A Bear Market — 16 Fish, Belton, 28 May

This past Saturday, May 28, I fished with Mr. Greg Meyer, his wife Daryl, their daughter Makenzie, and Makenzie’s friend Kynesha Nisbett. Greg serves as the Assistant Athletics Director for Development for the Baylor Bear Foundation at Baylor University.  He contacted me hoping we could connect his family with some hard-pulling hybrid stripers.

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Makenzie scored our first “keeper” hybrid (18 or more inches in length) of the trip on a live shad in 28 feet of water.

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Go Mom!!  Daryl saved the best for last, taking this hybrid striper, which went just shy of 4 pounds, toward the end of our morning on the water.

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Shortly after Makenzie broke the ice, Kynesha (decidedly NOT a morning person) landed this hybrid and, if I’m not mistaken, spoke her first word of the morning at about the same time!
Thanks to severe weather the previous Thursday, I missed fishing that morning due to lightning, and had not fished on Belton since the previous Saturday. Over that timeframe there had been much environmental change. We got a tremendous amount of rain, the Leon River went out of its banks, the Corps of Engineers stopped releasing water, and Belton Lake began to rise very quickly.

All of this environmental change seems to have thrown the fish into a funk. I spent over an hour beginning at 6:30 AM searching for fish in the main basin, and found nothing that led me to even put a line in the water.

I decided to head up into one of Belton’s tributaries, and we were able to find a few fish, but never really got a solid, continuous bite going. The fish have definitely moved up shallower, as has the bait, and what we caught came in dribs and drabs of 2 to 3 fish at a time with occasional singles mixed in. On several occasions we had large schools of fish, which I suspected were white bass, show directly beneath the boat on sonar. Despite working our slabs immediately in the midst of them, and seeing the slab mixed in the presence of these fish on sonar, we simply did not get hit.

When fish did respond to live bait, I watched sonar as the hooked fish were fought to the boat, and never once did any schoolmates follow a hooked fish up off bottom.  I checked in with fellow guide, Charles Howard and with several Belton “regulars”, and they all reported soft results during this same time frame.

I extended our trip for 2 additional hours hoping a wind shift or light level change would help things out, but that was not to be.  When all was said and done we had landed just 16 fish today with 14 of them coming on live bait, one on a downrigged umbrella rig, and one on an “eased” slab.

I appreciate Greg’s approach to things — seeing that we were having a slow day, he passed all of the fish that hit on his rod off to one of the ladies.

 

TALLY = 16 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  12:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp:  75.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds SSE7-8

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover for the entire trip.

Water Level: ~8 feet above full pool with no release of water currently ongoing.

GT = 20

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

28MAY16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1629-1672 live shad

**Area 1573 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

First Fish of Her Life — 41 Fish, Belton SKIES Program Trip

This past Saturday afternoon, May 21st, I was joined by Mrs. Jennifer Katz, her daughter, Cayli Katz, and Cayli’s cousin, Matty Solorzano, for a Fort Hood SKIES program fishing trip on Lake Belton.  See the end of this summary for more info. on the SKIES program.

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From left: Matty Solorzano, Cayli Katz, and Jennifer Katz with one of the several hybrid stripers Cayli and Matty landed in the 3.00 to 4.25 pound class.

The trip was focused on Cayli and her success with Matty and Jennifer along for the ride. Cali had never caught a fish before in her life, but, she was both eager and teachable, so I knew as soon as we met that we’d have a good time and that she would be successful.

Elton Lake is normally in a transition period by now, but, thanks to cooler than normal water temperatures, the patterns that have been in place for more than a month now have continued to hold up, and this evening was no exception.

In order to give Cayli as much exposure to various techniques and species as I could, I broke the trip up into 4 “segments”.  Segment one consisted of down rigging during our first hour on the water.  It did not produce.

Segment two consisted of fishing in deep, open water for hybrid striper.  We got on fish using sonar, and enjoyed an hour-long, very productive bite, putting 15 fish in the boat including 9 keepers of 18 inches or larger.  After battling 9 or 10 of these hard-pulling fish, Cayli’s hands were worn out.  She “donated” the rest of the fish that bit to cousin Matty.  Seeing this, I suggested we move on to Segment three.  So, we left these fish biting to pursue fish that were a bit more tame.

