This past Thursday and Friday mornings I welcomed the Creed family of Manhattan, KS, aboard for hybrid striped bass and white bass fishing on Lake Belton.
Day One brought high winds but a solid hybrid bite. L to R: Cade, Cale, and Jerald .
On Day Two, our crew grew from 3 to 5. L to R: Cale, Cade, and Will Creed, and Coulten Baker .
Jerald grew up in Florence, TX, and he came back home to Texas for a wedding this weekend and thought to do a bit of fishing while he was here.
DAY 1
A late spring cold front begin blowing in yesterday afternoon with winds exceeding 35mph. Fortunately, they settled down to 16-17 overnight, although this still made fishing a bit of a challenge.
The change of weather definitely stirred up the hybrid, though. From the first shad we dropped we had action for a solid 2.5 hours, allowing us to boat 32 keeper hybrid, 4 nice white bass, and a short smallmouth (Cade’s first ever).
We had some “technical difficulties” and wrapped up early, at around 9:30a, but, we planned to do it all again the following morning, hoping that with the winds from the same direction, the fish will still be where they hung out this morning.
DAY 2
This morning, we added Will Creed and Coulten Baker to the mix, expanding our party to five besides myself.
The day started off clear, cool, and calm. We enjoyed about 75 minutes’ worth of a low light bite by hybrid stripers, then things weakened a bit. I looked at three or four areas unsuccessfully, until finding schooled white bass holding on the windward side of a large point just as a bit of a northwest breeze was beginning to kick in. These white bass turned on as we rained five slabs down among them. Everyone did very well at using the necessary easing tactic and we brought fish up with consistency both there and at the second and final area we would jig at.
In all, the fishing was pretty tough and it came at a slower pace than yesterday’s very windy effort.
As we arrived back at the courtesy dock, Jerald’s youngest son, five-year-old Carter, joined us for an intro to shallow water sunfishing using a simple pole equipped with a slip float. Although his ultra-hard hookset sent our first longear sunfish flying from one end of the dock to the other in a quick release, he toned it down a good bit and successfully landed the next four sunfish that bit.
Jerald and the boys landed a total of 53 fish during this morning’s outing.
TALLY DAY 1 = 36 FISH
TALLY DAY 2 = 53 FISH
TOTAL = 89 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES DAY 1:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 9:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F
Water Surface Temp: 72.9F
Wind Speed & Direction: NNW16-17 with occasional higher gusts
Sky Conditions: Sparse white clouds, less than 10% on a fair blue sky
Water Level: 0.79 feet above full pool and falling; 1591 cfs release at Belton Dam
GT = 0
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES DAY 2:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F
Water Surface Temp: 70.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: NW ripple at trip’s start, then going calm, then picking up NW again at under 7 mph
Sky Conditions: Sparse white clouds, less than 10% on a fair blue sky
Water Level: 0.67 feet above full pool and falling; 1592 cfs release at Belton Dam
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
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
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