Cold Front Crew scores 116 fish on Belton; 22 April ’17 (PM)

This past Saturday afternoon, I fished Lake Belton on a multi-species trip with Mark Greger, his fianceé Liz Nutter, and friends Gary Ross and his son, Allen, age 15.

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Saturday’s “Cold Front Crew”; from left: Gary Ross, Allen Ross, Liz Nutter, and Mark Greger.

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Allen definitely had a knack for catching the big hybrid.

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Liz, an Army nurse practitioner for 16 years now, cut her teeth on West Coast trout and salmon.

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Gary, a catfisherman at heart, got to compare and contrast the pursuit of cats with the pursuit of hybrid.

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Mark took what would be our last hybrid of the evening just as the sun set.

Mark and Gary both work as aircraft mechanics with DynCorp International, a defense contractor supporting Fort Hood. Liz is an active duty major who is in the US Army Medical Corps serving pregnant women who come through Darnall Army Medical Center. Allen is a student at Lake Belton middle school.  Mark and Liz are due to be married soon, then move to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.

The straight-line winds at 16 mph which were forecast to blow nearly all day today in conjunction with a late spring cold front that moved in early in the morning, blew just as predicted. Also, the cloud cover that was forecast to stick with us most of the day, also behaved as forecast.

We fished five areas this evening. Our efforts at the first two were strictly focused on white bass using white, 3/8 oz. slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks. At the last three areas, we fished with live shad on downlines and did what we could to select for hybrid striped bass in areas that held both white bass and hybrid.

By the time all was said and done, everyone had the opportunity to feel the incredible pull of at least one hybrid striper. Allen caught more than his fair share of these hard pulling, line – sided fish.

By trip’s end, we had landed a total of 116 fish. This compares favorably with our morning catch of 74 fish. Although we tried numerous times during the morning trip to get a slab bite going while sitting atop schools of white bass, it was not until the 11 o’clock hour that these fish truly began to respond well to that.  Once we got within 4 hours of sunset, the white bass once again turned on and bit well on the slab.
TALLY = 116 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time: 8:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 69.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW15-17

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds at trip’s start, clearing to 30% clouds on a fair sky.

Water Level: 4.91 feet above full pool and falling; 3900+ cfs release

 

GT = 40

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1922

**Area 1678/1757

**Area 1623

**Area 1620/1757

**Area1628

 

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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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