Arrrrgh! Clear and bright conditions make it tough — 49 Fish

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.

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

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

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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:

25NOV17

 

 

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

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