This past Friday morning, July 22nd, I fished with Dr. David Butler of Temple, TX, and his two sons, Jack (16) and Jay (14), on Lake Belton.
From left: Jay and Jack Butler with a pair of Belton Lake hybrid striped bass landed seconds apart on 3/4 oz. chrome slabs worked through a heavily congregated and aggressively feeding mix of white bass and hybrid striped bass just off a wind-impacted shoreline.
Dr. David Butler with one of several larger hybrid we took using live shad at mid-morning. We suspended our baits at around 31 feet over a 37 foot bottom.
David serves those who have served our nation through his dermatology practice at the Veterans’ Administration hospital in Temple. He and the boys have been fishing with me since 2009. Jack is giving joining the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets some strong consideration and Jay is taking things one day at a time as he enters his freshman year at Holy Trinity Catholic High School.
Long story short: we caught fish from start to finish this morning using 4 different tactics as the fishes’ behaviors changed through the course of the morning. Under the influence of high pressure, our very stable weather has made the fishing very consistent and predictable.
We began our day downrigging in less than 30 feet of water with our baits suspended up at 12 feet beneath the surface and did well. As the wind began to push and the water’s surface was disturbed, the fish began to feed on the surface by trapping shad there. We cast into visible schools of fish and continued to do well. When things slowed down a bit, I searched for bottom-oriented fish congregated together and we put live shad down among them and did well. Then, as the wind really ramped up, I searched wind-impacted areas until we found feeding fish up off bottom in the lower half of the water column, and we then worked them over with slabs with great success.
This trip was a gift to David from Dr. Rod Mahmoudizad who studied dermatology under him during his internship in Temple, TX.
TALLY = 152 fish, all caught and released
Wx Snapshot:
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:15a
End Time: 10:50a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F
Water Surface Temp: 85.6F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW9
Sky Conditions: Cloudless fair skies.
Water Level: 15.1 feet high and falling ~0.5 to 0.6 feet per day with a flow of ~6,100 cfs
GT = 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 018-016 downrigging for low light fish just sub-surface and then casting to them as the rose to feed on the top
**Area vic 813 live bait
**Area 1789 – slabs for mixed bag of whites and 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