This past Saturday afternoon, April 16th, I fished with members of the Killingsworth clan of Lampasas including (grandpa) Kenneth Killingsworth, (grandma) Frances Killingsworth, (son) Ken Killingsworth, (15-year-old granddaughter) Sarah Killingsworth, and (13-year-old granddaughter) LeeAnn Parker.  As I understand it, this whole thing was Grandma Frances’ idea.

From left: Kenneth, Frances, Ken, LeeAnn, and Sarah, each with a 13+ inch white bass taken during a solid bite as winds became more southerly following this morning’s easterly winds which dampened the fishing somewhat.  Look at those teenaged girls grinning!!

Leave it to Grandma Frances to catch the biggest fish of the trip — a nice 2.75 pound channel catfish that hit her slab in 37 feet of water.

 

The weather was looking questionable but, within 30 minutes of our 3:45p start time, a quick check of the weather radar showed only heavy clouds and occasional light sprinkles heading our way.

 

After a short prayer to start us off right, I went over both safety considerations and how to correctly use the slabs I had tied on to each of the spinning rods I’d prepared for my guests.  We made sure the reels’ handles were on the side that everyone preferred, and then we were off to hunt large schools of white bass in an attempt to get everyone catching fish.

 

I search one area, and then another with no result.  I searched a third area and found just a few fish holding tight to bottom.  I used Spot Lock to hold us in place over these fish as we jigged for them, but only 2 fish responded.  We caught 1 and missed the other.  This was not the fast action I was hoping to put a large party onto.

 

We moved to a fourth area and, as we motored slowly over a breadline from 50 feet up to 32 feet, the sonar screen began to come alive with fish showing on and near bottom.  Since everyone had worked the kinks out on their technique at the last area, all went very smoothly getting 5 baits effectively down to the bottom and working amidst the fish.

 

Sarah was the first one to connect, then her dad, Ken, hooked a fish, then LeeAnn was fast to another fish.  As the fish were hooked and reeled in, I watched on sonar as the hooked fishes’ schoolmates followed them toward the surface hoping to get a nip at the object in the hooked fishes’ mouths.  There were literally hundreds of fish in this area.  We caught fish after fish after fish, and whenever things slowed down, I simply moved us a few boat lengths left, right, forwards, or backwards to encounter even more fish that had not yet seen our lures.

 

We fished just 3 areas very thoroughly over the course of our 4 hours on the water, and by 7:30p, had amassed a catch of 108 fish including 1 freshwater drum, 1 channel catfish, 3 largemouth bass, and 103 white bass.

 

Between the fish catching, the story telling, the jerky eating, and the being with family, a cool, damp day turned into a very memorable event.

 

 

TALLY: 108 Fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Water Surface Temp:  68.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were SE12-13 the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  Very heavy grey skies the entire trip with occasional drizzle.

Water Level: 622.41 and holding with 622.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 765 cubic feet per second.  Lake neither rose or fell the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1720/1741 – slow easing results at this first stop over fish

**Area 638/803/1156 – short hops and slow easing for a solid white bass bite

**Area 786/1055  – short hops and slow easing for a solid white bass bite

**Area 108/702/1048 – short hops and slow easing for a solid white bass bite

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

This past Saturday morning, April 16th, I fished with father and son Dennis and Ben Vacula on Belton Lake with the intention of bagging some hybrid striped bass.

From left: Dr. Ben Vacula of Belton and his dad, Dennis Vacula, of LaGrange with a pot-bellied Belton Lake hybrid striped bass.  The east wind and murky skies put the bite off a bit this morning, but the pair still managed to boat 65 fish.

 

Ben, an anesthesiologist at Baylor Scott & White, has fished a number of trips with me, but all of them were focused on his kids.  On this particular day it was “guys only”, so we set our sights on bigger game.

 

As much as I love to fish in cloudy, breezy conditions, winds from due E. can dampen the fishing a bit (hence the old saying “Winds from the east, fish bite least).  This morning we were greeted by a stiff E. wind blowing at 12-13mph and it did indeed impact the fishing.  By comparison, on my last 6 morning trips prior to this morning’s I’d been able to put clients on shallow, aggressive white bass under birds all in the same general area.  Fish counts ranged from the 20’s up into the 70’s.  Today, we spent just under an hour in this area and pulled only 5 fish.

 

By 8:45a, however, the murky skies had lightened and the winds slowed and began shifting to the ESE and the fishing began to kick in.  We vertical jigged in about 36’ after seeing some bottom-hugging, heavily schooled fish on sonar.  We quickly took our fish count from 5 up to 41 before I felt that the combination of wind, light level, and fish activity was sufficient to begin searching out hybrid.

 

I found 2 distinct areas holding both fish and ample bait, including a few legal (18” or larger) hybrid.  At the first area, the fish were initially seen suspended on sonar.  We managed 3 hybrid right away, but the fish then moved out despite my use of chum to attempt to hold them under us.  We stayed a while longer hoping to see this group of fish circulate back by, but only small pods of smaller fish did so.

 

We moved around checking 3 areas out and finding little.  The fourth area we checked was alive with fish and bait with heavily schooled, mainly sub-legal hybrid holding from 20 feet deep down to the bottom in 40 feet of water.  It was right around 11:30a and the time when the fishing has been winding down on all of this past week’s morning trips.  Since this bite appeared to just be staring, we stuck with it until the bite died.

 

We caught just shy of 20 fish from this area in about 40 minutes’ time and then called it a day.

 

TALLY: 142 Fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time:  12:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp:  66.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were E12 until around 8:45, then went ESE67

Sky Conditions:  Very heavy grey skies until the 8:45a wind shift, then lighter grey skies.

Water Level: 594.51 and falling with 594.0 being full pool.  Water being released at 765 cubic feet per second.  Lake fell 0.06 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1734-1735 2 whites, 1 carp, 1 freshwater drum, 1 short hybrid

**Area 1187  one and two-year class whites and short hybrid

**Area 1738 hybrid and short hybrid

**Area 473 heavily schooled short hybrid

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle