Brace Up!! — 37 Fish — Belton Hybrid Fishing, 27 May 2013






This morning I fished with a very nice family from Grandview, TX.


(L to R) TJ, Carly, and Thomas with a “triple” … 3 fish all boated just seconds apart on 3 of the 4 downlines we had baited with live shad.


TJ lips our largest fish of the trip — a nice, healthy 4.25 pound hybrid striped bass.

TJ is an airman in the U.S. Air Force and is currently station at Ft. Hood where he is in the 3rd year of his first 4 year enlistment. He brought along his wife, Carly, and his dad, Thomas. At home pulling babysitting duty for their 2 month old was Thomas’ wife, “Grandma”.

Today’s bite was an early one and a quick one. We had lines in the water by 6:30a and caught 29 of our 37 fish by 8:00am. Of these 29 fish, 24 were keeper hybrid striped bass up to 4.25 pounds, 2 were short hybrid, 2 were blue cat, and we had one token white bass to round it out. These fish were caught to the NNE of Area 835 in about 40 feet of water. I used shad of all sizes to see if the fish had a preference, but today size really didn’t seem to matter.

TJ and his dad had done some other hybrid striped bass and full-blood striped bass fishing before. As Thomas watched TJ get a run for his money while battling our largest fish of the trip (a 4.25 pounder) he said, “Man, you know that’s a good fish on there when you need to brace up to fight him!” And he was right. Fishing even 4 lines over the 19 foot length of the boat can be a challenge when multiple, large fish strike simultaneously. Keeping the fish out of the trolling motor, outboard, and adjacent lines is no easy thing, especially when you are not used to fighting such powerful fish as these.

By 8:30 the bite was slowing down to nothing but blue cat taking and damaging more baits than swallowing them deeply enough to be hooked, and the wind began to be an issue. Waves are manageable, but swells make the bait rod tips wag up and down, thus very unnaturally moving the live bait and often wearing the bait out quickly rendering it much less effective than under calmer conditions.

We “spot hopped” both around Area 835 and then beyond, but found little in the way of interested fish. Increased boat traffic in conjunction with the Memorial Day Weekend put some extra boats on the lake, many of which were also live shad fishing. As I observed, I saw very few hybrid landed after that 8:30a time frame.

To try to escape the wind, we holed up at Area 536 for a while and fished a combination of live shad and slabs in 37-42 feet of water. We managed to catch 1 additional hybrid, 1 largemouth bass and 6 white bass here over the next ~2 hours, but it was pretty slow fishing.

By 11:45 the bite had ground to a halt, the wind was gusting to ~17-19 mph and the recreational traffic was really picking up, so, we decided to call it a day right there.

TJ and Thomas had been out with other guides in other parts of the country, namely on Lake Ouachita in Arkansas after large full-blood stripers, but they kindly pointed out that this was their most productive guided trip in terms of both quality and quantity. I always enjoy being a part of “personal bests” for folks, and, thankfully, this was another one of those experiences.


TALLY = 37 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 71F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 74.5F

Wind: Winds were ~12-16mph from the SE.

Skies: Skies were fully clouded over (100%) but still bright.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








The Queen of Cats and the King of Stats — 59 Fish — Belton Hybrid Fishing, 23 May 2013






This afternoon I welcomed John and Kelly M., and their son, Matthew aboard for their 8th outing with me.


Hybrid seemed to perk up first at each area we fished, beating the bluecats to our baits. This was our first hybrid of the evening. It struck before we could get our other 3 rods in the water.


Kelly nicknamed herself “The Catfish Queen” and rightly so, as her catch of catfish far exceeded the ratio of catfish to hybrid caught by Matthew or John. Queen or not, she also boated our largest hybrid weighing in at 5.25 pounds.


Our conditions were favorable — a light wind with a southerly component and cloud cover — so I was hopeful that we’d be able to put together a good trip today.

Afternoon trips targeting hybrid striped bass on Belton using live shad have produced a mix of hybrid and blue catfish lately, with afternoon trips seeing a higher percentage of the catch consisting of catfish in the mix (which I cannot yet explain). Today’s trip was to be no exception. Of the 59 fish we boated, we had a nearly 50/50 split of legal hybrid stripers and catfish.

