December | 2018 | Fishing Report

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

A SOLID AFTERNOON BITE – 100 FISH @ BELTON

December 30th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: After my morning trip with the Pennington party, I laid over during the midday, ate some Christmas leftovers on the boat, and welcomed the Ramsey party aboard at 1:30 this past Friday afternoon. Mrs. Jennifer Ramsey coordinated everything for her husband, U.S. Army Chaplain Jim Ramsey, Jim’s 14-year-old son, Jadon, and Jim’s father-in-law, Roger Nord, who traveled in from Arizona for the holidays where he makes his living in the paint industry.

As is the case all throughout the cool water period from late October through mid-March, largemouth bass show up routinely as a by-catch as we work for white bass, especially when we’re working anywhere near timber, which was the case when this chunky black bass struck.

From left: Roger Nord, Jadon Ramsey, and Chaplain Jim Ramsey with a half-dozen of the 100 fish we landed this evening.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, December 28, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: As we began this afternoon’s trip, I started off by looking at some areas I had not fished in the morning, but which were similar in bottom composition and depth. This turned out well for us, as we found ample bait and gamefish at three of the four places we inspected. If there was any difference between the evening bite and this morning’s bite, it was that the fish were a bit deeper, and, especially during the peak wind period of the day (from 1:30 to 3:30), the bite was a bit more aggressive.

We relied upon snap-jigging at all but our first stop. At that first stop, while the wind was up, we put a majority of our catch in the boat via a smoking tactic using a moderate cadence. From 3:30 on, the fish activity backed off a notch, and, in our last hour, we really had to work to put our final 16 fish in the boat to go from a tally of 84 fish at 4:35 to 100 an hour later. The one and only bait we used was the 3/8 oz. slab with my Hazy Eye Stinger hooks attached. White did the trick.

OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird activity today. No visible signs of water discoloration from Wednesday’s rains which stained the upper third of Stillhouse. Belton rose about 1.2 feet as a result of the flooding.

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time: 5:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 51F

Water Surface Temp: 53.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: WInds blew at N10-11 all day with slightly higher gusts between noon and 3:30pm.

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, post-frontal blue skies

Water Level: 3.62′ high with an overnite rise of 1.22 feet and a flow of 1612 cfs

GT = 18

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1697 (with 2 short hops)

**Area vic 1827

**Area B0121C

**Area vic 817 to 1671

**Area vic 2039

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

GONNA NEED 2 HANDS, TRENT! — 77 FISH

December 29th, 2018December 29th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning I fished Lake Belton with returning guest Brian Pennington. On this trip Brian brought his wife, Tracy, and his brother-in-law, Trent.

Brian is a retired U.S. Army logistics officer now working at the Operational Test Command at Fort Hood, Tracy is a unit clerk at Seton Hospital in Harker Heights, and Trent, visiting from Pueblo, CO, works for the U.S. Patent Office as a patent investigator, specializing in bio-chem technologies.

From left: Tracy (the Unabomber) Pennington, her brother, Trent, and Tracy’s husband, Brian, each with a pair of Belton Lake white bass taken via a combination of snap-jigging and deadsticking on this cold, clear, post-frontal late December day.

Trent took this solid smallmouth buffalo on a light spinning rod. The buffalo slurped Trent’s slab as we jigged near bottom for white bass. The fish was bulky enough and heavy enough that Trent needed to hand on with both hands. This fish maxed out my 15 pound Boga-Grip scale; we estimated its weight just under 20 pounds.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, December 28, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: Bottom line: we moved around a lot today. That is not to say we covered a lot of ground, rather, once we found fish, we caught them until they stopped biting, then moved a few boat lengths, caught a few more, then moved a few boat lengths, caught a few more, and so on. The fish were just tight-lipped and stuck to the bottom today thanks to post-frontal high pressure, so, we had to go to them. You’ll see the list of areas we fished with success (shown below) is longer than usual.

We employed a combination of snap-jigging with 3/8 oz. slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks attached, and deadsticking using jigheads with Gulp! as the attractor.

