CSA Construction Assembles a Nice Catch –146 Fish

WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with Mr. Ray Elliott, Mr. Drew Kelm, and Miss Jessie Singleton.  Ray and Drew are co-workers at CSA Construction out of Houston and are working on a 3-year-long project building a drinking water treatment plant on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.  They thought they’d take in some local fishing since they’ll be in the area for while.  Jessie is Drew’s fiancee’, and quite an outdoorsy young lady. Hopefully her dad will demand a sizeable dowry for her, as she is not only an Aggie, but has earned her concealed handgun license, can run a boat, handle a spinning rod deftly, can drive (and park) the largest of pickup trucks, and outrun all of the 4th grade boys in her elementary school classroom! The two plan to wed in June ’18.

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From left, Jessie Singleton, Ray Elliott, and Drew Kelm with a sampling of the mixed bag angling we experienced on Belton Lake this morning.  We landed white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, freshwater drum, and crappie.  Judging by the slime on his line,  we think Ray missed a catfish, and we know by the quarter-sized scale on Drew’s hook that he missed a buffalo fish.

 

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We found a few crappie — all quality fish, and, strangely enough they all came out of in excess of 50 feet of water with no cover visible on sonar.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 11 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED: Thanks to thick cloud cover, the started a bit later than over the past several days with thinner cover which let a bit more sunlight through.  We fished 4 distinct areas.  Our first area involved vertical jigging with white slabs in ~35′.  At our second area, birds led the way to the action as ~ 8 gulls, 1 tern, 3 comorants, and 1 blue heron all worked a 2 acre area in which white bass were feeding heavily on shad.  Although some action did make it all the way to the surface, most was subsurface.  We used slabs vertically and bladebaits horizontally in this situation.  Our third and fourth areas fished were nearly identical with fish on deep, wind-impacted slopes in ~50 feet of water.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) A wind with a southerly component returned today.  2) We caught fish under birds for a 4th consecutive day, however, the action did not begin until about an hour after sunrise today.

TALLY: 146 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 67.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE9-13

Sky Conditions: 100% heavy grey cloud cover

Water Level: 2.25 feet low

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

11NOV17

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2044 – vertical work with slabs for a smaller school of white bass congregated on bottom in 35′

**Area 2045/2043 – horizontal blades and vertical slabs in 15-18′ for fish under birds

**Area vic 1945 & 1381 – deep vertical slab work for fish on windward slopes in 50+ feet of water.

 

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

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