This past Saturday morning I fished with husband and wife team David and Kay Tuel of Waco. Although the Tuels live and work in Waco, they have a getaway condo in Morgan’s Point and spent the night there before joining me on the boat at 7 AM.

 

Kay and Dave Tuel of Waco spent part of their Easter weekend fishing on Lake Belton where there were plenty of white bass and hybrid striped bass to go around…

…so many, in fact, that Kay caught ’em two at a time!!
Despite the high and dirty water, the threadfin shad spawn has continued quite reliably, thus allowing for a “one and done” affair where more than enough shad for an entire day’s fishing can be had in a single net throw.

With ample bait on board, we started our trip where yesterday’s trip ended, and this area served us well for the first hour and 45 minutes, giving up the majority of the hybrid striped bass we would land on this trip.

Once again, in order to reduce the number of white bass caught on heavier gear intended for hybrid striper, we had to keep our baits up high. We also found that using large cut baits tended to select for hybrid striper as well.

Over the first three hours of the trip we landed a total of 62 fish including a mix of legal-sized hybrid striper, white bass, and largemouth bass. Because the Tuels had to leave town in order to join their adult kids in Houston for the Easter celebration, we needed to wrap up no later than 11:30 AM. For variety’s sake, I suggested we dedicate our final 45 minutes or so specifically in pursuit of white bass using the spinning tackle more appropriate for that size of fish.

In the closing chapter of our trip, we put an additional 33 fish in the boat in very short order, consisting of one, two, and three year class white bass, as well as two freshwater drum.

We closed out our morning’s effort with exactly 95 fish landed.  Near the end of our trip, Kay told a story about pulling the leg of a visitor from Chicago, telling them how everyone in Texas went by their first and middle name.  When the visitor inquired about the Kay’s first and middle names, and those of David, she told the visitor they went by Dave Bob and Kay Bob.  These monikers have become Dave and Kay’s pet names for each other ever since!

TALLY = 95 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 69-70F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 80% clouds

Water Level: 6.96 feet above full pool and falling; 3600+ cfs release

GT = 75

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1919 – mix of white bass and hybrid stripers on live shad

**Area vic 1914 – all white bass from a bottom-hugging school on slabs fished “easing” style

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

This past Friday morning I fished with a four-man crew on Lake Belton, consisting of MJ Linder and his father, Gene, as well as MJ’s friend, Claude Ross, and Claude’s father, Paul.  MJ and Claude first became friends through the Belton Church of Christ.

From left — Paul Ross accompanied his son, Claude Ross, for a father-and-son Easter weekend fishing trip on Lake Belton.

From left — MJ Linder organized this father-and-son Easter weekend fishing trip on Lake Belton for his dad, Paul, and the Rosses.

The high and muddy water conditions at Belton further deteriorated since my last trip on Wednesday. From Thursday night into Friday morning, the Corps of Engineers began running as much as 3600+ ft.³ per second of water through the dam. This allowed much of the muddy water that had been pooled up in the Cowhouse Creek arm to flow down into the main lake basin and on top of a majority of the areas where hybrid fishing had been most consistent. This left the Leon River arm as the only viable alternative with fairly clear water.

The problem in the Leon River arm has been consistent all spring – – that is the abundance of white bass holding on the same features that hybrid stripers are using. This creates a situation where, when using livebait and heavier tackle appropriate for hybrid, a lot of the catch consists of white bass for which the angler is then overgunned.

Nonetheless, we took lemons and made lemonade putting together a 114 fish day in which everyone caught hybrid stripers.

At times when it was clear that nothing but white bass were beneath the boat, we used light spinning gear equipped with slabs and stinger hooks to target the smaller fish on more sporty tackle, and at times when both white bass and hybrid appeared on sonar, we kept our baits up high in the water column which tends to reduce the number of grabs coming from white bass.

Most all of our fish came off of just one area which we visited twice, although we passed on a number of other areas at which sonar revealed only white bass to be holding.