We fished 4 general areas and landed 77 fish including largemouth bass, crappie, drum, hybrid striped bass, white bass, and smallmouth buffalo.

TALLY: 77 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15 a

End Time: 11:45 a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Water Surface Temp: 53.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: WInds blew at 10-11 all day with slightly higher gusts between noon and 3:30pm.

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, post-frontal blue skies

Water Level: 3.62′ high with an overnite rise of 1.22 feet and a flow of 1612 cfs

GT = 75

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS FRIDAY:

**Area vic 826

**Area vic 691

**Area vic 2037

**Area vic B0054C

**Area 692

**Area vic B0050C

**Area vic 968

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

AND THEN CAME CHOCOLATE MILK – 53 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

December 29th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning I fished with returning guests Tiffany Stork and her dad, John Jonse. This time, Tiffany brought along her youngest son, 11-year-old Tyler, after giving him a fishing gift certificate for Christmas. Tyler did very well with his first try at the kind of fishing we did today.

Tyler Stork of Cameron, TX, battled this 5 1/8 pound channel catfish on light spinning tackle after hooking it from out of a school of white bass we had been steadily catching. At times, catfish and drum come in to a white bass feeding frenzy to police up the regurgitated shad that the white bass throw up as they are being reeled in. Great job, Tyler!

And here are a few of those white bass that drew in the drum and the catfish we landed. From left that’s John Jonse, John’s grandson Tyler Stork, and Tyler’s mom, Tiffany Stork.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, December 27, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: A line of violent storms passed quickly through central Texas overnight from west to east on the lead edge of a cold front. The storm dumped 1.6 inches of rain over us and west of us in both the Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow watersheds. Both lakes rose about a foot and a half very quickly as the storm produced a lot of runoff. As we headed out around 7:15a, there was a distinct debris line near the Cedar Gap Park with very turbid water upstream from there. We dropped back into still-clear water and were fortunate to get into 3-year class white bass by casting blade baits up shallow as we sat hovering in 15′. As the bite was dying around 8:30, the debris line was nearly upon us and the water was now opaque, resembling diluted chocolate milk. Later in the day as I drove over the FM3481 bridge, it was obvious that the mud line extended all the way downstream to the Union Grove Park area. We picked up 20 fish before the shallow bite slacked off.

We moved downstream into clearer, deeper water and found two distinct groups of fish, both offering us about 50 minutes’ worth of fishing before the fish in these areas grew disinterested and stopped biting. Our last fish came aboard around 10:50 when the wind shifted suddenly from SSE to W and ramped up from around 8 mph to over 15mph. We landed 53 fish in total and wrapped up our trip right at the 4-hour mark. The fish we caught at these last two deep-water areas all came on 3/8 oz. white slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks attached; we used a snap-jigging tactic for all of this deep-water work.

OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird activity today; Stillhouse will need to be left alone for ~ a week to allow the silt from last night’s flooding to settle sufficiently to allow for white bass action on artificials.

TALLY: 53 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15 a

End Time: 11:15 a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Water Surface Temp: 54.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE under 3mph at trip’s start, slowly increasing to SSE8, but then shifting suddenly and ramping up greatly to W15 around 10:50.

Sky Conditions: Cloudless blue skies after the passage of a storm front overnight.

Water Level: 4.66′ high with an overnite rise of 0.52 and a flow of 1495 cfs

GT = 40

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS FRIDAY:

**Area SH0089C – shallow bladebait action for 20 whites

**Area SH0088C – deep snap-jigging

**Area SH0087C – deep snap-jigging

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

‘Twas a White (Bass) Christmas for Matt Laakso — 120 Fish @ Stillhouse

December 26th, 2018December 26th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning, Christmas morning 2018, I fished with returning guest Matt Laakso of Cedar Park. Matt and I first got acquainted when he booked an on-the-water sonar training session on Stillhouse. Later, he and his son came out white bass fishing with me, then hybrid striper fishing with me, both on Lake Belton.

Matt came solo on this trip to Stillhouse, which allowed for me to be a lot more instructional concerning some of the techniques we employed with which he was not familiar, namely deadsticking. We also sharpened his game up when it came to the use of slabs in response to “reading” fish activity levels. We went on to land 120 fish during this outing, including a 15.25″ white bass, which qualified him for a TPWD Big Fish Award, one step in the process of becoming a recognized TPWD Elite Angler.

Matt Laakso landed this 15.25″ white bass on a Cicada bladebait on Christmas morning. White bass over 15″ qualify for TPWD Big Fish awards, which are the first steps toward Elite Angler status.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, December 25, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: This trip broke down into 3 distinct portions. We began in shallower water (under 25′) early, throwing bladebaits, however, blades did not produce as strongly as they had the past several trips. I suspect this was because the light fog reduced light penetration and so the fish never had that “switch” of the sky’s sudden brightening goading them into their first feed of the day. We actually did better snap-jigging, even though these shallow water fish were bottom-hugging and well-spread; they positively responded to thumping, thus providing us with a nice, steady feed of fish under the boat. We landed 25 fish by 9:00am

Our next stop was a brief one, intended strictly to demonstrate the deadstick tactic to Matt. I found a small congregation of white bass holding right along the channel break in about 42′. They had a lethargic posture — relatively still and suspended over the river channel in a loose group. We used jigheads and shad-imitating softbaits to draw these fish in with very slow, deliberate movements while keeping an eagle-eye on sonar for the fishes’ responses.

Our last stop came under birds which were barely visible through the thin fog. There was a mix of gulls and terns over the water and loons in the water with fish and bait well-spread over a ~90 yard area. We started off scoring routinely with a smoking tactic, downshifting to a snap-jigging tactic, and then finally a deadstick tactic as the energy level of the fish slowly decreased to nil by right at 11:30am. We landed 95 fish between 9:00 – 11:30am.

OBSERVATIONS: For a second day in a row, the last 2 hours of the morning was more productive than the first two hours.

TALLY: 120 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15 a

End Time: 11:30 a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F

Water Surface Temp: 53.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE3 at trip’s start, slowly increasing to SSE8 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions: 100% overcast with just the thinnest blanket of fog; this fog was not dense enough to keep the birds from feeding, and it was not accompanied by calm conditions, so we still enjoyed a strong morning feed.

Water Level: 4.37′ high with an overnite fall of 0.25 and a flow of 1494 cfs

GT = 15

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS FRIDAY:

**Area v1697 – low light, shallow bite with blades to start and snap-jigging to end up.

**Area SH0086C – a brief stop over more lethargic, suspended fish to demonstrate deadsticking

**Area SH0085C – deep work via smoking and then snap jigging and then deadsticking under birds

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

CHRISTMAS EVE FISHING – 103 FISH ON STILLHOUSE

December 24th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This Monday morning, Christmas Eve 2018, I fished with John Shotwell, John’s 18-year-old son, Hunter, and John’s father-in-law, Bob Shea.

Bob is retired, is an Air Force veteran, and has his own pontoon boat kept in a wet slip at Stillhouse Marina. In addition to catching fish, Bob wanted to learn more about Stillhouse Hollow, as he has rarely ventured out of sight of the dam in his past adventures. John is a math teacher a Copperas Cove High School, and Hunter is pursuing a degree at Central Texas College with his eye on law enforcement.

This 4.50 pound surprise grabbed John Shotwell’s slab as we worked over a school of white bass.

From left: Bob Shea, his grandson, Hunter Shotwell, and Bob’s son-in-law, John Shotwell with 3 of the 103 fish we landed in under 4.5 hours this morning.

Bob Shea with one of the several 4 pound class freshwater drum we landed this morning when we fish with our slabs near bottom.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, December 24, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: We began today’s trip throwing bladebaits in under 15′ for actively patrolling wolfpacks of white bass feeding on shad. When the sun rose and brightened the calm surface, this action quickly tailed off and pushed fish deeper. We found fish at around 25′ in small schools, also actively patrolling. We Spot Locked with the Minn Kota Ulterra and worked these fish as long as they lasted in two similar areas. Bird action by gulls and loons was near constant.

