WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Tuesday afternoon I fished Lake Belton with first time guest Robert Spencer and his grandsons, 17-year-old Adrian and 15-year-old CJ (Carlos).  The boys both attend Florence High School where Adrian has plans to graduate this year and head to Texas A&M to study mechanical engineering and work through the ROTC program in order to commission into the military after college graduation.  CJ is currently headed into his high school power-lifting season.  Robert retired from Walmart distribution and now works at his own tractor business.

STINGERED!  CJ caught two aggressive white bass at the same time, one on the slab’s treble hook and one on the Hazy Eye Stinger hook.  This fish was caught from among a group of fish that proved to be the most aggressive we would encounter all afternoon.  At this one area we landed a blue catfish, several largemouth, two crappie, a number of drum, short hybrid stripers, and white bass, all between 4:00 and 4:30pm.

DRUM MAJORS: Adrian and CJ, who had previous experience catching black drum in salt water, enjoyed the fighting ability of the freshwater drum they caught today.  Thanks to a bumper crop of food in the form of zebra mussels, the drum on Lake Belton are healthier and more numerous than I’ve ever seen them in over 25 years on this body of water.

CJ’s creative solution for staying warm during our runs from one fishing area to another.  Handwarmers also helped!

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday,  January 1st, 2019

HOW WE FISHED:   The fish were a bit more fickle this afternoon than they were this morning.  Although I found fish most everywhere I looked, there were not masses of fish at any of these locations.  If I saw a school of 10 or 12 fish on sonar this afternoon, I stopped and fished for them because any more than that was tough to come by.  As is the case as the water chills toward the 40 degree range, presentation really mattered.  Slabs kept consistently in the “sweet spot” near bottom got bit far more than slabs just inches too high or too low.  All of our fish were taken via snap jigging this afternoon.

TALLY: 58 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30 p

End Time: 5:30 p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 41F

Water Surface Temp: 52.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: WInds blew at NNW13 all day with slightly higher gusts between 1:30 and 3:30pm.

Sky Conditions:  Leaden grey skies all day

Water Level: 4.91′ high with an overnite rise of 0.14 feet and a flow of 1612 cfs 

GT = 15

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS FRIDAY: 

**Area vic  1678/1658 with 2 short hops

**Area vic  1827

**Area vic B0122C

**Area vic B0123C

**Area vic B0124C

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Tuesday morning I fished Lake Belton with returning guest Willis Creed.  Willis brought along a friend and co-worker, Chris Lee, for this chilly white bass fishing adventure as a “side trip” to their Bell County hog hunting safari taking place over several days near the Lampasas River.

Willis is a craftsman who builds timber-framed houses in Missouri.  Chris is starting his own roofing company, and the two routinely work together repairing and installing roofs.

In addition to our target species (white bass), we also landed hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, blue catfish, freshwater drum, crappie, and this — a smallmouth buffalo which Chris landed on light spinning tackle intended for white bass.  Although buffalo normal feed by vacuuming debris off the bottom, they will sometime eat small baitfish, which our small slabs were imitating.  This one went around 13 pounds.

Although we had to work for each fish we caught today, we were able to put together a better catch than most parties I take out would have.  This was due in large part to Willis and Chris’ willingness to be coached and their attention to detail when it came to the presentation we were using on a day where inches truly mattered.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday,  January 1st, 2019

HOW WE FISHED:  As was the case last Friday when I fished an AM and PM trip on Belton, 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.  As I observed sonar, I was finding distinct groups of fish in pods of perhaps 12-25 fish each.  The ability to use the i-Pilot Link feature to return to fish we’d motored over with GPS precision definitely helped put fish in the boat today, as these fish were not willing to travel any distance to come to a thumper or the commotion of our jigging; we essentially had to park on top of them and put slabs right in front of them to get bit.

We relied upon snap-jigging with 3/8 oz. slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks attached for the majority of our success.  A few fish were caught with an “easing” tactic when the bite peaked around 8:30 to 9:00.

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:20 a

End Time: 11:45 a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 39F

Water Surface Temp: 52.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: WInds blew at NNW13 all day with slightly higher gusts between 1:30 and 3:30pm.

Sky Conditions:  Leaden grey skies all day

Water Level: 4.91′ high with an overnite rise of 0.14 feet and a flow of 1612 cfs 

GT = 15

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS FRIDAY: 

**Area vic 1659/565 with 2 short hops

**Area vic B0116C to 2039 with 3 short hops

**Area vic  692 to B0072C

**Area vic  1822 with 2 short hops

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle