Cold Front Crew scores 116 fish on Belton; 22 April ’17 (PM)

This past Saturday afternoon, I fished Lake Belton on a multi-species trip with Mark Greger, his fianceé Liz Nutter, and friends Gary Ross and his son, Allen, age 15.

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Saturday’s “Cold Front Crew”; from left: Gary Ross, Allen Ross, Liz Nutter, and Mark Greger.

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Allen definitely had a knack for catching the big hybrid.

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Liz, an Army nurse practitioner for 16 years now, cut her teeth on West Coast trout and salmon.

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Gary, a catfisherman at heart, got to compare and contrast the pursuit of cats with the pursuit of hybrid.

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Mark took what would be our last hybrid of the evening just as the sun set.

Mark and Gary both work as aircraft mechanics with DynCorp International, a defense contractor supporting Fort Hood. Liz is an active duty major who is in the US Army Medical Corps serving pregnant women who come through Darnall Army Medical Center. Allen is a student at Lake Belton middle school.  Mark and Liz are due to be married soon, then move to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.

The straight-line winds at 16 mph which were forecast to blow nearly all day today in conjunction with a late spring cold front that moved in early in the morning, blew just as predicted. Also, the cloud cover that was forecast to stick with us most of the day, also behaved as forecast.

We fished five areas this evening. Our efforts at the first two were strictly focused on white bass using white, 3/8 oz. slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks. At the last three areas, we fished with live shad on downlines and did what we could to select for hybrid striped bass in areas that held both white bass and hybrid.

By the time all was said and done, everyone had the opportunity to feel the incredible pull of at least one hybrid striper. Allen caught more than his fair share of these hard pulling, line – sided fish.

By trip’s end, we had landed a total of 116 fish. This compares favorably with our morning catch of 74 fish. Although we tried numerous times during the morning trip to get a slab bite going while sitting atop schools of white bass, it was not until the 11 o’clock hour that these fish truly began to respond well to that.  Once we got within 4 hours of sunset, the white bass once again turned on and bit well on the slab.
TALLY = 116 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time: 8:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 69.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW15-17

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds at trip’s start, clearing to 30% clouds on a fair sky.

Water Level: 4.91 feet above full pool and falling; 3900+ cfs release

 

GT = 40

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1922

**Area 1678/1757

**Area 1623

**Area 1620/1757

**Area1628

 

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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

Dang, who turned on the fan? — 74 Fish, Lake Belton, 22 April ’17 (AM)

This past Saturday morning I fished Lake Belton with Jim Mason, his wife Lana, their daughter, Morgan, and a friend of the family, Larry Bigham. The Mason’s son, Peyton, who lives in Colorado, presented Jim with a fishing gift certificate, and today was the day to redeem it.

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Lana Mason and her daughter, Morgan, with Lana’s largest hybrid of the trip.

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Mother and daughter doubled-up on live bait with Lana landing a white bass and Morgan taking her nicest hybrid of the trip.

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Jim and daughter Morgan with one of several hybrid we took out of 28 feet of water on live shad as a cold front blew in to central Texas.

Jim and Lana both make their living as medical professionals, and Morgan is an attorney working for the Exxon Corporation out of Houston. She just dropped in to Waco for the weekend for some fishing and a few of her mom’s BLT sandwiches!

A damp cold front moved into central Texas in the early morning hours, dropping the temperature from right at 70 Fahrenheit down into the low 50s before what little sun penetrated through the clouds began to push the temperatures back up around mid-morning. Straight-line winds were forecast at 16 all day today with higher gusts, and some tapering of the winds due to begin around 3 PM.

As is often the case under damp, cold front conditions, the fishing was sluggish this morning, and I am definitely glad we hedged our bet with live bait.

I explained to my crew how the recent flooding has essentially put the main lake off-limits to hybrid fishing due to turbid conditions, and how pursuing hybrid in the Leon River arm inevitably produces more unintentional white bass than the hybrid we hope for.

We located fish at seven areas this morning.  The last three produced fish on artificials, and those were white bass whose fight was made more sporty by our use of light spinning tackle. The first five areas we hit over a span of 3+ hours produced a mixed bag of fish including largemouth, smallmouth, blue catfish, white bass, and the hybrid striped bass that we were hoping for.

This crew did exceptionally well at using circle hooks with live bait, rarely, if ever, raising their rod above belt buckle level before the fish was solidly hooked.

When all was said and done, we landed a total of 74 fish.

 
TALLY = 74 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp: 68.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW15-17

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds

Water Level: 4.91 feet above full pool and falling; 3900+ cfs release

GT = 50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1847 – whites on slabs

**Area 1927 – mixed bag on shad

**Area 1927 – mixed bag on shad under terns

**Area 1659/1671 – whites on slabs

**Area 172/165 – whites on slabs

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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle