Pure Pandemonium! – 1 boat, 7 anglers, 118 fish – Lake Belton, 15 April ’17 (PM)

This past Saturday afternoon I fished with seven of the Oliver clan, representing three generations. Joining me today were Pa Oliver, three of his sons: Joe, Jack, and Jamie, and then each son brought one of their own sons. Joe brought his son, Thomas; Jamie brought his son, Sam; and Jack brought his son, Asa.

 

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From left: Jack, Pa, Asa, and Sam Oliver, each with hybrid that came in the boat within a minute’s span of one another.  With 8 people in the boat and 4 fish on the line, it was pure pandemonium!!

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Jamie was our “canary in the coal mine” — when I saw what I suspected were hybrid that were drawn into the commotion of the white bass we’d been jigging for, I gave Jamie a bait to put out and he made good with it. This was the very first hybrid that kicked it all off for us.

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Joe, the “ringleader” who put the whole trip together, shown here with his son, Thomas, landed the largest hybrid of the evening — a 5.25 pounder.

This was really a fun trip for me, as it always is with this family. You can just tell they are a tight knit bunch which, through the years, have been intentional about carving out time from busy lives to spend in the presence of one another.

Due to the number of anglers aboard, and the rising and stained water conditions which prevented me from getting on some of my preferred fishing areas, I intended that we would primarily jig for white bass on this trip. Although this is the way we started things off, at the second area at which we stopped to jig for white bass, as we begin to pull the white bass up through the water column, a large school of hybrid materialized in the middle third of the water column.

I dropped a test bait down so as to verify that what I was seeing were actually hybrid. When Jamie nearly instantly had his shad taken by a good sized hybrid, we very quickly put away the spinning gear and transitioned to fishing six downlines. We were met with such success from this point until shortly after sunset, that we never did touch the spinning gear nor target white bass again.

This was by far the strongest hybrid bite I have seen since we’ve experienced the recent flooding. Of the 118 fish we boated on this trip, easily 60 of these were keeper hybrid, with one of Joe’s fish weighing in at 5.25 pounds

Hopefully, this week will see a diluting and settling of the turbid water now in the main body of Lake Belton, so that even more areas are accessible during what is normally this peak time of year for hybrid striped bass fishing.

TALLY = 118 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time: 8:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp: 70F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-8 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 80% clouds

Water Level: 6.96 feet above full pool and falling; 3600+ cfs release

GT = 80

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1827/1916/1912/1919 complex – jigged whites until commotion brought in hybrid, then caught all hybrid on live bait

**Area vic 1619 –  all hybrid

**Area vic 1620 – sunset all-hybrid bite

 

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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