This evening I fished with a crew of 5 on Belton Lake.  Joining me were Tony Bagliore, Darrell Pierce (the husband of Tony’s office manager), Darrell’s two step-sons, Tarren and Taylan McMahon, and Darrell’s nephew, Daniel Pierce.  Tony and his wife are from near Jarrell, TX, Darrell and his family are from Georgetown, TX, and Daniel is in for a visit from Waxahachie, TX.

L to R: Tarren, Darrell, Taylan, and Daniel with some white bass we downrigged for right at sunset this evening.

Tarren (with fish) and First Mate Tony Bagliore.

Tony and his wife are new houseboat owners out on Lake Belton and enjoy entertaining employees and clients from their Bagliore Concrete business.  Tony is a life-long fisherman who got started in the salt off of Long Island, NY.  He’s just recently begun using downriggers and tonight served as mate instead of angler, helping me keep the downriggers managed.

Long story short, our trip ended like I thought it would, which was not like I’d wished it would have.  Fishing on Belton has been tough for about a week now since the strong topwater bite ended just in advance of the full moon.  Add to that an evening trip (which, statistically, only gives up fewer fish then mornings), and a north wind, and experience told me we’d have to work for every fish we caught.  Well, work we did, and we had a few fish to show for our efforts by the time all was said and done.

The staple of the trip was downrigging for suspended fish.  We hit three areas, each showing fish but giving up none, before we landed our first fish at Area 1413.  We picked up a fish fish here as we combed over the area multiple times until finally there was nothing to comb out.

We made a move and gave live bait a try between Areas 1405 and 1401, picking up just one short hybrid here.  Again, we had numbers of fish approach our baits but, just as with the downrigging, couldn’t get them to pull the trigger and strike our offerings.

We returned to downrigging, picking up a few fish near Area 084 before returning to Area 1413.  Once there, I saw feeding white bass spread through the water column, so, I very quick got the i-Pilot deployed so we could hover over these fish in the light N. breeze that was blowing.  We picked up 3 more fish by aggressively working slabs through these fish, but, that action didn’t last long.

We closed things out by downrigging for the last 45 minutes of the trip in an area triangulated by Areas 084, 1271, and 496.  We added a few more white bass and short hybrid to our tally until dark fell and the fishing was over.

We put a total of 15 fish in the boat tonight.

TALLY = 15 FISH

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 5:00pm

End Time:  9:00pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  77F (possibly the lowest high temperature for this date, thanks to an unusual summer cold front)

Water Surface Temp:  83.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  N4-6

Sky Conditions:  100% heavy grey skies and spitting drizzle the entire trip

Other: GT=D-60

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1413 downrigging and smoking

**Area 084/1271/496 downrigging

**Area 1405-1401 live bait

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com