This past Friday morning, March 3rd, I fished a morning trip on Lake Belton with old college buddies Bob Isbell of Temple, and Robert Hoppe from the Austin area. The two went to the University of Texas in Arlington and have remained friends ever since.
From left: Bob Isbell and Robert Hoppe fished with me this past Friday, March 3rd, on what would be the 2nd intentional attempt I’ve made at targeting hybrid stripers on live shad thus far in the 2017 season. We wound up with 133 fish, of which ~20 surpassed the 18″ “legal” threshold.
Robert Hoppe took our largest hybrid of the trip between around 7:45 am as this 4.75 pounder fell for his shad fished off bottom in 28′.
Today would be the second trip in this 2017 season in which I specifically targeted hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake using live shad.
I was a bit concerned about our wind situation as the forecast called for light winds in the 3 to 5 mph range during the first 90 minutes after sunrise. The winds were then due to pick up to the 9 to 10 mph range for the remainder of the trip. Bob and Robert showed up promptly just before our 6:45 AM start. From that time and until 9 AM we targeted hybrids using shad. We made two stops, caught 37 fish, of which 8 were “keeper” hybrid of 18+ inches in length. We also caught about the same number of short hybrid, as well as white bass, one crappie, one largemouth, and two blue cats. During this time, we had a gentle west northwest wind blowing sufficiently to ripple the surface. At 9 AM, that wind completely stopped. The surface of the lake got glassy calm, and the sun shone brightly through a cloudless sky – – the very worst of all fishing conditions. To combat this, I headed into the deepest water I could find fish in and, from 9:20 AM through 10 AM we parked on top of a group of deep white bass which readily fell for our slabbing presentation in 48 feet of water.
In under an hour we put 63 white bass in the boat, most of which were smaller one year old class fish with a few two-year class fish mixed in. During the time we were slabbing for these whites, a nice east southeast wind began to build. At 10 AM, with our tally sitting right at 100 fish, I offered that we could leave the jigging behind and shoot for more hybrid in this same deep water now that the wind had begun moving the water once again.
This turned out to be a good move. Over the next 90 minutes we put an additional 33 fish in the boat, half of which were keeper hybrid, with the other half evenly split between short hybrid and white bass with two more blue cat thrown in for good measure.
Neither Bob nor Robert had ever fished using either of the techniques I introduced them to today, and so the novelty made this trip particularly interesting to them.
We called it a day right at 11:30 as it seemed the midday lull was about to kick in.
TALLY = 133 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 40F
Water Surface Temp: 59.9F
Wind Speed & Direction: <5WNW until 9:00, then calm for 25 minutes, then starting ESE and building to 13
Sky Conditions: Clear, cloudless skies
Water Level: 1.08 feet above full pool
GT = 90
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
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