WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning I fished with a group of six from the Pulte Group out of Austin. To make this trip more enjoyable, we split this party across two boats. I was ably assisted by fellow guide Jason Weisberg of REEL Fishing Guide Service out of Round Rock to accomplish this. My 3-angler party consisted of Nick McIntyre, Tina Cox, and Brian Beil. Jason’s crew consisted of Ricky Guenat, Hampton Haines, and Steve Ashlock. The Pulte Group acquires land and develops it with homes, building under the familiar names of Centex, DelWebb, DiVosta, and John Wieland Homes.
From left: Bryan Beil, Nick McIntyre, and Tina Cox with one of the many hybrid stripers we landed on live shad on what was an early bite this morning. Nick came into the trip with the most prior experience on the boat, having fished for hybrid on Buchanan and on Tawakoni in the past.
Tina Cox had beginner’s luck going for her and caught the largest fish on the boat this morning.
Bryan Beil gives the “thumbs up” on his first hybrid striper of the morning.
Although hybrid stripers were the target species, when fishing live shad, largemouth bass (like this on caught by Steve Ashlock), white bass, crappie, blue catfish, and other species are often caught, as well.
Ricky Guenat grips onto a nice Lake Belton hybrid striper he took on live shad.
Although we didn’t capture any photos of Hampton Haines on this trip, this photo shows him in April 2017 with the (still current) Lake Belton catch-and-release category hybrid striper, which measured 25.75 inches.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: During this trip, we focused on fishing for hybrid striped bass using live shad through 10:15am, we then left about a half hour to fish for white bass, primarily to demonstrate the tactics used for that species at this time of year.
WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 09 May 2018
HOW WE FISHED: Jason and I were both in agreement, based on observations from the past week and a half on the water, that the bite was going to happen early today. We also agreed that splitting up would be best as neither of us has had positive experiences trying to fish groups in close proximity to one another. Our approaches were similar, and our results were similar. Fishing began well right off the bat using live shad on tightlines and stayed strong from 7am to 8:30am. The bite began to decline from 8:30am until around 9:00am, after which it got very tough. Both Jason’s crew and mine finished out our trips (the last 35-45 minutes or so) searching for some white bass to catch, but even that species had quit feeding for the morning. When all was said and done, the Pulte Group team amassed a catch of 94 fish, including approximately 44 hybrid striped bass, and a mixed bag of white bass, largemouth, and blue catfish.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) Early shad spawn around 6a at Areas SHAD 16 & SHAD17
TALLY: 94 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:15a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F
Water Surface Temp: 70.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE<3
Sky Conditions: Cloudless blue sky with the lightest of white haze on occasion
Water Level: 1.98 low and steady.
GT = 195
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1384 – 2 hours of solid hybrid action yielding 49 fish, 30% of which were legal hybrid striped bass, and the balance of which 2-3 year class white bass
**Area 1385 – produced 1 keeper hybrid and 4 whites after the 9am slow down.
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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