This past Tuesday morning I fished Lake Belton with Nadia Ali, her daughters, Malaika, Zamzam, and Zuzu, and Nadia’s brother, Muhammed Imran.
Zamzam with the first fish of her life — caught on shallow-running a downrigger with Pet Spoons.
Zuzu with the first fish of her life.
And Malaika with the first fish of her life.
Siblings Muhammed Imran and Nadia Ali on Muhammed’s introduction tour of Texas courtesy of his sister.
Nadia works as a physician at Baylor Scott & White, her daughters are all in school, and Muhammed is a mechanical engineer visiting from Pakistan.
I was concerned about the fishing this morning after the high-pressure dome that had been firmly in place over Texas broke down, allowing for an east wind, cloud cover, and rain to enter the area last night. As I woke up this morning, it was noticeably cooler, cloudy, and the lightest of north wind was blowing
Nadia and her family showed up at 6:35a, and I decided to follow the same pattern I had been following for the past two weeks. I continued to find fish in the same areas they have been using recently, although there was a noticeable lack of top water action this morning. Thanks to the fairly thick gray cloud cover, the low light that has provided for excellent downrigging conditions extended for a full two hours today. We landed a total of 29 fish, including three doubles, in our first two hours on the water on downriggers.
Nadia and I agreed to pro-rate this trip for a shortened three hours versus the normal 4+ hours, because her oldest daughter had an appointment that could not be broken. Our final hour we spent fishing live baits within 5 to 7 feet of the bottom. I initially stopped us over a minor breakline after seeing hybrid show up on sonar. Our first four takedowns were hybrid striper, but afterwards, blue catfish moved in. Because Muhammed was the only one who had ever fished before, I went ahead and capitalized on the very willing blue catfish. We were able to land eight of these whiskered critters by the time 9:05a rolled around and we had to pull the plug in order to make a timely return back to the boat ramp. For our efforts, we landed 41 fish this morning.
All three of the young ladies landed the first fish of their lives this morning!
TALLY = 41 fish, all caught and released
Wx Snapshot:
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:35a
End Time: 9:15a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 83F
Water Surface Temp: 85.6F
Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable
Sky Conditions: 100% thin grey cloud cover until 8:15a when it all burned off an was quite hot and humid due to overnight rain and a lack of wind.
Water Level: 12.60 feet high and falling ~ 0.6 feet per day with a flow of ~5,300 cfs
GT = 15
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1762-018 downrigging for low light fish just sub-surface with balls at 10-15′
**Area 793/1070 live bait for hybrid, followed by small blue cat
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website:www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail:Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
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