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