Because MJ regularly fishes Belton on his own, I asked towards the end of our trip if he had picked up on any tips that would enhance his own success.  Without giving it much thought, he rattled off three or four items which he’d observed and felt he could put into practice.

TALLY = 114 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 68.6-69.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Grey overcast the entire trip with occasional cloud breaks

Water Level: 7.86 feet above full pool and falling; 3600+ cfs release

GT = 110

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1676 – mix of white bass and hybrid stripers on live shad; white bass on slabs when they showed up in force as revealed by sonar

**Area vic 1882 – mix of hybrid stripers and white bass on live shad

 

 

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

This past Wednesday morning, April 12th, I fished for a second time with Raymond and Anna Pagel of Killeen.

From left  — Raymond and Anna Pagel with a pair of Lake Belton hybrid striped bass that nailed our large, live baits suspended over bottom at 41 feet.

Raymond runs Pagel and Sons Jewelers near Killeen Mall, and Anna works as a pharmacist at one of the Killeen HEB stores.

Thanks to ample area-wide rainfall from Monday night into Tuesday morning which dropped 2 to 5 inches onto the watersheds for both Stillhouse Lake and Lake Belton, Belton rose 5.5 feet within 12 hours of the rainfall’s start.  As I write this report on Thursday, 13 April, the lake stands at 7.97 feet above full pool.

Because these rains also fell to the east of us, thus putting floodwaters into the Brazos River, the Corps of Engineers had not yet released any water from Belton dam. Therefore, the water is “stacking up” and continues to rise. This is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that without the dam wide-open the dirty water from the Cowhouse Creek and Leon River tributaries has not washed down into the entire lake. The curse is that the rapidly rising water has put the courtesy docks out of commission, and has flooded the lake, depositing much debris on the surface lakewide.

Because I am a strong believer in “no surprises” I drove to several boat ramps the evening before this trip to do a reconnaissance of the situation to make sure the water was not too muddy so as to turn off the white bass and hybrid striped bass bite. What I saw that evening looked suitable and we went forward with Wednesday morning’s trip.

We hit five distinct areas this morning. We scratched at the first one where I was hoping for shallow water fish to throw blade baits at. The next two spots in more clear water produced nearly nothing but hybrid striper, and then, by 10:15 AM, Anna requested that we spend some time vertical jigging for white bass – – a tactic she learned and did well at during our last trip.

So, the last two areas we hit, we hit because I found ample quantities of tightly congregated and bottom hugging white bass.

The fish we found were not overly aggressive, and did not stay active long, but, we were able to add an additional 25 fish to our count.

We wrapped up right at noon with the 71 fish boated, of which 43 were keeper hybrid up to 5.25 pounds and 23 1/8 inches.

TALLY = 71 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

 

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Grey overcast the entire trip just shy of drizzle

Water Level: 5.5 feet above full pool

GT = 20

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1918 – mixed bag of hybrid, white bass, largemouth and smallmouth on live shad

**Area 1743 – primarily keeper hybrid on live shad

**Area 1827/1676 – white bass on slabs/stinger

**Area 1671/1077 – white bass on slabs/stinger

 

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

This past Monday morning, April 10th, I fished with Mr. George Ward of Austin, Texas, and his brother-in-law, Jim Smigie, of the Wilmington, Delaware.

 

From left  — Jim Smigie and George Ward with a pair of 4 pound class hybrid taken just seconds apart on live shad fished above bottom at 31 feet.

George is a retired history professor from the University of Texas, and Jim, after a stint in the Coast Guard, worked in and retired from the chemical industry in Delaware.

Based on their preferences, we divided the trip pretty equally pursuing white bass on artificial lures in the first half of the trip, and pursuing hybrid striped bass using livebait during the second half of the trip. I had hoped to find some white bass in water shallow enough, and with the fish congregated enough, to allow for some blade bait fishing, but this simply did not materialize due in part to the slow brightening of the skies under heavy cloud cover this morning.