We fished two areas today. We began at Area 835 and stayed in that general vicinity the entire trip, save the last 30 minutes. We noted a definite trend as we “spot hopped” a few yards N, E, S or W to get on “fresh fish” after catching several fish from a given area and then seeing the bite’s intensity drop off. That trend was that most of the hybrid stripers we caught during a given stop would typically strike first (meaning before the catfish) and very soon after we initially placed our baits near bottom. If we stayed any length of time, our catch of catfish would increase and trend eventually to nearly 100% catfish. I attribute this to the catfishes’ attraction to scent — the longer we remained in an area, the more the scent of our baits and chum would mix in the water thus attracting more catfish from downwind (that’s my theory, anyway).

The action was steady and moderate for the entire afternoon. Matthew, who has a penchant for statistics, kept me honest making sure I had clicked my fish counter for each and every fish that came aboard.

Due to an unusually cool late spring, our water surface temperatures are still depressed a bit over a “normal” year, hence, I’ve seen very little topwater action so far this season. As we were e-anchored over one particular area, a school of feeding fish erupted on the surface within a cast’s distance away. John fired a cast with a topwater bait out in a timely manner, but, the fish has already sounded and he did not hook up. This lasted all of 15 seconds.

Our bite at Area 835 lasted right up until nearly dark (with a cloud-obscured sunset). Once it ended, we had a very brief window in which I felt we may be able to connect with some white bass and/or hybrids feeding near the surface in the vicinity of Area 1207. We got over there, got downriggers in to cover some ground quickly and pulled up one white bass on a ball set at 23 feet. By this time, the cloud cover took the light level down beyond the fishes’ preferred level, and the bite was over for the night.

Our total catch came to 59 fish tonight, consisting of 1 white bass, 2 channel catfish, 2 short hybrid stripers, and a roughly 50/50 split on the remaining 54 fish between blue catfish and legal hybrid striped bass. Our largest hybrid pulled the scale down to 5.25 pounds. The blue cat ranged from 11 to 18 inches.

TALLY = 59 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp: 82F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 74.5F

Wind: Winds were ~8-10mph from the SSE.

Skies: Skies were fully clouded over (100%) bust still bright.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Belton Lake Hybrid Striper Fishing Guide Report, 22 May 2013, 35 Fish






This morning I welcomed Keller M. and his father-in-law, Bill, aboard.


Keller (L) and Bill (R) with a pair of fish caught early on while the patchy fog was still not yet cleared off.

This 4.25 pound hybrid striped bass of Keller’s would be our largest fish caught on this outing.

Keller is an anesthesiologist with 28 years of service at Scott and White in Temple, and Bill, an Austinite, is now retired from Texas Instruments and dabbles in British antiques with his wife.


Our conditions this morning were a bit tough — calm and bright — following last night’s storm passage that dropped 0.6 to 0.9 inches of rain area-wide and cooled us off a bit.


All but one of our fish were caught in the first 3 hours of the trip (and the majority of those came in the first 2 of those 3 hours) while the sun’s angle was lower and the little wind that did blow today was moving the water.


We caught fish at both Area 835 and Area 1209 on live shad in 38-40 feet of water.


At both areas, the fish first presented on sonar in a feeding posture, up 12-18 inches off bottom and with multiple fish showing at each location. At both areas we drew a response from the fish within minutes of getting positioned over top of them and getting baits adjusted to within 2 feet above them. The problem was (as is typical in weather conditions like this) that the first few fish to perk up and feed did not begin a “chain reaction” causing other schoolmates to become competitive and begin feeding as well. Instead, we picked up fish one at a time, albeit consistently.


Under breezier, cloudier conditions it is not uncommon to have 3 – 4 baited rods go down simultaneously as a school of hybrid gets aggressive. By comparison, we only had one instance this morning where 2 rods were down at the same time, otherwise, it was one rod at a time.


Despite the fishes’ lackadaisical attitude, we still managed to boat some very nice fish today, including 4 fish over 4 pounds, with the largest of the bunch landed by Keller. That fish went right at 4.25 pounds (pictured above).


I used smaller shad today as a hedge against the tough bite and this paid off well for us. We missed very few hybrid, if any, and were able to convert many of the blue catfish bites into landed fish, as well.


From 10am on, we landed only one more catfish — a channel cat.


Bill stated it well quoting a Mexican guide he’d fished with who understood the predictability of a midday lull — “We can fish at midday and not catch fish, or we can nap at midday and not catch fish.”


We decided by 11:15, that either lunch or a nap was definitely in order, as the fishing had definitely ended.


TALLY = 35 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 59F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 72-73F

Wind: Winds were <3mph from the SSE.
Skies: Skies had patches of fog at sunrise, clearing quickly thereafter to clear blue.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Hail, Alma Mater dear! — A West Point connection on SKIFF Trip 2013-7, 17 May 2013, 25 Fish







Hudson, Daniel, and Samuel all hooked up early on blue catfish.


Later, as the light level decreased, all the boys hooked up on hybrid, as well. Daniel was the last to “smell victory” on the hybrid.

The S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) Program exists to take the children of deployed or deceased soldiers on fishing trips at no charge to the soldiers’ families as a way of showing our support for our troops and providing a respite for their spouses. The following is a note to SKIFF supporters about this most recent outing…

Friday, 17 May, 2013

This afternoon I welcomed aboard Mike Raymo of the West Point Class of 1999, his two boys, Hudson and Samuel, as well as Daniel Fenske, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Brad Fenske of the West Point Class of 1997. Mike and Brad got to know one another while Mike was still on active duty in Germany. After getting out of the Army, the two families stayed in touch. Brad is now deployed to Afghanistan as a Military Intelligence officer, so, Mike saw this as a great opportunity to take lemons and make some lemonade. He paid the way for his own boys to come out, thus allowing Daniel to be accompanied for and have transportation to his SKIFF trip.

We had to really work for the hybrid striped bass we caught today. It seemed every single place we stopped (many of which have really been cranking out the hybrids lately), we’d immediately encounter blue catfish which are certainly fun to catch, but they often short-strike on the large live baits we intended for hybrid, leaving you with a sense of disappointment when you rod goes down, the reel’s bait clicker sounds, and you only come up with a mangled bait to show for it. Hudson and Samuel had been out with me previously when they accompanied another young man (Luis K.) on a SKIFF trip while his dad was deployed. During that trip, we boated a bunch of white bass, so, this trip I wanted to introduce some variety on both methods and species, hence, we targeted hybrid stripers.

We fished our first four areas (Areas 835, 344, 935, and 151) and encountered the same blue catfish “issue” at each locale. We put 11 blue catfish and 1 white bass in the boat, but didn’t stay long at any of these areas once we realized what we were into and started losing a lot of baits to these blues. Finally, at Area 151, we saw more promising tell-tale signs of active hybrid — long streaking arches with colorful returns on the sonar screen, and in small groups indicating schooling/feeding activity. We got baits down, picked up two hybrid right away and missed a third — then the cats came. Time to move!

Our last stop (and the one in which the light level decreased at the greatest rate) was our most productive stop for hybrid. At Area 1208, as we motored in slowly, we could see fish beginning to move upward towards the failing light and suspending anywhere from 8 to 14 feet beneath the surface. With our four downlines, we staggered our baits accordingly — at 8, 12, 13, and 14 feet, and as soon as we got settled in the rods started going down. We added a final 7 hybrid stripers and 2 white bass to the count for a grand total of 25 fish on the day.

At one stop along the way, a ski boat equipped with more audio gear than a Rolling Stones concert venue came near us (about a quarter mile away, but it seemed SO much closer!). We could very clearly hear the song selection — “Flight of the Valkyries” of Apocalypse Now fame by Wagner. So naturally, with 2 West Pointers and 3 soldiers’ sons on board, lines from the movie and humorous adaptations of the same began being bandied about such as, “I love the smell of dead shad in the evening … I reminds me of hybrid!” And so it went (downhill!).

At the beginning of the trip I took the time to explain to Daniel about how SKIFF is supported by the Austin Fly Fishers and other friends of SKIFF from all over the country, and how our intention is to let soldiers like his dad know we appreciate their service, and desire to honor that by doing what we can to make a difficult situation more bearable.

Thank you for your ongoing support of SKIFF and the soldiers and families SKIFF serves.

–Bob Maindelle


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time: 8:40p

Air Temp: 82F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~69.5F

Wind: Winds were SSE15-16.

Skies: Skies were fair until 6p, then a thin veil of grey, high clouds spinning off a thunderstorm to the west covered over through sunset.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








“Don’t Click Your Chickens …” 17 May 2013, Belton Lake Hybrid Fishing, 71 Fish






This morning’s trip was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip specifically for children. I was joined by 4 year old Ry, his 6 (and three-quarters) year old brother, Jack, and the boys’ dad, Leigh Eidson.


Jack’s fish-fighting prowess shone through this morning. He battled double-digits of keeper hybrid this morning and made things easy on the net man (that’d be me).



Once he warmed up to the whole thing, Ry held his own in the hybrid department as well, actually boating our largest fish of that species this morning.


Back in the winter I was contacted by Mr. Bill Schaffer who is part of the Episcopal Church in Temple, TX. He was organizing a fundraiser for the Christ Church School there and asked if I could contribute to that effort in the way of a donated fishing trip. Long story short, Leigh and his boys “bid” on the trip during the silent auction and wound up coming out with me today. Leigh, a heart-surgeon-in-training, and his wife, Kristy, have the boys enrolled at the Christ Church School.

The conditions were just right today with grey cloud cover, a manageable S to SSW wind, and threadfin shad still in spawning mode.

We found it necessary to fish only two areas today, and the second area was only as a matter of offering variety. Truth be known, we could have stayed at just one location for 4+ hours and continued catching fish as the bite was just that solid this morning.

As we began at Area 835, I explained the basics to both boys. Jack seemed quite eager, and Ry a little uncertain about the whole thing. We got exactly one rod baited and set with a live shad and, before we could even think about getting another line prepared, the first rod went down — a nice hybrid striped bass to start the day! Well, that continued for our first 35 minutes. We literally fished one rod for over half an hour as the fish just immediately attacked every bait we lowered among them. Jack caught most of these single-handedly as Leigh was having to work to convince Ry that this was actually a safe and positive form of recreation.

Finally, we got a second rod in the water. By that time, as often happens in bait fishing, some blue catfish began to move in on our spread. I found that most of the blues were near bottom and that the hybrid striper were much more willing to rise up in the water column for our baits. So, I set cutbait down within 18″ of the bottom to offer a smaller, “Ry-friendly” alternative for him, while keeping lively live baits swimming well off the bottom for Jack to have fun with. By 10am, we’d worked out a very good system to allow both boys to enjoy the day and, as a result, had amassed a catch of 48 fish up to that point.

As the bite began to soften with the brightening sun and late hour, I offered that we could go and attempt to vertical jig for white bass using slabs. I explained to Leigh what this would involve. He felt that he could work with Ry to be successful, so, I would work with Jack to do the same. Off we went to the vicinity of Area 1204. We found some tightly bunched white bass right on bottom in ~47 feet of water and began working our slabs. Over the next hour, we boated exactly 21 white bass and 2 more hybrid striped bass on the trusty TNT180 slabs in both white and silver.

One humorous episode took place as Ry was reeling in one of his catfish. I keep a “clicker” counter, similar to the ones used by stadium personnel to count attendees, to keep a very exact count of how many fish we boat on a given trip. Today I let the boys click the clicker for each fish they landed. As Ry was bringing in his catfish, Jack reached out toward my lanyard to click the counter. I told him we needed to wait until the fish was in the net. I then said, “We can’t count our chickens before they hatch.” I then explained the analogy. In trying to made doubly sure that he “got it”, Jack repeated back to me, “Okay, so you can’t click your chickens …”. Leigh and I both chuckled at that one!

I couldn’t have asked for a better trip for two boys this age. Bill Schaffer, thanks for including me in your fundraiser each year, and Bill Pasko, thanks for helping make sure we had enough bait to go around. I appreciate both of you fellows.


TALLY = 71 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 69.5F

Wind: Winds were S to SSW10-12 for the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were overcast and grey until 9am, transitioning to blue and fair with 30% cloud cover.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Lucky 13!! – Live Shad Fishing on Belton Lake, 65 Fish, 14 May 2013






This afternoon I welcomed aboard Jim S. and his daughter, Shena. This father-daughter pair has been out with me on 12 other occasions, fishing in all seasons, in all weather, and with all tactics in pursuit of both white bass and hybrids striped bass.


Jim and Shena hold two of quite a number of fish we boated today that weighed in between 4 and 5 pounds.

Today, we gunned for hybrid stripers using live shad — trip # (Lucky) 13!! The wind looked “iffy” for us right up to the last minute. The forecast was for winds up to S17, and they did get that high from ~1:00p-3:15p, but then settled back to a more manageable S14-16 as if on cue, right before launch time (Thank you, Lord — really.).

