This past Wednesday morning, June 29, I conducted a “Kids Dish, Too!” trip with Aaron Hall and his 2 youngest children, Lucy and James. Neither Lucy, age 6, nor James, age 5, had ever landed a fish before.
James landed this nice 3.75 pound Belton Lake hybrid striped bass with just a little help from his dad, Aaron.
Lucy landed this hybrid just after sunrise while we were still downrigging, before switching over to live bait.
Aaron works in the anesthesiology department at Baylor – Scott & White hospital, but, after spending some time down here in Texas, is headed back home this summer to Washington State to continue his career near Spokane. As the trio came down to the water’s edge to meet me, I could tell dad had personally dressed the kids for this trip, seeing how they were both in their pajamas!
Planning on multiple transitions through the course of a 3 to 4 hour trip is a must when working with kids of this age. Even if we were fortunate enough to catch a fish every minute or two, such great action would quickly lose its novelty for kids this young. Knowing this, I planned to downrig this morning, as well as use live bait, search for topwater action, and fish for sunfish up in shallow water. As it turned out, we were able to do all four of these things, and as young as they were, both James and Lucy were able to stay engaged and enjoy the entire four hour or experience.
We began our day with the downriggers in the water trolling Pet Spoons behind a tandem rig and a three-armed umbrella rig set between 18 and 22 feet. This depth has been preferred by gamefish and baitfish all through this extensive flooding on Belton. Once we eliminated some unproductive water and found fish on sonar, we were able to thoroughly work this fish-holding water and put both white bass and keeper hybrid in the boat. Once the sun got more intense, the fish pushed down to the bottom and we prepared to switch over to live bait.
Right about this time, in the same area in which we had been downrigging, some white top water action broke out driven by white bass forcing shad to the surface. Aaron and I worked together to launch cork rigs beyond the fray, and the kids were able to retrieve the rigs through the fish then hook and land them. This accounted for another several white bass in the three-year class. Once this action died, we picked up where we had left off with live bait. We fished live shad right near bottom for these increasingly disinterested fish, allowing us to land several more white bass and keeper hybrid.
Of all the techniques I employ, I find the kids stay interested least in live bait fishing, so we did not stick with this very long. The closing chapter of our day consisted of pursuing small, shallow water panfish using worms beneath slip floats. In the closing moments of our trip James and Lucy put a combined seven blacktail shiners and a small sunfish in the boat using this approach. As if on cue, James asked right at 10:15 AM, “Dad, can we go home now?”
For their efforts, James and Lucy boated 29 fish this morning, and each earned at Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award”.
TALLY = 29 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:15a
End Time: 11:45a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Water Surface Temp: 85.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: Variable SSE to SSW 3-4.
Sky Conditions: Less than 20% white cloud cover on a fair sky.
Water Level: ~25+ feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing. Lake is still rising due to even heavier flows out of Lake Proctor upstream from Belton.
GT = 30
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 011 to 019 downrigging for white bass and hybrid stripers
** Area 1772 – good results on live shad; 1 hybrid for every 3 mature white bass
**Area 1583 – panfish on redworms up shallow
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