After this mid-depth bite dried up around 9:50, we looked to deeper water and were fortunate to come upon some solid bird action which pointed the way to white bass in 45-48′. These were the most aggressive fish and most abundant fish I’ve encountered since last Friday. We were able to catch these fish via a smoking tactic for about 50 minutes, then spent another hour plus snap-jigging for them after they throttled back. At all locations we found largemouth and drum as well as the white bass we sought.

At our last location, John landed a 15.25″ white bass, which is considered a trophy white bass by TPWD’s Elite Angler Program standards.

Other than those fish caught early on the bladebaits, all other came on the Hazy Eye Slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached. White was the go-to color.

OBSERVATIONS: Open water bird action extended to 11:45am – unusually late, but most welcome.

TALLY: 103 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15 a

End Time: 11:45 a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 32F

Water Surface Temp: 53.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW<3 through 9:30, then ramping up quickly to S8-9, then shifting and bumping up again SSE12

Sky Conditions: <10% white clouds on blue sky thru 9:30, save for a grey band of clouds that passed W to E over a 25 minute span from 8:45 to 9:10. Then grey clouds moving in to 80% coverage from the SE beginning around 10:45.

Water Level: 4.62′ high with an overnite fall of 0.23 and a flow of 1496 cfs

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS FRIDAY:

**Area SH0082C – low light, shallow bite with blades

**Area 096/SH0076C/SH0084C – mid-depth snap-jigging for bottom-huggers

**Area SH0077C/SH0071C – mid-depth snap-jigging for bottom-huggers

**Area vic 1518 – deep work via smoking and then snap jigging under birds

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

A Little Scouting Friday; A Little Family Time Saturday

December 23rd, 2018December 23rd, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday I headed out on a solo scouting effort to stay in touch with the bite on Stillhouse and to work the bugs out of some new sonar gear (much more on that in the weeks to come). The scouting went well, as I identified two deepwater areas holding a lot of fish which would pay off on Saturday.

On Saturday I took my brother, Andy, and my college-aged nephew, Trent, out on Stillhouse.

From left: My nephew, Trent Maindelle and his dad, my brother, Andy Maindelle with two of the 52 fish we landed on Saturday morning on Stillhouse.

Andy took our best fish of the day — this 4.25 pound freshwater drum, nickname: gasper gou.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday and Saturday mornings, December 21 & 22, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: On both mornings I encountered a shallow bite (as little as 10′ deep at one point under low light) through about 9:00a during which scattered fish willingly took bladebaits. Once the sun climbed and the shallow bite died, I moved on to deeper water and found abundant white bass in large, slow moving schools in ~48-52 feet of water. On Friday, these fish were in overdrive and responded to a smoking tactic; on Saturday, most of these deep fish responded best to either a “slow-stick” or a snap-jigging tactic.

OBSERVATIONS:

TALLY: 83 fish Friday & 52 fish Saturday, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15 a both days

End Time: 11:30 a both days

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 41F Friday; 46F Saturday

Water Surface Temp: 53.6F Friday; 53.4 Saturday

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW8-9 most of the morning on Friday; calm 2 hours, then SW building to 12 by trip’s end on Saturday

Sky Conditions: <15% white cloud cover both days

Water Level: 5.28′ high with an overnite fall of 0.24 and a flow of 1599 cfs on Friday; 5.04′ high with an overnite fall of 0.24′ and a flow of 1599 cfs Saturday

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT: FRIDAY…

SATURDAY…

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS FRIDAY:

**Area 713/730 – low light, shallow bite with blades

**Area SH0080C – deep slab bite

**Area SH0081C – deep slab bite

*AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS SATURDAY:

**Area SH0082C – low light, shallow bite with blades

**Area vic. SH0071C to SH0077C – snap-jigging

**Area SH0083C – deep slab bite

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Keith and Toni’s 25th Anniversary — 58 Fish @ Belton

December 18th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday morning I fished with Keith and Toni Ragsdale who drove up to Belton Lake from the Georgetown area. Keith works as an anesthesiologist as the same hospital where Toni works as a speech therapist.

