It’s All Relative — 05 Jan. 2018 (PM Trip)

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday afernoon I fished with Willis Creed and his son, Skyler Creed, from north central Missouri.  Willis is a timber-framed home builder and Skyler is a college student at Missouri State University in Columbia.  The two came down to Texas to visit some friends and go hog hunting here in Central Texas, and decided to “mix it up” a little and do some fishing after the weather moderated a bit.  Since the cold weather we experienced here wasn’t nearly as cold as what these fellows are used to back home up north, they didn’t mind hunting and fishing in the cold — it’s all relative, I suppose!  Either way, all three of us enjoyed fishing Belton with near zero boat traffic.

Father and Son

From left: Willis and Skyler Creed of Missouri with a mixed bag of fish we took in 30 feet of water while working slabs with a finesse tactic.  The pair boated 89 fish in water with a surface temperature around 51-52F.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday afternoon, 05 January 2018

HOW WE FISHED:  We fished primarily in deep, 42+ foot water today until our very last stop, which came in 28-30′.  We fish with just two retrieves: slow smoking for suspended and more active bottom-oriented fish, and snap-jigging for non-aggressive bottom-oriented fish.  100% of our fish were taken on the smaller 3/8 oz. slab with the Hazy Eye Stinger Hook attached.  We used an extended pause while snap-jigging and found many of our fish came on the pause.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:   1) Today, out of necessity, we stopped on what I would normally consider marginal sonar returns.  The extended cold snap really did impact the fishery, dropping our water temperatures about 6 degrees in just 5 days.  Fish were hard to find and definitely not heavily schooled, nor feeding aggressively.  Therefore, when I saw any fish activity, we stopped, worked over top of them and figured out if we could get them turned on.  This worked out for us at about 3 of the 6 or 7 areas we patrolled and paved the way to a respectable 89 fish afternoon as we enjoyed a slow warmup.

TALLY: 89 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:45p

End Time:  5:50p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  48F

Water Surface Temp:  52.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE at 10-12 all afternoon

Sky Conditions: <10% scattered white cloud cover

Water Level: 3.00 feet low

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

JAN 05

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0026C

**Area B0025C

**Area 1024

**Area 163 (out a bit deeper than the waypoint, and with 2 short hops)

 

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

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