A Prescription for Fun — 179 Fish, Lake Belton White Bass & Hybrids

This past Tuesday morning, November 29th, I fished a full day, multi-species trip on Lake Belton. Joining me for the entire trip was Dave Ross, accompanied by his friend Will Almond in the morning, and, after Will departed at lunch, we were joined by Joey Sapien for the final four hours from around 11:30 to 3:30 PM.

 

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Our best fish came at first light under grey clouds and gulls.  We landed 11 legal (18″ or longer) hybrid stripers on bladebaits before 8:15am.

 

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Although fish were chasing shad to the surface, the fish did not remain at the surface, therefore, a sub-surface retrieve using bladebaits worked very well this morning for both quality fish and quantities of fish.

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As the skies brightened and cleared and the winds calmed at midday, we faced a tough job of locating fish.  Once found, a more methodical approach was required to catch them.  We landed 76 fish during our 11:30 to 3:30 portion of this full day trip versus 103 from 7-11am.

Will works as a pharmacist for HEB in Lampasas, Dave works as a pharmacist at the HEB in Belton, and Joey works for the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department.  Will and Dave fished with me one time previously, this past May, and Joey joined me for the very first time today.

We landed exactly 103 fish during the morning trip and all fish came as a result of taking cues from very helpful bird action. Actively feeding  fish would force shad to the surface where the birds would see the commotion of the fish chasing the bait and would swoop down to attempt an easy meal. At times, upwards of five dozen birds were working over a fairly small area, thus making an easily noticed stir above the water surface.

When we encountered aggressive fish spread well through the water column, we used a three-quarter ounce silver slab in combination with a Hazy Eye Shad tandem rig. When the fishing was a little tougher and the fish more lethargic, we used a smaller, 3/8 ounces slab, also in silver, just by itself, equipped with a stinger hook.

After a very quick dockside lunch, we turned right back around and put in another four hours with Dave and Joey. This scheduling was a little bit of a curveball to me, as I normally fish the first four hours of light and the last four hours of light, with a two hour break in between, with the period from 11:30 to 1:30 typically being very tough fishing. This afternoon we worked through this tough, slower period by picking up a few fish on the downriggers and then began looking for deeper, heavily congregated and bottom hugging fish for the final three hours. We were successful in finding such concentrations of fish by carefully sweeping over a number of areas with sonar, then going back to the fish we located, spot locking on top of them with the Ulterra trolling motor, and working our slabs down in the lower 8 to 10 feet of the water column.

Our grand total for this day’s effort was 179 fish. The majority of the keeper hybrid we caught came in the first hour and from the shallowest water we fished, that being just 13 to 15 feet deep.

TALLY = 179 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  3:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Water Surface Temp:  66.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  WNW12

Sky Conditions: Light but complete grey cloud cover through 11am, then brightening and becoming 40% cloudy.

Water Level:  0.33 feet above full pool

GT = 60

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

MORNING:

**Area vic 739, fancasting with blades and slabbing in 15-22′ during low light conditions before sunrise under birds

**Area 738 – smoking and easing under birds

**Area 737 – smoking and easing under birds

**Area 1001-812 – smoking and easing under birds

AFTERNOON:

**Area 1656 – downrigging

**Area 1635 – easing for fish found with sonar

**Area 1675-1658 – easing for fish found with sonar

**Area 1827 – easing for fish found with sonar

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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