Fished a half-day morning trip this morning with Bill (grand-dad), Ricky (dad), and young Tanner.

L to R: Ricky, Tanner, and Bill with a mixed bag of fish taken both on topwater and via downrigger

Ricky with one of several tandem hookups we caught on the Pet / Licker combo. Look closely and you’ll see the line connecting the lures still in the fishes’ mouths

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~83-84F

Wind: Winds were SW at 7 at sunrise.

Skies: We had with some thin grey clouds which cleared by 8:45am. The full moon shone as it set for the first hour of today’s trip.



As we began our day prior to sunrise, I coached Tanner a bit at dockside on the use of a spinning reel. He got the hang of it in about 7 casts, so I game my little safety talk as we motored out of the no-wake zone, and it was off to hunt the fish.

As the sun cleared the low morning clouds, largemouth bass began to feed in schools on the surface between Area 222 and 061 and to the south. We got right on them and stayed on them for just over an hour until they quit around 8:20am. The key to success was quick, accurate casts and a retrieve that kept the lure up in the surface film which the fish were visually oriented to. Bill and Ricky did well in this scenario, but Tanner struggled a bit, so, after the topwater, we rigged up with downriggers so he could catch up a little. We boated 19 largemouth by the time the topwater action died, with several more getting away on the jump.

We then began downrigging. We started off at between Area 222 and 460. Bait was thick on sonar here and the gamefish (white bass and largemouth) were right in the mix with them. We put 12 fish in the boat over the next 30 minutes and slowly saw the bait and the gamefish dissipate.

Next it was on to an expanse of water in the vicinity of Area 205. Here, we found fish very active on and near bottom in 22-24 feet. As the bottom is fairly here, I ran the balls quite close to bottom. Over the next hour plus we boated 16 fish here including 3 tandem catches on the Pet / Licker combo. Most fish were white bass striking the Pet. At one point, when I saw a heavy school of whites right on bottom, I buoyed, backed off, and tried to coach Tanner to catch a few on bladebait. That kind of backfired as I caught 3 fish (2 whites and a drum) while he zeroed … back to downrigging. We left this area once the bait and gamefish thinned out with exactly 50 fish landed.

We looked over Area 452 and Area 197 with sonar and found little.

We wound up the trip at Area 458 after seeing some good sonar returns showing gamefish (without bait nearby) holding tight to the bottom. I got Bill and Ricky up on the casting deck to my left and right and we worked these fish over with bladebaits landing our final 8 fish in about 2 minutes, which included 2 largemouth and 6 whites from out of 24-28 feet.

TALLY = 58 FISH

Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing