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