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)