Month: April 2015

On Assignment — 19 Fish, Belton Lake, 28 April 2015

by Bob Maindelle
On this unusually cold late April morning I was joined by an all-lady crew consisting of Bonnie Mobley, Sandy Blevins, and Elizabeth McLane.
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Sandy Blevins took the prize for most and biggest today.

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Bonnie Mobley holds a hybrid striped bass that took a large, 5″ gizzard shad fished around 22′ over a 35′ bottom.
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Elizabeth McLane jumped out with an early 2-fish lead with faith that the right side of the boat was the “right” side to fish on.
These three ladies are friends from Sunday School at their church, First Baptist Church of Belton.  They were all very pleasant to be with, were dressed adequately for the cold, damp weather, and were fast learners.  I commented during the trip how I always enjoy having groups of ladies out because they tend to listen so much better than men when it comes to using circle hooks, and, as a result, put more fish in the boat.  As evidence of this, over the course of this morning’s trip, we had exactly 21 “pull downs”.  A “pull down” is where a fish takes a bait aggressively enough to pull the rod tip towards and/or into the water and moves off far enough to cause the bait clicker to make the audible noise it is designed to make.   These ladies boated 19 of these 21 opportunities; that’s an unusually high 90%+.

A damp cold front is always tough to contend with, and today was no exception.  I anticipated the cold front conditions, but the dampness was not in the forecast to the extent that we experienced it this morning.  Shad were tough to find and net, and the fishing was a bit soft, as well.  The wind velocity made getting on and staying on some of the open water areas I’ve been fishing a bit tough, but, we caught fish at 3 of the 4 areas at which  we stopped and put baits down.  I noticed that we would arrive at an area, get bait and chum going, catch a few fish, and just as soon as the fish fired up, they would cool back down again, allowing just 5-7 fish per stop.  We never really got a good feeding frenzy going beneath the boat.

Although Elizabeth jumped out in front with an early 2-fish lead, Sandy’s rod got the most attention today, and she wound up catching the largest fish of the trip.

Elizabeth told a great story about a businessman she once knew who was also a successful Belton Lake fisherman.  He named his boat “Assignment” and then trained his receptionist to tell those who called during business hours while he was away fishing that he was “on Assignment.”

I just doesn’t seem right to wear long underwear and gloves in Texas on April 28th!

 

TALLY = 19 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15a

End Time:  12:40p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  56F

Water Surface Temp:  71F on lower lake; 72-73F in upper Leon River

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW14-16

Sky Conditions:  Heavy grey skies with occasional light rain and constant light drizzle

Other: GT=40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 835

**Area  1383

**Area 1482

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Persistence Paid Off – 54 Fish, Belton, 25 April 2015

by Bob Maindelle
On Saturday, 25 April, I was joined by Lance Huhn of Killeen, and his sons, Robert Broadhead, Dylan Huhn, and Jason Huhn.
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Dylan holds our best fish of the trip — a 3.75 pound striper that took a jumbo threadfin shad.

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From left: Robert and Lance landed this double when the action got hot and heavy as the westerly wind increased.
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Jason wasn’t quite sure about sticking his thumb in this fish’s mouth to pose for a photo — dad to the rescue!

Lance is a retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer originally from east Texas, Robert is a senior at Shoemaker High School in Killeen, and Dylan and Jason are both students at Maxdale Elementary School.

We enjoyed solid fishing at both ends of our trip, with a bit of a dry spell in the middle.
Our first 90 minutes on the water produced well for us as we fished live shad down around 24-26 feet over a ~38 foot bottom.  During this time the winds were calm to light from the west, but the light level was low, given the early hour.  Once the sun climbed higher, the fishing got tougher and tougher as the surface of the lake went glassy calm.
We moved from spot to spot, and I observed that a great number of bass boats were also moving about at this time, too.  It seemed that everyone was on fish early, then, no matter where you were fishing or what you were fishing for, things got tough tor everyone around the same time, sending everyone searching for more success.
Around 11:15, enough of a west wind developed and sustained to allow for occasional white caps to form.  The fish responded within 20 minutes and went on a solid feed.  We were at the right place at the right time when a large school of hungry hybrids felt the urge to feed.  We took our tally from 19 fish up to 54 fish in about a 75 minute window
We finished up with a mixed-bag catch of 54 fish including (mainly) hybrid striped bass, with a sprinkling of white bass, blue catfish, crappie, and largemouth bass.

