Fished a half-day morning trip today with father and son team Pitt and Robert G. of Round Rock. The Garrett’s are in the insurance business together and Pitt is a new boat owner. His goal today was to learn to use downriggers.

Pitt came to learn downrigging today and did well by mastering the basics by trip’s end.

Rob holds the largest of our white bass today, 14.75+ inches taken on a Pet / Licker combo

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 12:15pm

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.5F

Wind: Winds were light and variable up through 10:40, when a sustained WNW ripple pushed by a 5-6 mph breeze finally began.

As we began our day I explained a few things at dockside about the day I anticipated: topwater at sunrise followed by downrigging thereafter, and gave the fellows some tips about retrieve methods and speed to help them be successful. The fact that we had absolutely no wind was a big concern. As we searched for topwater action just as the sun rose just to the WSW of Area 062, I found the fish had a “delayed start” versus the past several trips, but finally did feed, albeit fairly lightly, beginning around 7:20. We took only 4 fish on top today. By 8:10 things were quiet here. We went to Area 333 looking for more topwater but found about the same.

At this point it seemed a good time to provided the detailed coaching Pitt desired on downrigging. We began with just one rigger out. I set it and explained each step of the process as I did so. We were blessed to catch a white bass immediately so they could both see what a strike looked like in the rod tip, and so they could then work through re-setting the downrigger themselves. At first, I explained each step again, but, by the end of the trip both fellows were able to get the gear down efficiently and accurately based on where fish showed on sonar. Once we had the basics down and bumped up to two downriggers, we enjoyed some consistent action in the vicinity of Area 480 / 481. It gave up 11 fish in short order but then the bait dissipated and the whites did, too. We then struggled a while as the sun increased in intensity and the surface was mirror slick, catching only 2 more fish over a 55 minute span. We found ample bait with gamefish nearby around Area 444, Area 205, and Area 217, but the fish just refused to turn on.

Around 9:30, a light NW ripple began, so we immediately headed to the south side of the lake where this wind was impacting the most. We looked hard on sonar with riggers down from Area 495 to Area 452 but still came up with nothing. By now, that NW blow had rippled the entire surface of the lake and so, having already identified a number of areas holding bait, we headed back to those areas to see if the wind would spur on some activity. We first checked in the vicinity of Area 444. We found a little better action here, but small fish. We headed to the SSW and finally got into some fish just as they turned on for a about an hour coinciding with the best wind we’d had to that point, a 5-7 mph WNW breeze. From 10:45 to 12:15, at Area 471 / 476 we put the majority of our entire catch in the boat — 29 more fish to be exact — including 4 sets of tandems. During the peak of this activity, some fish were seen chasing shad clear to the surface, although the action was too far dispersed to consider casting to them.

By noon, the wind had slacked back off, the fish were settling down, and Pitt’s back got to hurting a bit from all the bending, reaching, cranking, and reeling that he was doing while going through the downrigging learning curve. At 46 fish boated, we called it a morning and headed for lunch.

TALLY = 46 FISH, all caught and released

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

I was scheduled to fish a half-day evening trip today with a dad and his 11 year old boy, but, as a consequence for something he’d done, the young man lost his privilege to attend, so, I wound up fishing solo a bit unexpectedly this evening.

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time: 8:45pm

Air Temp: 94F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.5F

Wind: Winds were variable today, starting off from the S, then turning N as thunderheads developed with afternoon heating. As the storms passed the winds swung from NE through E, to SE by evening’s end.

I finished the morning trip at Stillhouse and hustled over to Belton (before knowing of the soon-to-be-adjusted plans) in order to scout out some fish for my young guest to catch.

I found bluegill easily taken on the fly near my launch site and put 5 in the boat and left them alone.

I then downrigged from Area 490-491 looking for whites and hybrid. I picked up 2 whites here, but really didn’t find the kind of quantities of bait I like to see, so left this area alone.

I then headed to Area 492 and found some easy bluegill fishing on the fly here, too. Put 5 in the boat and left them alone.

By now it was 3:15 and storms were beginning to pop up. I beached the boat and waited things out until around 4:30 when I got the call about the cancellation. By now the storms had passed and grey skies, and cooler NW winds prevailed.

I looked over the breakline in the vicinity of Area 488 and found the bottom blanketed with bait. The fact that bait was there was good, but the fact that it was not balled up indicated the bait was relaxed. I knew it’d be tough but went ahead and vertical jigged for over an hour here and every once in a while was able to perk up a fish, but the gamefish present were very sluggish. I caught 3 white bass, 2 largemouth, 1 crappie and 4 small blue cats here on blades and slabs.

I then moved to Area 489 and ran the downriggers over some bottom oriented fish here taking 3 whites and another blue cat before the fish thinned out; no bait was present here.

I then downrigged from Area 483 to Area 472 and encountered all small white bass here, boating 3 before moving on after spotting some surface action.

At a stretch of bank from Area 493 to Area 494 fair sized schools of 2-3 year old white bass were surface feeding on 1″+ shad. They readily took a Cork Rig with appropriate trailer and bladebaits as well. Fishing here was easy, and without any other boats nearby. I put 19 fish in the boat over the 25 minutes that these fish stayed active. By 7:35 they were done.

I wound up the evening fishing in a short stretch of water near Area 027. Around 7:45 the sun disappeared for good behind clouds to the west. Fishing stayed slow until actual, albeit obscured, sunset. Then, renewed surface action broke out and stayed minimally visible for about 15 minutes, with fish just popping here and there, not really feeding on the surface. I landed 5 fish via surface and sub-surface retrieves, and then, after dark, got 3 more fish with slow, steady retrieves along bottom, all with a bladebait.



TALLY = 46 FISH, all caught and released

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