Instead, I moved offshore and began looking at irregularities in the bottom in the 40-50’ range.  The very first area I searched looked promising on sonar, so, we put lines down.  In about 75 minutes’ time, we put 51 white bass in the boat using 3/8 ounce slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks from out of 43 feet of water. These fish were bottom-hugging and responded well to an easing tactic.

When the first batch of fish we had located on sonar lost interest, we moved three or four boat lengths away and continued catching fish which were part of the same school we encountered at our first stop, but which were not near enough to see and get used to our presentation.

With 51 fish in the boat, we decided to change up and pursue hybrid striped bass on live shad right about 9:00am. I moved us to a slight rise near a break line in around 39 feet of water and saw hybrid on sonar before we put baits down. We quickly got 4 rods baited and in the rod holders when Jim got the first pull down. That resulted in a boated striper, and our success continued running about 50/50 with a mix of keeper hybrid and two-year-old white bass.

After about 45 minutes at this area, things quieted down and we moved on.

I took us to another very similar area on a breakline in about 42 feet of water. This area gave up 17 keeper hybrid, four white bass, and one blue cat.

This trip was initially scheduled for Tuesday, 11 April, but heavy rains were forecast for that day  as far back as last Friday. Those same rains were due to begin today between 11 AM and noon, so we kept a close eye on our weather apps on our phones the entire time we finished. At 11:17 AM, we heard a distant clap of thunder to our south and east and saw the skies were gray and murky right around the same time the weather radar indicated some showers popping up over and north of Austin. We decided to call it a very good day right then and there with exactly 84 fish boated for our efforts.

TALLY = 84 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 11:20a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp: 68.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Grey overcast the entire trip just shy of drizzle

Water Level: 0.58 feet above full pool

GT = 50

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 714 and vicinity – 51 white bass via vertical easing presentation on slabs/stingers

**Area 081/1545 –  mix of white bass and keeper hybrid on live shad

**Area – 1556 – mostly keeper hybrid on live shad

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

This past Saturday morning, April 8th, I fished with Mr. Steve Niemeier of Temple, his grandson, Caleb Fowler, and his great nephew, Tevin Gilmore, both from Belton.

From left  — Steve Niemeier, Tevin Gilmore, and Caleb Fowler with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fish of the morning, all of which were landed in a 45 second span just minutes after we got to our first fishing area.

Tevin Gilmore with our largest fish of the trip, a long 23.75″ fish which is the third fish of this length we’ve taken on my boat so far this season.

Tevin and Caleb with a nice pair of hybrid that struck our baits simultaneously.

The forecast this morning called for manageable winds up through 10 AM with winds then ramping up to over 18 mph beyond that point.

As we met up right at 7 AM I explained my game plan was to pursue hybrid striped bass using live bait out over open water as long as the winds would allow for that approach, and then, if necessary, to retreat to the protection of the tributaries, and most likely finish out the trip by jigging for white bass.

As we made our way to our first stop, we were passed (at high speed) by dozens of bass boats launching out of Temple Lake Park.  There were due to be 125-150 boats in this particular tournament.  Fortunately, they all holed up protected areas while we chose open water for plying our trade, so, despite it being Saturday AND a large tournament going on, we never had another boat fish within a half-mile of us while we were on the hybrid.

We enjoyed nearly nonstop action from the first bait that went into the water until 10:15 AM when the winds forced us off of open water. During this time we landed exactly 80 fish, and easily half of these were solid, keeper hybrid ranging from 21 to 22.75 inches, with one exceptional fish measuring 23.75 inches.

The remainder of our catch caught on livebait consisted primarily of two-year-old class white bass, with a sprinkling of blue cat, drum, and smallmouth bass thrown in.

By 10:15 it was necessary to move to more protected waters due to the wind. We headed upstream into one of Belton’s tributaries and looked over the white bass situation on windblown points and deep breaklines. In about an hour’s time, fishing over two such areas, we were able to put 27 additional fish in the boat including 26 white bass and one hybrid striper.