TALLY = 54 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time:  12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  62F

Water Surface Temp:  69-70F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE9-16 during the early morning rain event, then going slack under bright conditions after the storm’s passage, with a S. wind picking up around 11:30a

Sky Conditions:  Rainy skies, clearing to 40% clouds on a fair blue sky.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1341 for the early, low light bite

**Area  1557 after the late-developing wind began

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Breaking in the New Kid — 31 Fish, 24 April 2015

by Bob Maindelle
This past Friday morning, April 24th, I awoke early to a steady rain on a southeast wind.  My crew for this day was a pretty hardy bunch without much flex in their schedule, so, with no thunder or lightning accompanying the rain, we pressed on with our plans and got out on Lake Belton for a morning of hybrid striped bass fishing, beginning around 7:45am.
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Corey Oliver and his son, Cullen, with one of the hybrid we boated during a steady rain over Belton Lake this morning.
Joe Oliver coordinated this trip and included his father, affectionately called “Pa”, as well as his son, Corey, now working for Nike in Oregon, and Corey’s not-quite-5-year-old son, Cullen.
Joe has been on a wide enough variety of trips with me through the years to know I would have some misgivings about taking a child that young on a live-bait fishing trip, but, Cullen did far better than I expected he would, and I let both his dad and grandfather know that.
The aim today was to give Joe and Corey some overdue father-and-son time, and go get Cullen a bit of exposure to the outdoors, to being on a boat, and to doing a little fishing.
Our best action today came during the steady rain in the first 90 minutes of our trip, and then again just after skies cleared and before the winds went totally slack.  At one point in time during the rainfall, the winds ramped up to 17-18 mph and our results definitely dropped off (likely due to the unnatural movement of our baits thanks to the boat bouncing heavily in the swells) from that time and until we found some more fish at a new location under clearing skies with a gentle westerly breeze (which would die after just 15-20 minutes).
When all was said and done, we boated exactly 31 fish, including a 50/50 mix of hybrid stripers and blue catfish, with 2 white bass thrown in for good measure.
For whatever reason, Cullen was just fascinated with the mouths of the fish we caught, requesting a look inside each one.  Sure, he enjoyed reeling the fish in, aided by his father or grandfather, but, once that fish was in the boat, he asked, without fail, “What’s in his mouth?”.
Now, I am not at liberty to disclose all of the details at this point in time, but, suffice it to say that Cullen was totally amazed when one of the smaller blue catfish we reeled in had a year 2000 nickel in its mouth as I gently used a pair of curved-tip forceps to part its lips and give Cullen a peek.
After enduring a ~75 minute spell of bright, calm weather in the aftermath of the rain, we were invited over to share in some fishing success a friend of mind had gotten in to just as the south wind began to blow and strengthen.  We headed over, boated 2 fish and, no doubt could have stayed for more, but, to their credit, dad and grandpa saw that Cullen had reached the end of his attention span and we agreed it was a good time to call it quits, fish or no fish, so as to keep this a positive first fishing experience for this young man.

 

TALLY = 31 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time:  12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  62F

Water Surface Temp:  69-70F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE9-16 during the early morning rain event, then going slack under bright conditions after the storm’s passage, with a S. wind picking up around 11:30a

Sky Conditions:  Rainy skies, clearing to 40% clouds on a fair blue sky.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1554 during the rain

**Area  1555 immediately after the rain

**Area 1556 once the wind began from the S. after a period of calm

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Something Decent — 19 Fish, 23 April 2015 (PM)

by Bob Maindelle

On the evening of April 23rd I fished with Mr. Dean Renkes from the Dallas area and U.S. Army Specialist Andrew Zills, now stationed at Fort Hood.

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Andrew Zills displays our largest fish of the trip, a 4.25 pound hybrid that hammered his shad bait as the sun, obscured by cloud cover, was about to set.
 
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Dean worked through the circle hook learning curve quite quickly, landing several nice hybrid stripers, as well.  Both men managed this “double” right at sunset.

Andrew’s wife, Megan, is the nanny for Dean’s grandchild.  Dean has been impressed with both Megan and Andrew and simply wanted to do something decent for this young couple.
Dean, himself a Vietnam-era U.S. Army veteran, now works as a financial advisor.
I was upfront with Dean, letting him know that afternoon trips can be very tough, but, given both his limited schedule and Andrew’s, we went ahead and put this date on the calendar.
We met up at 4:15pm, planning to fish until dark.  Not 15 minutes into the trip we had to run for cover from some passing thunder and lightning being produced by a small storm cell moving west to east and generally to the south of us.  Once that turbulent weather passed, winds went calm, posing yet another challenge to the fishing.
We kind of pecked at the fish most of the trip, boating 12 fish over our first 3 hours, but, towards sunset, while fishing near a gentle breakline in ~28 feet of water, a nice school of hybrid stripers moved through for a bit of dinner and we were able to put 7 nice keeper-sized hybrid in the boat right in the final minutes of like so as to end on a strong note.
Thank you both for your service to our nation!

 

TALLY = 19 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time:  8:40p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  85F

Water Surface Temp:  70-70.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE6-7

Sky Conditions:  Rainy skies with thunder and lightning during the first hour, with a turbulent atmosphere following the storm passage

Other: GT=115

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 672

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

SUSTAINING!! – 102 Fish, Belton Lake, 23 April 2015

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I targeted hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake with a crew of four.  Ken Wilkins of Tex-Mix Concrete hosted the owner of Landreth Construction, Paul Landreth, and two of his employees, Ray Austin, and Brad Haas.

 

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From left: Ken Wilkins, Paul Landreth, Brad Haas, and Ray Austin pose for a group shot with a sampling of the hybrid striper we caught on Belton today.

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Above: Paul Landreth with a Lake Belton hybrid taken on live shad.

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Above: Brad Haas holds one of the better hybrid stripers he boated today on circle hooks.

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Above: Ray Austin, who guides for catfish on Choke Canyon and other San Antonio-area lakes, left the whiskered fish alone today for some deepwater hybrid.

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Above: Ken Wilkins saved his best for last, and came up with this nice 7.25 pound blue cat just as we were about to wrap up for the day.

Bait gathering before the trip was made a bit easier by spawning threadfin shad which require fewer throws of the cast net for more and larger baits than are typically encountered when “blind throwing” otherwise.

We began the trip at 8:15am and were fortunate enough to find fish at the first area we searched. With live baits in the water and a steady feed of chum, we were able to boat 45 fish at this first area. The fishing there stayed solid until around 10:20 AM and then weakened as the south-southeast wind weakened.

I then moved us to a more wind exposed area, failed to find fish at the first area we checked, and then really got into them well in our last hour on the water at the second wind exposed area we checked. With our bait set at about 27 feet over a 35 foot bottom, we experience the best run of quality fish I’ve seen come over the side of the boat so far this season. We added 57 fish to our count at this area, and roughly half of these were 18+ inch hybrid striped bass.

It seems like there is some little funny thing that happens on most every trip, and today that little thing was the word “sustain”. Before each fishing trip begins, I try to thoroughly explain the importance of going slowly and methodically once a fish grabs ahold of a bait while using circle hooks. Today my word choice was “do not turn the handle until the rod tip is being pulled down in a sustained manner.” For whatever reason, that really stuck in the fellows’ minds, and they chided one another the entire trip by using the word “sustained” in a number of applications (both appropriate and inappropriate!). Regardless, the point was driven home about being methodical with the circle hooks, and this crew kept their learning curve very flat as a result of being disciplined about how they handled the rod once a fish had grabbed the bait. Hey, whatever works!.

For our efforts today we boated a total of 102 fish including white bass, blue catfish, and hybrid striped bass. Today’s results far exceeded any other trip’s results so far this season in regards to the ratio of keeper hybrids to the over all catch.

 

TALLY = 102 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15a

End Time:  12:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  68F

Water Surface Temp:  69-70F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE10 for first 2.5 hours, then decreasing to SSE7-8

Sky Conditions:  Grey but bright enough for sunglasses

Other: GT=100

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Shad at Area 185 and 186

**Area  1552

**Area 1553

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Good Technique — 60 Fish, Belton, 21 April 2015

by Bob Maindelle

This morning, 21 April, I had the pleasure of fishing with Mr. Carroll Hall of Austin.

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Above: Federation of Fly Fishers Certified Casting Instructor Carroll Hall of Austin left the fly gear behind today as we sought out deepwater hybrid stripers in 28-37 feet of water using live shad as bait.

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Above: Spotted bass, readily identified by the parallel rows of olive-colored scales on their belly and an oval tooth patch on their tongue, are a bit of a rarity on Belton.  This one fell for a live shad set down around 24′ below the boat.

I first got to know Carroll about six years ago through his participation in the Austin Fly Fishers flyfishing club.  Carroll is Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) Certified Casting Instructor who provides both individual and group instruction to those wishing to learn the art of flycasting.  Although we’ve met together, eaten together, and even went through one of Carroll’s flycasting session together, we’d never fished together until today.

A southerly wind returned to Texas today after much murky weather dampened the fishing a bit in the latter part of last week.  The first hour was slow as the wind was very light and variable, but, once the SSE wind began and then increased to around 13mph, it was game-on.

Netting shad was made a bit tougher today by the overnight lows which dipped to 49-53F area wide, but, with the help of a friend, I was able to collect ~180 baits sufficiently large for bait, and send him home with an ample supply of shad too small for bait, but just right for chum.

Carroll and I fished from 8:15a to around 1:00p, and the fishing seemed to improve throughout this time, right up to a grand finale in the last 45 minutes in which we could only keep 2 rods baited given how quickly the aggressive hybrid holding below us were hitting.

Two trends emerged which helped up improve our results.  First, at one of the shallower areas we fished (~28 feet deep) we kept getting good strikes but they resulted in torn off baits with little time to get over to the rod to tend to the strike.  I discovered that raising the baits an additional foot off the bottom forced these fish to move further with the bait in their mouths, and our strike-to-land ratio went up substantially as a result.  We also noted that the hybrid stripers demonstrated a definite preference for smaller baits.  Of the dozen or so 4+ inch gizzard shad I put down, only one was struck all day, and it did not produce a landed fish.  The small threadfin (some as small as 1 7/8″) got slurped up as soon as they reached bottom.

Carroll had never fished with circle hooks before and was pleased to see how good of a job they do when it comes to catch-and-release.  The learning curve can be a bit steep when using these hooks.  For Carroll, when I explained the importance of bringing the line tight only when the rod was under strain due to a fish’s movement away from the boat, that seemed to really click for him and his strike-to-land ratio dramatically improved thereafter.  We agreed that good technique is everything in both flycasting and circle hook fishing!

We boated exactly 60 fish today, including 51 hybrid striped bass, 6 white bass, 2 blue catfish, and 1 spotted bass (which is a bit of a rarity on Belton).

 

TALLY = 60 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15p

End Time:  1:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  53F

Water Surface Temp:  69F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE9 increasing to and leveling off at SSE13

Sky Conditions:  Clear and bright.

Other: GT=50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1549

**Area  150

**Area 1550

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

The Calm Before the Storm — 26 Fish, SKIFF Trip 2015-3, Belton Lake

by Bob Maindelle

This morning, 18 April, I conducted the third SKIFF trip of the 2015 season.  I welcomed aboard the Applegate brothers, Gregory, James, and Nolan of Belton, Texas.

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From left: Coach Joe Oliver, James Applegate, Nolan Applegate, and Gregory Applegate.  These four fish all came over the side in a matter of minutes during a brief feeding spree triggered by a returning breeze following a period of calm.

The boys’ father, U.S. Army Colonel Greg Applegate Sr., is a logistician currently on a 1 year assignment to the War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.  COL Applegate has been deployed 4 times to Afghanistan and Iraq, and the family has pulled up stakes and moved 9 times over the course of his 23 year career. The boys’ mom, Lisa Applegate, is a substitute teacher at Central Texas Christian School and is serving as the “interim” girls track coach, as well.  She and COL Applegate met at Boise State during their college years.

