Light Winds, Light Bite — 22 Fish, 27 June, Belton

This past Monday morning, June 27, I fished a daddy-daughter trip with Katie Schulte and her dad, Mike Schulte.

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It was daddy-daughter day today!  Katie and Mike Schulte stuck with it through some pretty slow fishing under near-calm conditions this morning and each landed several nice hybrid when all was said and done.

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All but one of our fish today came on live bait.  I used a combination of shad, sunfish, and shiners.  None really outperformed the other.
Katie is a Harker Heights High School graduate now entering her senior year at Howard Payne University, where she plays inter-collegiate volleyball. Upon graduation she desires to go into the dental field. Mike is a long-time local builder and real estate appraiser whose business is based in Harker Heights.

A few days before Father’s Day Katie contacted me about doing a trip just for her and her dad, and today was the day she made that happen.

We met up at Belton Lake Park at 6:15a and immediately began keeping an eye out for topwater action, although none appeared this morning. We put downriggers set at between 18 and 22 feet and began patrolling the area where, over the past two weeks, morning action has been solid. Downrigging allows us to catch fish while at the same time searching for large concentrations of fish to tempt with live bait.

The downrigging this morning really did not reveal much, and only yielded one white bass right around 7 AM. I didn’t see enough as we were downrigging to let me know where the bait and gamefish were concentrated, and so once the sun rose we transitioned over to fishing bait. Even the bite on live bait this morning was pretty slow. Most of our fish today came just one at a time with an occasional 2 to 3 fish burst, but nothing more intense than that.

On a number of occasions we saw healthy groupings of game fish, typically between 18 and 25 feet deep, holding in a suspended posture over a deeper bottom. In almost all of these situations, it was very tough despite the number of fish and the fact that they were congregated together, to get a bite going.

Since I had a variety of bait to try, we tried baits of various species and sizes, including large and small threadfin, large and small gizzard shad, large and small sunfish, and large and small shiners, but none seemed to really outperform the other.

I extended our trip by about an hour and a half, and in the end we wound up catching 22 fish with roughly half of those consisting of keeper hybrid. Katie was also quite pleased to land two very stout freshwater drum (also known as gasper gou).

 

Clear, bright, and calm or low-wind conditions as we experienced this morning often diminish results, and today was no exception.  We caught fish, including several solid hybrid stripers, but didn’t knock the ball out of the park this morning.

TALLY = 22 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  85.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Variable SSE to SSW 3-4.

Sky Conditions:  Less than 20% white cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~25+  feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Lake is still rising due to even heavier flows out of Lake Proctor upstream from Belton.

GT = 30

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 009 to 018 with only one white bass caught

** Area 1764 – slow results on bait

**Area 1771 – slow results on bait

**Area 019 to 018 – slow results on bait

 

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

Cloud Cover and Topwater Went Hand-in-Hand — 59 Fish, Belton Lake

This past Saturday afternoon, June 25th, I fished Lake Belton with father-and-son team Jamie and Brennen Kidwell of Harker Heights, Texas.

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From left: Jamie and Brennen Kidwell — the blue cats were “cattin’ around” during the early evening and took a liking to our live and cut baits.  We found a large, suspended school of these rascals up to 5 pounds off a blunt point in about 22′ of water.

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And then the hybrid stripers and white bass went ballistic for about 60 minutes during a pre-sunset topwater feed.

This trip was kind of a spur of the moment thing, as Brennen will be traveling much of the summer. Given that good old dad still has to go to work each day at the Copperas Cove post office, he decided to do a little something with his son before Brennen’s departure.

We set our meeting time for 4:45 PM. Anticipating nothing short of a zoo at the Belton Park boat ramp, I headed over there at 3 PM to make sure I arrived in a timely fashion to meet these fellows. When I arrived my expectations were fully realized. It was truly a zoo. Regardless, I got launched and was afloat and waiting by the time the fellows arrived.

As is often the case on afternoon trips, the first hour was fairly slow. We picked up only two white bass on downriggers in the first 45 minutes.

