Stage Set for Fantastic Fall Fishing on Belton — 117 Fish, 16 Oct.

WHO I FISHED WITH:  Cliff and Jennes (rhymes with ‘tennis’) Wohleb of Belton.  Cliff is retired from Wilsonart International, the decorative laminate manufacturer in Temple, TX, and Jennes works for Terri Covington at Covington Real Estate in Belton.

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The white bass were really putting the feed bag on today thanks to rapidly increasing pressure brought on by Sunday’s cold front.  The fish got so aggressive that Cliff landed 2 fish on the same lure — one on the treble hook and one on the extra Hazy Eye Stinger hook I make and add onto all of my slabs.

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Cliff Wohleb helps his wife, Jennes, hoist a 10.00 pound smallmouth buffalo that fell for her slab amongst a school of much smaller white bass.  Jennes has some rotator cuff difficulties which made this fish especially tough for her to land.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Although we’d hoped to target hybrid striped bass, that fishery is just not at any manner of a peak right now, so, we took advantage of the abundance of white bass made active by the passage of Sunday’s cold front which had still-stiff winds coming from the north on this Monday morning.  Because it became clear that we’d be better off chasing whites instead of hybrid, I added an extra hour to the trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 16 October 2017

HOW WE FISHED:   100% of our fish were caught on 3/4 oz. slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks affixed to the line tie, fished “smoking” style.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: I combed over 6 different fish-holding areas which are typically productive this time of year, finding fish at 5 of them, but nothing in the way of mature hybrid stripers; in speaking with one of the older gentlemen in my “network” who specifically targets hybrid stripers on artificials, he reported a very tough go of it both on the main lake and in the tributaries.  One of his friends who prefers to fish with live shad spent the majority of Monday on the water and caught only 2 legal hybrid in a full day’s effort.  Then, today (18 Oct.) I got word from a fellow guide (who was on the lake today) that he, too, found very little in the way of keeper hybrid in the first 5-6 hours of post-sunrise effort he put in using live shad.  White bass, on the other hand, are incredibly plentiful and are definitely in post-summer “bottom-hugging” mode.

At every place we fished, I hung 3 fresh-caught ~4″ shad off the portside of the boat as we jigged off the starboard.  We did not catch a single fish on the live shad (not even a white bass or bluecat).

TALLY: 117 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  51F

Water Surface Temp:   74.5

Wind Speed & Direction:   N10-12

Sky Conditions:  Clear, bright skies

Water Level: 1.60 feet low

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

16OCT17

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2025 – low light bite in ~27′; smoking slabs

**Areas 1882 – smoking slabs

**Area vic 998 – smoking slabs

**Area 1913 – smoking slabs

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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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