Let’s go fishin’, Papa Joe!! — 31 Fish and 3 Generations of Olivers

This past Friday morning, July 29th, I fished with Mr. Joe Oliver as he and his adult son, Thomas Oliver, chaperoned three of Joe’s grandchildren: Harper (6), Presley (8), and Cullen (8), on a multi-species children’s fishing trip on Lake Belton.

WHITE BASS

With a lot of help from “Papa” Joe and Uncle Tom, all three kids landed white bass …

 

 

CATFISH

…and blue catfish…

 

 

SUNFISH

…and sunfish…

 

 

TRIPLE

…and doubles and triples…

 

 

HYBRID

…and even a few lunkers…
As a retired educator, Joe understood full well the limited attention spans of kids his grandchildren’s age, so, we planned accordingly to expose the kids to multiple, brief “chapters” during this morning’s trip.

Chapter 1 consisted of downrigging for white bass and hybrid stripers. This resulted in a total of 24 fish. Chapter 2 consisted of fishing with bait up in shallow, cover-filled water for sunfish.

And the final chapter consisted of fishing in open water for densely schooled blue catfish using dead baits.

We were successful in each of these three endeavors and, by 9:45a had landed a total of 31 fish and had reached the end of all three kids’ attention spans. While it was still possible to end the trip on a positive note, we did just that.

 

TALLY = 31 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

29JUL16

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  19:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temp:  85.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S9-12

Sky Conditions: 10% white clouds on a fair sky.   Unobscurred sunrise at 7:09.

Water Level: ~10.2 feet high and falling ~  0.65 feet per day with a flow of ~5,200 cfs

GT = 15

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1766-1641 downrigging for low light fish

**Area 1793/1663/1644 downrigging for deeper mid-morning fish

**Area 1794 sunfish

**Area 1655 blue catfish

 

 

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