This past Saturday morning I fished Lake Belton with Jim Mason, his wife Lana, their daughter, Morgan, and a friend of the family, Larry Bigham. The Mason’s son, Peyton, who lives in Colorado, presented Jim with a fishing gift certificate, and today was the day to redeem it.
Lana Mason and her daughter, Morgan, with Lana’s largest hybrid of the trip.
Mother and daughter doubled-up on live bait with Lana landing a white bass and Morgan taking her nicest hybrid of the trip.
Jim and daughter Morgan with one of several hybrid we took out of 28 feet of water on live shad as a cold front blew in to central Texas.
Jim and Lana both make their living as medical professionals, and Morgan is an attorney working for the Exxon Corporation out of Houston. She just dropped in to Waco for the weekend for some fishing and a few of her mom’s BLT sandwiches!
A damp cold front moved into central Texas in the early morning hours, dropping the temperature from right at 70 Fahrenheit down into the low 50s before what little sun penetrated through the clouds began to push the temperatures back up around mid-morning. Straight-line winds were forecast at 16 all day today with higher gusts, and some tapering of the winds due to begin around 3 PM.
As is often the case under damp, cold front conditions, the fishing was sluggish this morning, and I am definitely glad we hedged our bet with live bait.
I explained to my crew how the recent flooding has essentially put the main lake off-limits to hybrid fishing due to turbid conditions, and how pursuing hybrid in the Leon River arm inevitably produces more unintentional white bass than the hybrid we hope for.
We located fish at seven areas this morning. The last three produced fish on artificials, and those were white bass whose fight was made more sporty by our use of light spinning tackle. The first five areas we hit over a span of 3+ hours produced a mixed bag of fish including largemouth, smallmouth, blue catfish, white bass, and the hybrid striped bass that we were hoping for.
This crew did exceptionally well at using circle hooks with live bait, rarely, if ever, raising their rod above belt buckle level before the fish was solidly hooked.
When all was said and done, we landed a total of 74 fish.
TALLY = 74 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 12:30p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F
Water Surface Temp: 68.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: NNW15-17
Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds
Water Level: 4.91 feet above full pool and falling; 3900+ cfs release
GT = 50
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1847 – whites on slabs
**Area 1927 – mixed bag on shad
**Area 1927 – mixed bag on shad under terns
**Area 1659/1671 – whites on slabs
**Area 172/165 – whites on slabs
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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