WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with Steve Niemeier of Temple and his grandson, Caleb Fowler, age 12, of Belton. Steve makes his living as a certified pubic accountant, and Caleb is a 6th grade student at one of the Belton middle schools where he’s currently playing football as a defensive lineman.
As we grew accustomed to the sporty, but lighter pull of multiple white bass on the light spinning tackle we were using, Caleb got a rude awakening when this 9.25 pound smallmouth buffalo came knocking.
We definitely had to work for our catch today. Although we amassed a tally of 107 fish, we had to stop at 10 distinct areas (each of which gave up at least a few fish) to do it. Here Steve Neimeier and Caleb Fowler show some of the 2015-spawned crop of fish we landed.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Friday morning, 10 November 2017
HOW WE FISHED: The raw weather brought in by the cold front that came in on Tuesday and kept winds northerly on Wednesday and Thursday moderated a bit today. We had slightly warmer temperatures, ENE winds, and persistent grey cloud cover. The same general areas and habitats that have been producing this week continued to produce, but the fish were definitely more reluctant to feed today. We had very limited success going horizontal with bladebaits under lowlight conditions, and often had to “re-ignite” fish that had begun chasing smoked slabs and then quit doing so. We did this by using an easing tactic, getting the struggling, hooked fish up above its schoolmates, and then observing sonar to see if they followed the hooked fish upwards. If they did, a more aggressive smoking tactic would then produce once more.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) The number of birds on Belton continues to increase. 2) Once again, birds led the way to the morning’s first catch. 3) The wind shift to the east definitely put a damper on the fish activity. 4) We made 10 different stops to put together our 107 fish tally; no single spot just gave up a lot of fish.
TALLY: 107 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:40a
End Time: 10:50a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 49F
Water Surface Temp: 66.5F
Wind Speed & Direction: ENE6-7
Sky Conditions: 100% heavy grey cloud cover
Water Level: 2.25 feet low
GT = 40
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1573, vic 525-526, 2039, vic 2037-163 – low light vertical jigging under birds for 40 fish
**Area 2040 and 2041 – sluggish whites in 42′ – 13 fish
**Area vic 2027 – most active fish of the trip, 34′ – 33 fish
**Area 2042 – 10 fish
**Area 2041 (again) – 11 fish
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
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