We headed out to Area 835 and found feeding hybrid stripers pursuing shad up off bottom as we motored over the area, so, we buckled down on top of these fish and quickly got both bait and chum down to hold the fish that were already there, and attract others from around the vicinity.

We encountered a solid 2 hours of fast and furious hybrid fishing, boating a total of 48 fish during that timespan. Then, at around 6p, the bite let up quite quickly, and our catch began to transition to a heavy mix of blue catfish, with only occasional hybrid mixed in.

We moved away from the blue cat and sampled Area 498. We picked up 2 more hybrid, then here came the blue cat.

We moved again to Area 953. Same thing, 2 hybrid, 1 white bass, and more blue cat.

Don’t get me wrong — there is nothing wrong with blue cat. They fight well, but, they have an annoying habit of killing a live shad by biting the tail end and avoiding capture. Cut bait is the way to go in such situations, but, when I know full well that hybrid are available and biting, I’d just as soon leave the cats alone and shoot for the bruisers.

It was now around 7:30p and we had about an hour of fishing light left. The deeper waters we’d been fishing (35-40 feet) were getting awful dim by now, so, we moved up shallow to take advantage of the still-bright conditions there. We encountered one final school of smaller (just legal and sub-legal fish) suspended at between 13-17 feet down over a 26 foot bottom. We suspended our baits appropriately and boated another 11 hybrid stripers prior to dark.

Jim sent me a note the following morning saying (as others have after an aggressive hybrid bite), “As we got out of the car last night, Shena stated that she was sore from fishing – although not complaining, of course. This [morning] she and I are both feeling the effects of battling those big hybrids.”

Jim then added, “Thanks for another great trip! This one contained, as you pointed out, the best 2 hours of fishing of any trip – and the trip overall was a high quality experience. Shena and I enjoyed it throughout. Struggling with the hybrids caused me to wonder a couple of times as to who was catching whom.”

Such comments are very satisfying to me — to know that the staying up late and/or getting up early to catch bait, to scout on your off days to keep abreast of fish location, and to do the little extra things like changing line and leaders regularly, sharpening hooks, checking on bait quality, etc., all pay off for a quality experience for quality people.

TALLY = 65 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time: 8:40p

Air Temp: 82F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 68-70F

Wind: Winds were S16, tapering down to S13 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were blue and fair with 40% cloud cover.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Belton’s Hybrid Bite Still Going Strong — 108 Fish, 14 May 2013






I ran a father-son trip this morning with returning guests David and Sean F. Our target species this morning was hybrid striped bass.


Sean (L) and David (R) with 4 hybrid we boated within minutes of one another when all 4 of our bait rods were struck simultaneously by an aggressive school of hybrid striper. That largest fish of David’s measured 22 7/8″ and weighed in at 5 1/8 pounds .

David is a local heart doctor and Sean is a 3rd year college student home on a visit from the Raleigh/Durham, NC, area. Both had been out with me in different seasons on Stillhouse in pursuit of white bass, so, this was a new kind of fishing for the both of them.

The annual threadfin shad spawn is still going on, making the use of live shad a solid choice for the hybrid. The bite was strong this morning, and we were fortunate to find fish early on in the morning, so we maximized our catching time by minimizing our search time.

From ~7:15a to 10:00am we sat atop Area 835 and boated exactly 79 fish, of which 55 were legal (18″ and greater) hybrid striped bass, with short hybrid, white bass, and blue cat filling out the balance. Our largest fish measured 22 7/8″ and went right at 5 1/8 pounds.

By 10am, the fish were still biting well, just not as aggressively as during the nice nearly 3 hour run we’d just experienced. I gave the fellows two options: 1) keep right on doing what we were doing, or 2) go in search of some schooled white bass and add some variety to the mix by vertically jigging for that species. They voted for what was behind Door #2, so, off we went in search of variety.

If you’ve read my blog long enough, you know I’m an advocate of “Don’t leave fish to find fish,” but, the boys had witnessed all those hybrid had to offer and plenty of it, so, we felt that if we didn’t boat another fish, we would still have had an awesome day on the water.

Fortunately, we located some deep white bass at 48 feet on top of Area 1204 and worked up 27 white bass and 2 hybrid stripers on 3/4 oz. TNT 180 slabs in both white and silver, so, we got to experience the best of both worlds by rolling the dice a bit.

This was by far both men’s most productive day on the water. It is always a pleasure to guide people to “personal bests” as we encountered today.

TALLY = 108 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 65F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 67-68F

Wind: Winds were S to SSW1-12 for the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were blue and fair with 30% cloud cover.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








SKIFF Trip #2013-6 — 11 May 2013, Fishing Stilhouse Hollow with Zoe & Mason







Zoe with 1 of 4 large white bass she caught tonight.


Mason, with 1 of 4 large white bass he caught tonight.

The S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) Program exists to take the children of deployed or deceased soldiers on fishing trips at no charge to the soldiers’ families as a way of showing our support for our troops and providing a respite for their spouses. The following is a note to SKIFF supporters about this most recent outing…

Friday, 11 May, 2013

This evening I welcomed aboard 7 year old Zoe Leonard and 6 year old Mason Andrade. Zoe is the daughter of Specialist and Mrs. Daniel Leonard of Ft. Hood. Daniel has been deployed to Iraq twice, is currently on a 1 month assignment to the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, LA, and will then deploy to Afghanistan this summer. Mason is the son of Staff Sergeant and Mrs. Jason Andrade of Ft. Hood. Jason has been deployed three times and is currently at a 2 month long school at Ft. Jackson, SC, preparing him for recruiting duty.

As we met at the Cedar Gap Park boat ramp on Stillhouse, the weather was bright and warm with a mild breeze. The weather radar showed a line of storms way out by Abilene moving slowly enough not to threaten our fishing, so, off we went in search of fish.

I realized I made a “tactical error” in dealing with a 6 and 7 year old in “going fast” (34 mph) from place to place as I checked several areas for fish. The “going fast” fast became the centerpiece of the trip, rather than the fishing as I intended, but, as long as the mom’s got a 4 hour break and we caught at least a few fish, I’d be okay with that!!

We only fished one area tonight, that was Area 074, but, we fished it 3 times! As we first arrived, I could see a few fish hanging along the breakline. Due to the unstable weather we were experiencing, I decided to hedge our bet with live bait today. So, we used a “Carolina Rig”-style setup with circle hooks baited with live shad to tempt whatever swam beneath us. On our first attempt, we drew an immediate response, and both kids caught a fish within minutes of our arrival. Then the inevitable question, “Mr. Bob, when are we going to go fast again?”. Well, I talked them into holding off until they’d each caught one more fish. For better or worse, that took about 57 seconds!! Now, I had to make good on my promise, so, in came the baits, up came the trolling motor and off we went to “go fast” for a bit.

Soon, we were right back on top of Area 074 with the same rigs still fishing for the same cluster of white bass. In trying to prolong our stay during this visit, I had the kids get their own baits out of the tank, and lower their own lines to the bottom. Good thing, too, because the next two fish took fully 58 seconds to bite! We brought these fish in, left the lines out of the water, placed the fish in the “revival tank” and prepared to take the photos you see above. Next, we had snacks, and, as soon as snacks were done — “Mr. Bob, can we go fast again??”.

Up came the trolling motor and off we went for another spin! Soon, we were right back on top of Area 074. You guessed it — same rigs, same fish, same routine, and, in about 4 minutes’ time, two more white bass came flopping over the side.

By this time, our skies had begun to turn ugly. I whipped out my iPhone and checked the weather radar to find that convective thunderstorms had begun popping up to the north and west of us nearby. I told the kids we’d better be safe than sorry (and explained that in terms a 6 and 7 year old could understand). We brought the gear in and I motored (more slowly now because I realized I’d have to creatively come up with something for the kids to do until pickup time since fishing was quickly moving off the table as an option) back to the ramp. We’d boated 8 fish while consuming 8 gallons of gas (not quite, but almost)!

I had the kids participate in a very hands-on way in all of the steps of re-loading the boat onto the trailer. As I secured everything for travel, I instructed the kids to get in the cab of the truck after hearing the first rumble of distant thunder and seeing some distant lightning to the northwest. When I made it into the cab, I was pleasantly surprised to see the kids already buckled in. I complimented them on having great “initiative”. They both looked at me for an explanation on what initiative was. I told them initiative is doing something that you know needs to be done BEFORE anyone has to tell you to do it. Only then did they smile, realizing I had complimented them.

I contacted moms to make sure we were okay to seek refuge at the Maindelle household. I then contacted Mrs. Maindelle to make sure we were okay to seek refuge at the Maindelle household. I got 3 thumbs up so, off we went. It was now about 7:15, and I’d need to come up with at least an hour’s entertainment which I was confident Buddy and Pumpkin (America’s greatest mutts) could provide at least 45 minutes of.

Well, we played with the dogs and snacked and colored and told stories and picked wildflowers and made a special video for all of you which, if the electrons all line up, I hope you’ll find attached!

We had a very fun time, got the kids’ minds off missing daddies for a while, and gave a bit of a break to two moms who could use it. No, we didn’t just slay the fish tonight, but, as you all know there is more to fishing than just catching fish (I can’t believe I just wrote that — I must be getting soft).

Thank you all, Friends of SKIFF, for greasing the skids to allow nights like this to happen for kids like Zoe and Mason.

–Bob Maindelle


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time: 7:30p

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~68.5F

Wind: Winds were E8-9.

Skies: Skies were grey.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








They Should Write a Song About This!! — 81 Fish, Belton Hybrid Fishing Guide Report, 09 May 2013






This morning I fished Belton Lake with returning guests Joe O., Eddie D., and Larry H. Our target species was hybrid striped bass caught using live shad.


L to R — Joe, Eddie, and Larry. That fish of Eddie’s was our largest fish of the trip, a 25.5 inch, 7.50 pound hybrid. It is also the 2nd largest hybrid a client of mine has ever boated. Congratulations!!


I had a really good feeling about today. Today was the day of the new moon, and we had a southerly wind, grey skies, and a weather system headed our way. Any one of those factors can improve hybrid fishing, but, to have them all together was like the “perfect storm”.

We fished only 3 areas in 4 hours and found ample, quality fish at each location. We began our hunt at Area 959 in about 32 feet of water. It was still a bit dark due to the cloud cover and so the fish took a little coaxing to get going, but, once we got some baits and some chum in their vicinity, they were ready to go. We caught a mix of short hybrid, legal hybrid, white bass, and blue catfish here on shad. Most of the hybrid came right away then drifted off leaving only bottom-hugging white bass behind. We began to have a lot of baits killed by the white bass, so, before we left to look for hybrid elsewhere, we did a little vertical jigging until each of the men had caught at least one fish using that technique, just so they had exposure to that and could put it in their own “bag of tricks” in the future when fishing on their own.

We pressed on to Area 683/489 – more keeper hybrid with a few white bass and a few blue cat sprinkled in. We would generally start with our baits near bottom, then, as hybrid struck and were hooked and reeled in, the entire school would rise up off bottom, allowing us to keep our baits suspended up higher and thus cutting down on the amount of baits killed by smaller white bass and blue catfish.

Eddie learned that I’d graduated from West Point, so, he said he’d like to hear a few stories about cadet life if I didn’t mind. As I started to tell one, I’d get a half sentence out and a fish would bite, and so it went to where it took me about 25 minutes to tell a two minute story. Later, we observed that when Eddie told a story (about writing country and gospel songs) the fish did not bite, thus allowing him to tell his stories uninterrupted. Larry tried to piece things together and concluded that Eddie was evidently the better story teller (even the fish were intrigued), but, even so, gave me permission to tell stories any time so long as the fish bit his bait as I did so!! All kidding aside, Eddie had strung together some very thoughtful lyrics which he shared with us as we anticipated our next bite.

Our last bit of success came just before a wind shift which would signal the approach of a storm from the west. We stopped right on top of Area 835 and no sooner did we get our 4th line down than we had a fish on, then another, then another, then another — 4 fish on at the same time! This flurry lasted for about 20 minutes until, very suddenly the wind shifted and the fishing died nearly instantly. One of the fish in that initial frenzy would not only be the largest fish of the trip, but the 2nd largest hybrid striped bass a client has ever landed on my boat. At 25.5 inches and 7.50 pounds, Eddie’s fish qualifies for a TPWD “Big Fish Award” which is an award which recognizes anglers catching quality fish by setting minimum qualifying lengths on a species-by-species basis.


TALLY = 81 fish, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:


Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:15p

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 65.5F

Wind: Winds were SSE8-10 from sunrise until 11:15a, at which time they shifted ENE3-4.

Skies: Skies were heavily overcast the entire trip today as we had active weather in advance of a dryline’s approach which would bring T’storms and 0.8 inch of rain around 2pm.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








One Last Trip with the Good Doctor — 89 Fish, Belton Lake Hybrid Striper Fishing Guide Report






This morning I fished Belton Lake with Ryan S. of Temple, TX. Ryan has been out with me on numerous occasions and is a very good fisherman. We targeted hybrid striped bass today using live threadfin shad as bait.