I moved us off of a point and saw bait and gamefish holding at about 22 feet over deeper water. Hopeful that these were hybrid striper, I got us set up in a hover over top of these fish using the Ulterra’s i-Pilot feature, and we then got baits suspended just above these suspended fish. The response was nearly instantaneous, but the results were not as expected. As it turned out, this school of fish was not made up of hybrid stripers, it was blue catfish — some up to 5 pounds. Knowing that the time up until around 6:30pm is typically soft fishing this time of year, I kept us on top of these fish knowing that catfish action, especially with quality sized fish, was better than the alternative of picking at fewer white bass using downriggers. So, we stayed over top of these blue catfish until right at 6:30.

At 6:30 I moved us to an area that has been producing hybrid striper both morning and evening consistently for the past several weeks. As I idled over this area slowly while at the same time studying sonar, it was clear that fish were holding at 25 to 26 feet deep over a deeper bottom. Once again, we went with live baits suspended just above these suspended fish, and once again had nearly instantaneous results. We landed a trio of hybrid stripers right off the bat, and then continued to land one at a time over the next roughly 40 minutes. When the action here slowed, I began preparing to move us, and as I brought in the trolling motor and the slap of the waves on the hull ceased as we begin to drift, I heard a most welcome sound. It was the sound of white bass and hybrid striper aggressively chasing young of the year shad across the surface. Top water action had been going well right up until the several days before the full moon, but has been nonexistent up until today ever since the time of the full moon and the several days thereafter.

We finished up our trip with a full hour’s worth of topwater action casting cork rigs with hand tied flies to white bass in the 1 to 2 year class and mainly two- and three-year class hybrid stripers.

We ended up this afternoon’s trip with 59 fish.

TALLY = 59 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time:  8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 89F

Water Surface Temp:  83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE7-8 the entire trip.

Sky Conditions:  A nice, thin, grey cloud layer kept the direct sun from beaming on us for the entire duration of this evening’s trip.

Water Level: ~24+  feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Lake is still rising due to even heavier flows out of Lake Proctor upstream from Belton.

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1760-1769   –  downrigging for smaller fish early

** Area 1770 – suspended bluecats for ~ 1 hour

**Area 1763  – live shad fished for suspended fish for ~1 hour ; mainly keeper hybrid

**Area 1641 and up toward the flooded shoreline – topwater action for last hour under grey, humid conditions

 

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 Vigor – 44 Fish, Belton Lake, 25 June

This past Saturday morning, June 25th, I fished with Mr. Ray Rudloff, Mr. Mike Turner, and Mr. Dan Caudle. Ray’s wife, Nikki, gave Ray a fishing gift certificate for three, and today was the day they decided to cash it in.

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From left: Mike Turner, Dan Caudle, and Ray Rudloff all with keeper hybrid taken seconds apart just minutes after we got our first live baits in the water, and while the sun was still low in the morning sky, obscured by low, grey clouds.

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Ray Rudloff with our largest fish of the trip, tilting the scales just past the 5 pound mark.

To say finding live bait was tough would be quite an understatement. I spent a solid 2.25 hours continuously throwing my cast net only to come up with 22 shad to supplement the 39 I was fortunate enough to carry over from a previous trip.  I was hoping the scarcity of shad was not a foreshadowing of a scarcity of gamefish.

At 6:15, I picked up my three clients with 61 baits on board which made me a bit nervous, but in the end it all worked out. As I’ve done for the last several trips, we probed a number of areas while fishing at the same time by using downriggers. This allowed us to pick up several small fish, but more importantly, eliminate unproductive water while zeroing in on an area where both hybrid stripers and bait was apparent on sonar.

Around 7:10, we switched over from downrigging to using live shad.  I also began to chum and to thump on the boat.  As we got live baits in the water, these three factors combined to draw hybrid in. From roughly 7:20 and until 9:15, we experienced a consistent bite from keeper size hybrid striper, the largest of which went right at 5 1/8 pounds. The fish showed a definite preference for live baits, whereas on previous trips live and dead baits drew equal attention.