Segment three consisted of fishing for panfish with slip floats up shallow in the flooded terrestrial brush.  We caught 20 sunfish in about an hour’s time, including bluegills, green sunfish, and longear sunfish.  The kids both got up enough nerve toward the end of the sunfishing to hold their fish and remove the hooks.

Our grand finale took us to 35-40 feet of water from 7:45p to 8:20p.  Sonar revealed very aggressively feeding gamefish in the lower 2/3 of the water column.  This “low light” bite is typically very aggressive, but also short-lived.  I trained the kids up very quickly in the use of spinning gear, and they went right to work working their slabs aggressively in the same zone where the fish were.  Getting the right cadence down was a bit of a trick for these two rookies, but, when the got it down, they got results.  Both were able to land a number of white bass, short hybrid and keeper hybrid in the 25-30 minutes that this action lasted.  Then, when it was over, it was over.

For their efforts, the kids landed 41 fish, and Cayli earned a TPWD First Fish Award!

SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

TALLY = 41 Fish, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

21MAY16

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time:  8:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Water Surface Temp:  75.2

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE13 at trips start, tapering down to E7

Sky Conditions:  85% grey cloud cover with occasional breaks

Water Level: 601.83 and falling with 594.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 3,561 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.04 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1277, solid hybrid bite on live shad from 5:15 to 6:30p

**Area 1583 shallow panfishing 6:30p to 7:45p

**Area 1728-153 mixed bag fishing for whites and hybrids of all sizes on a frenzy hitting smoked slabs in lower 2/3 of water column
 

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

More Learning than Catching — 31 Fish, Belton Lake, 20 May

This morning, Friday the 20th of May, I fished with Mike London of Troy, TX, targeting hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake using live shad.

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Mike London with our first hybrid of the morning, a 20″ fish that came out of 48 feet of water.  We went on to boat 31 fish over the course of 4.5 hours on the water.

Mike owns his own small business and decided to mix some pleasure with business, taking an RV camping trip to Lake Belton while still running local service calls from his campsite  — no rest for the weary!

When Mike and I first spoke about the kind of trip he’d like to participate in, it was clear that he was more interested in learning than in catching, so, I suggest he come out by himself so I could more thoroughly describe what we were doing and why we were doing it without being pulled away by the needs of other clients.

This worked out well, allowing us to talk about why we were fishing where we were fishing, the impacts of wind, why we placed our baits where we did, the kinds of baits and rigging that are effective, the in’s and out’s of catching and keeping shad, and a whole lot about the use, adjustment, and interpretation of sonar.

Mike was intrigued by how we could observe our individual shad 45+ feet down under the boat, then watch individual gamefish approach, stalk, and attack our baits.  By the end of the trip Mike was “calling his shots” as he watched sonar, saw aggressive fish moving in on our baits, and then diverted his eyes from the sonar to the rods to see the results play out at the last second as the audible bait clickers screamed with yet another hybrid striper heading out and away.

We finished up with 31 fish boated today including both legal and short hybrid stripers, and a few white bass, as well.

 

TALLY = 31 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Water Surface Temp:  74.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were NNW3-5, slowly shifting to NW4-6.

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover for the entire trip.

Water Level: 7.39 feet above full pool with a rise of 0.82 feet in the last 24 hours with no release of water currently ongoing.

GT = 45

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

20MAY16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1556 – live shad for first 1.25 hours

**Area 1299 – live shad for ~2 hours

**Area 294 – live shad for .75 hours

 

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

Cold Front Rampage — 76 Fish with the Housewright’s, Belton, 17 May

This past Tuesday evening, May 17th, I finished with Dr. Chad Housewright and 2 of his sons, Ethan and Asher, on Belton Lake targeting hybrid striped bass using a variety of techniques.

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From left: Ethan, Chad, and Asher Housewright all with 3.50 to 4.00 pound Belton Lake hybrid striped bass.  These three fish came under the boat in a large wolfpack, taking down 3 of our 4 rods all at the same time.  I netted all of these fish over a span of just 25 seconds.

Belton 17MAY16

At around 7:50p, a coldfront pushed directly over Belton Lake, suddenly increasing the windspeed and cloud cover.  As this occurred, the fish went on an absolute feeding binge.  Here was the scene under the boat which included hybrid and white bass of all sizes, as well as a few blue catfish mixed in.

