This past Saturday morning I fished a multi-species trip on Lake Belton, primarily targeting white bass with returning client Mark Herzer and his 14-year-old son, Zach. Mark brought along a colleague, Alfred Brice, an Austin-area architect, and his 14-year-old-son, Paxton.
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From left: Alfred Brice, Paxton Brice, Zach Herzer, and Mark Herzer. White bass caught on a variety of tactics (bladebaits, slabs, and downriggers) made up the lion’s share of our catch this morning. We also landed drum, hybrid, and largemouth bass.
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Mark Herzer’s hybrid, landed on a white 3/4 oz. slab around 10:30am, anchored our stringer this morning.
I came into this morning’s trip having had a bit of a tough go of it the evening before under calm, bright conditions. This morning’s forecast called for continued bright conditions, but, a NW breeze was due to push at 10-11mph, and, just after sunrise, that breeze, thankfully, did materialize and worked its magic on motivating the food chain to come alive.
Once the wind began to push, the bait began to stir, the gamefish began to feed, and the second helpful episode of fish-eating bird action of this fall season played out in front of us, letting us know exactly where the fish were. I maneuvered the boat to within casting distance of the action and had four rods working for 75 minutes before the action slacked off and we had to change tactics. During this time, working Binsky bladebaits in water under 14 feet deep did the trick for white bass in the 1, 2, and 3 year class.
Brice and Paxton had never used spinning gear before, but learned very quickly and, in no time were cashing in right along with everyone else.
After the shallow bite died, we did some downrigging and caught fish consistently, including doubles on the tandem rig and 3-armed umbrella rig. Eventually, this bite which occurred out deeper than the bladebait fishing but in the same general area, also died out.
By now the sun was high and bright — a sure sign that we’d need to move our operation out to deeper water. Fortunately, several deepwater area were also being impacted by the nice breeze that was blowing, and we found them to be productive, too. The bite definitely began to wane in the last hour, as we had to frequently “jog” and “spot hop” in order to stay on top of fish that were rapidly losing interest.
When all was said and done, we’d managed to boat a grand total of 103, the largest of which was a 3 pound class hybrid striped bass which Mark handled very aptly on the light spinning gear we were all using.
TALLY = 103 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 10:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F
Water Surface Temp: 71.6F
Wind Speed & Direction: NW10-12
Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless
Water Level: ~0.22 feet high and slowly falling at ~0.11 feet per day
GT = 40
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1634 and 1665 – shallow bladebaits for fish under birds
**Area 1573 – downrigging
**Area 1672, 1679, 1827 – deep vertical jigging for heavily congregated fish
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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