Albatross on Belton? — 53 Fish, 30 April 2016

This past Saturday morning, April 30th, I fished with Andy Bell, his father-in-law, Will Zschiesche, and Dylan Murray, Andy’s nephew.

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Andy Bell with a nice Belton hybrid striped bass taken on live shad.

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Will Zschiesche with one of the many hybrid we boated this morning.  Circle hooks made for quick, easy releases, thus allowing us to get fresh baits back down to the fish quickly while they were still present and biting.

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This was Dylan Murry’s first time fishing for hybrid striper after mainly casting for whatever would bite his lure while dock fishing at a family lake house on Possum Kingdom.

Will is a retired firefighter, Andy is a physical fitness trainer for the Premier Jewelry Company, and Dylan is a 17-year-old high school junior and avid golf player.  As Andy asked his nephew about his latest golfing accomplishments, Dylan said he just missed an “albatross” recently.  Not being a golfer of any sort, and having never heard the term “albatross” used in a golfing context, I just had to inquire further.  It seems an albatross is when one makes it from the tee to the hole in just 2 shots on a par 5.  Back to fishing…

Andy and I had been corresponding since before Thanksgiving of 2015 trying to get a date to fish, but on a number of occasions winter weather hindered us.

A mild cold front pushed into the area in the late afternoon yesterday, and caused turbulent weather during the overnight and early morning hours, complete with thunder, lightning, brief heavy downpours of rain, and occasional pellets of hail. Within 30 minutes of our planned start time of 7:15 AM, this weather began to move off to the east leaving a north-northwest wind and heavy grey cloud cover in its wake. Additionally, although the Corps of Engineers is running 5000 to 6000 ft.³ per second out of the dam, Belton still rose slightly over this past 24 hour period. Fortunately, none of the areas that have been producing fish lately were impacted by off colored water.

We fished four areas this morning, the first three specifically in pursuit of hybrid striper, and the last (for variety’s sake), targeting schooled white bass caught via a jigging spoon. The first area we hit gave up only one keeper hybrid and a short white. We saw plenty of fish near bottom, and even had fish approach our baits suspended a few feet up off bottom, but despite chumming and thumping, these fish would not respond.

The second and third areas we hit were in approximately 48 feet of water, and produced much better following a wind shift from north-northwest to west-northwest. We put an additional 48 fish in the boat at these two areas with a majority of the fish being legal hybrid striped bass of at least 18 inches. Our single largest fish today weighed in at 4.25 pounds.

At the last area we fished, we targeted heavily schooled white bass in over 60’ of water.  Although these fish responded to our presentations allowing us to put 3 fish in the boat in short order, the morning bite was just about over and after the initial interest these fish showed, they turned right off and refused to bite.  We wrapped up right at 11:15a.

TALLY = 53 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp:  72F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were NNW13 at trip’s start, shifting to WNW11 within an hour, and staying at that velocity.

Sky Conditions:  Light grey cloud cover at 100%

Water Level: Running 5664 cfs out of the dam, Belton still fell 0.12 feet in the last 24 hours and is now 9.54 feet above full pool.

Other: GT= 50

 Wx Snapshot:

 30APR16

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1742 – subdued action at low-light with NNW wind blowing hard after wet front’s passage.

**Area 346/1318 – solid hybrid striper action for just-legal fish for 1.5 hours.

**Area 1390 – solid hybrid striper action for 19-20 inch fish at 3.25 to 4.25 pounds

**Area 1717 – deep vertical jigging (easing) for white bass in 62′

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

 

Pre-Deployment Fishing Trip with the Umbargers — 48 Fish, Belton Lake

This past Friday morning, April 29th, I fished with Dakota and Brianna Umbarger, both originally from Oregon, and now stationed here at Ft. Hood for Dakota’s first enlistment.

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Dakota is serving our country in an Army Aviation unit that specializes in the use of unmanned (drone) aircraft and is currently planning on re-enlisting.  He’ll be heading overseas for his first deployment this summer, and so Brianna, who is now 18 weeks pregnant and due in September, will be heading home to be with family in Oregon until Dakota returns to the US.

The fishing picked up a bit today after some off-colored water and the opening of the dam to release accumulated flood water combined to provide a bit of a tough day yesterday.
Most of the Umbarger’s fishing experience came in the form of fishing for trout in the Northwest, so, when our first 3+ pound hybrid hammered Brianna’s bait, it was clear that fishing for hybrid striped bass was a whole new ballgame.
We fished 3 areas in our 4.25 hours on the water.  The first two areas were both in 52 feet of water, and the last was in 60 feet of water (bear in mind that the lake is now flooded with 9.4 feet of water above the full pool level).
The first area was our best stop and the longest bite, going right at 2 hours.  That stop produced 17 fish, of which 14 were legal (18+ inch) hybrid stripers.  The second stop produced 22 fish, including 2 legal hybrid, and a mix of short hybrid and white bass. For our last stop, for variety’s sake, I sought out heavily congregated schools of white bass to jig for using slabs.  We quickly added 9 more fish to our tally in just 15 minutes as we closed out our trip.

TALLY: 48 Fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp:  72-73.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were steady at SSE10-12

Sky Conditions:  Moderately thick grey cloud cover the entire trip.

Water Level: Despite running over 5,000 cfs out of the dam, Belton still rose 0.17 feet in the last 24 hours and is now 9.41 feet above full pool.

Other: GT= 20

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1277/683 — fished bait for 14/17 keeper hybrid

**Area 1152/958 —  fished bait for whites, and short and keeper hybrid

**Area 717– jigged with slabs for white bass

 

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