As we fished, we got talking about the particulars of the hybrid striper and their great fighting ability.  Dan, who works cattle for a living, appreciated the concept of hybrid vigor — a term used in animal husbandry to describe how a hybridized animal (like a mule, for example) will be stronger and have more stamina than either contributing parent (a horse and a donkey).  Hybrid striped bass definitely display such characteristics when hooked.

By around 9:30 the bite sharply dropped off allowing us only one additional hybrid on live bait. We spent the last 45 minutes of the trip downrigging with a single large Pet Spoon and a three-armed umbrella rig equipped with smaller Pet Spoons. This produced five additional fish taking our tally for the morning up to 44.

TALLY = 44 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  10:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S8 at trip’s start, shifting to SSW10 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions:  A nice, thin, grey cloud layer kept the direct sun from beaming on us for the entire duration of this morning’s trip.

Water Level: ~24+  feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Lake is still rising due to even heavier flows out of Lake Proctor upstream from Belton.

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1763-1764 –  downrigging for smaller fish early

**Area 1768 – live shad fished for suspended fish for 2.5+ hours; mainly keeper hybrid

**Area 1765-1766 – downrigging for last 20 minutes for 3 whites and 1 short hybrid

 

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

Bombs Away!!! — 47 Fish for T-Byrd and Tracie

This past Thursday, June 23, I fished Lake Belton with Tom (T-Byrd) and Tracie Byrd from near Weir, Texas.

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Tom and Tracie with our first legal hybrid of the day taken on a downrigged Pet Spoon before sunrise.

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Tracie with our largest fish of the trip, tilting the scales just past the 6 pound mark.  This fish was taken on a cutbait suspended at 21 feet over a deeper bottom.

Tom is a retired US Air Force pilot now living with his wife on 50+ acres raising horses and training them for dressage. Our original trip date was scheduled for earlier in the spring, in conjunction with Tracie’s birthday, but foul weather, including lightning, forced a postponement.

Tom told a great “war story” about dropping a 2,000 pound bomb from his F-16 and failing to account for the suddenly lightened load on one side of the plane which caused the plane to roll violently to the “heavy” side to which the other 2,000 pound bomb was still attached!  Obviously, he lived to tell about it.

Fishing has been amazingly consistent given the crazy lake conditions which include high floodwaters and a great amount of throughflow coming out of Lake Proctor, into Belton, only to be quickly discharged from Belton into the Leon River below the dam.

We spent our first 40 minutes on the water trolling Pet Spoons behind downriggers on both 3-armed umbrella rigs and tandem rigs. This allowed us to put our first seven fish in the boat, including five white bass, one short hybrid, and one keeper hybrid. The catch rate while we were downrigging was just so-so.

Soon after the sun rose, and while it was still low in the sky, I began to see hybrid striped bass fill in at mid-depth between 18 and 23 feet over a 32 foot bottom. We transitioned at this time from down rigging to using live and cut baits from a fixed position. We kept our baits consistently at 21 feet down this morning, and caught fish for a solid 2+ hours, during which time we could only keep one rod per person in the water.

By  9:15 the action was slowing substantially, and by 9:35 we had boated our last fish. We pulled the plug about 10 minutes later with exactly 47 fish landed. Of these, over 30 were solid keeper hybrid, with three exceeding the 5 pounds mark, and one exceeding the 6 pound mark.

Even though Tom and Tracie had fished before, they were willing to be coached, especially in regards to the use of circle hooks. This greatly contributed to their success, as they did not go through the steep learning curve that less coachable people typically must.

TALLY = 47 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  9:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S8 at trip’s start, shifting to SSW12 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions:  Variable clouds from 30-40% on a fair sky all morning.

Water Level: ~23  feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Lake is now rising again due to even heavier flows out of Lake Proctor upstream from Belton.

