They Called in the National Guard … And They Called Me — 74 Fish @ Belton

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning I fished with 3 members of the Alabama National Guard:  Staff Sergeant Marcus Stacks of Andalusia, AL, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ray Aldridge of Athens, AL, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Bobby Garrett of Wetumpka, AL.  These fellows have been at North Fort Hood for about a month assisting their unit in deploying prior to deploying themselves.

 

From left: Bobby Garrett, Marcus Stacks, and Ray Aldridge of the Alabama National Guard fished a half-day trip with me on Belton in pursuit of deep, cold white bass.

 

Just before noon we saw this Army bridging boat loaded down with men and equipment heading up the Leon to make repairs to the pumphouse at the mouth of Bull Creek.

 

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, 25 January 2018

HOW WE FISHED:   With a surface temperature of 49.3F thanks to a clear night dropping ambient air temperatures down to 28F, the fish remained deep and sluggish.  We caught 100% of our fish via snap-jigging with a prolonged pause using 3/8 oz. slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks attached.  We landed a mixed bag of white bass, short hybrid striped bass, blue catfish, and largemouth bass from 36 to 48 feet deep.  Ray prefers deep, finesse fishing for largemouth and smallmouth on the deep drops and ledges he fishes in the lakes of northern Alabama.  His experience in this manner of fishing translated into success in jigging for white bass as he hooked a greater percentage of his fish that bit, and landed more of the fish he hooked than

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:   1) Several times what appeared as marginal sonar returns turned into solid schools of active fish because the fish were so tight to the bottom to begin with and in such deep water that sonar just didn’t sense all of them. 2) No bird action.

TALLY: 74 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time:  11:55a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  28F

Water Surface Temp:  49.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were calm for the first 3 hours.  A light and variable SE breeze under 7mph developed around 10a.

Sky Conditions:  Less than 10% thin, white cloud cover

Water Level: 3.29 feet low

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 382 – a solid 90 minutes of catching starting right at sunrise

**Area vic B0010C

**Area vic 1940

 

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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