Chad is a dermatologist with the Baylor-Scott & White system in Temple.  In this capacity, he provided counsel to a dermatologist-in-training by the name of Rod Mahmoudizad back in 2015.  As a token of his appreciation for the training he received, Rod presented Chad with a fishing gift certificate before moving from the area to further pursue his career.   This past Tuesday, Chad had the opportunity to redeem the certificate with two of his sons along.

As I arrived at the launch site about 30 minutes before our scheduled start time, I really didn’t like what I saw — a nearly calm surface and next to no cloud cover.  After Chad and the boys arrived, we went over some safety considerations, prayed together, and then covered the essentials of using the fishing gear.  By the time I put the boat in gear and began to study sonar searching for fish, a light NNW ripple had begun, and the very thin grey layer of broken clouds was just slightly obscuring the sun.  I found some solid fish activity in 48 feet of water and decided to post up over top of these fish with the Minn Kota Ulterra and its GPS positioning function.

By the time we got baits in the water the entire lake’s surface was now slightly rippled and the thin cloud cover was a bit thicker — things were looking better all the time.  Our first 3 shad were down near bottom no longer than 30 seconds when the audible bait clickers on the reels began to sound off.  This was the start of a 2.5 hour bite that ebbed and flowed but did not stop until around 7:45p as thickening clouds cut the light at this depth and put an end to the bite.  During this period of time, we boated a total of 48 fish, all but 3 of which were hybrid striper, and all but 7 of which were legal 18+” long fish.

In our last 45 minutes on the water, several key environmental factors came into play.  First, as the sun began to set, the ambient light level fell, then as a mild cold front moved in, heavy cloud cover on its lead edge further darkened the skies and increased the wind speed significantly, from 6-7 mph up to 17-18 mph.  Finally, as that lead edge of clouds moved to the SE, thinner cloud cover followed, thus actually creating a brightening of the skies despite the fact that sunset was drawing nearer.

During our last 45 minutes on the water, the fish went into an absolute feeding rampage as the responded to the front and the failing light.  During this short time span, we had at least 2, if not 3 of the rods working with fish on them more often then not.  We had short hybrid, keeper hybrid, white bass, and blue cat all in the fray feeding hard on shad while we fooled them with 3/4 oz. lead slabs.  We took our tally from 48 fish up to 76 fish during this window of opportunity.

When the last fish came over the side right at dark and the rods were stowed, we discovered the fun was not quite over yet.  The 18+ mph wind now blowing N to S directly across the boat ramp made loading the boat back onto the trailer with a 2+ foot swell akin to a nighttime carrier landing in a gale!   The Housewright’s graciously helped all they could, and, by 8:30 or so all was well and the boys were headed home to knock out that night’s school homework.

TALLY = 76 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 5:15p

End Time:  8:25p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  75.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were NNW6-8 until 7:50p when the lead edge of a cool front moved over, increasing wind speed up to NNW16-18 and dropping the temperature moderately.

Sky Conditions:  30% thin grey cover over a clear sky up until 7:15, then increasing cloudiness as the mild front approached.

Water Level: 6.42 feet above full pool with a fall of 0.16 feet in the last 24 hours with a release of ~4600cfs ongoing.

GT = 50

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

17MAY16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1743 – live shad for first 2.5 hours

**Area 1299 – slabs for pre-frontal fish in last .5 hours

 

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

Soldiers Serving Soldiers — 27 Fish, Belton, 17 May

This past Tuesday morning, May 17th, I fished with Matt Cellini, Ilya L., and his son Max L.  Originally born in Siberia, Ilya now serves in the U.S. Army as an emergency room doctor at Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood. Matt serves in the same capacity in the US Air Force out of Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.  The two got to know each other through their medical studies at Walter Reed in Washington, D.C.

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From left: Max and Ilya with a nice pair of Belton Lake hybrid striped bass taken seconds apart on live shad.

Matt Celini

Matt played the role of “uncle” today, looking out for Max and passing on a majority of his hooked fish to the 7-year-old young man.  As time wound down, he figured he’d better work at least one back to the boat on his own!

As the water temperatures continue to slowly rise through the mid-70s, gradual changes are taking place on Belton. The shad spawn has now ended, and the newly spawned fry are beginning to find their way into open water. Small schools of small white bass can be seen feeding on these fry from time to time. Over the next few weeks this will grow more widespread.

The fishing was a bit subdued today. We had no trouble finding fish, but the fish were simply not in an overly aggressive feeding mode. We fished 8 areas, catching a majority of our fish from but three of them, and just one or two fish from the rest.

The skies were quite murky and dark all morning and the south easterly wind we started with turned northerly around 8:45. During a very brief span of time at midmorning, the gray skies thinned enough to let a bit more sunlight through, just to the level where you would have to squint if not wearing sunglasses. During this time a very brief increase in fish feeding intensity occurred, allowing us to use slabs and pick up a good number of fish very quickly, most of which were large white bass.

Matt’s schedule at the hospital required that we depart promptly at 11 AM today, and by that time we had managed to put together a decent string of 27 fish, roughly 40% of which were legal sized hybrid striped bass.

 

TALLY = 27 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  74.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were ESE6 for about our first 30 minutes, then, in advance of a mild, approaching cold front, turned NNW9-10 for the remainder of the trip.

Sky Conditions:  100% grey skies with light drizzle for the first hour.

Water Level: 6.42 feet above full pool with a fall of 0.16 feet in the last 24 hours with a release of ~4600cfs ongoing.

GT = 75

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

17MAY16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1277/683 – live shad early

**Area 1482/187 – slabs during a brief bright period

**Area 346/086- live shad late

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

Maine-iac Aboard! — 83 Fish, Belton Hybrid Striped Bass Fishing

On Friday morning, May 13th, I fished Lake Belton with Dr. David Clark, his dad, Rick Clark, and David’s brother-in-law, Mike Brawn.  Our focus was on catching hybrid striped bass using live shad as bait.

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From left: Rick and David Clark with one of the several 4-pound class fish we boated on live shad this morning.

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Mike Brawn, a native of Maine, enjoyed his first experience tangling with hybrid striped bass this morning and landed several 4 pound class fish himself.

The Clark’s were hosting a family reunion of sorts, and this was “guy time”.

I was a bit concerned when, as the sun rose, it rose unobscured by any form of cloud cover and our northerly breezes were light.  Calm, bright conditions are among the toughest one can face when fishing for hybrids, stripers, and white bass, so I was hoping we’d avoid such conditions.  As it turned out, although it did stay bright, we had enough wind to ripple the surface and move the water and, except for two distinct lulls in the action when the winds briefly stalled, the fish fed for nearly the entire 4 hours.

We fished only one area for our first 3 hours and 10 minutes, catching 74 fish over this span of time, of which at least half were legal hybrid stripers.  Then, even though the live shad bite was still going, for variety’s sake, I offered to search for more heavily schooled (and typically smaller) fish to allow my crew to use spinning gear equipped with slabs so as to experience a different form of fishing as we closed out our trip.  We found fish fairly quickly and managed to boat a mix of 9 whites and short hybrid before agreeing that the morning bite had played out.

I particularly enjoyed the conversation this morning as we fished — Mike is a native of Maine, and my wife and I have fond memories of that state.  My college roommate of several semesters, Jeff Libby, first introduced me to Maine when his folks opened up their home to me on the various long weekends we had as cadets up at West Point.  I was so taken with the natural beauty and climate, that Rebecca and I planned our honeymoon there, in the Boothbay Harbor area.  Finally, in celebration of our 20th anniversary last summer, we returned to the Boothbay/Portland area for a full week’s stay.  So, with Mike on board, I felt like I got to catch up on my home away from home.

 

TALLY = 83 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp:  74.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were NE5-7

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with less than 10% cloud cover.

Water Level: 6.95 feet above full pool with a fall of 0.20 feet in the last 24 hours with a release of ~4890cfs ongoing.

GT = 50

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

13MAY16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 346 – 74 fish in 3.2 hours; 50%+ keeper hybrid on live shad

**Area 294 – 9 fish in 30 minutes; all short hybrid and whites on slabs

 

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

Grandkids: Two; Along with Baboo — 74 Fish, Belton, 12 May

On Thursday, May 12th, I fished with Mr. Steve Niemeier and two of his grandchildren, 11-year old Caleb Fowler, and 8-year-old Macy Fowler.  The grandkids all call Steve “Baboo” which is an African word for grandfather which Steve picked up on one of his many mission trips to that continent.

