WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday evening I fished with Diego Rubio and his 5 1/2 hear old son, Henry.  Big sister was supposed to make it, too, but wasn’t feeling well after too much turkey and time spent with cousins over the holiday, so, this was a “guy trip”.

Although not our “target species”, largemouth and smallmouth very much become part of the catch all winter long as they school up and inhabit deep water where white bass and hybrid are typically found.

We encountered active white bass and hybrid striped bass all afternoon, but only in short spurts.  Once a “spurt” came and went, we’d have to motor to another small concentration of light bird activity, then use sonar to stay on fish.

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass and hybrid striped bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday evening, 25 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED: The undesirable light winds and bright, clear skies remained this afternoon as we began a 4-hour trip at 1:45p.  By 2:15 gulls began to work over open water atop bait being driven by gamefish.  These fish and birds worked all afternoon, but not for any length of time at a given area.  So, we had to look for birds, get to them quickly, catch a few while the birds were still helpful in indicating the presence of fish, then hope to catch a few more in the minutes after the bird action ended.  Then, we had to repeat this process multiple time at multiple areas to string together a full afternoon.  Henry did very well for his age, staying engaged the entire time despite the lack of variety in angling tactics this time of year.  He caught numerous fish on his own, as well as a few via “assist” from dad and me.  Everything we caught was on smoked 3/8 oz or 3/4 oz slabs.  Although I put live baits out this afternoon, they did not perform well.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:   1) Fish continue to present in a fairly scattered fashion with multiple small pods of fish fanning out over large areas of bottom. 2) Fish fed throughout the afternoon, right up until just after sunset, but only in short “spurts” of 15-20 minutes each.  Once a “spurt” was over, another would occur elsewhere, again, pointing to the scattered nature of the fish.

TALLY: 67 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  1:45p

End Time:  5:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  74F

Water Surface Temp:  63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light & variable winds

Sky Conditions:  Clear, bright skies

Water Level: 2.54 feet low

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1544 – Smoking for white bass and hybrid under birds; fish remained active for a few minutes longer after birds settled

**Area 1296- Smoking for white bass and hybrid under birds; fish remained active for a few minutes longer after birds settled

**Area 973- Smoking for white bass and hybrid under birds; fish remained active for a few minutes longer after birds settled

**Area 1929- Smoking for white bass and hybrid under birds; fish remained active for a few minutes longer after birds settled

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning I fished with Mr. Kevin McConnell and his wife, Dori, accompanied by their daughter and son-in-law, Carly and Vince Ortega.

 

ABOVE: Dori and Kevin McConnell with a pair of nice hybrid stripers taken just moments apart and then released.

ABOVE: Carly and Vince Ortega (Kevin and Dori’s daughter and son-in-law) with Vince’s best fish of the morning.

Carly with one of several nice hybrid she boated under tough conditions involving light winds and bright sun.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass and hybrid striped bass

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 25 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED:   We faced the toughest of conditions this morning — bright & calm.  The fish were definitely negatively impacted by this as evidenced by the fact that we found ample quantities of fish but had difficulty getting them to respond for any length of time.  The typical scenario this morning involved pulling up over top of fish using sonar, getting slabs down to them, pulling 2-4 within the first few minutes, then seeing the school remain in place but refusing to respond further.  Anticipating a tough bite this morning, I captured live shad as bait and, in the final half of the trip, deployed these baits using rods in rod holders at the midpoint on the gunwale while I had one person in each of the 4 corners of the lower deck of the boat working slabs.  The slabs produced white bass with slow consistency, and the bait produced better quality fish in the form of hybrid stripers.  The fish we encountered during the second half of the trip were indicated to us by very light bird (gull) activity.  Once the gull activity died and the fish settled, we went with 6 bait rods out.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:   1) Fish continue to present in a fairly scattered fashion with multiple small pods of fish fanning out over large areas of bottom. 2) Live shad definitely outperformed artificials this morning on the hybrid stripers

