No Potlickin’ !! — 106 Fish, Stillhouse, 11 March ’17

This past Saturday morning, March 11th, I fished with U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jay Bruns, his 16 year old son, Robbie, and Robbie’s buddy, 16 year old Trent Fly, all of Harker Heights.

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From left: Robbie Bruns, Jay Bruns, and Trent Fly, all of Harker Heights, put 106 fish in the boat this March 11th morning on Stillhouse using a combination of fishing bladebaits for shallow fish, and slabs for deeper fish.

Jay is branched military police and currently serves with the 1st Cavalry Division’s “Blackjack” Brigade on Fort Hood.  Jay is a regular reader of my weekly “Guide Lines” column in the Killeen Daily Herald and, when considering how he might celebrate Robbie’s 16th birthday with him, gave me a call.
We got off to a timely start after covering safety and fishing tactics at dockside before we launched.  Although many of the wintering birds on Belton and Stillhouse have headed back north already, there are still a few helpful birds around and it was a handful of 5 gulls and 2 terns that drew my attention to the first area that produced well for us.  We cast bladebaits on a mid-depth flat in 24-28 feet of water for actively feeding white bass, and caught over 30 1 and 2 year class fish on bladebaits before this action died.  I noted both pre- and post-spawn fish in the mix of fish we landed.  By 8:30 this bite was done and the conditions were tough.
We struggled to fish fish for about 30 minutes before a SSE wind began to push and a blanket of thin, grey clouds began to move in and change our situation for the better.   Just 15 minutes after the winds began, the fish turned on and we enjoyed the fastest fishing of the morning, easily doubling our catch of 34 to 68 in about 26 minutes, and then continuing to catch for another 20 minutes or so.
As we entered the last hour on the water, the fish began to slowly apply the brakes and we had to spot-hop and really pay close attention to detail in our presentations to continue to get bit.   A few times when things got slow, I noted that Robbie would see either Jay or Trent catch a fish and would move from where he was, right next to the successful angler.  I explained that on the Texas coast this behavior is called potlicking, and that there are actually bumper stickers (or I should say, transom stickers) that show the term ” Potlickin’ ” in a red circle with a red slash running through the word, letting would be potlickers know they are NOT welcome to stop nearby for a visit.
When all was said and done, we landed 106 fish in just a tad over 4 hours, and, by the time we made our last stop, the fish had run their morning course and were done biting.  Our take of white bass included mainly 1 and 2 year class fish, with a handful of 3 year class fish, and one specimen caught by Robbie that was even older.  Our bycatch included about 10 largemouth bass, but no drum today.

TALLY = 106 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm at sunrise and until 8:45a, then quickly ramping up to SSE12

Sky Conditions: Morning began with 30% clouds on a sunny skies at sunrise, slowly transitioning to grey skies to just shy of the point of drizzle by trip’s end

Water Level:  0.40 feet above full pool

GT =  15

WX SNAPSHOT:

04MAR17

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Span of bottom between Area 089 and 1682 for first light white bass on bladebaits in 26 feet — 34 fish by 8:30a
 
**Area 1305 easing with slabs in 36′ after SSE winds began — took tally to 84 in ~45 minutes (strongest action of the morning)
**Area vic 786 easing with slabs in 40′ to close out the trip — took tally to grand total of 106

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

Hybrid Fever Rising on Belton — 145 Fish, 10 March ’17

This past Friday morning, March 10th, I fished with Jaime Gonzalez, José Chapa, and Ruben Cavazos, all U.S. military retirees who had the opportunity to fish with me once before this past winter as we did some deep vertical jigging for white bass over on Stillhouse.

HYBRID TAG

 

From left: Jaime Gonzales, Ruben Cavazos, and Jose Chapa, each with one of the many 18″+ “legal” hybrid we landed today on live shad.

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Ruben Cavazos with a 7 pound bluecat that came up and chomped his live shad intended for a hybrid striper.

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Jaime Gonzales with one of the three 22.75″, 6+ pound hybrid we boated today.

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Jose Chapa with his first keeper hybrid of the morning.

This past Friday morning, March 10th, I fished with Jaime Gonzalez, José Chapa, and Ruben Cavazos, all U.S. military retirees who had the opportunity to fish with me once before this past winter as we did some deep vertical jigging for white bass over on Stillhouse.

During that trip, the trio asked me about different fishing opportunities on our local lakes through the various seasons. I let them know that the “next big thing” would be the tremendous hybrid striped bass bite that coincides with the threadfin shad spawn each spring.

Based on my recent successes in fishing “experimental” trips for hybrid using live shad last Thursday, and the Thursday before that, I felt confident in offering a live shad trip targeting hybrid at this point in the season.

Today was the first day this spring that I actually witnessed spawning threadfin shad. These fish were “running the bank” in shallow water and for quite some distance, thus, there is no doubt that they were truly spawning.

In hindsight, catching shad actually proved to be more difficult than catching the gamefish we landed with those shad, as I spent a good bit of time on the water prior to seeing this spawning activity attempting to collect sufficient bait for the trip.

I picked my crew up at 6:45 AM, and thanks to very calm conditions, we only picked up three fish in our first hour on the water. I made a move to more open water to try to take advantage of the little bit of movement the light breeze we had was creating. What I found was evidently sufficient, as once we buckled down on top of fish, we never had to move for the remaining three hours of our trip.

With our baits suspended between 25 and 27 feet deep over a deeper bottom, the hybrid bite started before all three men could get a single rod down. We never had a chance to put in a second rod at any point in the morning. The action was nonstop and the vast majority (over 75%) of the fish we caught were keeper hybrid striped bass. Very few hybrid we caught were undersized, and we caught a number of long, but thin, white bass, numerous smallish largemouth from 12 to 14 inches, two drum, a single smallmouth bass, and two catfish that measured 7 and 8 pounds respectively.

Our largest three hybrid all went 22.75 inches and just barely topped 6 pounds.

By the time 10:45 rolled around, the bite was waning, and my three guys were ready for lunch and a break. In summary, we landed three white bass in our first hour on the water under very calm conditions, and 142 quality fish on live shad with just the lightest of breeze blowing and some light gray cloud cover in the east when these fish started biting. Once they started, they simply would not quit. I am expecting good things to come for the next several weeks now.

TALLY = 145 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Calm at sunrise, then light ESE breeze at under 5mph for rest of AM

Sky Conditions: Under 10% white cloud cover on fair skies

Water Level:  0.40 feet above full pool

GT =  25

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Netted bait at Area SHAD003 – one and done on spawners
**Area vic 816 – 3 white bass on slabs under calm conditions
 
**Area 1827 – 142 fish from 7:45 – 10:50am, all on large, live shad

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

Full House — 6 anglers, 113 fish on Stillhouse, 04 March ’17

This past Saturday morning, March 4th, I fished with Tom Spence’s crew of six in pursuit of white bass on Stillhouse Hollow.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

From left: Chuck Smith, Nolan Smith, Heidi Spence, Jacob Spence, Tristan Early, and Tom Spence — all up and at ’em before 7am for some cool, early March white bass fishing.

 

Tom’s friend, Chuck Smith, lives in Morgan’s Point right on Lake Belton. Chuck got wind of my guide service through his neighbor two doors down, Rob Page, who had a successful outing with me around Christmas. So, Chuck brought his son, Nolan, and Tom brought his son and daughter, Jacob and Heidi, and a family friend, Tristan Early, for a grand total of six anglers on this cool, damp early March Saturday.

A small storm system passed over our area from southwest to northeast and cleared the area just before first light. This provided us with two dry hours of fishing through about 9 AM, with the last two hours bringing just the lightest of occasional drizzle.

Like many teenage boys, the ones aboard my boat today thought themselves invincible and showed up in, catch this, shorts! It came as no surprise when, at around 9 AM, the boys took me up on my offer of a loaner set of rain gear to cover up with when we made a quick restroom stop at that time.

As for the fishing, we enjoyed a full two hours of shallow water blade bait fishing under active birds. The surface temperature actually slacked off a bit from the high it had reached around 62 Fahrenheit. Today’s starting surface temperature was 60.1, thanks to two chilly days on Thursday and Friday following a clear cool front that push pushed in.  The fish we found under birds were in 24 to 28 feet of water.

After our 9 AM bathroom/clothing break we returned to the area we had been throwing blade baits in, only to find the action had died there.

The remainder of the trip was spent searching out deepwater areas adjacent to the old Lampasas River channel using sonar to find large concentrations of white bass along the breakline. Using the Spot Lock feature on my trolling motor, I would very precisely position us directly over these fish, and then let my crew’s six slabs rain down into those fish. Once the first “icebreaker” fish was caught, the rest of the fish often “loosened up” and bit readily, albeit typically only for a few minutes.  After the bite turned off, although we still saw fish holding on bottom via sonar, they simply refused to bite. That meant it was time to continue looking for another school of fish.