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From left: 11-year-old Caleb Fowler, Steve “Baboo” Niemeier, and 8-year-old Macy Fowler with two Belton Lake hybrid the kids landed just seconds apart during a very aggressive feed spurred on by grey clouds and a westerly wind in advance of stormy weather.

As they walked from the minivan down to my boat, Caleb, decidedly NOT a morning person, was still shaking out the cobwebs, while Macy was bubbling with anticipation, and Steve was just glad to be away from the office with the two of them for a few hours.

Fishing was pretty straightforward today thanks to slowly but steadily increasing water temperatures pushing the fish to feed routinely for the first 4 hours of light and the last 3 hours of light.

We fished only 2 areas this morning catching mainly legal hybrid stripers at our first stop, and a mixed bag of white bass and hybrid stripers in the 1, 2, and 3 year classes at our second stop. All of our fish were caught on live shad.

The kids both came to appreciate  how necessary it is to keep a constant vigil over the rod when bait fishing.  Fish can attack a bait, move off with it, pull the rod tip down, and tear the bait off the hook,  thus allowing the tip to return to its original position, all in a matter of about 2 seconds.  If you are snacking, looking away, or otherwise distracted, an opportunity can be lost.  This point was driven home during the last hour of the trip as the kids’ attention span began to wane and Steve began to outcatch the kids three or four fish to their one.

As we approached the end of the morning bite, around 10:45, a storm cell to the west which I’d been keeping an eye on via my smartphone for over 3 hours, was getting a bit too close for comfort. We pulled lines in right at 10:45 and were back to the launch site by 10:55.  As my crew was leaving the parking lot, the first drops of rain began falling, and, after going through all of my post-trip chores, I got a good dousing complete with thunder and lightning on my drive home.

We finished our morning with 74 fish landed, including a personal best (largest fish of her life) for Macy.

TALLY = 74 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp:  74.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were W11-12

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover.

Water Level: 7.10 feet above full pool with a fall of 0.20 feet in the last 24 hours with a release of ~4890cfs ongoing.

GT = 20

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1294 – 80% keeper hybrid on live shad

**Area 1298 – mixed sizes of whites and 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

Hybrid Fishing on Lake Belton with Ray Johnson — 41 Fish, 10 May

This morning, Tuesday, May 10th, I fished with retired U.S. Navy Captain and flight surgeon Ray Johnson of Harker Heights. Our target species was hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake.

 

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When the clouds cleared, the sun illuminated the depths and the hybrid turned on.  We had been fishing 4 rods and had to immediately drop back to just one or two due to the intensity of the action over a 50 minute span.

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 Ray poses with the first fish of the morning taken, literally, less than a minute after dropping our first live bait down to within feet of the bottom.
Thanks to lingering cloud cover from our most recent mild storm system, the sudden brightening of the skies which normally occurs at sunrise was somewhat muted this morning, thus the shad spawning run was a bit delayed and took place around 6:30am.

When the shad came in, they came in strong but they also came in very briefly.  The entire window was about 12 minutes long. This was really a case of being at the right place at the right time.

I got Ray on board and settled in, and by 7:10am we were locked on top of our first fishing area using the Spot Lock feature on my Minn Kota Ulterra. This first area we fished look really good on sonar, with multiple thick yellow arches showing on colored sonar – – a signature typically given off by sizable hybrid striper. These marks were also 1 to 3 feet off of bottom, telling me these fish were in a feeding posture.

Indeed, as soon as we got baits down to these fish, we started catching. Over our first 25 minutes we had a nice run of nine keeper hybrid, then it took 10 to 15 minutes longer to get the next two, and then it really tapered off quickly, forcing us to move. We spent about an hour stopping, putting baits down, and coming up with just one or two fish, but never really getting things going until around 9:10 AM.

At this time I found a nice concentration of fish in 48 to 49 feet of water a few yards back from a nearby breakline.   As soon as we got baits down, we picked up three fish right off the bat, and then things settled down. We pulled fish steadily, but they were far from worked up into a frenzy of any sort. Then, as the morning murk gave way to thinning clouds, followed by the first direct sun’s rays hitting the water, things really started to click. We had a roughly 50 minute streak where it was all we could do to drop back from four baited lines, to keeping just one or two in the water. We quickly took our fish count up into the 30s.

