This past Wednesday morning, November 23rd, I fished with Barry Erskine, a Killeen native now living in Tyler, Texas, and his dad, George Erskine, also a Killeen native now living in Belton.
George Erskine took this 4+ pound hybrid striper on a live shad I’d brought as insurance against a tough trip. A cold front’s passage was forecast for this morning, and, depending on winds, such conditions can be boom or bust. This morning, it was “BOOM”.
Barry Erskine holds a pair of nice Belton Lake white bass he caught at the same time on a Hazy Eye Shad tandem rig. The rig is anchored with a slab and has a lightweight “teaser fly” up above it.
This past Wednesday morning, November 23rd, I fished with Barry Erskine, a Killeen native now living in Tyler, Texas, and his dad, George Erskine, also a Killeen native now living in Belton.
Barry is a small businessman who got his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, and went on to get an MBA from Baylor. George is a retired college administrator who worked for many years at Central Texas College.
In the early morning hours, a mild cold front passed through with a thin band of thunder, lightning, and rain. In its wake, cooler, clearer, and drier conditions developed.
The timing for this morning’s trip was just right. We got on the water as the wind velocity out of the northwest was on the rise and fished right through its peak.
From the time the sun climbed above the cloud bank in the east up into the clear sky, the fish fed until right around 11:15 AM when the wind speed plateaued. We began in shallow water fishing under birds that were dining on dead and crippled shad injured by white bass and hybrid striper patrolling beneath in about 22 feet of water. Not knowing how the cold front was going to play out, I netted live bait this morning as a hedge against disappointment.
While Barry and George used blade baits casting off the portside, I hung bait on two downlines off the starboard. We regularly caught quality fish on both methods, including several hybrid in the 4 to 4 1/2 pound class.
After this shallower bite under birds died, we moved offshore into open water and began scrubbing a number of bottom features with sonar. We found fish in two distinct locations and fished them both in very much the same way. If sonar revealed active fish, we used a smoking technique, and if sonar revealed less aggressive, bottom hugging fish, we used an easing tactic. After the action died in a given location, we would “jog” a few boat lengths left, right, forwards, or backwards to reestablish contact with fish that had been nearby all the time but refused to move horizontally over to us.
More on the Erskine’s trip and, about tandem rigging is found in Sunday’s (27 Nov.) Killeen Daily Herald: http://kdhnews.com/sports/fishing/bob-maindelle-tandem-rigging-doubles-the-catch-in-cold-water/article_8f968e64-b463-11e6-a67d-a319425a64a3.html
As the wind increased, the aggression level of the fish did as well. As I saw the bite strengthening at midmorning with winds around 14 mph, I changed us over to a tandem rig, and we routinely landed two fish at a time using this setup. Our fish count stood at exactly 90 fish at 10:30. We agreed to press on until we had reached the 100 fish mark. As I moved us into a new group of fish, we put our 100th fish in the boat, and fished that final school we encountered until the fish quit cooperating. By that time, our tally had risen to 118 fish.
Barry shared that one of the reasons he chose to fish with me was because of the data-rich reports I have posted on my website. When he considered an outdoor excursion with his dad over the holidays and saw in one of my reports how the catch per trip in late November/early December typically outpaces every other month of the year, he decided to come fishing and see for himself.
TALLY = 118 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 10:55a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F
Water Surface Temp: 67.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: NW9, steadily increasing to NW14, then plateauing there
Sky Conditions: Bright, clear skies following a cold front’s passage
Water Level: 0.20 feet above full pool
GT = 30
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1826 &1854 – casting with blades and downlining with live shad for equal results on whites, keeper hybrid, and a few drum
**Area 1827-1624 – easing tactic with small slabs for interested but still not truly aggressive white bass
**1672-1619 – spot hopped in this vicinity for the last 2 hours of the trip, fishing Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs aggressively for white bass, short hybrid, and largemouth
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
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