This past Friday morning and Saturday morning I fished with the Buchholz party.  For 21 consecutive years these four men have met up for an annual fishing reunion.  The patriarch is 78-year-old Mr. Don Buchholz of Killeen, Don’s son, John Buchholz, John’s friend, Greg Horton, and Gary Cheer who is related to the Buchholz clan by marriage.

A 21-year tradition: from the left: Don Buchholz, John Buchholz, Greg Horton, and Gary Cheer.

Gary, an Englishman and 737 airline pilot, took big-fish honors on this 2-day effort with this hybrid weighing in at 4.25 pounds.

On Friday, we enjoyed ideal, pre-frontal fishing conditions as warm temperatures, southerly winds, and humid, cloudy conditions were within hours of being ushered out by an approaching cold front.  Over the four hour span, we only fished two areas with very little “search time” involved in finding fish at either area.  The action occurred, as it often does, in a bell-shaped curve, with the build-up being aided by steady chumming, the peak being fueled by the fishes’ own aggressive competitiveness and rising metabolism, and the taper-down as the school is thinned out by effective angling. We fished live shad on downlines for 178 hybrid striped bass and 5 white bass.

On Saturday, the cold front had passed and high pressure was building in.  The 7:30am starting temperature was only 55 degrees and the wind blew at a stiff 14mph from the NNE.  We had a slow start, with only 5 fish boated by 8:50am.  At this time, the sun began to break through the otherwise solid cloud cover, and, after beginning to taper off for about 30 minutes down to ~11mph, the wind ramped up again.  This seemed to trigger the fish, as we began to catch fish steadily from this time right up until 11:30am when they finally shut down.  We boated 78 fish on this trip, including 76 hybrid stripers and 2 blue catfish.

 

TALLY = Day 1 = 183 Fish; Day 2 = 78 fish; total catch = 261 fish, all caught and released

 

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

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

DAY 1:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

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

Wind Speed & Direction: S6-9

Sky Conditions: Grey and overcast @ 100%

Other: GT = 20

DAY 2:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Water Surface Temp: 62F @ lower lake

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE13-14

Sky Conditions: Grey and overcast @ 100% until 8:50, then gradually clearing to 40% clouds on a fair blue sky

Other: GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

DAY 1:

SHAD: **Area 616

**Area  835

**Area  151

DAY 2:

**Area Vicinity 1399/651

**Area Vicinity 1293

 

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

This afternoon I fished an afternoon trip on Belton Lake with first time guests Larry Mitcham, his adult son, Randy, and Randy’s 17 year old son, Trent.  Larry lives in the Austin area, and Randy and Trent drove down from Dayton, Ohio on Trent’s spring break to visit.

Trent with the first fish of his life — a shad-caught Belton Lake hybrid.

And, not to be outdone, Randy boated his fair share, too.

If you’ve read my articles any length of time, you’ll know that I try to fish mornings whenever possible.  The morning bite, all else being equal, always seems a bit stronger and longer than the morning bite on both Stillhouse and Belton.  In this situation, Trent and Randy were only in town for a short window of time and, with all of my mornings booked this week, we went with what we had to work with and fished in the afternoon.

The main focus of this trip was to help Trent catch the first fish of his life.  He’d been fishing once before and was not able to “seal the deal” on that excursion.  We fished with live shad on a number of areas that have been producing well in the mornings, and we tried a few other areas, as well.

We had our best action right at the beginning of our trip, and again right before dark.  In the “middle” we struggled to get bit, pulling just a single here and a double there.

We wound up with 18 fish, including Trent’s first fish, a hard-pulling Belton Lake hybrid striped bass.

 

TALLY = 18 FISH, all caught and released

 

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

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time: 8:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

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

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE18 with higher gusts

Sky Conditions: Partly cloudy at 40% coverage on fair blue skies

Other: GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  835

**Area  1208

 

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