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

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

 

 

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.

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

Chief Mitch Randles kicked one in shortly thereafter…

And then Chief Gene Ellis completed the trifecta!

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

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:

 

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

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.

 

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

 

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

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:

 

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

This past Saturday morning, April 29th, I finished with Mr. Jim Deuser of Sun City, Texas, his son, Dan, and Dan’s son, 15-year-old Jacob.

 

15-year-old Jacob Deuser with our longest hybrid of the trip taken on live threadfin shad.

 

Dan Deuser scored this fish right off the bat this morning.

 

Jim specialized in mixed bag angling, landing the greatest variety of fish today, including a two smallmouth bass.
The Deusers came out with me once before in November of ‘16 during which time we used a smoking tactic for a mix of white bass and smaller hybrid stripers. During that trip Jim asked what other manner of fishing Belton offered, and I mentioned about the quality hybrid fishing that normally takes place in April and May. He reserved a date that very same day, and today we saw that forecast of quality hybrid striper fishing come true

Thanks to some prefrontal warming we had very windy conditions today with straight-line winds between 17 and 21 mph. The incoming coldfront would shift our winds to the NW at 25mph, drop the ambient temperature quickly, and bring in a bit of rain beginning around 3p, thus forcing a postponement of the evening’s scheduled trip.

We were still able to get on the open water areas that have been productive all week this week, but the heavy wave action definitely did hinder our results a bit. We fished five areas this morning, picking up mostly white bass and a few hybrid at our first stop, then we encountered an are almost exclusively hybrid – based bite at our second stop, our third stop produced hybrid, two smallmouth, two largemouth, and one freshwater drum. Our fourth stop produced a handful of white bass and short hybrid, and we saved a bit of vertical jigging specifically for white bass for the very last.

All told, we landed exactly 50 fish this morning. Having enjoyed the fishing both today and last November, Jim went ahead and requested a date for November ‘17 before we parted ways at the boat dock around 11am today.

TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Water Surface Temp: 72.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: S17+

Sky Conditions: 90% grey clouds

Water Level: 1.76 feet above full pool and falling; 2700+ cfs release

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1932 – mixed bag on bait

**Area 1933 – all hybrid

**Area 1931 – mixed bag on bait

**Area 1918/1731 – whites and short hybrid

**Area vic 1916 slab 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

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

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle