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.

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

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)