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