We decided to call it a good trip right at 11:25 AM at which time Steve and the boys were headed off to Chuck’s Restaurant for lunch.  I hated to turn down the invitation to lunch they extended to me, but there was a good bit of doing that needed attention after a trip, and the Saturday morning crowd makes those chores take a bit longer than normal.

TALLY = 108 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:25a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Water Surface Temp: 68.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-13 for the first 3 hours, then increasing quickly to SSE17+ by 10:15a

Sky Conditions: Clear and bright

Water Level: 0.93 feet above full pool

GT = 40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 081/1545 – 75 minutes solid hybrid action

**Area – 1556/1557 – 2 hours solid hybrid action

**Area – 1917 – 28 white bass in last hour

 

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

This past Friday afternoon, April 7th, I fished with Mr. Michael Apodaca and his wife, Jane, of Salado, Texas, as well as Jane’s brother and nephew, Jack and John Durstock, of Florence, Kentucky.

 

 

 

Michael and Jane Apodaca of Salado with a pair of hybrid caught just seconds apart on livebait while fishing Lake Belton.  Jane works for the Killeen Independent School District and Michael is a part of the Operational Test Command (OTC) at Ft. Hood.

 

Brothers-in-law (from left) Jack Durstock and Michael Apodaca, each with a hybrid going over 4 pounds which fell for large, lively threadfin shad.

 

John Durstock of Florence, KY, with one of the first two hybrid of many he would land over the course of this 4+ hour trip.  He commented on how much larger these fish were than the hybrid he’s accustomed to seeing come from the waters back home.  His dad, Jack, looks on in the background.

This was the first time I had fished Belton in the afternoon since the middle of March, but, given the fair skies and south-southeasterly breeze, as well as my positive morning results, I felt our chances were very good this afternoon.

When all was said and done, we fished three areas. The first area produced just two keeper hybrid, and as they were being reeled in, I did not see other fish activity stirred by that commotion, therefore we moved on.  Regardless of the scarcity of fish at this first area, it provided John with his first taste of Texas hybrid stripers.  He commented a number of times about how much larger these fish grew than did the hybrid he’s accustomed to seeing in Kentucky.  I chided him that, as the old saying goes, “Everything is bigger in Texas!”

The second area we fished produced a majority of our fish. We stopped at this location in 43 feet of water because I saw tightly grouped and bottom hugging white bass which I felt we could jig for using light spinning tackle. As we begin to catch white bass after white bass, I noted that multiple small “wolf packs” of hybrid stripers were moving in to check out the action at mid-depth, between 25 and 33 feet above the white bass. I sampled this opportunity by suspending a single livebait down amidst these arches showing on sonar, and immediately came up with a nice hybrid. We quickly put away the spinning gear, hung bait, and as Jane put it, enjoyed Hybrid–Palooza for about two hours.

Eventually, the bite at this area softened and we moved on.

The last area we hit produced the best run of quality hybrid I’d seen come from one area thus far this season. Everything we caught was right at 21 to 22.25 inches, and there were no white bass in the mix.

By the time the sun set and the bite died, we’d boated a grand total of 80 fish.

TALLY = 80 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp: 67.4 – 69.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-13 for the first 3 hours, then tapering to SSE7 by the last hour

Sky Conditions: Clear and bright

Water Level: 1.30 feet above full pool

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1749 – 2 hybrid and moved on with little showing on sonar

**Area – 1751 – hybrid on live shad in 43′ which showed up after we’d begin vertical jigging for white bass with slabs; best producer of the PM; 2 hours of catching here

**Area 081 – hybrid on live shad in 38′; consistent quality fish all right at 21-22″

 

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

This past Friday morning, April 7th, I fished with Mr. Rob Ramey, Mr. Justin Pride, Mr. Brian Badour, and Mr. Ricky Guenat.  All four men know one another and work together in the landscaping industry in the Georgetown, TX, area.

From left: Brian Badour and Justin Pride, owner of Pride of Texas Landscaping.

