MOM LANDS THE MONSTER — 66 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Saturday afternoon, March 2nd, I fished with Mr. Kelly Hankins, his wife, Lizzy, and their 17-year-old son, Clayton, on a multi-species trip on Lake Belton.  Due to the low water temperatures, our main focus was on white bass.

Kelly, an Army brat whose dad retired at Ft. Hood, makes his living as a home inspector in the Temple-Belton area.  Lizzy, a native of Killeen, is a physician; and Clayton is a senior at Belton High School where he plays saxophone in the band and has his sights set on attending college at Tarleton where he desires to focus on bio-med studies.  The Hankins’ 13-year-old daughter did not join us on this chilly, damp outing.

 

Lizzy Hankins landed this 5.00 pound Lake Belton largemouth on a 3/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab equipped with a Hazy Eye Stinger Hook from out of 33 feet of water.  This fish was one of 4 largemouth bass we landed in a 15 minute span after putting the boat in SpotLock near isolated wood cover which happened to be near the group of bottom-oriented white bass we were targeting.  The fish was weighed on a certified scale, photographed, and released with no signs of barotrauma.

 

 

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
 
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 02 Mar., 2019

HOW WE FISHED: Given the low water temperature and cold, damp conditions, today’s approach was necessarily nearly 100% snap-jigging, as it will likely be until we get our water temperatures to around 58 degrees (which, by the looks of the ‘polar vortex’ on its way to Texas, won’t be any time soon!).  During the “low light bite”, which on this foggy evening occurred around 5:10 to 5:40, while working the thumper, we had a nice school of white bass suspend right beneath the boat about 8 feet off bottom.  We S-L-O-W-L-Y smoked our slabs through these fish and got bit consistently.  This was the most productive spurt of the trip, with all other efforts producing a steady pick of fish from start to finish.

OBSERVATIONS:  The bite was definitely “front loaded” at each of the seven areas we found fish at this afternoon.  By this, I mean we caught most of our fish, and caught them in quickest succession, immediately upon our arrival.  After catching a few quick fish, the action would quickly taper to nil and we’d have to continue looking.  A few times simply jogging a few boat lengths put us back in contact with the fish, but, with the water so chilly, the commotion we created by jigging and catching fish did not draw nearby fish to us.  Rather, we had to go to them.

TALLY: 66 fish caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:50p

End Time: 6:10p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F

Water Surface Temp: 52.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were NNE7-9 the entire trip

Sky Conditions:  100% grey with about a 1.5 mile visibility through the fog.

Water Level:  0.29 feet above full pool with a 0.02 foot 24-hour rise

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0135 – snap-jigging

**Area vic area encompassed by 1077/1362/1000/826- snap-jigging

**Area vic 1827 – two short hops – snap-jigging

**Area vic 1919

**Area  vic B0112C (suspended fish came to thumper well enough to allow for slow-smoking through them)

**Area 164/B0114C – three short hops

**Area vic B0116C

 

Bob Maindelle

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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