Hybrid Season Begins with Solid Scouting Trip – 26 Fish, 31 March 2015

This morning I met up with returning client Tony Bagliore of Belton to conduct a “reconnaissance” of the shad and hybrid situation on Belton Lake.  We met up at 6:45am with Job #1 being to locate and gather threadfin and/or gizzard shad with castnets.  Job #2 would then be to locate and catch hybrid striped bass with those shad used as bait.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Belton Lake resident Tony Bagliore with a nice 3.75 pound shad-caught hybrid —  a result of this morning’s scouting trip.

 

In a typical year, the weeks from the end of March to roughly the 3rd week of May offer the fastest and best quality hybrid striped bass fishing of the year with both quantity and quality of fish being excellent, and with live shad far out-producing all other methods.
The first job went longer than I had hoped, but still helped me gauge where we are in the season and how much time I will need to allot for this chore in the upcoming days and weeks.  It took the two of us approximately 2 1/2 hours to gather 360 bait-quality shad.
After the bait was gathered and properly being cared for, we then probed a number of areas with sonar in an attempt to locate catchable populations of hybrid striped bass.
We fished exactly 7 areas in 3 hours’ time, finding strong fishing at 3 of these areas, marginal fishing at 1, and no fish present at 3.
In all cases, chumming definitely helped get the bite going and sustained the bite.
So as to cover water and find as many productive areas as we could in the morning “window”, we opted to fish an area only until we’d caught ~5 fish, and then to move on.  If fish did not cooperate in the first 10 minutes on an area, we moved along.
For our efforts this morning, we boated exactly 24 hybrid striped bass and 2 white bass.  Of those 24 hybrid stripers, approximately 1/3 were keeper-sized fish, going right at 18 inches, with 2 of those keeper-sized fish exceeding 20 inches.
These fish had a definite preference for smaller threadfin shad.  Our large gizzard shad were totally ignored.

 

TALLY = 26 FISH, all caught and released

 

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

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 1:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 62F @ lower lake, 67-68 @ upper lake

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW11-13

Sky Conditions: 40% white clouds on fair blue sky

Other: GT = 80

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1540

**Area  1270

** Area 967

 

 

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

Pushing Buttons — Sonar Session, 27 March 2015

Today on was joined on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir by brand new boat owners Mr. and Mrs. R.C. Stephenson of Sun City, TX.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Mr. & Mrs. R.C. Stephenson of Sun City, TX, with one of several white bass we “trolled up” after finding abundant, suspended fish on sonar.
The Stephenson’s just purchased a new Carolina Skiff “Sea Skiff”, which is a very nice, V-hulled center-console.  R.C. had this equipped with a 24 volt, 80 pound thrust trolling motor and a Lowrance HDS-9, Gen 2 Touch sonar unit with StructureScan and Insight mapping.

 

Today’s goal was to do a bit of a “shakedown” on all the equipment and introduce the Stephenson’s to the capabilities of the sonar they purchased.

 

We began out of the water with a “class” in the parking lot using some “training aids” I’ve developed to help them understand how the unit sends out sound.  I also inspected and adjusted both transducers.

 

Next, we launched and went screen by screen through the charts, through StructureScan, and through traditional colored sonar, demonstrating the features of each, and making necessary adjustments to the settings on each.

 

We then began to combine multiple capabilities on the screen as the same time using 2 and 3 panel displays.

 

Once the basics of the sonar were understood, we used the Spot Lock feature of the Minn Kota trolling motor equipped with i-Pilot to hold in the strong wind and go our lures to show up beneath the boat, as well as fish and bait.

 

Along the way we picked up a few cooperative white bass by flatline trolling along a windblown shoreline after seeing abundant bait and gamefish showing on sonar.

 

As we closed out our time on the water, I set the default screen we had customized for R.C. with some overlay data that he desired, including speed over ground, depth, temperature, time, and date.

 

Along the way, I gave “pop quizzes” regularly to make sure R.C. had comprehended the instruction and could independently make commonly needed adjustments to his various screens.