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1762-1641 –  downrigging for smaller fish early

**Area 1767 – live shad fished for suspended fish for 2.5+ 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

While Dad’s Away, the Kids Will Play! — 22 Fish, SKIFF Trip #6 of 2016

This past Wednesday, June 23, I fished a SKIFF program fishing trip with Mrs. Katie Erp and her two children, seven-year-old Eden, and not-quite-four-year-old Warren.  SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun.  It is a free program which provides professionally guided fishing trips to the children of soldiers who, due to military duty, are separated from their families.

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From left: Mrs. Katie Erp, her seven-year-old daughter, Eden, and her about-to-be-four-year-old son, Warren.

Katie’s husband, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Andy Erp, is currently deployed with the U.S. Army and serves in an unmanned aircraft unit. The family met me at the only open public access point on Belton Lake around 6:40 AM. I reviewed with the kids where all of the safety gear was stowed, and then showed them the fundamentals of using the fishing equipment we would employ today.

A few minutes’ ride upstream from Belton Park put us in what has been a fishy area over the last two weeks or so. We started off our trip using a pair of downriggers. One was equipped with a three-armed umbrella rig, and the other with a two-armed tandem rig. Five Pet Spoons were doing the dirty work set down around 22 feet where sonar revealed a majority of the fish were holding.

It did not take us long at all to get the kids into their first fish. We pulled fish consistently using the pair of downriggers for a full hour.  As is typical for kids his age, Warren began to get antsy despite the good fishing. So, simply for transition’s sake, we moved to a new area, did a little sightseeing near the waterfall on Belton Lake, and then picked up fishing again with a new method, this time using live shad as bait.

To ensure plenty of action, I am employed four rods.  Two were baited with live bait, and two were baited with chunks of fresh, dead shad. The live baits worked their magic on hybrid striper, and the deadbaits did pretty well for channel catfish. Warren lasted about 30 or 40 minutes at this location before another transition was necessary.

We headed back down stream nearer to where we had launched and I re-employed the downriggers, this time in the vicinity of open-water schooling white bass, hoping to encounter these fish as they sounded. We were able to pick up two whites and a short hybrid using this tactic.

Our final transition came within 20 minutes of the close of our trip when we moved up into shallow, newly flooded brush and used poles equipped with slipbobbers and small hooks to target sunfish and black tail shiners. We were also surprised to pick up a small smallmouth bass in this way. For our efforts today we wound up putting 22 fish in the boat and hopefully made the wait for dad’s return from overseas a little bit shorter and more bearable.

Providing homefront parents with some time of respite has become one of the most appreciated aspects of this SKIFF program.  The Austin Fly Fishers donates funds and seeks funding from individuals and organizations to make this SKIFF program a reality for homefront spouses and their children.

They do not ask for thanks or recognition, they simply desire others to take advantage of the opportunities this program offers.  If your spouse is away on military duty, your child(ren) qualify for a free SKIFF fishing adventure.  Please just phone me at the number below to make arrangements for your trip!

 

TALLY = 22 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time:  10:25a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  83F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8-12

Sky Conditions:  20% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~23 feet high and still rising due to ongoing heavy release of water from Lake Proctor upstream.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**1765-1767 downrigging for first hour

**1766 live bait for hybrid and channel cat

**490-491 downrigging for “popcorn” white bass

**1583 panfish on slipfloats

 

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

Converting Strikes into Fish Landed — 47 Fish, 21 June, Lake Belton

This past Tuesday morning, June 21, I targeted hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake with Luis Garcia and his friend, Mark Lozen.

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Luis Garcia displays one of the many keeper-sized hybrid striper we caught on live shad this morning, both near bottom (early) and suspended (at mid-morning).

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Mark Lozen had some prior experience using circle hooks from having fished live and cut bait in the Gulf of Mexico.  This helped flatten the learning curve and helped us convert more strikes into fish landed.

Luis, his wife, and two kids fished with me this past Spring Break at which time we targeted white bass using slabs on Stillhouse Hollow. This week, the kids were at camp and so Luis and Mark decided to make this an all-guys trip.

We started our trip downrigging under low light conditions before sunrise, but did not do all that well given the number of fish I saw both schooled together and suspended. This is typically a feeding posture which should lead to more success than we were experiencing. For this reason I switched us over to live bait, and it was “game on” from that point forward to around 9:15 AM.

