Chiefs Cubed — 81 Fish, Belton, 02 May ’17

This past Tuesday morning, I fished with Belton police chief Gene Ellis, Temple police chief Floyd Mitchell, and Temple Fire Chief Mitch Randles. Both Gene and Mitch have fished with me multiple times before, and Floyd fished with me for his first time today.

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First time guest Temple police chief Floyd Mitchell broke the ice and landed our first keeper hybrid of the trip.

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Chief Mitch Randles kicked one in shortly thereafter…

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And then Chief Gene Ellis completed the trifecta!

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Gene also had the unusual experience of landing two fish on one lure as we closed out the trip jigging for white bass.

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Chief Mitchell nabbed one of the mysterious “pygmy hybrid” which TPWD and I are working together to investigate.

 

Our intended game plan was to pursue hybrid stripers as long as the bite held up. Additionally, I came prepared to vertically jig for white bass in case the hybrid got “cranky” as they have become by late morning as of late. We enjoyed right at an hour and 45 minutes’ worth of a hybrid bite in about 31 feet of water, using large, lively threadfin shad as bait.

Right at about 9 AM, the nice southeasterly breeze that had been blowing begin to scale back substantially from about 10 mph to only 3 or 4 mph. The end of the hybrid bite seemed to correspond with this event. I noted two fairly distinct clusters of boats fishing over “community holes”, and right about this time those clusters of boats disbanded and headed back in or went looking elsewhere for fish, further confirming my suspicions that the fish had pulled back on their feed.

We had a difficult time locating more willing hybrid despite having searched seven different areas. After going for about one fishless hour looking for fish, and after happening upon a fairly active school of white bass, I queried my trio to see if they might like to try a change of pace and fish for what was obviously present and biting.

Everyone thought this sounded like a good idea, and so we pursued white bass until right at 11 when Gene had to depart.

Mitch, Floyd and I pressed on to see if we could find another willing school of white bass to hit our slabs. In about 40 feet of water, we found a school of fish with several hundred individuals in it according to sonar, and began to work that area with slabs. While there, we caught up to our 81st and final fish of the trip. The crew’s efforts this morning netted them 81 fish as a grand total.

TALLY = 81 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp: 72.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: Nice SSE breeze for our first 1.75 hours, then breeze faltered, picking back up from 10:45 to noon.

Sky Conditions: Sparse white clouds, less than 10% on a fair blue sky

Water Level: 1.15 feet above full pool and falling; 1594 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

02MAY17

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 085/1929 – 90 minutes of hybrid action at start of trip

**Area 1863 – mixed bag on bait

**Area 1934 – slabbing for whites

**Area 1914/365 – slabbing for whites

 

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

Three Generations Aboard — 50 Fish, Lake Belton, 01 May ’17

This past Monday morning I fished with three generations of Armattas – – Grandpa Will Armatta, his son Jason Armatta, and Jason’s 7-year-old son, William Armatta.

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Grandpa Will got us kicked off right this morning with a nice hybrid taken under calm, bright conditions.

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As the morning moved on, the wind picked up and turned WSW; the fishing picked up with the wind.

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William got this one “all by himself”!

We met at 7 AM and were faced with very clear, very calm, bright conditions. Accordingly, the fishing was pretty slow and pretty tough until around 9:30 when the lightest of west-northwest breezes rippled the surface. As long as the water moved, we did fine, however there were spells when the wind slacked off, and during those times it got tough again.

We stopped at four different areas in pursuit of hybrid striper, with the third area (the one we spent the most time at while the wind was blowing) being our best producer. Up through 10:45  a.m., we landed 18 hybrid stripers, one largemouth, one blue cat, one crappie, and 15 white bass.

It was around this time that young William began to get fidgety, losing the patience it took to fish bait on a slower day. So, we devoted the remainder of our time, about 50 minutes’ worth, to vertical jigging for white bass. During this time we hooked up consistently while using an easing tactic with 3/8 oz. white slabs, and took our grand total for today’s trip up to 50 fish.

I told Jason as we headed back in that William did much better than the average seven-year-old, both in terms of his endurance, and in how he handled a fishing rod and consistently used the correct techniques that I had explained to him, thus allowing him to regularly catch fish using the circle hooks we were using to facilitate healthy catch-and-release.

TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp: 68.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for first 90 minutes, then WNW ripple, then building and shifting to SSW9

Sky Conditions: Sparse white clouds, less than 20% on a fair blue sky

Water Level: 1.27 feet above full pool and falling; 1270+ cfs release at trip’s start, increasing to 1595cfs at mid-morning

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

01MAY17

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1672 – brief hybrid success

**Area 1800 – slow hybrid fishing

**Area 1931 – solid mixed bag fishing with bait

**Area vic 152/346 – first fish taken off this area since flooding, only 1 hybrid, 1 white

**Contour from Area 1916 to 1819 – jigging for whites

 

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