This past Monday morning, May 22nd, I fished with Mike and Amy Hadeler and their son, Mason, accompanied by his girlfriend, Michelle Ponce, all in celebration of Mason’s graduation from college with a chemistry degree. This was slated as a multi-species trip.
Amy Hadeler landed the largest fish of her life today, several times over. The hybrid striped bass cooperated early in the trip giving all four anglers a chance to land several of these hard-pulling fish.
Michelle Ponce also landed her personal best fish today. Previously she’d only landed smaller bass and sunfish while fishing from the bank.
Mason’s graduation from college with a chemistry degree gave the whole family reason to celebrate — and they chose to do it by going fishing together.
Michael Hadeler coordinated this whole family fishing event then got to enjoy watching (and videoing) everyone in action. He even caught a few himself!
The day started off cool and rainy – – 57° in the wake of a damp cool front that moved through on Saturday. We launched in a light rain after delaying until 7:15; the rain tapered to nothing within 30 minutes.
We put 22 hybrid in the boat in our first two hours on the water before the hybrid bite got soft as the winds died down to near calm.
Around 9:30a I began searching water deeper than that which we were fishing for hybrid in seeking white bass holding in large, bottom-hugging schools.
Once we found what we were after on sonar, we “spot hopped” four different times to put a grand total of 41 additional fish in the boat including three legal hybrid with the rest being white bass.
With about 75 minutes remaining in the trip I offered that we could once again pursue hybrid given that the skies had lightened a bit, and our wind had returned and shifted to just north of east.
We hit three different areas, all with live bait, encountering blue catfish at the first two and moving quickly away from those two areas. At the last area we got baits and chum down and picked up three quick hybrid before things fizzled for good. By 11:50a all was said and done. Our tally this morning was 68 fish, all caught and released, with personal bests landed by Amy, Michelle, and Mason, thanks to the large hybrid they had the opportunity to land.
TOTAL = 68 FISH, all caught and released
Wx SNAPSHOT:
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F
Water Surface Temp: 73.0F
Wind Speed & Direction: Near calm at trip’s start, then a NW ripple in the last 90 minutes or so
Sky Conditions: Bluebird, post-frontal skies
Water Level: 0.85 feet above full pool and falling; 45 cfs release at Belton Dam
GT = 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1012/150 – 22 hybrid
**Area 1945/1290 – 4 short hops for whites on the slab
**Area 344/1378 – 3 hybrid in the final 30 minutes after a late morning lull
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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