Last Christmas, Toni’s parents presented the pair with a fishing gift certificate. On the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary they decided to redeem the certificate. Keith was quick to point out (as if fishing for white bass was not romantic or something!) that the two dates (fishing and anniversary) just happen to coincide and that the couple was going to have dinner together and then leave on a family trip to Disney next week.

Each year as the water gets colder and colder heading toward mid-February, our catch of largemouth bass increases. We landed a number of 4-pound class fish today without targeting them. As usual, the stinger hook prevented loss of these fish during a head-shake at the surface.

Keith took this chunky largemouth from out of 36 feet of water. Immediate release following a photo prevents complications with barotrauma.

Hybrid, smallmouth buffalo, drum, and largemouth aside, we still caught a mess of our target species — the white bass.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, December 17, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: The fishing was pretty slow through about 8:45, then picked up for a while as the wind began to shift from WNW to SW, then again back to W. Once the winds went westerly, they also lightened up and killed the bite we were on. We moved to an area more wind-impacted and arrived just as some bird action by about 15 terns was getting underway. We remained in that vicinity until noon making a steady catch of multiple species including white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, freshwater drum, and one smallmouth buffalofish. Snap-jigging was the way to go for these fairly lethargic fish. There were only one or two occasions all morning where schoolmates chased hooked fish toward the surface as they were being reeled in; we never took a single fish on a smoking or easing tactic.

OBSERVATIONS: Although it did not last long, nor was it all that intense, today we experienced the first episode of bird activity leading to fish in quite some time. What we witnessed involved 100% terns.

TALLY: 58 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Water Surface Temp: 53.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW12 at trip’s start, shifting suddenly to SW4 around 9:10, then shifting again back to W4 for the remainder of the trip. As I was departing, parts of the lake were going glassy calm.

Sky Conditions: 100% light grey cloud cover

Water Level: 2.66′ high with an overnite fall of 0.24; and a flow of 2,364 cfs

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area V1614

**Area B0119C – snap-jigging

**Area B0120C – snap-jigging

**Area B0118C – snap-jigging

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

AFTER THE BIG BLOW — 170 FISH @ BELTON

December 16th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning, December 15th, I fished with a 4-man crew organized by Jim Downing. Joining Jim were Gary Hannemann who joined us for some spring hybrid fishing with live shad in early April this year, Coby Whiteside who joined us for some late fall action in 2017, and newcomer Josh Salaiz, who, I have a feeling, will be back, as well. Jim and his party were one of the groups I had to push back from their originally scheduled date due to the aftermath of the mid-October flooding. The wait was worth it though, as the high-numbers fishing Jim was looking forward to has since materialized.

From left: Josh Salaiz, Gary Hannemann, Coby Whiteside, and Jim Downing each with one of their contributions to the 170 fish tally we boated under cool, clear, windy conditions this December 15th morning. 100% of our catch was (and always is) released.

Josh Salaiz with our largest fish of the trip, a 6.25 pound carp that inhaled Josh’s 3/8 oz. slab.

Coby Whiteside with his personal best largemouth bass. This fish took a 3/8 oz. slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached. The fish came off bottom in 34′.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, December 15, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: The tail end of the cold front which arrived late Thursday afternoon was still sweeping through, thus, we avoided the dreaded clear, calm conditions encountered with post-frontal weather. The wind was still blowing NNW10-11 before sunrise and then increased to right at NNW13 by mid-morning. Unfortunately, all of this wind (with gusts over 30mph on Friday) really stirred up the silt where I had been enjoying success. Although the bait was present, the fish were not feeding well, and we only had 18 fish in the boat by 9:15 after stopping numerous areas and finding willing fish at only two of them.