Our success was fairly evenly spread over the morning. From 7 AM to 9 AM we landed 49 fish, and from 9 AM through 11:20 AM we landed another 64 fish.

There is no doubt that those shallower fish we caught on blade baits early were, on average, larger than the smaller, deepwater fish we took on slabs later in the trip. As we closed out the day I good naturedly chided the boys with one of my favorite sayings attributed to the Norwegians  – – “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.”

Since the day Tom reserved this trip, I really looked at it as a bit of a challenge. Not only was the party a large one – – maxing out my boat with six anglers – – but, this trip came at a time when the weather very much impacts the fishing. Add to that a handful of youthful anglers, and the fact that Chuck is blind, forced me to think through exactly how I was going to position everyone in the boat, how I would explain the tactics we would be using to everyone, and where we would go to find fish.

When the trip was concluded and all six anglers had caught about the same number of fish, I was pleased that I had intentionally thought through these things and then had seen them come to a positive outcome. It certainly helped that all six of my crew had positive attitudes, and enjoyed one another’s company, despite the somewhat uncomfortable conditions.

TALLY = 113 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:20a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Water Surface Temp:  60.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE9-12

Sky Conditions: Grey skies to the point of occasional drizzle

Water Level:  0.64 feet above full pool

GT =  30

WX SNAPSHOT:

04MAR17

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  vic 143 thru 1054 thru 1682 (jogging slowly shallower as the fished moved out of deep water) – 49 fish
 
**Area  vic 070-1044 and vic 1565 -638 (deep vertical jigging) – 45 fish
**Area  784 – 19 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

Old College Buddies — 133 Fish, Belton, 03 March 2017

This past Friday morning, March 3rd, I fished a morning trip on Lake Belton with old college buddies Bob Isbell of Temple, and Robert Hoppe from the Austin area. The two went to the University of Texas in Arlington and have remained friends ever since.

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From left: Bob Isbell and Robert Hoppe fished with me this past Friday, March 3rd, on what would be the 2nd intentional attempt I’ve made at targeting hybrid stripers on live shad thus far in the 2017 season.  We wound up with 133 fish, of which ~20 surpassed the 18″ “legal” threshold.

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Robert Hoppe took our largest hybrid of the trip between around 7:45 am as this 4.75 pounder fell for his shad fished off bottom in 28′.
Today would be the second trip in this 2017 season in which I specifically targeted hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake using live shad.

I was a bit concerned about our wind situation as the forecast called for light winds in the 3 to 5 mph range during the first 90 minutes after sunrise. The winds were then due to pick up to the 9 to 10 mph range for the remainder of the trip. Bob and Robert showed up promptly just before our 6:45 AM start. From that time and until 9 AM we targeted hybrids using shad. We made two stops, caught 37 fish, of which 8 were “keeper” hybrid of 18+ inches in length. We also caught about the same number of short hybrid, as well as white bass, one crappie, one largemouth, and two blue cats. During this time, we had a gentle west northwest wind blowing sufficiently to ripple the surface.  At 9 AM, that wind completely stopped. The surface of the lake got glassy calm, and the sun shone brightly through a cloudless sky – – the very worst of all fishing conditions. To combat this, I headed into the deepest water I could find fish in and, from 9:20 AM through 10 AM we parked on top of a group of deep white bass which readily fell for our slabbing presentation in 48 feet of water.

In under an hour we put 63 white bass in the boat, most of which were smaller one year old class fish with a few two-year class fish mixed in. During the time we were slabbing for these whites, a nice east southeast wind began to build. At 10 AM, with our tally sitting right at 100 fish, I offered that we could leave the jigging behind and shoot for more hybrid in this same deep water now that the wind had begun moving the water once again.

This turned out to be a good move. Over the next 90 minutes we put an additional 33 fish in the boat, half of which were keeper hybrid, with the other half evenly split between short hybrid and white bass with two more blue cat thrown in for good measure.

Neither Bob nor Robert had ever fished using either of the techniques I introduced them to today, and so the novelty made this trip particularly interesting to them.

We called it a day right at 11:30 as it seemed the midday lull was about to kick in.

