Man, what a beautiful day to be on the water. Both this past Saturday’s morning trip and evening trip were cool and dry, with a little bit of breeze and some gray cloud cover. It was just a joy to be in the outdoors under these conditions. This evening I was joined by Mr. Forrest Breyfogle III, his wife, Becki Breyfogle, and their grandchildren, 11-year-old Abby Breyfogle and nine-year-old forest Breyfogle V.
Abby caught the largest white bass of the trip…
Grandma Becki caught the most fish…
And the whole family got to enjoy a beautiful early fall day out on Lake Belton.
We fished a multi-species trip on Belton Lake beginning at 3:45 PM and fished until dark, around 7:50 PM.
Because the kids were fairly new to fishing and Mr. and Mrs. Breyfogle hadn’t fished in quite some time, we began with some dockside casting lessons using spinning gear so that if any shallow water white bass activity took place under low light conditions in the last hour of the trip, we would be prepared to take full advantage of that.
After the casting lessons were done, we put the spinning gear away and I familiarized everyone with how to hold and use the bait casting gear that we would use for downrigging. With that skill then under their belts, we set out to put white bass in the boat using the downriggers. We fished 2 rods, each equipped with multiple Pet Spoons on either a tandem rig or a three-armed umbrella rig.
Our first 45 minutes on the water yielded 14 fish, several of which came in the form of doubles, wherein we landed two fish on one rod at the same time as multiple schoolmates fell for the Pet Spoons on the tandem rig or on the umbrella rig.
Next, we targeted blue catfish in open water over a 30 foot bottom. Although the chop on the water made by detection a little tougher then it could have been under calm conditions, the action was non-stop. Everyone landed multiple blue catfish, and Becki managed to take two hybrid, each measuring around 16 inches, on her dead bait.
During the 6 o’clock hour, we “spot hopped” and used a vertical tactic with small slabs to tempt a number of white bass holding in tightly grouped schools on the bottom when I was able to locate them with sonar. When this success proved spotty, I went back to downrigging and fished with downriggers until around 7 PM. From 7 PM until dark, we enjoyed casting to white bass in shallow water. These fish did not break the surface in large, noisy schools, but rather slipped up into the shallows unnoticed except for their signatures on sonar.
By the time night fell, we had amassed a catch of 74 fish. By request of Becki, I’m including the species of fish we landed: hybrid striped bass, white bass, and blue catfish; as well as the techniques we used: downrigging (for hybrid stripers and white bass); slipfloating with cutbait (for catfish), and casting with soft plastics and slabs (for white bass).
TALLY = 74 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 3:45p
End Time: 7:50p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F
Water Surface Temp: 82.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE 9mph
Sky Conditions: A thin, scattered white deck of clouds offering 30% coverage but still bright conditions
Water Level: ~0.22 feet high following a bit of inflow from the area-wide 1″ rain the previous Sunday/Monday, 26/27 Sept.
GT = 50
Wx Snapshot:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 181/1604 – downrigging for white bass
**Area vic 812 – catfish on cutbait
**Area 1800/1803/085 – downrigging for white bass and hybrid striped bass
**Area 1781/011 – casting to shallow white bass and hybrid striper
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