High Fence Fishing with DJ Fuller and Marty Wall — 102 Fish

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Friday morning I fished with Marty Wall of Killeen and DJ Fuller of Salado.  Marty draws house plans, DJ is a local home builder, and the two have worked together for some time.  This morning it was time to fish together.  DJ had never really experienced the kind of continuous catching that we enjoyed this morning.  Being a hunter, he compared the fishing to hunting in a high-fence environment in which the game animals have no where to go.  We nicknamed this “High Fence Fishing”.

 

From left:  DJ Fuller of DB Fuller Homes, and Marty Wall of The Plan Man home plans/drawing, took some down time and enjoyed a strong hybrid striped bass bite on Lake Belton this morning.  After two days of decidedly “unfishy” weather (clear skies, calm winds), the shad were spawning and the fish were biting (and the boat traffic was very light!). 

 

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  We targeted hybrid striped bass for the entire 4 hours this morning.   As always, we had white bass, as well as a few blue cat and even fewer largemouth bass blend in the mix, too.  Roughly 60% of our catch of 102 fish consisted of “keeper” hybrid of at least 18 inches in length.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday morning, 18 May 2018

HOW WE FISHED: We fished live shad the entire trip.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:    1) Area SHAD14 produced really nice quality threadfin shad this morning around 6:00 to 6:05am, and lots of them. 2) Medium sized threadfin shad and cutbait got the nod this morning; fish were generally uninterested in large threadfin.  3) Generally speaking, based on water temperature, time of year, and the tempo of the shad spawn, I estimate that we are past the peak of the traditional late spring hybrid bite when the great combination of quality and quantity comes together like at no other time of the year.  I suspect we’ll get another 2 weeks or so out of the hybrid before the beginnings of the thermocline begin to form and the fish begin to scatter horizontally and leave the deep water bottom haunts they’ve been in for quite some time now.  Finding threadfin shad will be tougher than the “one and done” kind of net tossing that has been the rule for the past month or so.

TALLY: 102 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED 

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Water Surface Temp:  78.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Steady SSE wind at 7-9, tapering up to SSE13 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  Light blue sky with 60% cloud cover at sunrise, slowly decreasing to 30% by trip’s end

Water Level: 1.92 feet low and slowly rising thanks to Tuesday’s storms to our west.

GT = 100

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  B0090C – one stop atop this area for ~3 hours yielded 72 fish

**Area 717 – slower action on this area for our last hour yielded 30 fish.  This was the single best hybrid-producing morning for this area for the season thus far.

 

 

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@HoldingelleTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

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