This past Monday morning, November 14^th, I fished a father and son trip on Belton Lake with Rodrick Rhoads and his 11-year-old son, Oliver. The Rhoads family is from Georgetown, Texas. Oliver is one of five kids, all of whom are homeschooled. His flexible homeschool schedule gave him and his dad the opportunity to fish together today.

From left: Oliver Rhoads and his dad, Rodrick with several nice white bass caught up shallow early in the morning while fog obscured the direct sunlight.

Oliver caught our largest fish this morning, a just-legal hybrid striper that fell for his slab in about 27 feet of water.

Rodrick makes his living as the owner of a chain of Comet Dry Cleaners stores out in the Midland-Odessa-Big Spring part of west Texas.
Today’s weather was certainly helpful to the fish-catching. We had fair, cloudless skies (not so good). But, we had a southwesterly wind which ramped up to about 12 mph by trips end. This was very helpful.

We caught fish today from start to finish. We encountered our first fish up in shallow water under lowlight conditions as we cast bladebaits in less than 10 feet of water. We experienced some helpful bird activity that helped us identify where fish were holding during this lowlight time. This action extended for about an hour after which we began to continue to throw blade baits, albeit in slightly deeper water, between 12 and 17 feet.

We landed exactly 54 fish in our first two hours on the water before the shallow water bite (in less than 20 feet of water) died.

Our last two hours we spent spot-hopping and encountered solid fishing at two different locations, and in 25 to 32 feet of water at both locations.

At both locations the situation was the same – – we found heavily congregated white bass in the last 3 to 4 feet of the water column on a sloped bottom. I put the boat into a hover using the Spot Lock feature of the Ulterra trolling motor. And then we got all 3 rods working with slabs right down on, or near, the bottom where we saw the fish showing on sonar. We were able to land an additional 46 fish in our last two hours, although the last 10 to 15 fish came very slowly and took quite a bit more convincing then all of the other fish we caught. For our efforts today we landed exactly 100 fish in 4.5 hours of effort.

We landed primarily white bass, with a single keeper hybrid landed, multiple short hybrid, one freshwater drum, and two largemouth bass.

TALLY = 100 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Water Surface Temp:  71.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW12

Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless after low morning fog burned off

Water Level: ~0.11 feet high and slowly falling at ~0.11 feet per day

GT = 50

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1664 and 1665 – shallow bladebaits for fish under birds

**Area 183, 1631, and 1828 for fish under 20′ deep on bladebaits

**Area 1681 – brief downrigging

**Area 1827, 1624, 1824  deeper vertical jigging with slabs

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Saturday morning I fished a multi-species trip on Lake Belton, primarily targeting white bass with returning client Mark Herzer and his 14-year-old son, Zach.  Mark brought along a colleague, Alfred Brice, an Austin-area architect, and his 14-year-old-son, Paxton.

From left: Alfred Brice, Paxton Brice, Zach Herzer, and Mark Herzer.  White bass caught on a variety of tactics (bladebaits, slabs, and downriggers) made up the lion’s share of our catch this morning.  We also landed drum, hybrid, and largemouth bass.

Mark Herzer’s hybrid, landed on a white 3/4 oz. slab around 10:30am, anchored our stringer this morning.

I came into this morning’s trip having had a bit of a tough go of it the evening before under calm, bright conditions.  This morning’s forecast called for continued bright conditions, but, a NW breeze was due to push at 10-11mph, and, just after sunrise, that breeze, thankfully, did materialize and worked its magic on motivating the food chain to come alive.

Once the wind began to push, the bait began to stir, the gamefish began to feed, and the second helpful episode of fish-eating bird action of this fall season played out in front of us, letting us know exactly where the fish were.  I maneuvered the boat to within casting distance of the action and had four rods working for 75 minutes before the action slacked off and we had to change tactics.  During this time, working Binsky bladebaits in water under 14 feet deep did the trick for white bass in the 1, 2, and 3 year class.

Brice and Paxton had never used spinning gear before, but learned very quickly and, in no time were cashing in right along with everyone else.