TALLY: 49 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:45a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  50F

Water Surface Temp:  63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light & variable winds all morning

Sky Conditions:  Clear, bright skies

Water Level: 2.54 feet low

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1882-1680-1934 – heavily congregated but reluctant white bass in ~34-36′ taken on smoked slabs

**Area  837 – moderately paced action on slabs and live shad for white bass on bottom and suspended hybrid indicated by gulls

**Area 2054- moderately paced action on slabs and live shad for white bass on bottom and suspended hybrid indicated by gulls

**Area 1391- moderately paced action on slabs and live shad for white bass on bottom and suspended hybrid indicated by gulls

**Area 1269- moderately paced action on slabs and live shad for white bass on bottom and suspended hybrid indicated by gulls

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday evening I fished Mrs. Denise Andrin of Golf, Illinois, and her son, Joe Gross.  Joe is a Wisconsin National Guardsman currently stationed at North Fort Hood where his aviation support unit is preparing to deploy.  In order to deploy, Joe had to put his academics at Marquette University, a Catholic university located in Milwaukee, on hold until his unit redeploys.  Joe was grateful for an opportunity to get away from the spartan barracks life at North Fort Hood.  Like most troops there for pre-deployment training, he has no vehicle to get around with during off-duty hours.

 

Denise Andrin of Golf, Illinois, and her son, Wisconsin National Guardsman Joe Gross, spent some time together for Thanksgiving prior to Joe’s forthcoming deployment to Asia.  Although our catch of 59 fish consisted mainly of white bass, we had a handful of nice hybrid stripers in the mix, as well.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday evening, 24 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED:   We fished only 2 areas this evening, both indicated by the presence of gulls.  These gulls were feeding on shad driven to the surface by white bass, hybrid stripers, and other gamefish pursuing them from beneath.  After the gulls helped us know where to start looking, we relied on sonar to seal the deal.  Once we positioned atop the fish shown on sonar using the i-Pilot Link system built into both my Minn Kota trolling motor and my Humminbird Solix, we used a vertical presentation with 3/8 oz. and 3/4 oz. slabs to do the catching.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:   1) Fish continue to present in a fairly scattered fashion with multiple small pods of fish fanning out over large areas of bottom.

TALLY: 59 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:45p

End Time: 5:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Water Surface Temp: 67.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW wind at ~13 thru 4p, then slowly dropping off to SSW10

Sky Conditions: 15% cloud cover in the eastern sky at first light, then building to 80% high, thin coverage by trip’s end

Water Level: 2.50 feet low

GT = 20

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1544 – smoking for active fish under gulls in ~40′

**Area vic 1916 – smoking for active fish under gulls in 34′

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning I fished with Mr. Jim Deuser of Sun City in Georgetown, TX, accompanied by his adult son, Dan, and Dan’s 16-year-old son, Jake, both of San Antonio.

 

From left: Jim, Jake, and Dan Deuser with a sampling of our take from Stilhouse this morning.  With post-frontal calm, bright conditions forecast for this morning, my instinct was to avoid Belton which often produces poorly under such circumstances.

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow, based on a short, sunrise recon I did there on Thanksgiving Day after seeing the forecast called for bright skies and calm winds, and knowing that Belton is typically notoriously tough under such conditions.

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, 24 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED:  Helpful gull activity pointed the way to fish during the first half of our trip, putting us atop 2 separate schools of white bass.  We fished with slabs in a smoking-style retrieve to catch these fish.  After the birds lifted, the light SW breeze we had died and there was no cloud cover.  Things got very tough from this point on. We got on one school of very sluggish white bass on a breakline where a deep flat met the channel.  After that, we downrigged for one more white bass.  We than closed out the trip flatlining in more turbid, more shallow water for a mix of white bass and largemouth bass.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:   1) The 2 groups  fish we found under birds were both scattered over a large area in small, loosely related “packs” of fish, each covering ~100 yard diameter.  2) Thus far, I’ve only encountered helpful bird action from gulls at both Belton and Stillhouse; no terns yet.

