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.

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

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)

This morning I fished with Josh Welch, his uncle Tracy Welch, and Tracy’s two sons, 12-year-old Caleb, and 10-year old Matthew, all of Copperas Cove.

From left: Copperas Cove High School “Dawgs” football coach Tracy Welch and his son, Caleb Welch, with our largest hybrid of the morning.

Fishing has been excellent for the past two weeks, but a wrinkle in the weather caused a speed bump this morning. Today we woke up to the first easterly winds I’ve encountered since the hybrid bite turned on on Belton. Skies were heavy and overcast to the point of light drizzle, with a very light northeast wind.
Although we encountered fish in many of the same areas I have been fishing regularly, instead of these areas teaming with fish, what appeared on sonar this morning was much more sparse.

On a number of occasions we had multiple fish or even sizable schools of fish approach our baits and give no response whatsoever. On one occasion, with four live bait rods out in the four corners of the boat, we had several schools of hybrid come by and simply ignore our bait. I put chunks of bait on two additional rods and sent them down between the two live bait rods on each side of the boat. The hybrid stripers responded to this and we wound up replacing our live baits with chunk baits only, leading us to the best fishing of the morning, albeit short-lived.

Unfortunately, the boys were up against an 11:30 deadline to depart for a soccer game, so extending the trip a bit to continue hunting for fish was not an option.

The old saying “Winds from the E\east, fish bite least.” was definitely a truism for this morning.

For our efforts today we boated 20 hybrid striped bass, one small mouth bass, and one freshwater drum.
TALLY =  22 Fish, all caught and released

 

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

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 11:30

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

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

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE3-4

Sky Conditions: Grey and overcast @ 100%

Other: GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1545

**Area 1547

**Area 346/976

 

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