26 | November | 2016 | Fishing Report

Lake Georgetown Relents (a bit) in the Afternoon — 64 Fish, 22 Nov. 2016

November 26th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Tuesday afternoon, November 22^nd, I fished a 1/2 day, multi-species trip on Lake Georgetown with my nephew, Trent Maindelle, who was home on Thanksgiving break from his junior year at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

The fish turned on for a brief, 45-minute feed just before a storm cell moved in from the SW and brought about a rapid change in conditions. Here, Trent holds his “double” and my “double” — four fish caught just seconds apart as the fish went on a heavy, brief feed in advance of approaching rain.

After a very tough morning on Georgetown, I invited my nephew out for an afternoon on Georgetown. He lives in north Austin, and, since I was already halfway there, I figured we’d grab lunch and catch up on things while wetting a line.

So, after a worse-than-bad lunch at Carl’s Junior on Hwy. 29, (should have known the food was iffy when they were the only restaurant in a 10-mile radius with enough parking for my truck and boat), we headed out in pursuit of a few fish.

As we got going, it felt like a repeat performance of the slow morning I’d just experienced (11 fish in 5.25 hours). We downrigged for a few fish on the east end of the lake, but, as a small storm cell approached the area, the wind died down and the skies actually got a bit brighter. At this same time, we spotted two gulls dip down over open water. I moved in for a closer look and found a small area of bottom atop a high spot covered with fish.

We set up in a hover using the Ulterra’s Spot Lock function and caught the tar out of the fish until the rain began to fall, and then it was all over — for good. During this time we caught singles and doubles using Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs for about 45 minutes. We took our fish count from single digits up to 62 fish in this short period of time. Once the rain came and left and left calm conditions in its wake, the fishing went right back downhill. We landed only 2 more fish in our last 1.75 hours.

There’s an old saying in fishing — “Don’t leave fish to find fish.” Should have stayed on Lake Belton. But then there’s another saying — “Hindsight is 20/20.”

TALLY = 64 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:45p

End Time: 5:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp: 68.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW12, then falling suddenly to calm following the passage of a small storm cell.

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover, but thinner than in the morning, thus allowing for brighter conditions

Water Level: 2.31 feet below full pool

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 854-1850 via downrigging at trip’s beginning, and again at trip’s end

**Area 1853 – via vertical jigging with Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs in ~32 feet of water

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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Tough Morning on Lake Georgetown — 11 Fish, 22 Nov. 2016

November 26th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Tuesday morning, November 22^nd, I fished a 1/2 day, multi-species trip on Lake Georgetown with Doug Norman of Liberty Hill, Texas, and his 82-year-old father, Les Norman, of Mountain Home, Arkansas.

From left: Doug and Les Norman with some nice 3-year old class white bass taken via downrigging on a very tough day out on Lake Georgetown.

In addition to white bass, we also landed this just-legal hybrid striper and a largemouth bass, also via downrigging.

Doug works as a software engineer for National Instruments in Austin, and Les is retired from Honeywell where he worked for many years in Phoenix, AZ.

I would normally not fish a trip on other than Belton Lake this time of year, especially given the excellent results we have had lately, but Doug really wanted to fish Georgetown since he lives nearby, and I obliged.

We had dark, murky, turbulent, weather in advance of a mild cold front which would come in overnight. As I reviewed the weather, we experienced what meteorologists call “pre-frontal compressional warming” which typically involves strong southerly wind before a cold front induces a wind shift, thanks to the atmosphere being “squeezed” between low and high pressure systems. Long story short – – we struggled to put just 11 fish in the boat in 5 1/4 hours’ worth of effort.

I had diligently tried to scout the lake out the previous Tuesday, enlisting the help of friend and good fisherman, Jason Weisberg. The two of us put 102 fish in the boat and mapped out a number of areas so as to give me a starting point for this morning’s trip. Despite our good results that day, today’s turbulent weather trumped all of that. None of these came off of the areas we had scouted, but rather via downrigging at the opposite end of the lake.

Fortunately, Doug and Les were delighted to see all of the technology in use on my boat, including the Lowrance Gen3 sonar, the self-deploying Ulterra trolling motor, and the Cannon electric downriggers; and, the 11 fish we caught, according to them, was more than they would have landed on their own.

I try to be a “straight-shooter” and in so doing be very credible in my blog and on Facebook, posting all of my results, not just results from the exceptional days. I’d have to rank this particular trip in the “other than exceptional” category.

TALLY =11 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 68.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: S14-16

Sky Conditions: 100% dark grey cloud cover and just shy of precipitation