After the shallow bite died, we did some downrigging and caught fish consistently, including doubles on the tandem rig and 3-armed umbrella rig.  Eventually, this bite which occurred out deeper than the bladebait fishing but in the same general area, also died out.

By now the sun was high and bright — a sure sign that we’d need to move our operation out to deeper water.  Fortunately, several deepwater area were also being impacted by the nice breeze that was blowing, and we found them to be productive, too.  The bite definitely began to wane in the last hour, as we had to frequently “jog” and “spot hop” in order to stay on top of fish that were rapidly losing interest.

When all was said and done, we’d managed to boat a grand total of 103, the largest of which was a 3 pound class hybrid striped bass which Mark handled very aptly on the light spinning gear we were all using.

TALLY = 103 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Water Surface Temp:  71.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW10-12

Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless

Water Level: ~0.22 feet high and slowly falling at ~0.11 feet per day

GT = 40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1634 and 1665 – shallow bladebaits for fish under birds

**Area 1573 – downrigging

**Area 1672, 1679, 1827 –  deep vertical jigging for heavily congregated fish

 

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Friday afternoon I fished a second trip with Father Brad St. Romain, the rector at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Temple.  We targeted primarily white bass in deep water using artificial lures.

Although the majority of our catch consisted of white bass, Brad managed several hybrid, including this, our only “legal” hybrid, which measured just over 18″.  It came on a slab in 27 feet of water and was “ghosting” along within a school of white bass.  This hybrid was the first fish from out of that large school to strike our baits.

The morning conditions today were to be avoided.  Dead calm, very sunny, and unseasonably hot conditions persisted until around 10:30am.  These difficult conditions moderated a bit as a light SE breeze began and a high, white haze began to form thus moderating the temperatures a bit.  The forecast called for these winds to continue to build up to 6-8mph from the SE and for the cloud cover to reach 40%+.  This, unfortunately, did not materialize.

After the first 90 minutes or so of our trip, which we began around 1:45p, had slipped by, the winds quit and the skies brightened and thus we experienced a lull through the middle of our time on the water.  Fishing picked back up again in the last hour as the sun’s intensity lessened as the sun moved towards setting.

Although we found and caught fish this afternoon, the combination of bright sun and calm conditions really put the “dampers” on the fishing.  Active fish, which typically show on sonar as tightly grouped schools close to bottom with some of the individuals in the school up higher in the water column, were in short supply.  When we did find fish, they often failed to respond as we tried everything from a slow, dead-stick tactic to a fast, attention-getting retrieve.

We experienced our most productive fishing at the front end of the trip, which is unusual for afternoon excursions.  We had more cloud cover and more breeze at the beginning of our trip, and the fish reacted somewhat positively to that.

All of our fish today came from 25-32 feet of water up until within 40 minutes of sunset, when fish moved into shallower water, thus allowing us to catch a few between 16-20 feet.  Every fish we caught this evening came on slabs used vertically.

TALLY = 36 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:45p

End Time:  6:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  72.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light & variable

Sky Conditions: Slowly building thin white “whispy” cloud cover in the western sky on an otherwise fair, bright sky

Water Level: ~0.35 feet high and slowly falling at ~0.11 feet per day

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1624-1637 – deep jigging

**Area 153 – deep jigging

**Area 812-1186 – deep jigging

**Area 1824 & 1825 – deep jigging

**Area 1826 – low light jigging in 16-20′

 

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Saturday morning I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Andres Gamio and his friend, Riley Caple, both of Belton, TX.

10-year-old Riley Caple (camo Longhorns hat) and Andres Gamio (boonie-style hat) paired up to put 84 fish in the boat this morning under ideal white bass fishing weather conditions (with grey cloud cover and wind).  The “big kid” in the middle is Justin Caple, Riley’s dad, who arrived just in time to help with the photos!

Just minutes before my alarm was due to go off this morning I was awakened early by the National Weather Service radio alarm indicating a flash flood warning for Coryell and McLennan counties, including the Mother Neff State Park which is an upstream tributary to Lake Belton. I immediately switched on the weather radar on my smartphone and saw that all of the active weather was to our north and west and was moving to the northeast.  Something to keep an eye on, but not a threat to our trip.