COL Applegate tried to make it in for this fishing trip, but lack of a timely return flight prevented this, so, Mr. Joe Oliver, the Athletic Director of Central Texas Christian School in Belton, and coach to the boys, stepped in for dad today and rounded out our party on this SKIFF trip.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service, thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

The damp north wind blowing this morning told me before I ever launched that our results would be depressed a bit over the white-hot hybrid fishing we’ve enjoyed on southerly and westerly winds, but, we got out there and did our best.  The best fishing occurred during a very short window as a NW breeze picked up just slightly following a period of calm.  I noted this exact same behavior on yesterday’s trip, as well

We caught most of our fish off of two distinct areas using live threadfin shad fished at around 25-28 feet deep over a deeper bottom.  The boys really got along well, looked out for one another, and demonstrated good technique, thus converting a majority of our strikes into caught fish.

When all was said and done, we landed 26 fish this morning, including 1 smallmouth bass, 1 white bass, and 24 hybrid striped bass.

 

TALLY = 26 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time:  12:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  62F

Water Surface Temp:  69F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light at NNW7, tapering to calm

Sky Conditions:  100% greyed over

Other: GT=60

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1388

**Area  1549

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Grey Skies and Golden Corrals — 40 Fish, Belton, 17 April 2015

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I met up with the Barfield clan for a morning of hybrid striped bass fishing on Belton Lake.  Trey Barfield of Georgetown brought his dad, Charles, along from DeRitter, Louisiana, as well as his ten year old son, Jonathan.

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Charles Barfield and his grandson, Jonathan Barfield with one of the 40 fish we boated under tough east wind conditions today.

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Trey Barfield and his son, Jonathan Barfield, with a hybrid striper from out of a school of such fish that “turned on” for a 40 minute window following a wind shift.

Charles retired from Boise-Cascade paper company a while ago, allowing him to check in with his kids and grandkids now.  Trey kidded Charles, who is a big fan of Golden Corral (to the extent that he can recite the names of their 3 barbeque rib sauces by heart), that they’d likely get to see him even more often were there a Golden Corral in Georgetown!
Although there is certainly nothing wrong with a 40 fish morning, compared to the results of late, this was a bit of a slow trip.  The last such trip came last Saturday morning on a slow east wind, and this morning we once again had a slow east wind.  The mood of the fish was subdued.  There were very few fish up high in the water column feeding, and, when we did get fish to come into our bait and chum spread, they would respond about as often as they would not.
About 2 hours into the trip, I told everyone that in order for our luck to change, there would need to be some kind of environmental trigger, such as a sudden brightening of the sun, a sudden increase in the wind, or a shift in wind direction.
As we idled over the vicinity of Area 1383, I spotted some loosely congregated and suspended fish on sonar.  I kept us in this vicinity with baits down and chummed heavily, hoping to spur some feeding.  It was then that our “trigger” happened.  The wind went calm, then, just as it began to pick up again with a ripple on the surface, it came from the NW, nearly 100 degrees out from the direction it had been blowing in.  The fish turned on and we took our fish count from 6 up to 38 in just 45 minutes with several instances where we had on doubles.
As the wind continued to blow and slowly increase, it steadily shifted back to the ESE and the fishing died off with it.  We landed only 2 more fish the remainder of the trip.
TALLY =  40 Fish, including 4 blue catfish, and 36 hybrid striped bass — all caught and released
GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:35p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp: 67-68F @ lower lake, 69-70 @ upper lake

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE5-6 for first 2 hours; then going calm for ~40 minutes, then going NW 3-4 for ~45 minutes, then returning ESE 4-5

Sky Conditions: Greyed over skies

Other: GT = 30

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vicinity 297/1383

 

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

Concrete Results — 119 Fish, Belton, 14 April 2015

by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished a ‘business development’ trip with Tony Bagliore of Bagliore Concrete, along with two of his employees, Greg Graham and Scott Kearsing, as well as one of his suppliers, Ken Wilkins, of Tex Mix Concrete.

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Ken Wilkins of Tex Mix Concrete with a solid Lake Belton hybrid — one of 119 fish we boated today.

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Greg Graham was the first to score this morning, boating this nice “keeper” sized fish right off the bat.

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Scott Kearsing holds a big male hybrid striped bass taken on live shad.  Note the milt dripping from the fish’s anal fin – a sign of warming water and increasing metabolism.

What was supposed to be a 4 mph N wind with 60% cloud cover turned out to be a 13 mph WNW wind with heavy grey skies and light drizzle.  Regardless of the wind direction, in this season of rising water temperature, I feel pretty confident as long as we have grey skies and wind.  Today we had both, and the fish responded well.

We got going at 8:15a, giving me ample time to collect bait, aided by Tony.  I searched for fish in 3 areas before finding enough “fish density” on sonar to feel that I could work fish up beneath the boat.  Once we got into a hover over these fish, got baits down, got chum down and let the system work, we began to draw fish and score.  At our first stop (Area 672) we boated exactly 22 fish before they lost interest and moved on after about 45 minutes.  The second area we hit (Area 1548/1141) gave up 97 fish in about 2.5 hours with the action going through the roof right before the fish turned of for good around 12:30p.
Good technique using the circle hooks I have tied on my live bait rods was the key to turning bites into landed fish.  A slow, methodical approach to taking stretch out of the line and easing the rod out of the rod holder is very important.  The use of chum when things got slow and the use of chunk baits when things got hot also added to our success considerably.
After getting back to the launch site and after discovering today was my 46th birthday, the crew treated me to a nice lunch at Sol de Jalisco on FM2271 in Morgan’s Point.
Interestingly, Tony thought it appropriate to assign all passengers responsibilities during this trip.  Ken (who was dressed in a really nice Cabela’s Gore-Tex rain jacket) had the job of “looking good” and landing his fish in a stylish way.  Greg had the job of performing a “fish dance” when things got slow.  And Scott, well, let’s just say he “transformed” FiberOne snack bars into something that just grabbed ahold of all of one’s senses.  Tony was the first mate and cheerleader of the trip.
There was talk of a 100 fish day from the get-go, and with a little persistence, we saw that become a reality as we finished our day up with exactly 119 fish brought into the boat.
TALLY =  119 Fish, including 3 white bass, 1 blue catfish, 1 smallmouth bass. 1 largemouth bass,  and 113 hybrid striped bass — all caught and released
 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15a

End Time: 12:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Water Surface Temp: 67-68F @ lower lake, 69-70 @ upper lake

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW13 at trip’s start, tapering to WNW11

Sky Conditions: Grey and overcast with light drizzle at trip’s start; beginning to clear with approach of high pressure by 10:45a

Other: GT = 150

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  678

**Area  1548

 

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

“Expecting” More than Just Fish!! — 83 Fish, Belton, 11 April (PM)

by Bob Maindelle

On this Saturday afternoon, April 11th, and on the heels of a below average morning fishing trip impacted by an east wind, we made up for some lost ground while on the water with Chris McCool and his fishing buddy, Frank Devall.

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Frank Devall with a nice 2.75 pound smallmouth that took his live shad from out of 27 feet of water.

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Chris McCool boated this hybrid from out of a large, immobile school of hybrid which hung beneath our boat for about 4 hours.

Chris, a U.S. Army non-commissioned officer working with an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) unit on Ft. Hood, has fished with me twice before.  This time he brought along his friend Frank, who is due to leave the Army and return to civilian life in Arkansas before long.

I noticed the two arrived in separate vehicles as I watched them pull into the parking lot.  Soon, I understood why.  Frank’s wife is expecting their first child and she could deliver at any time now.  Should “the call” have come in while we were on the water, the plan was for Frank to drive back to the hospital while Chris continued to fish.  As it turns out, that did not happen on this trip.
Between this morning’s slow (22 fish) trip and meeting Chris and Frank around 2:15p, I scouted constantly, finding precious little.  I was concerned that we might have two back-to-back slow trips.  As it turned out, not long after leaving the boat ramp, and actually while on our way to another area, I spotted suspended fish on sonar, turned back around and locked down over top of them.  We got baits and chum in the water and proceeded to catch fish for 4 hours straight.  Although the action began fast and then tapered down and came and went, it never stopped over that entire time.
Only when the cloud-obscured sun began to fade did the bite slack off.  We move to another area at this time, and only picked up two more fish at that location.
TALLY =  83 Fish, including 2 smallmouth bass. 4 blue catfish,  and 77 hybrid striped bass

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 2:15p

End Time: 7:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 69F

Water Surface Temp: 66F @ lower lake, 68 @ upper lake

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm

Sky Conditions: Grey and overcast @ 100%, but bright enough to have to squint

Other: GT = 30

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  678

**Area  1548

 

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)