This morning I welcomed aboard Tony Bagliore, Scott Kearsing, and Greg Graham for a morning of hybrid striped bass fishing on Lake Belton.
(L to R) Greg Graham, Tony Bagliore, and Scott Kearsing with three fistfuls of hybrid striped bass taken in the opening 20 minutes of our excursion.
It was a pleasure to fish with this great bunch of fellows today. They all serve the Lord together in ministry to lost and hurting people, and they all serve their customers together as co-workers at Bagliore Concrete. You could tell right away that these guys all got along well and enjoyed being on the same team.
I provided a bit of “water taxi” service today by beginning our trip by picking this trio up at Tony’s houseboat located on Lake Belton. We then went over the basics of safety and of handling the hybrid-specific gear I had prepared for this trip. We then got down to business, covered down over top of a good school of aggressive hybrid, chummed them into action, watch sonar begin to light up, and proceeded to boat fish for 45 minutes straight coming right out of the chute this morning.
I’ve observed that the last 3 trips (Monday AM, Friday AM, and this morning) there has been a very strong bite in the first hour between about 7a-8a, and then things have settled down very quickly to a very moderate or even slow pace.
We are definitely approaching the end of “Shad Spawn 2014” with fewer and fewer spawners showing up in the shallows now despite ideal wind conditions and direction. With this, the annual 6-8 week peak of hybrid fishing will also come to a close. Today we once again saw an increase in the proportion of blue cat showing up in our catch, as well.
Tony recently bought a center-console with the intention of learning to fish Belton, so, I tried to point out as much useful information as I could as we progressed through the trip today, focusing on sonar use and on seasonal trends in the fishery.
When all was said and done we boated a total of 51 fish including ~22 legal hybrid. The remainder of our catch consisted of mainly blue cat, with a few white bass a few “short hybrid”, and 1 smallmouth thrown in for good measure.
TALLY = 51 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:15a
Air Temp.: 68F
Water Surface Temp.: 73.0F
Wind: SSE9-11
Skies: Fully greyed over but bright entire trip.
Other Notes: GT70
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
** Shad did not materialize today
** Vicinity of Area 835 produced well early for legal hybrid
** Vicinity of Area 1204 gave up small fish at mid-morning
** Area 1209/1277 produced a few more fish at trip’s close
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411
Salado, Texas