Labor Day Trip with the Twins — 63 Fish, Belton Lake

This past Labor Day Monday, I fished a morning trip with Tyler and Caleb Williams, chaperoned by their mom, Liz Williams.

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Twin brothers Caleb and Tyler Williams joined me this past Labor Day Monday for the first fishing trip of their lives.  The boys landed 63 fish, including hybrid striped bass, white bass, blue catfish, redear sunfish, bluegill sunfish, longear sunfish, and green sunfish.  Here, Tyler holds his largest fish of the trip, a 4 1/8 pound hybrid striper.

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Caleb landed this 3.75 pound hybrid striped bass as we downrigged with balls set at 31 feet over a 45 foot bottom.

Caleb and Tyler are nine-year-old twin brothers who had never fished before. This morning’s weather was a continuation of the unstable weather we have had of late. This morning began with heavy grey cloud cover and a south-southeast wind blowing around 12 mph. The wind made any top water action that may have existed very difficult to see unless you were right on top of it, so, I began our morning with each boy manning one of my two downriggers. Each downrigger was equipped with a tandem rig rigged with two Pet Spoons. From our first line in the water around 6:45 until around 8:40 AM, we enjoyed consistent success on the downriggers, first up shallow with the ball set from 14 to 17 feet, then, as it brightened and the fish moved further offshore, we caught them with the ball set at 24 to 31 feet.

When it became clear to Liz and I that the novelty of downrigging had worn off (even though the fish were still cooperating), we headed up shallow and tryed our luck with rods baited with worms suspended under balsawood floats targeting sunfish. Our fish count stood at 38 fish prior to beginning our sunfishing adventure. After 50 minutes of effort with the boys taking turns on just one rod, we added another 14 fish to our tally which now stood at 52.

For our grand finale this morning, we fished near bottom with cutbait targeting blue catfish. I found abundant blue cat schooled in 32 feet of water. We used shad to tempt these fish and wound up with a grand total of 11 coming over the gunwale before mom and I agreed to call it a good morning at 10:30 with 63 fish landed for our efforts.

Both boys succeeded in catching the first fish of their lives today and then went on to appreciate a number of other fishing skills, as well.

TALLY = 63 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Water Surface Temp:  83.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE12

Sky Conditions: 70-100% cloud cover.

Water Level: ~0.88 feet high.  Lake is falling slowly at ~.11 feet per day

GT = 35

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1602/813/1746/811 shallow downrigging at first light

**Area 1805/1790/1800 deeper downrigging during 2nd hour of light

**Area 502 sunfishing

**Area 1805 bluecat on cutbait

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website:www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail:Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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