TALLY: 57 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Water Surface Temp: 62.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW breeze under 3 until 8:15, then calm until 9, then a light S. breeze tapered quickly up to S11 for the last 2+ hours on the water.

Sky Conditions: 15% cloud cover in the eastern sky at first light, then building to 80% high, thin coverage by trip’s end

Water Level: 2.59 feet low

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2056 – fish under birds at sunrise and for ~ 1 hour hence

**Area 1997/1950 – fish under birds also beginning around sunrise, but we did not get to them until the fish at 2056 had run their course, so, once we got to them, they were winding down.

**Area vic 569 – smoking tactic for white bass on Lampasas River channel breakline

**Area 114 thru 343 – flatline crankbait circuit for 4 largemouth and 1 white bass

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with Rick Snelgrooes, his 13-year-old son, Sean, from Liberty Hill, TX, and Rick’s father-in-law, Steve Rohner, in visiting from California.  Rick moved his family to Texas from California earlier this year.

From left: Sean and Rick Snelgrooes, and Steve Rohner with a sampling of the fish we took from under birds on this cloudy, breezy November morning.

Rick with the largest fish of the trip, a 19″ hybrid striper that came on a 3/4 oz. slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached.  This fish was suspended in over 52′ of water.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 15 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED: With ideal conditions (southerly breeze and cloud cover), the fish fed hard under birds this morning for a full 2.25 hours, then continued feeding in the lower third of the water column after the birds lifted for another half-hour.  By 9:45 most of this action was over, so I headed to deeper, clearer water to continue looking for fish.  We found a scant number of birds circling in open water, with 3 times as many resting, indicating a feed had taken place here, too, but was winding down.  We caught a few fish here and moved on to our last area.  In the deepest (52′) water we fished this morning we found a lethargic school of white bass mixed with a few hybrid.  We fished these until they tapered off right around 10:55.  All fish caught this morning were caught on the 3/8 or 3/4 oz. slab with the Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached. We used a smoking retrieve while the fish

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:  Although this is true in most every season of the year, right now the morning bite is far outperforming the evening.

TALLY: 136 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:55a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp: 67.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-11

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: 2.33 feet low

GT = 135

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area spanning from 1022 thru 592 thru 103 under birds for 2.25 hours

**Area 2047 scant action

**Area vic 2049 – open water birds wrapping up a feed

**Area vic 717 – last of the morning bite in 52′

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with returning guests Mike McLaughlin, his son-in-law, Keith Duncan, and Keith’s son, Alex.  Mike’s wife has given him a fishing gift certificate each year for the past 5 years, and today was the day to cash in Christmas 2016’s gift.

 

We made 4 stops today and landed roughly 50 fish at each.  As we hovered in place courtesy of the Ulterra trolling motor’s Spot Lock function, all of commotion drew in drum and catfish.  This 4.25 pounder fell for Keith’s slab.

 

We caught white bass non-stop for nearly 4 hours under balmy, cloudy, breezy conditions — just right for temperate bass like whites, hybrid, and stripers.  From left Mike, Alex, and Keith.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, 14 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was easy this morning, although there was no helpful bird activity.  We were successful time and again in finding deep, heavily schooled white bass in feeding postures right from the first drop of our slabs around 7am, and until the fish quickly stopped feeding around 10:45.  We searched several areas after this time, but found nothing else to fish for.  100% of our fish were caught with a slab with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached, used in either a smoking retrieve (90%) or an easing retrieve (10%).

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: ~200-300 ring-billed gulls seen standing along the shoreline, but none led us to fish.

TALLY: 203 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-13

Sky Conditions: 70-80% grey cloud cover

Water Level: 2.33 feet low

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2046 — 51 fish by 8am

**Area 2047 — 103 fish by 8:45am

**Area 956 — 160 fish by 9:45am

**Area 2033/2048 — finished up with 203 fish by 10:45

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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