As I met my two young anglers at dockside as they were dropped off by their dads, there was a light rain falling, a northeast wind blowing, and the barely perceptible flicker of very distant lightning occasionally illuminating the sky.

As we got to the fishing grounds, it was still a bit too early and dark for the fish to begin feeding, so I assessed the boys ability to cast with spinning rods and we worked on that until I was confident both of them could cast to any fish we saw near the boat.

Once the fish began to feed, they fed for a solid four hours both on top, and at mid-depths, but not as much near bottom today. I suspect that was because of the murky cloud cover preventing sunlight from penetrating to the bottom in the 20 to 30 foot depths we were probing.

The boys listened well and, as a result, were able to catch fish using a variety of techniques including casting with soft plastics, using several vertical tactics with slabs, and using the downriggers.

Two of Andres’ cousins (both girls) also recently fished with me, and Andres was anxious to try to beat their total. I told both boys they would need to stay focused in order to accomplish that feat. As 11:15 came around, our agreed-upon meeting time back at the dock, the boys had done their part and managed to land 84 fish today, including 83 white bass up to 14 inches, and one large mouth bass.

Our starting morning water surface temperature was still over 74° – – unseasonably warm and certainly very helpful to this strong, ongoing white bass bite.

TALLY = 84 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp:  74.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  E8-9

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.30 feet high and slowly rising thanks to light, area-wide rainfall

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 664-1665-1822165-788 – shallow casting early, then vertical tactics for the remainder of the trip.

 

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Friday evening I fished a multi-species trip on Lake Belton with Dave Covington of Belton, and his five-year-old son, Levi.

At 6:00pm, Dave, Levi, and I encountered this massive school of white bass numbering, literally, in the thousands.  The school was 23 feet thick and hung around our boat, drawn by the commotion created by their schoolmates being caught, for 25-30 minutes.  We caught a fish on most every drop of our slabs, quickly taking 40 fish during this feeding spree.

Dave Covington with his son, 5-year-old Levi, holding a 13 inch class white bass — one of the 80 we landed this evening using both downrigging and vertical jigging techniques.

This fishing trip was one of several “outdoorsy” activities the family planned to participate in as they camped out for the weekend at Cedar Ridge Park on Belton Lake. We began our trip at 3:30 and fished right up until dark at 7 PM. Given Levi Levi’s age, I came prepared to fish in a number of different ways so as to keep his interest up.

Of the various fishing options I described to Dave, he thought starting off by downrigging would be a good move.  I took us to a relatively timber-free area where I thought we could contact fish using the Cannon downriggers, and soon after arriving and looking things over with sonar, we put a single downrigger ball in the water set to 30 feet with a tandem rigged pair of Pet Spoons on the business end. Our first line was in the water less than 30 seconds and we had our first of many downrigger-caught fish on the line. We alternated between a two-arm and three-armed rig and routinely caught both singles and doubles ranging from one-year- old fish to three-year-old fish.

In a number of instances the fish so aggressively tracked after the downrigger ball, that I knew they would respond to a vertical tactic, so, several times we stopped downrigging, put the boat into a hover using the Ulterra trolling motor (the newest version just released with much improved Spot Lock capability), and let our slabs down into the melee. It was not uncommon to catch 10 or 15 fish at a clip before the fish lost interest. When they did, we simply went back to downrigging and repeated the whole process.

We took a short break to add some variety to the trip for Levi’s sake by going up shallow and fishing for sunfish, picking up 15 bluegill, green sunfish, longear sunfish, and redear sunfish (and keeping each one in the livewell, although we did stop just short of naming them individually!).

It was at this transition from sunfishing back to angling for white bass that young Levi burst forth into song, charming us with his rendition of that Willie ‘n’ Waylon classic “Mommas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”.  Enough said.

Right around 6 PM we encountered a massive school of white bass numbering in the thousands. Although Levi’s interest was starting to fade at this point, David and I managed to keep him engaged as we quickly added 40 more fish to our count before the school drifted off. We followed that up with a final round of downrigging and took our fish count up to a grand total of 80 fish boated by the time the evening was through and night had come.