The bite started off fairly intensely, allowing us only to get one rod per man in the water, and then as the action slowed we bumped up to 2 rods per person.  We fished only two areas this morning.  The first area had fish concentrated on and near bottom, and the second area had fish suspended at 22-24 feet down over a 36-37 foot bottom.

Mark and Luis both work for Austin-based law firms, and as they explained it, the Austin law community is a fairly small and tightknit group. The two have been friends since the 80s. Mark originally came down from Michigan where he fished for walleye, pike, perch, and bluegill both in open water and through the ice. When Mark learned of Luis’ familiarity with the Texas Gulf Coast fishery, the two hit it off and have been friends ever since.

By 9:40 the bite had really wound down, and it was clear any further action would be anticlimactic compared to what we’d just experienced, so, we wrapped up a bit early and the two went hunting for a late breakfast in downtown Belton.

TALLY = 47 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  9:40a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S8 at trip’s start, shifting to SSW12 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions:  Variable clouds from 40-60% on a fair sky all morning.

Water Level: ~23  feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Lake is now rising again due to even heavier flows out of Lake Proctor upstream from Belton.

GT = 40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1765 –  live shad fished near bottom

**Area 1766 – live shad fished at 20-22′ for suspended fish over ~36-37 foot bottom

 

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

Two Lake Records in Two Days! — Bill & Lily Miller, 18 June

Back in late May I was contacted by Mrs. Rowena Miller of Belton. She wanted to get a Father’s Day gift certificate for her husband, Bill, and her 13-year-old daughter, Lily. This past Saturday, June 18, Bill and Lily redeemed that certificate for a great morning of fishing on Belton Lake.

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Mr. Bill Miller of Belton, TX, displays his record-breaking catch-and-release category hybrid striper.  This fish measured 25.625 inches, just barely eclipsing the former 25.50 inch record set by Lacey Sparkman in May of 2011.  Both record fish were caught on large live shad.

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Mrs. Rowena Miller sent her husband, Bill, and 13-year-old daughter, Lily, on a fishing excursion for Fathers’ Day.
We met at 6:15 AM, prayed for the day ahead, went over some basics about what we would be doing and why and how we would be doing it, and then began our pursuit of fish.

Fortunately, because our weather has begun to become stable, today’s fishing was very much like my two previous trips with the fish doing essentially the same thing in the same places at the same times. The fish we caught today were within hundred yards of where they have been over the past several days.

Despite the fish being in the same locations, they reacted a bit differently to our presentations.  A case in point: the day before, we picked up 17 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons in the first 75 minutes after sunrise when very active fish showed to be in a suspended and feeding posture from bottom up to mid- depth. Today, the fish were in a much more reserved posture, closer to bottom, unwilling to chase moving lures very far, and all but disinterested in the downriggered baits. So, we transitioned to fishing with live bait from a fixed position much earlier this morning then during yesterday’s trip.

Long story short, we “camped out” on top of one area for a full three hours, steadily putting together a catch of 42 fish which consisted of roughly 1/3 short hybrids under 18 inches, and 2/3 keeper hybrids of 18 inches or greater.

The highlight of the trip was having Bill, a 78-year-old Belton native who has lived in this area since before Belton Lake even existed, catch a new lake record in the catch and release category. Bill’s outsized fish struck a 6 inch long gizzard shad fish within 3 feet of bottom. The fish pulled several yards of line against the drag multiple times before we got it to boatside and landed it.  This came on the heels of a 25.25″ fish landed yesterday by Greg Hughes III of Copperas Cove in the Junior Angler catch & release category.

Although not a very chunky fish, this fish was very long, taping at 25.75 inches, beating out the previous catch and release record of 25.50 inches by just one quarter of an inch. Catch and release category records are determined by length, not by weight, so as to minimize the handling required for fish that are going to be released.