Ricky Guenat of Dell Webb works with Pride of Texas at the Sun City location in Georgetown.

Rob Ramey of Pride of Texas Landscaping was the trip coordinator and possibly the originator of the phrase “elementary waterheads”.
We got going this morning right at 7 AM. My intention was to stay focused on hybrid striped bass until at least 10 AM, and then explore the option of putting smaller, but more numerous, white bass in the boat during our last hour or so on the water.

This plan worked out pretty well. Our first two hours on the water was slow but steady thanks to windless conditions. Around 9:15 the lightest of southwesterly breezes began and the fish responded positively. By 9:30, we had a 9 to 10 mph southerly breeze, and as far as the hybrid fishing was concerned, the half-hour between 9:30 and 10 AM was the most productive 30 minutes on that species.

Using live bait suspended well off bottom in order to keep these baits away from the white bass, everyone caught numerous “photo worthy” hybrid stripers, along with short hybrid and white bass, with a single blue cat thrown in for good measure.

At 10:15 I ran the option of jigging for white bass by my crew, and everyone was amenable to that change of pace. Between 10:15 AM and noon we took our tally from exactly 60 fish up to 221 fish. I was able to find heavily congregated, bottom hugging white bass in two separate locations. Given that all four of the crew capably handled spinning gear and very quickly got the gist of the technique we needed to use, we were able to maximize our catch.  We wrapped up the trip at 12 noon with exactly 221 fish boated for our efforts

At one point when those two crew members on the port side (who shall remain nameless) looked like they were going to get their hybrid stripers tangled while reeling them in simultaneously, I stepped in between the two and coached each of them to move their rods toward bow and stern to avoid this scenario. Unfortunately, that guidance came a little too late, as the hybrid tangled together anyway. On their very next drop, the same two anglers hooked up simultaneously once again. I once again advised keeping the hybrids separated from one another. At this point, Rob, who obviously was not one of the two anglers I am speaking of, reinforced my guidance by first addressing the two anglers these comments were directed at as “elementary waterheads”.

It went something like, “Hey, you elementary waterheads, why don’t you listen up and keep those fish from tangling up, again!”

I suppose in the irrigation and landscape industry, “elementary waterheads” is a teambuilding term of endearment.

 

TALLY = 221 FISH, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp: 67.4 – 69.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: Near calm at sunrise, WSW breeze starting around 9:30, then shifting and increasing to S10 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Clear and bright

Water Level: 1.41 feet above full pool

GT = 83

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1619/1913 – First stop of the morning; moved on account of white bass

**Area – 150/294 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′; action fairly slow under calm conditions; moved when white bass moved in

**Area 1743 – best producer of the AM; hybrid on live shad in 40-45′; keeper hybrid upon arrival with smaller fish filtering in after we’d fished for a while

**Area 682 – white bass on slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook

**Area 211 – white bass on slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook

 

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

This past Saturday morning, April 1st, I fished with Cub Scout Pack 511 — yes, the WHOLE Pack — 26 boys in all!!

The names of the boys in my flights, and their chaperones were as follows:

Flight One L-R: Nick Long, Charlie Kauffman, Mr. JT Long, Luke Jurbergs, and Cole Danforth

Flight Two L-R: Robert Gjertson, Ben Jaggers, Mr. Chris Jaggers, Eli Stern, and Arjun Kapoor

Flight Three L-R: Grady Sorensen, Mr. Mike Sorensen,Tyler Crawford, Carter Nix, and Drew Gilley

Flight Four L-R: Ash Hoffman, James Davenport, Mr. David Hoffman,James Romberg, and Dylan Engle

Flight Five L-R: Jared Carrasco, Mr. Alamando Carrasco, Alex Range, Zane Bauer, and Elijah Range

Flight Six L-R: Evan Roll, Adrian Camacho, Mr. Jonathan Roll, Eddie Faigley, and Jett Henson

Flight Seven: Ash Hoffman, Asher Treadwell, Mr. Dan Treadwell, and Eli Treadwell

Pack 511 camped out overnight Friday into Saturday at the Union Grove Park on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.  Weeks in advance, event organizer David Hoffman and I planned out how, in a very limited amount of time, we might be able to help make each boy successful as each endeavored to catch a fish.

We planned on a ~8 hour day, divided the number of boys, grouped in 3’s or 4’s, into this amount of time, and forecast that we could get in up to 8 “flights” of about 50 minutes each.

By 7:10am Saturday I had 4 boys and one adult chaperone aboard and ready to roll and we hit the road running.  Over the first three “flights”, a shallow downrigger bite went strong in under 25 feet of water.  We routinely landed singles and doubles on a tandem rig equipped with small Pet Spoons.  By mid-way through the third flight, this bite died and we had to move deeper, into 40-44′, in order to continue catching fish.  These deep fish required a vertical presentation with slabs.

 

By the time each boy had been out on the water, all 26 kids caught at least one fish, Pack 511 amassed a catch of 74 fish, and 11 boys had landed the first fish of their lives.

 

TALLY = 74 FISH, all caught and released

WX Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:10a

End Time: 1:25p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 at sunrise, increasing to SSE14 by midday

Sky Conditions: Grey and to the point of drizzle the entire time

Water Level: 0.48 feet above full pool

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 720 thru 1048 thru 1056 – downrigging with tandem rigged Pet Spoons under low light conditions

**Area – 1492 – vertical jigging with slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger hook in 40′

**Area vic 1279 – vertical jigging with slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger hook on 40-45′ breakline

 

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

This past Friday morning, March 31^st, I fished with Mr. Raymond Pagel and his wife, Anna.

Raymond kicked this off this morning with the first of 23 hybrid in the boat, landing this one just minutes after sunrise.

 

Anna figured out what was grabbing a number of our shad by the tail after this one decided to bite a bit closer to the head-end of the shad she was using for bait.

 

This fish went crazy, swimming far out away from the boat, then underneath it, tangling 3 of the 4 lines we had out before we cooled its jets in the net.

We targeted hybrid striped bass for the first 2.75 hours of our trip, and then worked over a deep school of white bass for the last portion of our trip.

Raymond is the owner of Pagel & Sons Jewelers near the Killeen Mall, and Anna is a pharmacist for HEB. We started our trip at 7:15. My plan was to fish deep, clear water while the winds were still manageable, as they were due to increase to around 17 mph by around 10 AM. During this effort in deep water, we put 29 fish in the boat. 23 of these fish were keeper hybrid, two were short hybrid, two were white bass, and two were blue catfish, one of which weighed 4.5 pounds.

The bite this morning was moderate but steady and the fish seemed to have a preference for medium-sized shad. The “jumbo” shad I used often got ignored, or wound up getting toyed with until they were killed, typically without resulting in a landed fish.

After the winds came up and produced a swell sufficient to start jerking our baits up and down, I decided to move us to more protected waters.

After a bit of searching, we found a nice school of white bass in 42 feet of water. These fish were bottom hugging and tightly congregated – – just right for vertical jigging.

Long story short, we sat over top of these fish for right at one hour and took our tally from 29 fish up to 94 fish. All of these white bass were in the one and two year class.

Because the Pagles are fairly well-traveled anglers, it was enjoyable to me to ask them about their experiences in some of the waters I have yet to fish, namely in Alaska, and hear of the techniques employed for different species in different environments.

Anna told me something towards the end of the trip that really resonated with me. Although she has done quite a bit of fishing, she said she still had trouble detecting when a fish was biting. Being able to practice feeling a fish bite and then setting the hook on it with the repetition she saw as we fished over these white bass, allowed her to really get practiced and confident in this situation.

TALLY = 94 FISH, all caught and released

WX Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6 at sunrise, shifting and increasing to S17 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Clear and bright

Water Level: 1.11 feet above full pool

GT = 45

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1380 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area – 1277 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area 1749 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area 152 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area 294 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area 1362 – white bass on slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook

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