TALLY = 80 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time:  7:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  75.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNE7-8

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.22 feet high and slowly rising thanks to light, area-wide rainfall

GT = 50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 211-1675-1619 – rig to jig

**Area 1753 – sunfish

**Area vic 817 – smoking

**Area vic 1666 – low light downrigging at 20′ breakline

 

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Friday morning, I finished with Kevin Yuille and Bobby Gordon, both warrant officers serving in Army aviation.

From left:  Kevin Yuille and Bobby Gordon stayed hard after it for four full hours and surpassed the 100 fish mark by 10:45am with a 7:15am start.  The combination of warm water and the mild cold front that passed yesterday had the fish in high gear all morning.

The conditions today were near perfect. We had a balmy northeast breeze following the passage of yesterday’s mild cold front, leaving in its wake some thick gray cloud cover. The combination of cloud cover, light wind, and still warm water all worked together to have the white bass in a frenzy this morning.

The frenzy began up shallow at first light with occasional wolf packs of fish making their whereabouts obvious by breaking the surface briefly. This action then slowly moved deeper in the water column and further away from shore as the morning progressed, but the strong bite persisted for a full 3 1/2 hours beyond the obscured sunrise.

While the fish were visible early on, we sight cast using soft plastics and blade baits, and then as the action moved deeper, I searched out consolidated schools of fish with sonar, hovered on top of them with my new #Ulterra trolling motor (love it!!), and we used two vertical tactics – – slabbing and easing – – to continue to put fish in the boat. We wrapped up the morning with exactly 112 fish boated for our efforts.

One of the reasons Kevin and Bobby did so well today was because they were both eager to learn and willing to be coached. When I saw something in their technique that was going to cost them fish, I would point it out, and they would earnestly attempt to correct whatever deficiency I picked up on.

TALLY = 112 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  75.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNE7-8

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.15 feet high and slowly rising thanks to light, area-wide rainfall

GT = 23

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1625-1665-1822-788-1668-164-171 vertical tactics for white bass following an early, low light sub-surface bite in shallow water.

 

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Thursday evening I fished with Dennis Moses, his wife Nakeya, and their eight-year-old son Ayden. Dennis, a US Army military policeman, was home on leave from his current assignment in Turkey and had a very limited window of time in which to get his family out fishing.  So, despite the wet and cooling conditions we faced this afternoon, Moses family was “all in” to pursue fish on Lake Belton.

True troopers!!  From left: Nakeya, Ayden, and Dennis Moses donned ponchos and braved the drizzle and cooling temperatures to put together a catch of 56 fish during the short time Dennis had home on leave from his assignment in Turkey.

This past Thursday evening I fished with Dennis Moses, his wife Nakeya, and their eight-year-old son Ayden. Dennis, a US Army military policeman, was home on leave from his current assignment in Turkey and had a very limited window of time in which to get his family out fishing.  So, despite the wet and cooling conditions we faced this afternoon, Moses family was “all in” to pursue fish on Lake Belton.

It seems that if ponchos are not required, this family just won’t go fishing!  I had the privilege of taking the Moses family out in the spring just before Dennis’ deployment began and we set out in a cool drizzle that day with everyone wearing ponchos, as well.

I ran a multi-species trip for this family and we targeted primarily white bass. The aggressive attitude of the fish displayed this morning as this mild, wet, cool front rolled in definitely dialed back this afternoon as the winds calmed to near nothing.

On a number of occasions we located heavily congregated fish and got them to follow our slabs routinely, but only infrequently would they strike at them.  So, after seeing quite a number of fish suspended between 15 and 20 feet beneath the surface over various depths of water and in various locations, I decided to go with a downrigging approach instead.

The downriggers definitely put more fish in the boat than any other tactic this afternoon, occasionally giving up doubles and regularly producing singles.

For just a short spell between 5:40 and 6 PM, after catching a double on each of the downriggers and seeing numerous fish, both on bottom and suspended, I decided to stop and give vertical jigging another try. We put three catfish in the boat in under two minutes and so I quickly changed us over to fishing with slip floats with fresh, dead shad as a cut bait.

