Day: March 14, 2014

Belton Turned On!! Spring Break Trip #5, 108 Fish, 13 March 2014

by Bob Maindelle

This afternoon I fished with the Newsome and Mitchell families of Central Texas and enjoyed what was my most productive fishing trip of the year thus far as we boated exactly 108 fish on Belton Lake this afternoon.
 

Charles took “high stick” honors tonight with this 24.5″, 6.5 pound hybrid striped bass taken on a slab in 35 feet of water.

Everyone shared in the catching this evening as the fish really put on the feedbag around 5:15pm and fed well until after sunset around 7:40p.  L to R: Jacob Mitchell, David Mitchell, Gladys Newsome, and Charles Newsome.

We worked through a very slow first 90 minutes, only boating 3 fish with 2 downriggers and 2 flatlines set out.  I noted the water was a bit off-colored in this area due to high winds yesterday, so, we moved on to clearer water and fared much better when we did.

Our first success came at Area 1356.  I noted some birds working over this area on Tuesday evening but couldn’t find what they were interested in.  Thinking that the feed there may have just wrapped up, I went there a bit earlier this evening and was glad to find tightly bunched white bass and short hybrids mixed together right on the bottom and ready to eat.  The water here was the highest I’ve encountered thus far this year — 55.7F.  This, plus a nice mild southerly breeze which began around noon, kicked things into high gear.  Most of the fish here were smallish, but the action was steady, so, we stuck with these fish as long as they bit us.  We boated over 70 fish from this roughly 30′ x 30′ area — amazing!

Around 6:50pm we noted a concentration of gulls getting “antsy” in the vicinity of Area 1357.  We poked around for about 10 minutes waiting to see if anything was going to coalesce out of this activity.  Well, it did!!  We put a final 30+ fish in the boat at this area, including our largest hybrid of the trip, a 6.5 pounder boated by the patriarch, Mr. Charles!  The average white bass caught here was substantially larger than at the site of our first success.   By the time dark was falling, we’d boated exactly 108 fish.


TALLY = 108 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 3:15p
End Time: 7:50p
Air Temp: 65F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 55.7F 
Wind: S10-12
Skies: Cloudless fair skies.
Other Notes: GT15

Areas Fished with success:

**  Vertical jigging/easing/smoking at Areas 1356 &1357






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

SKIFF Trip 2014 #2, (& Spring Break Trip #4), Stillhouse, 12 Fish, 13 March

by Bob Maindelle

This morning two brave young Americans ventured out with me on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir in the post-frontal 36 degree calm to do some hand-to-fin combat while enjoying some Spring Break downtime.  David and Matthew Macy are the sons of Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CW4) Rob Macy and his wife, Monica.  CW4 Macy is currently serving in Afghanistan with the 3-227 Aviation unit
 

David (L) and Matthew (R) enjoyed a free fishing trip today courtesy of the Fort Hood SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) program.

This trip was provided free of charge the the Macy family by the Austin Fly FIshers and SKIFF program supporters who donate money and raise funds to keep this program effective.  SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun.  Under the SKIFF program, any military child separated from his or her parent due to that parent’s military duty qualifies for a free, 4 hour fishing trip by boat.  Such duty can be something as extensive as a deployment or unaccompanied tour, to something more short-term like a trip to NTC, JRTC, or gunnery.

Today, we had the toughest weather conditions of the entire Spring Break week in the morning hours.  It was calm, clear, and cold, and we had a setback in the water temperature which had almost crossed the 55F mark as Tuesday came to a close and before Wednesday’s terrific wind and cold drop things back a bit.

Regardless, the boys hung tough with me and we wound up boating 12 white bass together this morning.  Our first 9 fish came in 15-17 feet of water as we cast Cicada bladebaits for white bass feeding on a mid-depth flat.  We missed our first 3 hooked fish as we worked out some “rookie issues” of how to fight a fish and what to do once the fish is boatside, but, once that learning curve was cleared, the boys landed every other fish that we hooked.

After these fish settled down, we expanded our coverage of this flat by downrigging with tandem-rigged Pet Spoons, adding 2 more fish to our count.

Our last fish came on a vertically jigged slab spoon from out of 27 feet of water adjacent to the river channel.

I had a follow on trip this afternoon on Belton, and, when I returned, here is the very nice note I found waiting for me from Monica:

Bob,
Thank you so much, for taking David and Matthew out fishing. I
hope they were good for you! They really enjoyed the trip and were super
exited to tell their Dad all about it.
They really needed some time “alone” without me or the twins bugging them! 🙂
Again THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Monica

So, in turn, I thank all of you SKIFF supporters for allowing this trip to happen!!


TALLY = 12 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:45a
End Time: 11:50a
Air Temp: 36F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 53-54F 
Wind: NW2-4
Skies: Bluebird, post-frontal skies
Other Notes: GT0

Areas Fished with success:

**   1350/1 – horizontal work with bladebaits + downrigging
**   1358 – vertical jigging






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas