The Whole Truth — 61 Fish, Belton Lake, 28 May 2014

This morning I fished with father and son Micky and Brian Boettger of Nolanville, Texas.  Micky is a polygraph expert with Fort Hood’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID), and Brian works at the AT&T store in Killeen.

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Micky Boettger with a nice, shad-caught Belton Lake hybrid.

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Brian saved the best for last, landing our largest fish of the trip in the final hour.  This one hit right at 4.50 pounds on the certified Boga Grip scale I keep aboard just in case we tangle with a record-book candidate.

There has been a lot of environmental change since the last time I was on the water this past Monday.  Nearly 3 inches of rain has fallen.  We’ve had winds from all points of the compass and from calm to over 20mph, We’ve had temperatures ranging from 64 to 85F, and the water is rising on both Belton and Stillhouse with much color and debris coming in from the tributaries.

With water temperatures slowly rising into the mid-70’s, faint stratification lines are beginning to show on sonar, indicating that the thermocline is developing which will usher in summer patterns before much longer.

 

There was no shad activity today, although this was not surprising given a stiff northerly breeze persisted at sunrise this morning.  I suspect the annual threadfin shad spawn is nearly done given what I’m now observing, the water temperature, and past history.

 

As has happened over the past 6 trips now, we did very well in our first hour (roughly 7-8am).  And, as happened this past Monday, we did very well once again in our last hour (roughly 10-11am).  The middle two hours have been pretty slow.  We caught all of our fish from off of two areas of the four areas we fished.

 

Like most folks who have never experienced fishing with circle hooks before, Micky and Brian went through a bit of a learning curve.  Using circle hooks effectively is a bit difficult for those who have previous fishing experience, and is especially difficult for those who are accustomed to using soft plastics for black bass where a powerful hook set is commonly employed.

 

With circle hooks, the idea is to slowly pull the hook from inside the fish’s mouth toward the outside so the hook “cams” around the bony structure of the lips and jaws and finds a grip there where it is easily removed and does not “gut hook” the fish.

 

After a bit of coaching they got the hang of things and we upped our hook-to-land ratio pretty well.

 

By the time 11:30 rolled around we were still seeing and occasionally catching short hybrid from out of a large school of fish that had schooled beneath the boat after being drawn in by chum and the commotion all of the previously caught fish caused as they struggled while being brought to the surface.

 

 TALLY = 61 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

 

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp.: 68F

 

Water Surface Temp.: 73.6F

 

Wind: NNW11-12 at trip’s start, shifting to NW and tapering down to 8-9 by trip’s end

 

Skies: Fully greyed over the entire trip with occasional brief sprinkles from 10-11:30a

 

Other Notes: GT0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
** Shad activity was non-existent this morning
** Vicinity of Area 835
** Vicinity of Area 717

 

Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas

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