We landed four more catfish in short order before the winds went calm and both the catfish and the white bass died off pretty suddenly. We spent our last hour downrigging and wound up with a total of 56 fish landed on the evening.

Ayden came up with the best idea of the whole cool, rainy trip, which was to go grab Chinese at the Oriental Kitchen in Killeen on their way back home!!

TALLY = 56 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:00p

End Time:  7:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  75.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW6, tapering off to calm

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.01 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1675 downrigging for fish holding on a 30′ breakline and for suspended fish out away from it

**Areas 1824, 1680 –  vertical tactics for white bass

**Areas 328-788 – continued downrigging

**Area 788 – bluecat on bait for <30 minutes

**Area 1668-1877 – shallow downrigging for low-light end of evening bite

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Thursday morning I fished a multi-species trip on Lake Belton with DK and his four-year-old daughter.

DK hoists one of the “keeper”-sized (18+ inch) hybrid striped bass he landed on slabs this morning as his daughter gets about as close to the fish as she dared.  This fish went right at 4 pounds.

I was very excited to watch the weather develop and see a very slow moving, mild cold front creep into our area mainly bringing clouds and light winds, but very little temperature drop. For reasons known only to them, white bass and hybrid striper really seem to crank up under these conditions.

DK and I visited by phone the night before the trip and then again before he was due to leave the Austin area to make sure we had a sufficient weather window without the threat of lightning to get out and enjoy the good fishing that lie ahead.

Long story short, we caught fish from start to finish for a solid four hours. We devoted our first three hours to chasing white bass, and the last hour catching sunfish up in the still-warm shallow water so that his daughter could catch a number of fish “all by herself”.

The white bass started the morning up in shallow water under 15 feet, with a few individuals briefly dimpling the surface as they chased shad towards the surface. After the (obscured) sunrise, the fish moved out deeper – – to between 20 and 26 feet. The formula that worked for us this morning was to find active schools of fish using the downrigger, and then to work over those active schools using vertical tactics until the fish lost interest, and then pick up again with the downriggers and repeat that process over and over again.

In this way, we boated 48 white bass, two “keeper” hybrid striped bass, and one largemouth, for a total of 52 fish by 10 AM. We then went up shallow and landed an additional 38 sunfish, including green sunfish, bluegill sunfish, and longear sunfish, thus putting the grand total for our trip at 90 fish boated  in right at four hours.

A nice little fringe benefit of being willing to fish in the rain was the very scant additional boat traffic – – we saw only two bass boats all morning, both probing the shallows and therefore had the white bass all to ourselves.

TALLY = 90 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp:  75.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW6-8

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.01 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 527 – soft plastics for low-light, pre-sunrise fish up shallow

**Areas 1821-1822-172-171-1823 –  vertical tactics for white bass in 20-26 feet of water on slabs

**Areas 1793 – sunfish under slipfloats in shallow cover

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Saturday evening I fished a multi species trip on Lake Belton. Joining me were Jack Kovach, Bob James, and Brittany Santoro. The three friends fish together regularly on Lake Belton but freely admitted that they did a lot more fishing than catching and wanted to come out with me not so much to catch fish, but to learn some better approaches at finding fish to catch.

From left: Bob James, Brittany Santoro, and Jack Kovach with Brittany’s new lake record white bass.  This fish measured 16.75″, thus eclipsing Garvon Golden’s 16.375″ fish caught the previous Tuesday.  Both fish exceeded the length of Lake Belton’s previous catch & release category white bass which stood at 15.75 inches since 2010.

Given the unseasonably warm air and water temperature, and the fact that we had a nearly cloudless sky, we spent the majority of our time probing deeper water haunts with a vertical approach using slabs to attempt schooled white bass congregated near bottom.

We never really “slayed ‘em” at any one area, but rather put together a decent catch by moving frequently and staying focused on our techniques. I reserved some time between vertical jigging and throwing bladebaits for fish up shallow just before dark to introduce the trio to the technique of downrigging.

As luck would have it, on our very first pass at fish holding tight to bottom in about 22 feet of water, Brittany came up with a triple on her three-armed umbrella rag. We went on to catch additional singles and doubles in this same area until everyone had had several turns using this tactic.