These fish would later ramp down as quickly as they had ramped up as the nice south southeast wind that has been blowing right at 13 mph began to slack off to 10, then 9, and so on.  As the wind decreased, so did the intensity of the bite. By 11:10 we had caught our 41st and final fish of the day. We pressed on for another 10 to 15 fishless minutes, and then called it a day. Roughly 1/2 of our catch consisted of legal sized hybrid striped bass of 18+ inches in length.

 

TALLY = 41 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  11:25a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  72.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were SSE13 taper down to SSE 8-9

Sky Conditions:  Hazy skies with ~20% cloud cover.

Water Level: 7.36 feet above full pool with a fall of 0.30 feet in the last 24 hours with a release of ~4890cfs ongoing.

GT = 0

 

Wx Snapshot:

10MAY16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1749 – 80% keeper hybrid on live shad

**Area 1739 – 80% 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

Hybrid Fishing 101 — Mason Party Boats 101 Fish, 07 May

This past Saturday morning, May 7th, I fished with Jim Mason of Waco, TX, his friend, Jerry Morgan, also of Waco, and Jim’s son and daughter-in-law, Peyton and Helen Mason, of Denver, CO.

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From left:

Photo 1: Helen Mason had the best technique when it came to properly hooking fish with the circle hooks we used; as a result she landed the highest percentage of fish that bit on her live baits.

Photo 2: Jerry Morgan hoists the second largest fish of the trip, a 6.25 pound hybrid that struck his live shad in 48′ of water.

Photo 3: Jim Mason shows the 7.00 pound, 25 3/8″ fish that anchored the stringer today as his son, Peyton looks on.  This is the largest hybrid I’ve seen caught on Belton since 2009 when Mrs. Lacy Sparkman boated a 25.5 inch fish which stands as the catch-and-release lake record to this day.

Photo 4: Peyton Mason with a very long, but more lean hybrid we boated in the closing 30 minutes of our trip.

 

Peyton initially contacted me back in February and wanted to get a gift certificate for his dad’s birthday, and today was the day to cash that in.  Peyton and Helen tried to kill several birds with one stone, timing their travel to coincide with Mothers’ Day.

We all got a strong first impression that today would be a good fishing day when, while drifting near the launch site and demonstrating the use of the line-counter reels we’d be gearing up with, I managed to hook and land a 1.5 pound freshwater drum on a bare hook.

It only got better from there.  We made only two stops today, in water from 48-51 feet deep, and put exactly 101 fish in the boat (not counting the drum!).  Not only did we catch a lot of fish, the impressive part to me was that easily 80% of these 101 fish were “keeper” sized (18+ inch long) hybrid striped bass.

Fittingly, Jim the birthday-boy wound up catching the largest fish of the trip.  He landed a 7.00 pound, 25 3/8 inch long hybrid striped bass which is the largest hybrid I’ve had landed by a client since 2009.  We also landed two fish weighing 6.00 pounds and another weighing 6.25 pounds.

Although it may seem obvious, one of the keys to our success was having baits in the water when the wolfpacks of patrolling hybrid came under us.  This was easily accomplished when we had four lines down and were waiting for the fish to bite, however, once the fish started biting and we worked them into a frenzy, keeping at least one bait down amongst them to keep them interested in staying beneath the boat was critical.  This is where the use of circle hooks really shines.  When used properly, circle hooks allow for a super quick, easy release that causes little more than a prick in a fish’s upper lip.  Being able to net a fish, unhook and release it, re-bait, and get a fresh bait right back down to the fish is made much easier with such hooks and translated into more fish in the boat over any given period of time versus the use of J-shaped hooks which often get caught in the fishes’ gullets and require more lengthy removal or replacement.

I estimate we have another 2 weeks of solid fishing in conjunction with the threadfin shad spawn before the water begins to stratify and the fishing declines as less productive summer-time fish behaviors and patterns kick in.

 

TALLY = 101 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp:  73-74F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were SSE9-13

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with ~20% cloud cover.

Water Level: 8.38 feet above full pool with a fall of 0.25 feet in the last 24 hours with a release of ~4900cfs ongoing.

