Fishing Cousins — 134 Fish, Lake Belton, 27 Dec.

This past Tuesday afternoon I fished with three young ladies aged 10, 11, and 12. My youngest angler was Annemarie Curran, joined by her cousins, Ella and Grace Rinehart.

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From left: Ella Rinehart, Annemarie Curran, and Grace Rinehart put a grand total of 134 fish in the boat under balmy conditions on Dec. 27th.

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Above: Grace landed our largest hybrid right near sunset.

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Above: Annemarie landed our largest freshwater drum from out of over 40′ of water in mid-afternoon.

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Above: Ella landed this 10″ white bass, the very first fish she ever caught!!

Chaperoning the girls were brothers-in-law Mike Curran and Eddie Rinehart, and the girls’ grandpa, Phil Curran, all from the Austin area.

Customarily, I arrive at the boat ramp about 30 minutes before my clients are due. Today, as I waited, the weather had me quite concerned. The thin gray cloud cover we had in place all day began to thin, and the light northeast breeze which never got up over 7 mph to start with, appear to be fading. Gray and breezy conditions are ideal; it we were headed for just the opposite – – clear, calm conditions.

As the kids arrived with their dads and their grandfather, I went over all of my usual dockside orientation items, and by the time we shoved off, a very thin gray layer of clouds began to obscure the direct sun, and a very light northeast breeze at 3 to 4 mph was at least rippling the surface.

The first area I searched with sonar revealed little. The second area I search with sonar revealed even less. As I looked over the third area I’d hoped to find fish at, I probed a bit deeper – – between 40 and 45 feet — and found a few fish. This was just enough of a hint to get me headed in the right direction, and, even though the bite wasn’t very strong here, Ella was able to catch the first fish of her life at this location — a 10″ white bass.

At the next area I searched, I found more fish at around 42 feet, and once we got those fish started, they bit for a solid 2.25 hours which is quite incredible given the nearly windless conditions that evolved as we sat on this area. We used white, 3/8 oz. Redneck Fish’n Jigs Model 180 slabs with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached at the line tie to seal the deal using an easing tactic the entire time.  We landed mainly white bass, but also had a few hybrid striper, largemouth, drum, and even one channel cat bite on our slabs.

By around 4:15 PM, as the 77th fish was pulled aboard, the sonar finally went blank and I knew it was time to begin searching once again. As I made my way towards shallower water (anticipating that if we were going to have a low-light evening bite, that it would happen in shallower water) we were blessed to find a handful of helpful gulls just starting to get antsy over top of a school of very active fish pushing shad to the surface where these gulls could get at them. We eased on top of these fish and used a smoking tactic with larger, three-quarter ounce white slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks to provide the girls with a grand finale. In under 40 minutes, we took our tally from 77 fish up to 134 fish with a mixed bag of hybrid striper, white bass, drum, and largemouth bass.

Despite this trip being dedicated to making the girls successful, Mike, Eddie, and Phil all thanked me, expressing how they learned a lot, too, especially concerning the use and interpretation of sonar.

 

TALLY = 134 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:00p

End Time:  5:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  58.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW4 at trip’s start, tapering to near calm

Sky Conditions: 50% cloud cover on a fair sky

Water Level:  0.51 feet above full pool

GT =  105

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1872- a few white bass by easing from a bottom-hugging school in 40-45 feet of water

**Area 1870 – 2.25 hours of steady action by easing from a bottom-hugging school in 40-45 feet of water

**Area 1001 – 57 fish in 40 minutes fishing 3/4 oz. slabs for bottom-oriented and suspended fish initially located under birds

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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