Ryan holds one just-legal hybrid and a 4.5 pound hybrid caught just seconds apart. These were two of 29 “keeper” (18+ inch long) fish we took during the first two hours following sunrise today.


Ryan is an anesthesiologist by trade and is headed to the new Scott & White facility in Bryan/College Station soon. This was to be our last trip while he’s residing here, so, I wanted it to be a good one.

A strong, late season cold front blew through last Thursday leaving clear, cool, post-frontal conditions in its wake. Still this morning we had light northerly winds, a morning low temperature of 50F, and bright, clear skies until around 9:30am. I found no evidence of spawning shad this morning. Fortunately, I foresaw this situation developing and netted shad in advance of the trip at this time of year when hybrid are so keenly drawn to that bait.


We started off our day near Area 511 where what little wind was blowing was impacting the shoreline. That, plus the presence of some blue herons and some positive returns on sonar made me hopeful. We put 1 short hybrid and 3 white bass in the boat here, but nothing more promising developed, so we continued our search.


Our next stop came at Area 346/086 in about 36 feet of water. The fish we would catch here were not feeding as we idled over top of this area searching for them, but I could see them lying close to bottom on sonar, so, we stopped and made a go of it. We spent about 2 hours here and enjoyed non-stop action for the majority of that time. We fished with 4 downlines and had times when we could only keep 2-3 in the water. During our time at this location, we boated an additional 38 fish, of which 29 were legal sized hybrid striped bass going at least 18 inches. The remainder of our catch consisted of short hybrid, white bass, and a few blue catfish. When the light NW wind stopped blowing, the fishing quickly nosedived. One of the things contributing to our success was Ryan’s ability to quickly fight and land large fish. A quick fight is much less stressful on fish we intend to release, and, a quickly fought fish caught while other fish are biting lets us tend to other downed rods and capitalize on them. Further, a well-controlled fish does not tangle other lines, or get caught in the trolling motor, anchor line, or outboard, thus not costing us valuable time tending to distractions when the fish are in a peak feed. It’s all about making hay while the sun shines when hybrid go on a feed, and with Ryan’s ability to fight and control fish, we were able to maximize our fish catching and minimize distraction.


We left this area behind and continued looking, knowing that the tough weather conditions we now faced were going to make fishing tough no matter where we looked. We ran sonar over a few places and didn’t even see bait at a majority of them. We made a brief stop in the vicinity of Area 212, picked up 2 blue cat out of 45 feet of water and moved on suspecting there was nothing but blue cat there.

When we came upon Area 717, however, the story changed. We saw ample bait down as far as 45 feet and, as we slowed down and watch sonar closely, saw a tightly packed school of white bass on bottom here in about 41 feet of water. We agreed to “adjust fire” from our plans of pursuing hybrid only as we both knew enough about that species to know that the weather conditions staring us in face were among the toughest there are to fish for them. We broke out the sensitive graphite rods, braided line, and TNT180 slabs (3/4 oz. white) and went to work. All said, we boated another 42 fish here on the slabs including a mix of 39 keeper and short white bass, and one 14.5 pound smallmouth buffalo. The white bass responded to a mixture of vertical jigging, easing, slow smoking, and horizontal lift-dropping.


Around 11:15, a light breeze began again out of the WSW accompanied by high, thin grey cloud cover at ~80% coverage. I suggested we give the hybrid on last shot before the traditional mid-day slump kicked in. We searched a good bit of bottom, finally finding some activity at Area 489. We put the boat in a hover, got bait and chum working and, as they often do late in the morning, got some hybrid briefly jazzed. We pulled in two keeper hybrid, one short hybrid, and missed a third all in one flurry and then it was over. One of these three hybrid was our biggest fish of the day weighing in at 5.25 pounds and taping in at 22 7/8″. After that flurry, a few blue cat began to move in on our chum, we boated 2 in quick succession, and, around 12:15p, we decided to call it a day.


TALLY = 89 fish, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:


Start Time: 6:35a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp: 50F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 66.5F

Wind: Winds were light and variable from the NNW0-4 until 11:15a when we saw a light and variable wind from WSW begin.

Skies: Skies were bluebird until 9:30, about the time our light, early morning breeze quit. Skies slowly clouded over to 80% high, thin grey clouds by 11:15a.


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas