Holy Mackeral!! — 55 Fish with Father Brad St. Romain

This past Friday afternoon I fished with Father Brad St. Romain on Belton Lake. I ran a multi-species trip, mainly targeting white bass.

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Among the 55 fish landed this evening, two of our white bass eclipsed the 14″ mark.  Those are respectable white bass on a relatively infertile lake like Belton.  One of those large whites came on a slab, and the one pictured here came on a bladebait.

This past Friday afternoon I fished with Father Brad St. Romain on Belton Lake. I ran a multi-species trip, mainly targeting white bass.

Father Brad has served as the rector of Saint Francis Episcopal church in Temple since 2011.  The two of us have been trying to find a mutually agreeable fishing day since June of this year.  When excessive wave height forced the cancellation of an offshore fishing trip I was to attend with a friend, I contacted Brad to see if we might make this a win – win.

Fortunately, Brad had a good bit of prior fishing experience, primarily in shallow salt water. He was definitely able to handle a spinning rod, and that would help him put fish in the boat this afternoon.

For the first three hours of our four-plus hour trip, we searched for heavily concentrated white bass in water ranging from 25 to 40 feet deep, set up in a hover over top of these fish using my new and improved Minn Kota Ulterra trolling motor, and vertically jigged using 3/8 oz. silver slabs complete with stinger hooks.

I’ll take a quick departure here and share that the positioning on this new #MinnKota #Ulterra unit is many times better than the positioning capability on the previous version. Not only does this unit more quickly acquire its position after the Spot Lock button is pressed, I noted that there was much less meandering to the left, right, forwards, and backwards then with the previous model. My first impressions are very favorable. You should know I have not yet set up the heading sensor which allows for “jogging” to the left, right, front, and back. This will truly be icing on the cake.

Back to fishing … with about an hour left before nightfall, I left behind the deep water vertical work, and moved us up into shallower water, hoping to find an onshore migration of white bass pushing shad shoreward and toward the surface as dark approached.

As we arrived at our new area, I noted fish holding consistently along the slope from 20 to 22 feet deep. We tried jigging for these fish to no avail, and then hooked up downriggers to tempt them. This did the trick, allowing us to pull four fish in three passes. Thinking that we may be able to get the same or better results by casting horizontally, I took us both up to the front deck and we began fan casting with blade baits. Long story short, we stuck with the blade baits and consistently put fish in the boat right up until the fish quit at dark.

We ended this trip with 55 fish boated for our efforts, including white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, and a freshwater drum.

TALLY = 55 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:00p

End Time:  7:20p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Water Surface Temp:  77.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8

Sky Conditions: Fair skies with 20% white cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.01 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas vic 192, 166/1814, 1818, 1819 — all deep vertical jigging for white bass with slabs

**Areas vic 816 and vic 1625 — low light shallow bite on bladebaits

 

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

Good Weather, Good Fishing, and One for the Record Books — 104 Fish on Belton

This past Tuesday morning, October 25, I fished with longtime Killeen resident, Phil Moore, and his brother-in-law from South Dakota, Garvon Golden.

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Garvon Golden with one of just a handful of hybrid we boated on live shad in the final hour of our trip this past Tuesday on Belton.  The white bass were hitting so well it was tough to leave them alone!

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Phil Moore with a nice blue cat taken on live shad in 32 feet of water with our baits set up off bottom just a few feet.  Phil and Garvon landed 104 fish in just over 4 hours this morning.

We started up shallow in under 20 feet of water looking for aggressive white bass. We found what we were looking for in 12 to 20 feet of water, with white bass actively feeding from top to bottom. We caught white bass from 0 to 4 years in age both on top water baits when schools briefly broke the surface, and more consistently on slabs work vertically.

After three full hours of nonstop action, our count stood at 77 fish boated. This catch consisted of 100% white bass.

I suggested that we spend our final hour or so targeting fewer, but better quality fish. As the white bass bite was tapering down, we headed out to deeper water, we searched with sonar until I found what I believed were hybrid, we used the Ulterra’s Spot Lock feature to hold us in place, and then got four baited rods down with various sizes of shad ranging from 3 to 5 inches.

The response was nearly instantaneous. From this one area we wound up catching an additional 27 fish in our last hour. This catch consisted of white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, blue catfish, and channel catfish. As we approached 11:30, the bite began to soften quickly and, as Phil pulled our 104th fish aboard (a blue catfish), we decided to call it a good day.

The highlight of this morning’s trip was Garvon’s capture of a new Belton Lake catch-and-release white bass which measured 16.375 inches, eclipsing the previous record by 0.625 inches.  More on the details of this record catch, plus photos, in this coming Sunday’s Killeen Daily Herald fishing column – check out Section C, the sports section.
TALLY = 104 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp:  76.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8

Sky Conditions: Light fog lifting within the first 60 minutes, with lingering thick grey clouds allowing for low-light conditions through 11am

Water Level: ~0.01 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1129/1817/1808 – 100% white bass for 3 solid hours, first on top, then via slabbing

**Area 1805 – live shad for the last hour for a multi-species catch including several keeper 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

YouTube Channel: Bob Maindelle’s Fishing Video/How-to Collection

Pinterest: Bob Maindelle’s Pinterest Boards

Daddy, this was fun! — 61 Fish, 17 Oct., Lake Belton

This past Monday morning, Oct. 17th, I  fished with Mr. Stephen Miles and his 6-year-old daughter, Kathryn, both of Salado, TX.

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Although she certainly liked landing them, Kathryn was not quite so certain about touching them.  Daddy to the rescue!

Steve is a U.S. Army retiree who now makes his living raising longhorn cattle and instructing various forms of martial arts after going “green to gold” and transitioning from an enlisted soldier to a commissioned officer in Army Aviation.

We had great fishing weather today – mild temperatures, wind, and grey cloud cover.  As soon as enough ambient light shone through the grey cloud layer, the fish began to feed and stayed in a feeding mode for nearly two hours in the same area where we’d first encountered them in 20 feet of water.  The fish slowly “slid” downslope to 32 feet of water as the sky brightened slowly.  During this time, we downrigged to catch the shallow fish, and then transitioned to a vertical tactic used while holding directly over the fish with the Spot Lock function on the Ulterra trolling motor.  We managed to catch white bass, largemouth bass, hybrid striped bass, and even a freshwater drum.  By right around 9am the fish slacked off and we left the white bass action behind to pursue sunfish.

Kathryn did a great job at watching her balsawood float as we fished up in under 4 feet of water.  Rarely did I have to tell her to set the hook as I typically do with most kids her age.  Kathryn landed bluegill sunfish, longear sunfish, redear sunfish, and green sunfish during the hour or so we spent up shallow.

By 10:15a, we’d downrigged, vertical jigged, and fished for sunfish.  I asked Kathryn which of these 3 methods she enjoyed most, planning to use that method during our final hour on the water.  She chose downrigging, so, downrigging we went!

I took us out into deeper, 35-40 foot water to pursue white bass this go-round and had to look at two areas before finding what I was after.  The very first set we put down was answered with a “triple”  — one fish on each of the 3 lures on the 3-armed umbrella rig we were using.

As Steve and I kept a close eye on sonar, we watched the fish lose interest with each pass we made until finally, right around 11a, the fish simply failed to show any interest in the downrigger ball and baits passing overhead.

We closed out the trip with 61 fish landed, a very happy young lady, and a TPWD “First Fish Award” hard-earned.  As we walked up to the parking Kathryn told Steve, “Daddy, this was fun.”.

 
TALLY = 61 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  78.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE13-14

Sky Conditions: 60% grey clouds on a blue sky

Water Level: ~0.12 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 65

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1129/1817/1808 – white bass on downriggers in 20-25′

**Area 1805 – easing for white bass in 30-35′

**Area 971-1609 – downrigging for increasingly disinterested 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

Army Kids Go Fishing — 90 Fish, Belton, 15 Oct.

This past Saturday afternoon, October 15, I conducted the 18th SKIFF program trip of the 2016 season with 3 young Army anglers aboard.

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From left: Analee (10), Alexavier (5), and Mrs. Maria Avalos with a few of the 12-13″ class fish we caught out of large, suspended schools in open water on downriggers soon after launching this afternoon.

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5 year old Landon Waldman with one of the white bass he reeled in all by himself.  The three kids also landed a variety of sunfish from still-warm shallow water on this morning’s trip.
Mrs. Maria Avalos brought her oldest two children, Analee (10)  and Alexavier (5). Mrs. Ashley Waldman dropped her five-year-old son, Landon, off with us so she could attend to her younger daughter while Landon enjoyed some time away from the girls in the outdoors. Staff Sergeant Avalos is currently attending an Army school at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Private First Class (PFC) Waldman has been in the Army for just a year and has been frequently separated from his family during this short period of time.

The wind and cloud cover we enjoyed this morning continued into this afternoon. As we launched, the wind was right at 13 to 14 mph with some mild whitecapping out in open water. We put our first 21 fish in the boat by downrigging in open water with the balls set between 22 and 27 feet, right above where sonar revealed white bass and ample shad showing. During this time, using two armed rigs on each of the two downriggers, we caught more doubles than singles. This is typical when encountering large, suspended school of white bass.

When the novelty of downrigging had worn off, we moved up shallow and targeted sunfish up in cover-filled water allowing each child to catch several sunfish species including bluegill, green sunfish, and long ear sunfish. Right around the time the kids started getting a bit antsy fishing for sunfish, we noticed a stranded boat or out in open water waving to try to get someone’s attention. We approached him, found that his battery selector switch had corroded completely, and offered him a ride back into the dock. The kids were excited that we got to be good Samaritans out on the water.

For our final effort of the evening, we headed into 20 to 25 foot water in an area that had a slow-tapering bottom and which the wind had been blowing onto all day. At around 6 PM, I found abundant, heavily schooled white bass in a feeding posture. I put the boat into a hover using the Ulterr trolling motor, and we proceeded to “wear ‘em out” using a smoking retrieve. Analee fished independently and did very well, I assisted Landon, and Maria assisted Alexavier. With 3 rods going it was just about all I could do to keep Landon fishing and take all of the fish off the hook. We put another 48 fish in the boat in the hour between 6 and 7 PM.

By seven, all the kids had had their fill of the outdoors and it was time to crank up and head to the dock. We ended today’s trip with exactly 90 fish boated.
TALLY = 90 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time:  7:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 87F

Water Surface Temp:  78.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S13-14, tapering slowly to S8

Sky Conditions: 60% white clouds on a blue sky

Water Level: ~0.13 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1223-1079 – open water, suspended white bass on downriggers

**Area 1583 – sunfish

**Area 793-813 – low light white bass via smoking tactic

 

 

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

Fall Transition Underway — 79 Fish, Belton, 15 Oct.

This past Saturday morning, October 15, I fished with cousins David Tuel of Waco and Frank Hardey of the Houston area. We fished a multi-species trip on Belton primarily targeting white bass in deep water.

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From left: David Tuel of Waco and his cousin, Frank Hardey of Houston, teamed up for a 79 fish morning on Belton Lake.  With the water beginning to cool, the fish are beginning to congregate in large numbers on the bottom in areas previously beneath the summer thermocline.

David makes his living as an anesthesiologist, and Frank works as a trainer for Southwest Airlines. Both men commented positively about the aesthetic properties of Belton Lake thanks to the absence of shoreline construction.

The day began with gray clouds and breeze, and thankfully that cloud cover and breeze continued all morning. We began fishing in 22 feet of water and ended our day in 35 feet of water, with all of the action happening within those two parameters. As we went from area to area today we found ample quantities of white bass heavily schooled on and very near the bottom. These fish were quite susceptible to various vertical retrieves.

Some fish required a very slow, methodical “easing” tactic, while other schools of fish were duped with a faster “smoking” tactic. Our go-to bait was the silver holographic colored 3/8 oz. Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs slab Model 180. Fished on light spinning gear, this slab was just the ticket with a combination of light braided line, and a fluorocarbon leader. We caught fish today from start to finish and put several species of fish in the boat including white bass, hybrid striper, largemouth bass, and freshwater drum. By far the most prevalent species was the white bass with several fish caught between 13 and 14 inches, and with three exceeding 14 inches.

At the next-to-last area we fished, we were treated to an aerial dogfight as we watched an osprey with a fish in its talons being hassled by a juvenile bald eagle nearly twice its size. Try as it might, the eagle could not get the osprey to let go of its meal. After about four or five minutes of constant pressuring, the young eagle gave up.  Unfortunately, it was around this time that our fish gave up, too, and so, at around 11:45a we called it a good morning and headed back to the dock.
TALLY = 79 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Water Surface Temp:  78.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S10-12

Sky Conditions: 60% white clouds on a blue sky

Water Level: ~0.13 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1816 and vicinity – balling for white bass, then smoking

**Area 211/1675 – balling for white bass, then smoking

**Area 1675 – smoking for white bass

**Area  192 – easing for white bass as the bite tapered to an end

 

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

Caught ’em 5 at a Time!! — 75 fish with Chad & Coitt

This past Tuesday, October 12, I fished with father and son team Chad and Coitt Messersmith of Georgetown, Texas. Coitt is 10 years old, has both an older and younger sister, and primarily had fished from the bank prior to this morning’s trip. He and dad gave the girls the slip and came out to Belton Lake for some guy time this morning.

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Father and son fishing with Chad Messersmith and his 10-year-old son, Coitt on Belton this past Tuesday.

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Five at a time!!  We caught 2 white bass on Coitt’s 2-armed rig and 3 white bass on Chad’s 3-armed rig as an aggressive school crashed into our spread down around 27 feet.

Due to the very calm conditions today, the presence of bait was evident where it was near the surface during the low light period just before and after sunrise.  As I observed the baitfish and rough fish disrupting the surface, I checked things over with sonar, and was able to put Chad and Coitt onto our first fish of the morning by finding white bass amidst this surface activity. We used downriggers with balls set between 14 and 17 feet to target fish over a slightly deeper bottom. On this first stop, most of the fish we encountered were small.

We moved on and fished a steep underwater slope along the 25 to 35 foot contour and watched sonar to see schools of white bass that were up off of bottom and hunting, as well as bottom hugging white bass that came up off the bottom out of curiosity and aggression as they swam up toward the downrigger ball. Whenever fish came up off the bottom after the ball, those fish were sure to hit our Pet Spoons as they passed by several seconds later.  On one pass, using both a 2-armed and 3-armed rig, we actually caught 5 fish at a time!

We moved on to a more gentle underwater slope and fished the 30 to 36 foot contour with downriggers and did well, noticing as we trolled that there were also large bottom hugging schools of fish in this area. After we had put a number of fish in the boat on the downrigger, we tried using slabs over top of these heavily schooled, bottom oriented fish to see if we could tempt them. They actually responded quite well, despite the less than ideal, bright, calm conditions. We were able to use a smoking tactic to put a number of fish in the boat quite quickly using this tactic.

By now our fish count stood at 47 and the clock showed 10:30 AM. We headed up shallow at this point to fish for sunfish and to show Chad and Coitt how they might adapt this technique to their future bank fishing efforts. Over the next hour, Coitt put 28 fish in the boat from out of this shallow, cover filled water, including bluegill sunfish, longear sunfish, yellow belly sunfish, green sunfish, and largemouth bass.

We concluded this morning’s trip with 75 fish landed.

TALLY = 75 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F

Water Surface Temp:  78.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light and variable.

Sky Conditions:  Bright, calm, clear post-frontal conditions

Water Level: ~0.13 feet high with only evaporative losses

GT = 50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 168/169 – downrigging for white bass

**Area 1125-511 – downrigging for white bass

**Area 1074-509 – downrigging for white bass to find them, then smoking to capitalize on the find

**Area  166 – sunfish

 

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

Three Generations Aboard — 50 Fish, Belton, 10 Oct.

This past Columbus Day Monday I was joined by Mr. John Matthews, his adult son Derek Matthews (of Belton, Texas), Derek’s daughter, Isabel, and John’s granddaughter from Buda, Texas, Bella Jaimes. We set out on Belton Lake on a multi-species trip, primarily focused on white bass and sunfish.  These fish provide lots of action and keep younger kids engaged.

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From left:  Back row: Derek and John Matthews; foreground: Isabel Matthews and Bella Jaimes.

The girls were alert and energetic as they boarded the boat. I went over a quick safety briefing and introduction to both spinning and casting gear, and then we were off.  Within a few minutes of launching, we had identified heavy schools of white bass blanketing the bottom in 22 to 25 feet of water under still dim conditions.  As the skies brightened, the fish grew more active, and stayed active for about 50 minutes, and then began to move offshore and grow less enthusiastic as the skies brightened.

Over this time, the girls routinely landed singles and doubles of white bass on downrigger rods rigged with Pet Spoons fished just above the level we saw fish appearing at on sonar.

When things got slow, we relocated to deeper structure and continued downrigging.  Occasionally, we’d find a tightly grouped bunch of white bass holding tight to the bottom and would work slabs through them for a few quick fish, but, these fish didn’t stay put very long, and we then kept right on downrigging.  We fished this way right up until 10 AM. By this time, we had landed 38 white bass.

The remainder of our trip we invested in catching a variety of sunfish species up in shallow, cover-laden water. The girls took turns on one long bream rod using worm as bait, and wound up with exactly 50 fish boated for their efforts. Dad and grandpa didn’t fish, but rather came along as moral support, to spend some time with the girls, and to help me help the girls be successful, which was much appreciated.

TALLY = 50 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Water Surface Temp:  78.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SW5 until sunrise, then calming to light and variable.

Sky Conditions:  Bright, calm, clear post-frontal conditions

Water Level: ~0.16 feet high following a bit of inflow from the area-wide 1″ rain the previous Sunday/Monday, 26/27 Sept.

GT = 50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area encompassed by Areas 1804-1655-1803-1790 – downrigging for white bass

**Area 1814 & 1815 – smoking for white bass

**Area 376-1678 – downrigging for white bass

**Area  502 – sunfish

 

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

Cold Front Fishing — 44 Fish, SKIFF Trip #17

This past Friday afternoon I ran the season’s 17th SKIFF  (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) program trip, this time doing an after-school trip on Stillhouse (a bit closer to my house in order to reduce my guests’ drive time and maximize our fishing time as the days grow shorter).  I was joined today by Ayden Bouchee and his mom, Amanda Bouchee, of Ft. Hood.

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Just before the last light of day was obscured by a grey cloud deck, we got into a school of white bass willing to hit our downriggers equipped with Pet Spoons.  Ayden’s largest was this 14.00″ white bass.  His mom immediately texted the photo to his grandpa.

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Ayden Bouchee, under difficult cold front conditions, put together a catch of sunfish that had the highest average weight of any single catch of sunfish I’ve seen caught on Stillhouse in 24 years.  Most all fish were at least 5″, with some exceeding 7″.

Ayden’s father, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Bouchee, is an infantryman now deployed to South Korea.  He has been in the Army for 9 years after volunteering right out of high school.

When Ayden and Amanda arrived, I shared with them the fisherman’s rhyme,

“Winds from the west, fish bite best.

Winds from the east, fish bite least.

Winds from the south blow the hook in the fish’s mouth; but…

Winds from the north, the fisherman goes not forth!

I let him know we had a tough job on our hands fishing while a cold front was coming through, but that we’d work hard and would still put some fish in the boat.

After looking far and wide for some white bass to fish for, I went with “Plan B” after sonar revealed little in 40 minutes’ time.  Plan B was to fish for sunfish in shallow cover, and it worked just fine.

Ayden stayed engaged for nearly 2 hours bringing in sunfish after sunfish from one fairly small, protected cove.  All of our sunfish this trip were bluegill, and I commented to Amanda that this was the single best average weight of sunfish I’d had any child catch on any trip over the 24 years I’ve fished Stillhouse.   Nearly every fish was at least 5″, with some just exceeding 7″.

As we drew within an hour of sunset, and with the wind subsiding just a bit, I thought we’d give the white bass one more try.  Ayden was ready for a transition, anyway, so, once again we set out to hunt with sonar.

At the breakline of a submerged point, at about 27 feet down over a 31-33 foot bottom, I saw several small packs of white bass in short succession on the sonar screen, along with ample bait.  We put just one of the two downriggers down at first, equipped with Pet Spoons, and got a single, then another, then a double.

Now that we knew fish were present and biting, we put down yet another ‘rigger and, in the end, wound up adding a total of seven white bass to our catch of 37 sunfish, to finish up the evening with a grand total of 44 fish landed.

 

TALLY = 44 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time:  7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Water Surface Temp:  79.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  N15-17mph

Sky Conditions:  Grey clouds persisted as a cold front, which dropped ~.75″ of rain earlier in the day as it passed, continued to move through.

Water Level: ~0.16 feet high following a bit of inflow from the area-wide 1″ rain the previous Sunday/Monday, 26/27 Sept.

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1098 – Sunfish

**Area  039/041 – downrigging 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

Facebook Fishing — 76 Fish, Lake Belton, 06 Oct.

It’s kind of crazy how this whole trip came together!  I’d originally booked a trip for October 6th with an elderly, long-time client of mine who struggles with medical issues.  Back in the spring, I’d enjoyed fishing with a railroad retiree, Kim Herald, and his brother.  At the close of that trip, Kim expressed an interest in catching hybrid stripers and asked me to let him know if an opportunity to split the cost of a trip ever arose.  My elderly client was open to this, so, I planned a trip for the two of them…

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Kim boated our largest fish of the trip — this 5 pound class hybrid striper which took a large, live bait.

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David took this chunky hybrid in under 16 feet of water at mid-morning thanks to the heavy clouds keeping the light level low.

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And Fran got the hang of using circle hooks right off the bat and landed our first fish of the trip while it was still well before sunrise (hence the grainy photo — sorry!).

Unfortunately, the fellow with medical issues had to bow out due to those medical issues, leaving just Kim to fish with me, and a bit of a financial shortfall given the time I’d have to invest in netting live shad for the trip (easily 90-120+ minutes before clients arrive).  So, I put up a post on Facebook that I could offer a discount to try to attract a second guest and defray some of these costs.

Long story short, that post was viewed (and shared) extensively by those who tune in to my reports such that over 2,300 people very quickly became aware of my situation.  At 8:06pm, a couple from Belton, referred by an existing client, called to claim that seat.  That put Mr. David Souza and Mrs. Fran Souza in good company with Kim Herald for a full morning of fishing on Lake Belton.

Fran is still working as a counselor at the Center for Positive Change in Belton, and David, originally from Missouri, is now retired.

October is a notoriously tough month for Belton, and the later in the month we go, the tougher the fishing tends to become, thanks to the annual turnover of the water that has been stratified by temperature all summer.

I came prepared to fish for white bass, hybrid striper, and blue catfish in order to ensure we caught fish.

As it turned out, all of our tactics were put to the test, with live shad fishing for hybrid producing our best fish, and vertical jigging with slabs producing the most fish.  The catfishing was slow, but all three clients still caught several of these whiskered critters.

Yet another cold front comes in to central Texas on Friday, 07 Oct., and may be the one to trigger the turnover and get this tough fishing out of the way for us.  As it stood, I noted that the thermocline had already moved several feet downward and I found shad and catfish in deeper water than they have been inhabiting all summer.

By trip’s end, we had boated and released 76 fish.  I really appreciate all of you who forwarded that Facebook post to friends for doing so; that directly impacted my business for the better!

 

TALLY = 76 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  12:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  80.0F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE 12-13mph

Sky Conditions:  A low, grey layer of clouds persisted all morning, keeping conditions dim.

Water Level: ~0.27 feet high following a bit of inflow from the area-wide 1″ rain the previous Sunday/Monday, 26/27 Sept.

GT = 75

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1800/1802 – keeper hybrid, short hybrid, and white bass on live shad and Black Saltys

**Area  vic 134 – keeper hybrid, short hybrid, and white bass on live shad and slabs

**Area vic 1579 – found heavily schooled white bass with downriggers and then worked these fish over with slabs

**Area  vic 156 – blue cat on cut shad under slipfloats

 

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

Fishing with the Grandkids — 74 Fish, Belton Lake

Man, what a beautiful day to be on the water. Both this past Saturday’s morning trip and evening trip were cool and dry, with a little bit of breeze and some gray cloud cover. It was just a joy to be in the outdoors under these conditions. This evening I was joined by Mr. Forrest Breyfogle III, his wife, Becki Breyfogle, and their grandchildren, 11-year-old Abby Breyfogle and nine-year-old forest Breyfogle V.

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Abby caught the largest white bass of the trip…

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Grandma Becki caught the most fish…

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And the whole family got to enjoy a beautiful early fall day out on Lake Belton.

We fished a multi-species trip on Belton Lake beginning at 3:45 PM and fished until dark, around 7:50 PM.

Because the kids were fairly new to fishing and Mr. and Mrs. Breyfogle hadn’t fished in quite some time, we began with some dockside casting lessons using spinning gear so that if any shallow water white bass activity took place under low light conditions in the last hour of the trip, we would be prepared to take full advantage of that.

After the casting lessons were done, we put the spinning gear away and I familiarized everyone with how to hold and use the bait casting gear that we would use for downrigging. With that skill then under their belts, we set out to put white bass in the boat using the downriggers. We fished 2 rods, each equipped with multiple Pet Spoons on either a tandem rig or a three-armed umbrella rig.

Our first 45 minutes on the water yielded 14 fish, several of which came in the form of doubles, wherein we landed two fish on one rod at the same time as multiple schoolmates fell for the Pet Spoons on the tandem rig or on the umbrella rig.

Next, we targeted blue catfish in open water over a 30 foot bottom. Although the chop on the water made by detection a little tougher then it could have been under calm conditions, the action was non-stop. Everyone landed multiple blue catfish, and Becki managed to take two hybrid, each measuring around 16 inches, on her dead bait.

During the 6 o’clock hour, we “spot hopped” and used a vertical tactic with small slabs to tempt a number of white bass holding in tightly grouped schools on the bottom when I was able to locate them with sonar. When this success proved spotty, I went back to downrigging and fished with downriggers until around 7 PM. From 7 PM until dark, we enjoyed casting to white bass in shallow water. These fish did not break the surface in large, noisy schools, but rather slipped up into the shallows unnoticed except for their signatures on sonar.

By the time night fell, we had amassed a catch of 74 fish.  By request of Becki, I’m including the species of fish we landed: hybrid striped bass, white bass, and blue catfish; as well as the techniques we used: downrigging (for hybrid stripers and white bass); slipfloating with cutbait (for catfish), and casting with soft plastics and slabs (for white bass).

TALLY = 74 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time:  7:50p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Water Surface Temp:  82.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE 9mph

Sky Conditions: A thin, scattered white deck of clouds offering 30% coverage but still bright conditions

Water Level: ~0.22 feet high following a bit of inflow from the area-wide 1″ rain the previous Sunday/Monday, 26/27 Sept.

GT = 50

 

Wx Snapshot:

01oct16

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  181/1604 – downrigging for white bass

**Area  vic 812 – catfish on cutbait

**Area 1800/1803/085 – downrigging for white bass and hybrid striped bass

**Area  1781/011 – casting to shallow white bass and hybrid striper

 

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