By 9:30, I took us to some deeper, clearer water and found very willing fish between 30 and 40 feet deep. The fish were eager to feed — so much so that as I watched my clients’ slabs fall to the bottom on our initial drop (using sonar), I could see several fish rising well up off the bottom to meet the slabs. We were able to enjoy about an hour of fast fishing primarily using a smoking tactic. By 10:30 the fish were cooling off, but still cooperated on a snap-jigging tactic through 11:45 when the bite died once and for all.

Over the course of the morning we landed numerous drum, white bass, hybrid stripers (all shorts), a common carp, and a mess of largemouth bass, including a personal best landed by Coby.

OBSERVATIONS: What little bird action I witnessed today was wide-spread at first light as birds patrolled for shad already on the surface (not driven there by fish below). Later, any bird action was loon-connected. No fish were caught today via the aid of birds.

TALLY: 170 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 41F

Water Surface Temp: 52.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW10-11 at trip’s start, building to NNW13 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Bright and cloudless

Water Level: 3.14′ high with an overnite fall of 0.24; and a flow of 2,400 cfs

GT = 100

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0117C – snap jigging (18 fish)

**Area vic 971 – smoking upon arrival; snap jigging for mop-up (152 fish)

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

JUST BEFORE THE BIG BLOW — 117 FISH @ BELTON

December 13th, 2018December 14th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Dec. 13th, I fished with retired high school football coach Ken Powell who now lives in Burnet, TX. Ken simply enjoys experiencing new things and, although he lives near Lake Buchanan, he was hard-pressed to find a guide there willing to use anything but live shad. So, he contacted me back in September when downrigging was still producing to go on a downrigging trip with me on Stillhouse. As the trip concluded, he asked if there was another time he could fish again and do something different. I told him about this time of year and of the various vertical tactics I use to put high numbers of fish in the boat consistently. He put down a deposit on the spot and today we made that trip happen.

Before we parted ways today, we agreed to go after hybrid in the spring.

Retired high school football coach Ken Powell of Burnet, TX, with 2 of the 5 Lake Belton white bass we landed today which surpassed the 14″ mark. Over my 26 years on Belton, there have been a number of years when this lake didn’t produce a single white bass of that size for me and my clients. It is good to see this quality. Of course, 100% of our catch was released in hopes that these “big fish” genes are passed down to another generation.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, December 13, 2018

HOW WE FISHED: It was a beautiful day on Lake Belton today. Saw only one other boat in 4.5 hours on the water and enjoyed white bass fishing success at 5 of the 6 areas we searched. The fish were definitely not in overdrive today, and we did not encounter a single episode of helpful bird activity. What we did find were large schools of fish laying near bottom with just a tad of target separation between their bodies and the bottom. Such fish are typically prone to a snap-jigging tactic and we did find this to be the case in all but one area.

That exception came over the centerline of a cove where I spotted suspended fish while idling through. When I hovered atop these fish and began thumping for them, they coalesced under the boat, yet refused any active presentation. Instead, a deadstick tactic (which I had just worked out a lot of kinks on yesterday at Stillhouse) really did the trick for these larger-than-average fish. We landed 5 fish here which exceeded 14″, with the largest going 14 3/8 inches. If you fish white bass on Belton, you’ll know those are solid fish.

The best of the bite died by around 10am and our tally then stood at 87 fish. We continued for about 2 more hours, and landed another 30 fish during that time, for a trip total of 117 fish. This included about 10% drum, white bass, 7 short hybrid, and several just-keeper largemouth bass.

OBSERVATIONS:

TALLY: 117 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Water Surface Temp: 56.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at trip’s start, then picking up slowly and steadily from the west building up to ~14mph by trip’s end. Hard winds of the next incoming front hit at 3:05pm.

Sky Conditions: Bright and cloudless at trip’s start, clouding up to 40+% thin grey clouds by 10:10am

Water Level: 3.41′ high with an overnite fall of 0.05; and a flow of 1,611 cfs

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0113C – snap jigging and smoking

**Area B0114C – snap jigging

**Area B0115C – deadsticking

**Area vic 164 – snap jigging after the peak bite

**Area B0112C – snap jigging after the peak bite

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com