After a solid three hours of fishing, the bite really begin to taper off hard, and so we decided to call it a great day while a bit of cloud cover and a nice 8 mile-per-hour south breeze allowed being outdoors to remain comfortable on what would be a very hot and uncomfortable day by early afternoon.

Happy Father’s Day, Bill! Congratulations on the new lake record.

 

TALLY = 42 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  9:35a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8 entire time

Sky Conditions:  Variable clouds from 30-50% on a fair sky all morning.

Water Level: ~22  feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Lake is falling ~0.2 to 0.3 feet per day

GT = 0

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1764/011 –  live shad fished near bottom for 42 fish, a majority of which were legal hybrid

 

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

New Belton Lake Record for Hybrid Striper — 17 June, Hughes Family

This past Friday afternoon, June 17, I fished a Fort Hood SKIES program trip with three siblings: Greg, Aurea, and Chris Hughes. The Hughes are an Army family newly arrived here at Fort Hood after spending the past several years stationed in Germany.

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Gregory Hughes III of Copperas Cove proudly displays his new Junior Angler Catch & Release category record-setting fish for Belton Lake.  This fish measured 25 3/8″.

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In addition to Greg’s new lake record, both Aurea (center) and Chris (right) landed the first fish of their lives on today’s trip, thus earning each a TPWD “First Fish Award”.

As I got acquainted with the kids, I discovered that only Greg had ever caught a fish before. So, Job #1 was to make sure that first Chris, the youngest, and then Aurea, the middle sister, caught the first fish of their lives. This afternoon breeze combined with recent severe flooding made panfishing for three kids simultaneously a bit of a challenge, so we went with a downrigger option and within the first 40 minutes on the lake, both younger kids had landed the first fish of their lives.

We downrigged for the first two hours, then used live shad to focus on larger, but fewer, hybrid striped bass, and by around 8:10, little Chris had about played out and we wrapped up our trip.

The highlight of today’s trip was Greg’s capture of a new Junior Angler category catch and release hybrid striped bass. This outsized hybrid weighed 8.25 pounds and measured 25 3/8 inches. This is the largest hybrid striper I’ve had come aboard my boat since May of 2011 when the current catch and release adult category hybrid striped bass was caught by Mrs. Lacey Sparkman.

Greg’s fish struck a 3 1/2 inch live shad fished within 3 feet of bottom in approximately 26 feet of water.

For our efforts today, the kids boated a total of 22 fish.

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 = 22 Fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time:  8:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 94F

Water Surface Temp:  85.1

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE7-9

Sky Conditions:  15% white cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level:  Belton is over 22′ above full pool with an ongoing release of 5,500 to 5,700 cfs, causing a daily drop of .2 to.3 feet.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1577/1760/493 downrigging for short hybrids and whites

**Area 1763 steady hybrid bite 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

Despite Flooding, Hybrid Bite is On — 52 Fish, 17 June

This past Friday morning, June 17, I fished Lake Belton lake with Danny Marriott and his parents, Harold and Bonnie Holmans, who traveled in for a visit with kids, grandkids, and great grandkids in the Georgetown, TX area.  The two drove in, without stopping overnight, all the way from Hobbs, New Mexico — Harold is 86 and Bonnie is 79.

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From left: Bonnie and Harold Holmans of Hobbs, NM, cashed in on some Belton Lake hybrid fishing while here in Texas visiting family for a few days.

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Although the most aggressive bite occurred in the first 75 minutes of our trip, a slower, but steady bite continued right through around 10am.  Harold doubled up while fishing live shad in around 32′.

Lake Belton is still over 22 feet high, but is now slowly dropping. I came equipped this morning with top water rods, slabs, downriggers, and live shad, not knowing exactly what to expect.

We begin our search for fish around 6:15 AM, searching for signs of schooling fish feeding on shad on top water. I found no such action this morning. I transitioned to studying sonar in 25 to 45 feet of water, above the developing thermocline. Sonar revealed both suspended and bottom-oriented fish in 25 to 32 feet of water.

