal weather we experienced this morning.

TALLY: 86 Fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp:  70F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Surface was calm until 10:45 when a SSE breeze at 7-8 began

Sky Conditions:  15% cloud cover on a clear, dry sky.

Water Level: Rapidly rising thanks to recent heavy rainfall; 602.31 feet with 594.00 being full pool. No water is being released due to more severe flooding downstream (0cu. ft./sec.)

Other: GT= 40

Wx Snapshot:

23APR16

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1742 — good quality fish on early bite; multiple keeper hybrid

*Area 1277/1209/1554 — good quality fish on mid-morning bite; multiple keeper hybrid

*Area 346/1318 — worked slabs vertically in ~50’ for short hybrid and white bass

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

The Maine Event — 106 Fish, 22 April, Lake Belton

This past Friday evening, April 22nd, I fished with Harry and Lisa Irving of Fairfield, Maine, their daughter, Taija, and their son-in-law, Joshua LeClair.  The LeClair’s are also originally both from Maine but are now stationed at Fort Hood where Joshua is assigned to a civil affairs unit.

 

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From left: Lisa Irving, Taija LeClair, Joshua LeClair, and Harry Irving, all from the great state of Maine.

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Harry Irving with the big one that didn’t get away.

The Irving’s flew down to visit “the kids”, giving Harry a break from his medical practice and Lisa a break from her work as a nurse. The Irving’s decided to give fishing a try after seeing the forecast for ideal weather slated for Friday.

 

That weather did indeed materialize and we were able to enjoy excellent fishing under blue skies with light winds and pleasant temperatures in the 70’s.

 

Getting launched has become a bit of a trick given that the rapidly rising water from all of the rain earlier this week has put all of the courtesy docks underwater.  Nonetheless, we got launched and began hunting for fish.

 

We enjoyed a solid bite by smaller hybrid striped bass and white bass for the first 3 hours of our trip, finding fish in two distinct locations at both 50 feet and then at just 25-30 feet.  The fish responded aggressively to slabs worked vertically.

 

For the final 75 minutes of the trip I suggested, for variety’s sake, that we pursue fewer but larger fish using live shad as bait for mature hybrid striped bass.  This got the thumbs-up from the whole crew, so, we shuttled over to the third and final area that we would fish this evening.  This turned out to be a good move.  Despite the presence of hundreds of laughing gulls, it was a handful of terns diving over fish that helped me identify the spot on the spot that held big fish.

 

By the time darkness fell, everyone had the opportunity to land several large, 18+ inch long hybrid stripers.

 

 

TALLY: 106 Fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time:  8:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp:  71F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were steady at NE6-8.

Sky Conditions:  10% cloud cover on a clear, dry sky.

Water Level: Rapidly rising thanks to recent heavy rainfall; 601.60 feet with 594.00 being full pool. No water is being released due to more severe flooding downstream (0cu. ft./sec.)

Other: GT= 25

 

 Wx Snapshot:

 22APR16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 152/1385 — short hybrid and mixed white bass easing with slabs

**Area 1745 – 2-3 year class white bass and mixed hybrid easing with slabs

**Area 355/1187 – low light bite by keeper hybrid on live shad

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle