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

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