The posture of the suspended fish led me to believe we could capitalize on these fish with downriggered baits run horizontally. Running a tandem bait on the port side, and a three armed umbrella rig on the starboard side, we landed numerous singles and doubles on Pet Spoons, allowing us to boat a total of 17 fish in our first 75 minutes on the water, including a number of legal hybrid striped bass.

After this active downrigger bite softened, we remained in the same general vicinity and fished live bait just up off the bottom and continued to pick up both short and legal sized hybrid striped bass right up until 9:45 AM when this bite also weakened. By 10:15, things had slowed to a crawl and we decided to call it a day with exactly 52 fish boated, including one blue catfish, several white bass, and both short and legal sized hybrid striped bass.

From our fixed position while fishing bait, I observed all morning for top water action, no matter how brief.  I never saw any top water action today with the winds less than 12 mph the entire time.  The absence of topwater action in the summer months often correlates with the several days either side of the full moon.

 

TALLY = 52 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  10:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8 at trip’s start, increasing slowly to SSE12 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  Variable clouds from 30-40% on a fair sky all morning.

Water Level: ~22  feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Lake is falling ~0.2 to0.3 feet per day

GT = 80

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1641 to 1762 downrigging for heavily schooled white bass and hybrid in the first 75 minutes of light

**Area 1762 – live shad fished near bottom in 32′

 

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

A Little Father-and-Son Time — 30 Fish, Belton, 11 June

This past Saturday, June 11, I fished with Tony Grepares and his 10-year-old son, Adony. Tony decided to take some downtime from the digital printing business he owns to spend some father-and-son time with Adony now that he has completed his 5th grade year.

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From left: Tony Grepares and his ten-year-old son, Adony, with one of over 20 hybrid stripers we caught near midday on live shad in just over 30 feet of water after a very slow morning.

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Adony Grepares with an early morning hybrid striper taken on shad after he got the hang of using circle hooks down.  This was the very first hybrid Adony had ever caught.

The pair drove in from the west Houston area yesterday, took in Jacob’s Well near Wimberly together, then headed north to stay for the night in Temple before meeting me for a morning of fishing on Lake Belton.

We had planned to meet at 6:30, but did not get going until closer to 6:50. I arrived at the boat ramp area very early due to the limited access situation at Belton Park, and upon hearing from Tony that they were running behind, decided to use this little bit of downtime to search for top water action. Long story short, I saw no fishable top water action all morning this morning.

We really struggled most of the morning, giving live shad a thorough try in our first three hours on the water, then picking up with the downriggers between 10:45 and 11:45a.

While using shad, we got on one bunch of fish in about 30 feet of water early in the morning, caught only four fish and missed at least as many as the fellows got used to using circle hooks. When that area played out, we went looking elsewhere, only to return to within 50 yards of the same area to pick up a fifth and sixth fish.

Not only was finding fishable quantities of fish difficult, the bite was really soft when we did find fish.

Between 10:45 and 11:45a, we continued to pick at fish, this time with downriggers adding two white bass to our tally. Then, around noon, with the wind reaching its highest velocity for the morning, and the skies clearing to the greatest extent so far in the day, we found a nice concentration of 18-20 inch hybrid stripers in about 32 feet of water stacked up to 25 feet. We put 22 of these fish in the boat in the next 75 minutes, thus ending a pretty tough, slow morning with quite a memorable finish.

We wrapped up the day with exactly 30 fish boated, including the first white bass that Adony had ever caught, and the first hybrid that either father or son had ever caught.

 

 

TALLY = 30 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time:  1:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temp:  81.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8 at trip’s start, increasing slowly to SSE12 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  90% low grey cloud cover through 9:00a, then slowly clearing to 40% white clouds on a blue sky by trip’s end

Water Level: ~22.56 feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing.  Despite this release, the lake still rose another 0.54 feet in the last 24 hours.

GT = 15

 

 Wx SNAPSHOT:

11JUN16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1632 – live shad for mixed bag of whites, hybrid and drum

**Area 1760 – downrigging for sparse white bass

**Area 1761 – strong hybrid bite on live shad in 32′ with baits set at 24 to 29′

 

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