BUNDLE UP, BOYS! — 58 FISH ON NEW YEAR’S DAY (PM TRIP)

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.

OBSERVATIONS:   Thanks to the dark grey skies, the bite ended around 4:50 this afternoon.  No helpful bird activity was witnessed.

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

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