WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning I fished with brothers Steve and Dave Wise. Steve resides in Austin and Dave and his wife made the trek down from southcentral Minnesota to join Steve and his family for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Steve Wise of Austin teamed up with his brother in visiting from Minnesota for some pre-holiday time on the water. We finished the morning with 70 fish landed, including some hard-fighting hybrid striped bass.
Now residing in Minnesota, Dave Wise escaped the icy fingers of early winter in the north to enjoy some (non-ice) fishing with no snowmobile suits, boots, or gloves required.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, 21 November 2017
HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was still a bit off since the windy, hard cold front we had come in on Sat./Sun. I continued to find a lot of scattered fish and bait and not a single, large, bottom-hugging congregation of fish all morning. We caught all of our fish at three distinct locations. The first success came under birds working over about a 3 acre area. As I observed with sonar after moving in with the outboard, then closing the final span up to beneath the birds with only the trolling motor on, I saw that we were dealing with many small clusters of fish that had splintered off and were feeding both on bottom and up as much at 2/3’s of the way off bottom. We successfully slabbed using a smoking retrieve, and we also covered ground horizontally using bladebaits until the action ended shortly after the birds lifted. Our second and third locations in ~38′ were similar in that the fish were holding in a small cluster on gently sloping terrain that was wind-impacted. A more subtle, slower “easing” tactic with a 3/8 oz. slab with Hazy Eye Stinger Hook attached did the trick for these fish.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) No large congregations of bottom-hugging fish found on sonar. 2) Fish have been both suspended and scattered in splintered small groups since last Saturday’s hard, dry cold front.
TALLY: 70 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:35a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F
Water Surface Temp: 65.6F
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: 2.50 feet low
GT = 30
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 2054-2055 – early action under birds in under 30′. Smoking slabs and casting bladebaits. Solid white bass and hybrid mixed in.
**Area 1934/2027 – late morning action on smaller congregations of bottom-huggers with suspended fish atop them. Easing required.
**Area 192/1942 – final stop of the trip; mostly small fish in 38′. Easing required.
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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