Day: March 16, 2014

Austin Stay-cation, 12 Fish, Belton Lake, Spring Break Trip #8, 15 March

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I welcomed Jeffrey and Robyn Knight aboard, along with their two kids, 13 year old Jaelyn, and 10 year old Jace.  The Knight’s live in Georgetown where they make a living in the irrigation industry.
 

Everyone was all smiles when daddy pulled in this 8.25 pound yellow cat that grabbed his jigging spoon for breakfast in about 20 feet of water.

And everyone was all smiles again when gripping onto their “family photo fish” after enduring a downpour on our way back to the boat ramp. L to R: Jaelyn, Jeffrey, Robyn, and Jace.

You could tell this was a close-knit family right from the time they walked from their vehicle, down the boat ramp, to where I was waiting at the water’s edge to start our trip.  First of all, they were all doing something together as a family, dad had is arm around mom as they walked down to the boat, and the little brother and big sister who were 3 years apart were actually speaking with one another!

Come to find out, mom (Robyn) had planned out a local family adventure for every day of the week of this Spring Break, so, I was honored to be a part of that plan and a part of strengthening the bonds of an already strong family.

Over the course of the week the Knight’s had ventured to the Austin Junk Cathedral, to scenic Mount Bonnell overlooking the Colorado River, to TopGolf (a modern twist on the driving range), and, later this evening, indoor skydiving!!!

Our fishing was tough today.  We had a wet east wind to start off with, followed by fog that came and went and some extended periods of calm.  After last night’s bird extravaganza, this was a bit of a let down as we never saw a single bird this morning dip to the water’s surface after bait.

We searched far and wide and burnt a lot of gasoline and, in the end, picked up exactly 12 fish, so, at least everyone got to get their string stretched a few times this morning.  With what I figured is her typical positive outlook on things, Robyn said, “Well, that’s 12 more fish than we would have caught sitting at the house!”.   Well said!!

We caught quite the mixed bag of fish even if we didn’t catch a boatload of them.  In fact, our first 5 fish consisted of 5 different species: white bass, hybrid striped bass, yellow catfish, freshwater drum, and largemouth bass.

We used primarily jigging, downrigging, and flatline trolling to land the fish we caught this morning.

Jigging accounted for 7 fish, the downriggers for 3, and the flatlines for 2.

It was a joy to have this family on my boat!!


TALLY = 12 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:50a
End Time: 12:15p
Air Temp: 60F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 55F 
Wind: S8-10
Skies: Heavy overcast and fog to the point of light drizzle late in the morning
Other Notes: GT0

Areas Fished with success:

**   1000/1077 Jigging
**   1000/1010 Flatlines and Downrigging
**   1009/327 Jigging
**   691/369 Flatlines and Downrigging






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

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

They Got it “Wright”! — 54 Fish on Belton, Spring Break Trip #7

by Bob Maindelle

This evening I welcomed Curtis Wright aboard, accompanied by his father, Dale, and his son, Joshua.  Dale is in Texas for a Spring Break visit from Utah where he makes a living remodeling homes.
 

The Wright boys definitely got it “wright” tonight, racking up an impressive catch of 54 fish consisting mainly of white bass taken on jigging spoons.  From L to R:  Joshua, Dale, and Curtis.

This was Curtis’ fourth trip out with me, Joshua’s second, and Dale’s first.  All previous trips have been on Stillhouse, so fishing Belton offered a change of scenery and a shot at some hybrid stripers.

Over the past several days the first ninety minutes of the afternoon trips have been pretty quiet, and, today pretty much followed that trend.  We boated a few fish by jigging over fish we’d located on sonar, but, the real show started around 6pm when a mix of terns and gulls started to get “antsy” over patches of water where white bass and hybrid striper were slowly getting in the mood to feed.

From roughly 6p to 7:30p, we encountered non-stop bird action, although it was not all located in one area.   In fact, the birds were quite transient, moving from area to area, although after  90 minutes of observing the birds and catching fish, it became clear that both were primarily concentrated in 3 distinct areas, each ~60-70 yards in diameter.

Once I got the boat over these fish by trolling into them (note I did NOT run into these fish with the outboard), we used jigging, easing, smoking, and casting techniques to seal the deal, although the jigging near bottom was the most consistent of these methods.

Due to the cloud cover, the fishing wrapped up about 15-20 minutes earlier than over the past couple of evenings.  Once the birds were done feeding, the fish bit another 10 minutes or so and then that was it for the night.
 


TALLY = 54 FISH, all caught and released

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RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE HOME PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 3:45a
End Time: 7:50p
Air Temp: 65F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 55-56F 
Wind: S8-10
Skies: Light overcast.
Other Notes: GT0

Areas Fished with success:

**   1359 – vertical jigging in ~32 feet of water
**   211 – vertical jigging in ~29 feet of water
**  507-1360 – working slabs in a variety of ways under birds
**  1362 – working slabs in a variety of ways under birds






Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service

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