WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Memorial Day Monday I fished Lake Belton with Shane McNamara of Georgetown, TX, and his daughter, Grace, from Marble Falls, TX. Shane has been in the insurance business for 25 years and is a great asset to his church’s lay ministry. Grace is working hard in a customer service-oriented job about 6 days per week in the service department of a car dealership and hasn’t taken much downtime, so, she and her dad decided to plan their Memorial Day Monday morning on the water together. The last time I saw Grace was in 2011 when her dad treated her and some of their church staff to an April white bass fishing trip on Stillhouse.
Shane McNamara and his daughter, Grace, with Grace’s first hybrid of the morning taken just after sunrise.
Shane with our largest hybrid of the trip taken around 9:30a on a large piece of cutbait.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: With tough fishing weather (clear skies, light winds) and the hybrid striper bite tapering off from its annual spring peak, we put live baits down for the duration of our trip and came up with a mixed bag of hybrid stripers, white bass, largemouth bass, and blue catfish. We also did a bit of slipfloat fishing for bluecat and a bit of downrigging for schooled, suspended white bass.
WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 28 May 2018
HOW WE FISHED: This morning turned out to be a “cookie cutter” version of Saturday’s trip under similar hot, clear, windless conditions. My plan was to get on an area with both fish and bait present and make the most of the early bite, knowing (based on the forecast which turned out to be spot-on) that the late morning was likely to be very tough. We did exactly that and caught fish slowly but steadily for our first 3 hours, putting 39 fish in the boat, then adding only 3 more fish in the final hour. Live shad of all sizes and cutbait worked well, although smaller and medium sized shad got hit more frequently. We used a slipfloat rig for catching bluecat and we did a bit of downrigging when sonar revealed schooled, suspended white bass as I searched for bottom-oriented fish.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) Area SHAD14 did not produce today. 2) Area SHAD20 produced, but it took about 10-12 throws to get sufficient bait as there was a nearby boat shining lights and running the outboard continuously in shallow water which spooked a lot of shad and made it more laborious netting than it should have been. 3) 82.2 in shallow water on the surface before sunrise means the spawn will not last more than a few more days, if that.
TALLY: 42 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 11:00a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F
Water Surface Temp: 82.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE from 0-3 all morning
Sky Conditions: Fair skies, no clouds
Water Level: 1.78 feet low and slowly falling thanks to evaporation
GT = 10
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic B0084C to B0094C
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@HoldingelleTheLineGuideService.com
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