GT = 120

 

Wx Snapshot:

07MAY16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1749 – 80% keeper hybrid on live shad

**Area 1739 – 80% 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

Thanks for Making Us Famous! — 35 Fish, Aaron Hall & Kids

This past Thursday morning, May 5th, I fished with Aaron Hall of Belton, TX, and his two children, Aiden and Eliza.  This family then became the subject of my weekly “Guide Lines” fishing column in the Killeen Daily Herald.  Upon picking up a copy and showing the kids, Aaron texted me saying, “Awesome – the kids just had a look! They said thanks for making them famous.”  Here is the complete article, as well as a link to the electronic version of it…

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There comes a time each spring when lengthening days, rising water temperature and increasing fish metabolism all translate into incredibly productive and consistent fishing for both quality fish and high quantities of fish on Lake Belton.

This window of opportunity usually runs from the last week of March through the third or fourth week of May. The more quickly the water warms to the point of stratifying, the sooner this consistent bite will end.

Thanks to this week’s cool overnight and early morning temperatures, we should enjoy at least two more weeks of this solid fishing.

Of the roughly 185 guided fishing trips I conduct each year, about 70 percent include at least one child. Based on this experience, I find that this seven- to eight-week window is ideal for introducing youth aged 10 and older to the sport of fishing.

Because the fishes’ rising metabolism drives fish to feed frequently and heavily, factors that turn fish off during the consistently hot and consistently cold parts of the year (such as winds from the north or east, passage of cold fronts, calm conditions, bright conditions, and rapidly rising or falling water) do not impact fish behavior near as drastically at this time of year.

Adults wishing to introduce youngsters to the sport can expect positive results more so now than at any other period in the annual cycle.

A case in point: This past Thursday morning I welcomed Aaron Hall of Belton and his two children, 10-year-old Aiden Hall, and 8-year-old Eliza Hall, aboard my boat. As Aaron put it, his crew was “… low on experience, and high on enthusiasm.” Aaron had only once before taken the kids out to fish off of a dock during which time the kids caught but a few small fish.

Within 20 minutes of launching we were hovering over top of a concentration of fish in 52 feet of water. So as not to disturb these fish, which were holding within four feet of the bottom, I used the GPS-guided i-Pilot feature of my trolling motor to stay in place versus letting down an anchor and risking disturbing these fish.

I supplied all of the gear for this trip, both fishing gear and safety-related gear, and first showed the kids how to use it, then had them show me they understood how to use it. With that addressed, we baited the circle hooks I use with live shad I had caught with a castnet much earlier in the morning.

All three of my guests let their live baits down toward the bottom, keeping them off bottom just enough to allow the fish to see them well. Our first strike came within minutes. Eliza was literally squealing with excitement when the tip of her rod was buried down beneath the surface of the water and the audible bait clicker on her reel sounded off. A hybrid striped bass had latched onto her shad and was trying to swim off with it.

Aided by her dad, Eliza battled the hybrid to the boat and stopped reeling with about 2 feet of line between the rod tip and the weight that took her bait to the bottom. This allowed me to slide the net under her prize.

Loud cheers broke out, cameras clicked, kids smiled and lasting memories were made right there and then.

Over the course of the four-hour trip, this scenario would be repeated a total of 35 times, as all three guests caught white bass, hybrid striped bass, blue catfish and even a smallmouth bass on the lively threadfin shad we used for bait. Several of the hybrid exceeded 3 pounds.

Results like this can be expected for older kids through the end of May. For those children under 10 years of age, the best fishing is yet to come. In June and July, as the water continues to warm and the hydrilla begins to grow on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, the sunfish bite will kick in, providing instant gratification for those younger kids with shorter attention spans and more limited manual dexterity.

Add to that some early morning topwater action and some consistent downrigging action for white bass, and you have sufficient variety to interest young children for all or most of a four-hour excursion.

Article link: Guide Lines Fishing Article from KDH

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TALLY = 35 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Water Surface Temp:  72.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were light at NNW5-7

Sky Conditions:  High, clear blue skies.

Water Level: 8.38 feet above full pool with a fall of 0.25 feet in the last 24 hours with a release of ~4900cfs ongoing.

GT = 0

 

Wx Snapshot:

05MAY16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 682 – mixed bag fishing on live shad

**Area 152 – mixed bag fishing 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