WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning, May 3rd, I fished with returning guests Tom and Tracie Byrd, as well as Tom’s sister, Patty Williams, and Patty’s husband, Dale Williams, both of whom came out with me for the first time. This trip was in celebration of Tracie’s birthday, but we won’t say exactly which birthday! Tom and Tracie live “in the country” on the outskirts of Austin where they keep up with their own horses and board others’ horses, as well. Patty works at a bank in San Antonio and Dale is retired from construction where he worked to build water treatment plans in the southern part of Texas.
The birthday girl, Tracie Byrd (in white shirt), with one of the hybrid she landed in the early part of the trip. That’s her sister-in-law, Patty, looking on.
Tom Byrd and his sister, Patty, landed these fish within seconds of one another as the fish went on a brief spree.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: During this trip, we focused on fishing for hybrid striped bass using live shad through 9:45am when the wind got too great to hold on the exposed areas where we were catching them. We retreated well up into the one of Belton’s tributaries for our last hour and a half or so and targeted white bass using spinning rod equipped with 3/8 oz. slabs and Hazy Eye Stinger hooks, and did well.
WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, 03 May 2018
HOW WE FISHED: The hybrid bite was more short-lived this morning than over the past 3 mornings. The weather was also more turbulent, and the winds were higher, as well. We picked up a number of nice fish very quickly at our first stop on a deep breakline, but, after one run of about 35 minutes, the fish cooled off and we never really got back on the hybrid prior to the wind increasing to a level at which I was no longer comfortable keeping 4 clients out in the midst of, so, we moved to the protection of a tributary. Although there was enough wind to move the water in our new location, we never found a concentration of legal-sized hybrid and wound up finishing out the trip by vertically jigging for white bass. Even the white bass were a bit finicky, however. When sonar revealed a group of fish which I deemed large enough to jig for, I’d Spot Lock on top of them, we’d then catch 3-4 fish and then they would just quit, despite still being plainly present on sonar. This was not just a one-time occurrence, rather, this exact scenario played out 8 or 9 times as I made that many stops just to keep us on top of biting fish.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) The grey clouds, balmy overnight temperatures, and southerly winds really activated the fish today for a forth day in a row. 2) There was a decent run of shad at both areas “Shad 14” and at “Shad
TALLY: 61 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 12:30p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F
Water Surface Temp: 68.3F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12-15
Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds with occasional light drizzle
Water Level: 2.30 feet low and slowly falling
GT = 60
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1541 – legal hybrid with a few other smaller fish mixed in as we fished live shad
**Area vic 717 – deep, heavily congregated white bass taken at a moderate pace on slabs
**Area vic 2027 – white bass on shad
**Area B0080C – white bass on slabs
**Area B0085C to B0086C – white bass on slabs with multiple short hops between these two points
**Area vic B0066C – white bass on 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
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