This past Thursday morning, July 7th, I fished Lake Belton with Mike Pappas and his friend, J.C. Wall.

Mike Pappas with some “icing on the cake” — an aging female largemouth past her prime, which weighed in at 5.25 pounds taken on a live shad.

Mike with our best hybrid of the trip, going right at 4.25 pounds taken on a large, lively threadfin shad which was about 4.5″ in length.

J.C. wall with one of the first hybrid we boated on bait this morning, after finding our fish using sonar and downriggers.

Any doubt these guys both own their own businesses?

Both fellows are long time, local small business owners;  Mike co-owns Best-Way Carpets, and J.C. owns his own construction company. Mike contacted me about three weeks ago and explained how he had become increasingly interested in pursuing hybrid striped bass. Knowing that hybrid stripers and white bass are the species I focus on year-round, he contacted me not so much to go fishing, but to learn my approach to fishing for the species, as well as the method for catching, and keeping, shad which is such an effective bait for hybrid striped bass.

As they have since about five days prior to the new moon, white bass and hybrid striper went on a very strong near-surface feed from roughly 6:15 AM to 6:40 AM. During this time the fish were very aggressive and moving rapidly as they pursued the shad they were foraging on. This allowed us to pick up several fish on downriggers, and more importantly for Mike, provided an opportunity to see how I use the downriggers in conjunction with sonar, as well as some of the accessories that I have folded into my downrigging technique. Both fellows were quite surprised at the small bait size I was using on the downriggers, but I explained that this did the best job of imitating the young of the year shad which was the focus of this near-surface and frenzied feeding activity.

By 6:45, the aggressive action had pushed downward and became more scattered, and less aggressive. I explained that this is typically my cue to switch over to fishing with live bait. Using the Ulterra trolling motor, we chose an area with a slight break line at 30 to 36 feet, and put four large, healthy, threadfin shad baits down at about the 26 foot mark. We stayed on these fish for about an hour and 45 minutes, taking our tally up to 25 before the wind became so strong, and the swells so deep, that our live bait presentations were negatively impacted as the baits moved unnaturally upwards and downwards with the swells.

Being forced off of an area by strong winds is a tough proposition, because whites and hybrids are typically turned on by the wind and moving water. In my mind, I started to go through a catalog of areas where wind would still be impacting, but not to the degree where boat control would be compromised. We struck out at the first area I checked, but as we approached the second potential fishing area I had in mind, the screen lit up with white bass and hybrid striper holding at between 25 and 28 feet deep on a breakline. We once again locked onto this area using the GPS-driven Spot Lock feature of my Ulterra. We put four baits down and it was not long before the bait clickers started sounding off indicating hybrid striper moving away with our live shad. We added another 9 fish to our count here in the closing hour of the trip. By 11 AM, the bites were coming few and far between, and solid bites were rare. I explained to Mike how, as the morning by winds down, the fish grab baits more tentatively then when they are feeding aggressively.

With 34 fish landed, and all of the questions on Mike’s yellow pad of paper answered, we decided to call it a good morning and headed back in.

Over the course of the trip, and as I did things in real time, I pointed out to Mike and explained to him what I was doing and why. From how I handled the bait, to how I conditioned the water, to how to snell a hook, to interpreting various targets on sonar, every step along the way as I saw something or did something that I thought might be useful to Mike on his next hybrid–focused outing on his own boat, I was sure to point it out.

 

TALLY = 34 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp:  85.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S12, building to S17 by  8:30a

Sky Conditions:  30% white cloud cover on a Fair sky most all of the morning.

Water Level: 23.2 feet high and falling ~0.3 feet per day

GT = 145 🙂

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1781 Downrig for low light bite, then fished bait in same area

**Area 1780 Shad for a mixed bag on a breakline at 25-28′

 

 

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