WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning I fished with Mr. Bill Blackwell of Goldthwaite, TX. Bill, like his father, retired from the mohair business in which he sold the hair of angora goats to manufacturers in the United Kingdom. In his retirement, Bill bought a pontoon boat for fishing, which he keeps a Lake Livingston. He put a Lowrance Carbon sonar unit on that boat. Today’s trip was partly to catch fish, and partly to help Bill see the practical use of his sonar as he viewed me in action using my Lowrance Carbon. We caught 24 white bass and 15 legal hybrid stripers.
Bill Blackwell landed the heaviest hybrid taken aboard my boat thus far in the 2018 season. This fish measured 22.125 inches and weighed 6.25 pounds on a certified scale.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on both white bass and hybrid striper
WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, 22 March 2018
HOW WE FISHED: We experienced a white bass bite of average intensity this morning, allowing us to fish vertically for them with a smoking tactic using 3/8 oz. slabs fitted with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks. When the fish cooled down, we fancast with bladebaits for “mop up duty”. When the bite at the one and only area we searched for white bass died, we changed immediately over to fishing live shad and cutbait for hybrid. In two hours’ time we landed 15 keeper hybrid. This offered a nice backdrop to the sonar instruction I was able to provide between pulldowns. Bill landed the largest hybrid to come over the gunwales so far this season — a beefy 6.25 pound fish which was only 22.125 inches long. It took a cutbait. In fact, cutbait was preferred 4 to 1 over livies this morning.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: Hybrids preferred cutbait 4:1 over live shad this morning. Only 4 of our 15 hybrid took live shad; the rest came on cutbait.
TALLY: 39 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:20a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F
Water Surface Temp: 62.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: Tapering up from 10-14mph over the course of the morning
Sky Conditions: <10% white cloud cover
Water Level: 2.41 feet low and falling
GT = 40
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 380 for white bass on slabs and blades
**Area B0062C – live shad & cutbait for 15 hybrid
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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