This past Friday morning, May 19th, I fished with Mrs. Lori Perez and her two college-aged sons, Mario and Gabriel. The threesome hoped that Mr. Perez could have joined them as well, but duty called on Fort Hood and he was not able to join us.
Mrs. Lori Perez and her sons, Mario (L) and Gabriel (R), joined me on Belton this morning for a great time of hybrid fishing under windy, cloudy conditions.
Gabriel Perez with one of several fish that went between 21-22″.
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Mario presented his brother with a fishing gift certificate for his birthday and today was “cash it in day”.
This trip was a birthday present from Mario to his brother and the plan was to pursue hybrid striped bass. The two young men are very avid fisherman and so, in addition to catching fish, they also had quite a number of questions about the approach I was taking, why we were fishing in the areas we fished, how sonar factored into the big picture, seasonal trends, etc.
From right at 7 AM when we got our first lines in the water and until 9:35 AM, we sat atop a single area and milked a single school of hybrid for a total of 26 fish. When the school played out, we moved just a few yards to the east, found another active group of fish, and sat atop them for about 45 minutes, putting another 20 fish in the boat.
When I felt we had taken all of the fish off of this area that it was going to produce, I began to move us to another area but observed heavily schooled white bass in 48 to 50 feet of water. This school was 2 to 3 feet thick and spread over a 20 to 25 yard area. Although we were gunning for hybrid, I let the boys know what I was observing so they could make an informed decision to either disregard these fish, or take advantage of the easy fishing that would result.
They gave me the thumbs-up expressing interest in slabbing for these white bass and, over the next 50 minutes, my three anglers put exactly 58 white bass and two hybrid striper in the boat using a smoking tactic with three-quarter ounce slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks.
With 30 or 45 minutes or so left to go, I offered that we had enough time to potentially get on top of another group of hybrid, or we could continue to enjoy catching white bass on appropriately sized spinning tackle.
Everyone opted for the change of pace of ending the trip by boating a few more hard pulling hybrid. I moved us to a completely different area, but one that was similar in slope and topography to the first area that had served us so well. In 41 feet of water, we suspended our baits at 34 to 35 feet, and had a strong finish, putting an unbroken string of 22 more hybrid striped bass in the boat. In addition, we put two blue cat and three white bass in the boat here as well.
When all was said and done the Perez family had landed 133 fish in about 4 1/2 hours’ time. The winds from the SE and grey cloud cover really put the fish in a feeding mood and kept them feeding for most of the morning.
TOTAL = 133 FISH, all caught and released
Wx SNAPSHOT:
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:25a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F
Water Surface Temp: 72.9
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE15-16 the entire trip
Sky Conditions: Light grey 100% cloud cover the entire trip
Water Level: 0.81 feet above full pool and falling; 45 cfs release at Belton Dam
GT = 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1288 – 2.5 hours, 26 fish, 75% hybrid
**Area vic 1012 – .75 hours, 20 fish, 75% hybrid
**Area 1945 – 50 minutes, 58 whites, 2 hybrid
**Area 1743 – .75 hours, 22 hybrid, 2 blue cat, 3 white bass
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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