WHO I FISHED WITH: This third day of Spring Break fishing I welcomed aboard the Crider family from Houston. James Crider’s mom (from Austin) treated him to this trip for his birthday. Accompanying him this afternoon was his wife, Lisa, and their three kids, Avery (14), Olivia (11), and Jacob (9).
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: The “drum majors” – Olivia, Avery, Jacob, James, and Lisa. As very high pressure built in following the passage of two cold fronts in rapid succession, freshwater drum seemed much more amenable to biting than did any other species. Of the 34 fish landed on this trip, about half were drum, with white bass, largemouth, and blue cat filling out the balance.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday evening, 14 March
HOW WE FISHED: This afternoon’s trip was a shorter one in that we stopped at 6:25 instead of 7:30 due to a prior commitment the Crider’s had. I was concerned about our efforts after having a really tough trip on Stillhouse this morning. I found fish at only one of the several places I searched for them, and wound up fishing that area twice. The area was in 46 feet of water on a gentle roll down into deeper water. The fish were all very tight to the bottom and heavily congregated and included a lot of freshwater drum and small white bass. In fact, we probably landed as many non-white bass species (drum, largemouth, bluecat) as we did white bass this afternoon.
After this area stopped producing by around 5pm, I went and quickly checked a number of areas with sonar, finding very scant results. After letting the area described above rest for a bit, we returned and continued catching fish, although the fish were not as aggressive on this second visit.
All but one fish was taken via snap-jigging on the 3/8 oz., white Hazy Eye Slab/Stinger. The one exception was a small white bass taken on an easing tactic.
OBSERVATIONS: High pressure and high winds following a double cold front was more than the fish were willing to deal with; we had a very tough morning.
TALLY: 34 fish caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 3:15p
End Time: 6:25p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Elevation: 1.19 feet high, with a 0.27 foot rise over the last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 58F
Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were NNW16 at trip’s start, tapering to NNW12
Sky Conditions: Bright “blue bird”, nearly cloudless skies
GT = 0
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area B0070C (fished this area twice with about an hour in between after it stopped producing on our first visit).
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