As the sun set, and right up until the fish quit biting around 7:20, we threw bladebaits in under 13 feet of water for white bass patrolling the shallows hunting shad in wolf packs. As I was assisting Jack with a white bass he had hooked on his bladebait, Bob James and I turned our attention to Brittany who was needing some assistance on the starboard side. After I left her to go assist Jack, she hooked what would be the second lake record white bass taken on my boat in less than a week’s time.

We immediately put Brittany’s jumbo white on the measuring board and I saw that it eclipsed 16.375 inches, stretching a full 16.75 inches. Photography was difficult because of the failing light, but we all pitched in with cell phone flashlights and got decent, clear photos of Brittany with her fish, as well as photos of the fish on the measuring board.

What an awesome way to end the trip. Our total for the night stood at 68 fish, including hybrid striped bass, white bass, largemouth bass, and a single crappie. All fish were taken on artificial bait.

TALLY = 55 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:00p

End Time:  7:20p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Water Surface Temp:  76.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8

Sky Conditions: Fair skies with 20% white cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.01 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 45

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas vic 1819, 1667-993 — all deep vertical jigging for white bass with slabs

**Areas 328-1681 — downrigging

**Areas 1664-1665 — low light shallow bite on bladebaits

 

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Tuesday morning, November 1st, I fished with Tony Bagliore, and a couple from his church, Sonny and Vita Sharpe. The Bagliores and Sharps have known one another for over 17 years.

From left: Vita Sharpe, Sonny Sharpe, and Tony Bagliore, each with one of the larger 13 to 14+ inch class white bass we landed using primarily vertical tactics in 22-30 feet of water under grey, breezy conditions.

Tony has good reason to smile!  This was the 3rd white bass exceeding 16 inches caught on my boat in the past 8 days.  Up until October 25th last week, the lake record white bass length for the catch and release category stood at under 16 inches.  Nice catch, Tony!
Given today’s very “fishy” weather, consisting of gray cloud cover and a southeasterly breeze, I suspected the fishing would be easy and productive. I came prepared to conduct a multi-species trip focused primarily on white bass caught on artificial lures.

As it turned out, Sonny was just along for the ride, and Tony and Vita did all of the fishing. As soon as the eastern sky began to lighten up a bit, I arrived at an area I intended to check out, noted ample bait beginning around the 25 foot mark and progressing up shower, and also noted heavily grouped but also widely dispersed schools of white bass near the bait.

Soon after seeing this on sonar, I noticed the first shallow top water action indicating white bass had pushed ahad well up into shallow water.  Although the cooling water has kept the whites from feeding on top in a sustained way, there were still occasional eruptions on the surface sufficient to allow us to stay on top of the fish. We began casting soft plastics and blade baits into the shallow water bite, but, it didn’t last long.  This bite died as the sun rose (albeit obscured by the cloud cover).

As the skies began to brighten through the gray cloud cover, the bite moved further away from shore. Most of our fishing through 10:45 took Place in 22 to 30 feet of water.  As 10:45 rolled around, we had put a total of 81 fish in the boat, primarily using a vertical “easing” tactic with 3/8 ounce slabs.

In our last hour, and in order to introduce some variety, I offered that we could shoot for catching some blue catfish on slip floats using cut shad as bait.

At our second stop, and after the chum I was using had a chance to work, we began to catch blue cat, albeit small ones, with consistency. During our final 45 minutes on the water, we boated a grand total of 15 blue catfish and missed opportunities at about as many.

We called it a good day at around noon with a grand total of 96 fish boated. Of note was Tony’s largest white bass which measured 16.50 inches. This is the third white bass over 16 inches my clients have boated in the last eight days. This is remarkable given that for the last six years, the catch and release lake record stood below 16 inches.

TALLY = 96 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  12:10p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  76.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.01 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 110

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 183 – bladebaits and soft plastics for low-light, pre-sunrise fish up shallow

**Areas 172 – 164 – 818 – 1024  – 691 –  vertical tactics for white bass in 22-30 feet of water on slabs

**Areas 1820 – small blue cat on cutbait

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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