On-the-Water Training – 60 Fish, Belton, 19 Jun. ’17 (PM)

This past Monday evening I did a combined sonar training, downrigger training, and fishing trip with Brandon Rudloff.

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One of the tactics I use while downrigging is to stop over top of larger congregations of any bottom-hugging fish I see on sonar.  I then work slabs vertically for these fish and then move on once the school moves or loses interest.  Brandon caught this hybrid on such a “slab stop”.

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Brandon was grinnin’ like a kid when his first triple came over the gunwale using a 3-armed umbrella rig as he learned the ins and outs of downrigging on Lake Belton with me this evening.

Brandon is a dedicated catfisherman, typically pursuing large catfish during the cold months. However, with his son about to turn four, Brandon needed to figure out how to steadily catch quantities of fish so as to keep his son engaged.

As we met up at Lake Belton, I first went over some sonar fundamentals addressing the pros and cons of traditional colored sonar, of down-imaging, and of side-imaging.

We then set out on Brandon’s boat, and dialed in his Humminbird Helix so that the map, the colored sonar, and the down –, and side – imaging were all as fishing – friendly as they could be for him. We then left his boat at the launch area and took my boat out so that I could demonstrate how I use slip floats for panfish, and how I use downriggers for white bass.

Brandon immediately grasped the efficiency of my slip float system, and realized he was using tackle much too large, thus only taking the largest of whatever sunfish may be present where he fishes. My method allows even the smallest sunfish to be caught. This, of course, is ideal for youngsters.

After that slip float demonstration, we set out to deeper, open water and I begin explaining all the components of my downrigging system. Over the next two hours, we caught singles, doubles, and triples of white bass in the one, two, and three year class taking our tally of white bass to 26, plus a hybrid striper thrown in for good measure, all in addition to the half-dozen sunfish we had landed earlier.  The entire time I explained why I was doing what I was doing as I responded to what information sonar continued to feed me.

Based on what I was seeing on sonar, with white bass moving closer to shore and closer to the surface as the sunlight began to dim, we put away the downrigging equipment around 8:15 PM and began to search on the surface for signs of topwater feeding fish.

By 8:25 we had found what we were looking for and spent the next 25 minutes throwing quarter ounce grubs to topwater feeding largemouth bass and white bass in large schools. We took our grand total up to 60 fish before the topwater action ended at 8:55.

Brandon was beyond enthusiastic about all he had learned and the potential these lessons held for making his son successful. To me, this was very gratifying.

 

TALLY: 60 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

19JUN17

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 8:55p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 96F

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: E3-4

Sky Conditions: Fair with a fine layer of haze

Water Level: 0.20 feet above full pool and falling; 200 cfs release at dam

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1391 thru 1750 – downrigging primarily for suspended, small schools of white bass

**Area vic 1186 – downrigging primarily for suspended, small schools of white bass

**Area vic 1800 – downrigging primarily for suspended, small schools of white bass

**Area vic 1206 – mix of white bass and largemouth bass on grubs/jigheads on topwater

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

Eden caught ’em 3 at a time! – SKIFF Program Trip, 19 June ’17


This past Monday morning I fished the 4th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip of the 2017 season with Eden and Warren Erp, accompanied by their mom, Katie Erp.

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From left: Mrs. Katie Erp, and her two kids, Warren and Eden, enjoyed a SKIFF fishing trip while their dad, Andy, is involved in an Army field training exercise away from home.

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Eden, who lost a second front tooth just the day before our trip, managed to land the trip’s one and only “triple” catching a fish on each of the 3 lures of our 3-armed umbrella rig all at the same time.

The kids’ dad, Andy Erp, a U.S. Army warrant officer working with the Army’s unmanned aircraft program, is currently away from home on a field training exercise (FTX).

I suspected we would begin our trip doing some downrigging, but, as I searched for fish with sonar, the very first signs of life I saw this morning came in the form of a nicely grouped school of white bass holding on a deep breakline dropping from 35 feet to over 50 feet.  Although there were fish holding off the face of this slope over deep water, the ones that got my attention were the ones holding right on bottom in around 38 feet of water.  Instead of using the downriggers, we began the trip dropping slabs down to these fish as we held over top of them in a hover using the Spot Lock function on the Minn Kota.

Both Warren and Eden were able to put three or four fish in the boat before this school moved on and we had to look for greener pastures.

We headed to the main basin of the reservoir and ran a pair of downriggers at 28 to 35 feet depending on depth and at what level the fish were holding. The Cannon ‘riggers I use are electronic, so, I was able to call out depths to the kids positioned on the ‘riggers and they worked the touchpads to manipulate the level of the weights so as to keep our baits just above the level of the fish.  We used 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons on the business end.

The kids routinely took singles and doubles as the took turns on the rods; Eden even managed a “triple” — 3 fish on one rod at the same time.  Whichever sibling wasn’t catching a fish was helping me raise the balls by pressing the “Auto Up” button on the Digi-Troll 10 ‘rigger and helping me get ready to drop the fishing line back in that much more quickly.

I kept a weather-eye out today as we had 30% chances of rain in the forecast and, as I awoke, I saw some storm activity up in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area slowly heading our way.  When these storms reached the Gatesville/North Fort Hood area, I moved us back in the vicinity of our launch site and we continued catching fish on the downriggers until it was no longer safe to stay out.

As a quick “bonus” the kids took turns on my long sunfish rods equipped with slip floats and were able to put a half-dozen bluegill sunfish in the boat that were holding in hydrilla near the shore where we’d launched.

We wrapped up about 40 minutes early and the kids camped out with their mom in the family car as we waited to see if the storms would pass, but, as it turned out, they kept up until around 2pm.  So, even with the trip shortened a bit, we still managed to land 34 fish.  With their dad facing a possible deployment at the start of the new school year, the kids were already talking about getting to go out again.  This is one of the intents of the SKIFF program — to bring something positive to an otherwise difficult time of separation for our military families.

A huge thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and all of the “allies” they’ve gathered along the way to provide funding, support, and encouragement for this program.

TALLY: 34 FISH, all caught and released

Wx Snapshot:

19JUN17

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Water Surface Temp: 83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: S7-8

Sky Conditions: 100% grey skies in advance of some rain that moved in from the NNW

Water Level: 0.20 feet above full pool and falling; 200 cfs release at dam

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1951-992 – low light slabbing

**Area vic 039 – 1112 – downrigging

**Area vic 088 – 1439 – downrigging

**Area 456 – panfish on slipfloats

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