WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday afternoon I fished with returning guest Steve Stewart of Georgetown, TX. Steve brought two buddies, Jerry Weathers and Jimmy Helm, with him. The three men have been friends since boyhood, all originally coming to know one another through the church they attended as boys and still attend to this day. All are “actively retired”, either still engaged in the work they once did full time, and/or engaged in other pursuits requiring effort and energy.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jimmy Helm, Steve Stewart, and Jerry Weathers, each with a Lake Belton freshwater drum on this evening that did not give up either quantity or quality of white bass for us.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This trip was a multi-species fishing trip focused on white bass.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: 22 March 2019
HOW WE FISHED: Thanks to yet another morning which was forecast to be calm, clear, bright, and cool (and, in hindsight, was exactly that), I checked if all three men might be able to make an afternoon trip instead, as we were to have better winds, higher temperatures, and more cloud cover, all of which typically improve the fishing.
We did see those favorable conditions develop, but the bite was very slow this afternoon. Despite the presence of gulls and terns, we never once saw an instance of them flocking over a patch of water to feed on gamefish-driven bait. We also never found (on sonar) more than just a handful of fish at any given area. The fish we did find typically did bite, but, once we landed 2 or 3, the gig was up and we had to move to keep our strings stretched.
In the end, we landed bigger and better drum than we did white bass or hybrid, so, to commemorate the trip, we took a photo with what we had on hand — I think they call that improvising.
Interestingly enough, I compared notes with a fellow guide who fished Decker Lake today. He reported just a single bite while fishing from before sunrise to after 2pm there. He had reached out to others in his network who reported slow fishing on Buchanan yesterday, as well. Then, as I stopped at a local gas station to top off after the trip, I spoke with a fellow angler who had been fishing in the Lampasas River for spawning white bass. He said the most anyone caught of there was 6 or 8 fish. He had also touched base with some buddies, one of which had fished Texoma and the other Lake Whitney. They, too, told him the fishing was poor.
I don’t know what accounted for this. I suppose if we understood fish as well as we wished, we’d have exploited them to the brink of extinction by now, so, a little uncertainty is probably a good thing now and then!?!
OBSERVATIONS:
TALLY: 18 fish caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 3:15p
End Time: 7:45p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 69F
Elevation: 0.34 feet high with a 0.06 foot 24-hour drop
Water Surface Temp: 60.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: ESE11-13 the entire trip
Sky Conditions: 60-70% grey cloud cover
GT = 0
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area B0007
**Area B09145C
**Area 1856
**Area vic B0106C
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
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