TALLY = 133 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 40F

Water Surface Temp:  59.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  <5WNW until 9:00, then calm for 25 minutes, then starting ESE and building to 13

Sky Conditions: Clear, cloudless skies

Water Level:  1.08 feet above full pool

GT =  90

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1674 – mixed bag of 37 fish on live shad with 8 legal hybrid in 28′
 
**Area 717/930 – easing with slabs in ~48′ for 63 white bass
**Area 374 – 33 fish on live shad with ~1/2 legal hybrid, 1/4 short hybrid, 1/4 white bass & 2 bluecat in 46′

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

1 Family, 3 Days, 372 Fish!! — Awesome White Bass Action on Stillhouse

This past Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings were all spent on Stillhouse, and all with the Bozeman family of Copperas Cove and Killeen.  It all started last week when John Bozeman called me to book a trip…

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My crew from Day 1, from left, John Bozeman, Eric Heitman, and Brittany Bozeman.

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Eric Heitman took big fish honors for Day 1.

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Brandon Bozeman joined his brother, John, for Day 2.

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Day 3 was all about the boys’ mom, Linda.  She took big fish honors with this sweet largemouth that hit a slab equipped with the Hazy Eye Stinger Hook.

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And largemouth weren’t the only large fish biting on Day 3.  We also took this fat and sassy 16″ long female white bass on a bladebait early.  Yes, it looks like a hybrid, but it is definitely a magnum white bass.

 

DAY 1:

On Day 1, John Bozeman and his wife, Brittany, and their friend, Eric Heitman joined me for what would be the best trip of the 3 day span in terms of numbers and “fishy” weather.  We had a balmy start to the day thanks to cloud cover overnight keeping the heat in.  The winds were from just west of south and at a good speed for the entire trip.  We drove right into fish and birds at around 7:10am and slabbed briefly until it became clear that fish had moved shallow.  Seeing this, we moved shallow and threw bladebaits for over 2 hours with everyone continuously hooking fish with many in the 13-14″ class.

Once the bird action died, we moved deeper and continued catching smaller fish on slabs.

DAY 2:

On Day 2, John Bozeman and his older brother, Brandon, came aboard.  Fishing was a bit tougher on this morning as we had very murky, dark skies and a lack of wind until around 9am.  Once the breeze kicked in, it ramped up quickly.  We landed only 36 fish through 9:30am, then took our tally up to 108 for the morning after extending the trip about an hour to 11:40.  Nearly 100% of our fish were caught on the slab today in deep water.

DAY 3:

On Day 2, John and Brandon returned, this time with their mother, Linda.  I tried to talk John out of the trip over the phone the night before after seeing the forecast wind speeds up over 20mph.  I let him know the fish would be biting as the cold front came in, and that we could catch them, but that the wind would be an annoyance.  John was okay with that if it meant getting his mom on some fish, so, we went.  And we caught fish!  The lake was nearly calm as we got going, then a NNW breeze slowly began to move the water.  As it did, the bite turned on, allowing us about 80 minutes’ worth of productive shallow fishing with bladebaits.  Once the front arrived, the winds shifted to N17-21, then settled back to a more manageable 17-18mph.  Once the wind got hard, we moved deep and caught the remainder of our fish on 3/4 oz slabs chosen to give us a little more feel for the bottom.

TALLY DAY 1 = 163 FISH, all caught and released

TALLY DAY 2 = 108 FISH, all caught and released

TALLY DAY 3 = 101FISH, all caught and released

TOTAL TALLY = 372 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshots:

For Monday (Tuesday nearly identical):

27FEB17

For Wednesday:

01MAR16

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  Day 1 6:50a, Day 2 6:50a, Day 3 6:45a

End Time:  Day 1 11:15a, Day 2 11:40, Day 3 11:00

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: Day 1 67F, Day 2 62F, Day 3 62F

Water Surface Temp:  Day 1 61.2F, Day 2 61.5, Day 3 61.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Day 1 SW9, Day 2 calm ’til 9:00, then SSE13, Day 3 NNW4 ’til 8:30, then N17-20

Sky Conditions: Day 1 100% grey, Day 2 100% grey, Day 3 clearing to bluebird on incoming cold front

Water Level: 1.08 feet above full pool all 3 days

GT =  0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

DAY 1

**Area  vic 702/1048 slabbing for 18 fish

**Area  vic 054 fishing blades to 54 fish

**Area  vic 109/1897 fishing blades to 102 fish

**Area  1682/741 fishing slabs to 132 fish

**Area  638/1565 to 163 fish

DAY 2

**Area  vic 108 slabbing for 18 fish

**Area  092 slabbing to 22 fish

**Area 1903 slabbing to 64 fish

**Area  1902 slabbing to 90 fish

**Area  1565 slabbing to 108 fish

DAY 3

**Area  triangulate 1060/089/1682 blades for 36 fish

**Area  vic 1682 to 45 fish

**Area 103 slabbing to 77 fish

**Area 1156 slabbing to 101 fish

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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