This past Friday morning I fished Lake Belton with Brent Hammer and his adult stepson, Jim Downing.

From left: Jim Downing and Brent Hammer paired up for an 82 fish morning on Belton.

 

Jim hefts this season’s second longest hybrid — this girl went 25.25 inches and 7.25 pounds.

 

Brent managed to work up a nice 6.50 pound largemouth on a jumbo threadfin intended for hybrid.  As you can observe from the pink, oval spot on this big fish’s lower jaw, she had been caught and released previously.  We did our part and put her back again, as well.
Brent is retired after spending 12 years in the US Army with the Corps of Engineers, then working on the civil works side of the house of the Corps of Engineers through his retirement with the Fort Worth District. Jim is a technician at SpaceX based out of McGregor, TX.

Neither had ever landed a hybrid striped bass in their lives and so I started at the very fundamental level of describing what hybrid are, some of their habits, and exactly how we would go about fishing for them.

In this late spring season, the use of live bait between 20 and 35 feet seems to be the ticket following the recent flooding which brought the lake up as much as 8 feet. After falling 6 feet, the fish, which were consistently located in 30 to 50 feet of water prior to the flood, have stayed put in this shallower water.

We fished five areas today. The first three were in pursuit of hybrid, and each gave up at least a few hybrid with our third stop being the most productive. In all, we landed 38 legal hybrid of 18 or more inches as well as two short hybrid. Our largest hybrid of the trip came in the midst of a frenzy that extended for about 20 minutes. This fish weighed 7.75 pounds and measured 25.25 inches.

Around 10:50 the bite died as it did on both Tuesday and Thursday.

We dedicated the last 40 minutes of the trip specifically to the pursuit of white bass using light spinning gear rigged with 3/8 ounce slabs and Hazy Eye Stinger hooks  Before we began fishing for whites, our fish count stood at 48 fish. We took that number to 82 in very short order after getting on top of two distinct groups of heavily schooled white bass both in 35 to 40 feet of water.

Both Jim and Brent came away with a very favorable impression of the hybrid striped bass.  Jim sent me a note a few days after the trip, which started with these words, ” I am still on a hybrid high from Friday’s trip…”.

TALLY = 82 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Water Surface Temp: 71.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: S11-14

Sky Conditions: 20% clouds on a fair sky

Water Level: 1.96 feet above full pool and falling; 3900+ cfs release

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1620 – mixed bag on live bait

**Area 1824 – – mixed bag on live bait

**Area 1929 — all hybrid on bait

**Area 1930 – jigged whites

**Area 1916 – jigged whites

 

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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