WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Monday evening I fished with two members of the West Virginia National Guard.  Phil Arnold and Johnny Jacobs are both assigned to Charlie Company, 2^nd Battalion, 104^th Aviation Regiment, which is a medical evacuation unit using Blackhawk helicopters to get wounded personnel out of harm’s way and to the medical attention they need.  The men were wrapping up a temporary duty assignment here to Ft. Hood and, based on Phil’s past positive experience fishing with me, wanted to get out on Lake Belton once again and this time, bring Johnny with him.  Phil and Johnny routinely fish together in some of the lakes in eastern Ohio near the WV border.

PHOTO CAPTION: Johnny Jacobs landed this nice 5-pound class hybrid just as the sun was setting.  We had live shad down under the boat on tightline rigs in about 48 feet of water when a small wolfpack of fish came into the spread.  We had one more rod go down thanks to this school, but missed that opportunity.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Phil Arnold with a just-legal 18″ Lake Belton hybrid striper.  Thanks to an aggressive bluecat bite, we had to move frequently to keep our baits from getting killed by smaller blues before they could catch the eye of a hybrid.

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:   White bass in the first 2.5 hours; hybrid stripers in the last 2 hours

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:   06 May 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED: Given the limited success we had on hybrid this morning, and given that those hybrid we landed were taken during the low-light time just after sunrise, I felt a solid approach for this afternoon’s trip was to gun for less finicky white bass first, then invest our time set up with live bait as the light was failing at day’s end.  This turned out well.

We checked three areas for white bass finding nothing at the first, finding scant fish in 22-24 feet of water at the second, and an abundance of fish in 24-25 feet of water at the third and final place we would search for whites.  At this final location, with a nice wind blowing in on it, and humid, warm, grey skies, the fish were ramped up to feed.  We landed exactly 120 fish by 6:30pm including white bass primarily in the now 3-year class, with a few short hybrid thrown in.  These all came on my newly minted Hazy Eye Tailspinners.  I’m excited about the potential of these baits and am tinkering with blade size and hook arrangements now to overcome shortfalls in many of the commercially available versions.

Toward sunset, we put live baits down to target hybrid.  Abundant bluecat forced us to move more routinely than I prefer.  We buckled down on one area in 48 feet of water and landed 3 of our 4 legal hybrid there.  Then, post-sunset, we setup in shallow water (25′) and landed more whites, short hybrid, and a single legal hybrid there until the fish quit biting around 8:30p.

 

OBSERVATIONS:  Area SHAD014 which I tend to rely upon for bait in May is now inundated with flood water, thus, I had to find shad elsewhere this morning.  SHAD025 produced well and showed potential for producing more than just this morning.

TALLY: 137 fish caught and released – including 4 legal hybrid

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time: 8:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  78F

Elevation:  6.04 feet high with a 0.71foot 24-hour rise, and a flow of 431 cfs.  This was due to heavy, area-wide rains mid-day Thursday and all day Friday, 2 & 3 May.  Downstream flooding on the Brazos is preventing the release of water, so it is presently just accumulating in Belton and Stillhouse.

Water Surface Temp:  70.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE6-9mph

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies with varying levels of cloud thickness through the afternoon

GT = 55

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 164/172 – 120 fish on tailspinners

**Area vic 1152 – scant low light hybrid and blue cat

**Area 1778 – post-sunset whites and short hybrid

 

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

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Monday morning I fished with Mr. Steve Webb.   This was one of two trips Steve booked with me as we spoke on the floor of the Central Texas Boat Show back in January.  Steve is a very good multi-species fisherman with a leaning towards catfish.  During our first trip, I got to introduce him to the Garmin LiveScope technology as we used it to vertical jig for deep white bass on Stillhouse.

On this trip, Steve specifically wanted to pursue hybrid striped bass.  He came with a notebook (and a really fancy bucket!) in which he had thought ahead and written down a list of questions he wanted to ask.

Even when you are successful on your own, as Steve is, seeking input from others who do well at what they do helps you become a better angler.  To this end, I try to book two trips a year with professional guides outside of this region to try to stay sharp and keep improving.  Kudos to Steve for having this mindset.

It was very enjoyable for me to share what I know about some things I do often and at the same time learn from Steve about how to handle certain sets of circumstances encountered when catfishing.

PHOTO CAPTION: Although the hybrid didn’t feed long and hard this morning, we enjoyed a few scrapes.  On one occasion Steve had a second rod go down just as he was bringing a hybrid to net.  He grabbed the second rod as I kept the first hybrid in the net and in the water, and we managed a quick “doubles” photo before releasing boat.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Steve Webb, his notebook, and his bucket!!  Some men spend money on cars, some on boats, some on expensive golf clubs, or fancy clothes; not Steve — nope, Steve spends his money on buckets.

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:   Hybrid striped bass using live shad (and a few bonus blue cat)

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:   06 May 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: It’s not too often I contact a client before the trip and they say, “I really don’t like catching fish.”, but, Steve did.

We agreed that finding fish is much more challenging than catching fish.

So, on this trip, we did, indeed, find a few pockets of fish – in fact, every stop we made held at least a few fish.  When we found fish, we hovered atop them with Spot Lock, then proceeded to have a conversation about one of the many topics Steve hoped to cover in our morning together.

Steve asked a lot of good questions, many involving the influence of wind on fish location, as well as questions about the whole genre of catching and keeping shad.

The fishing was a bit slow but, when blue cat invaded our bait spread, I got to see firsthand a tactic Steve tried to explain to me at the Boat Show for catching them.  I won’t divulge Steve’s secrets here, but, suffice it to say that I was impressed with both the simplicity and efficacy of the technique.

 

OBSERVATIONS:  Area SHAD014 which I tend to rely upon for bait in May is now inundated with flood water, thus, I had to find shad elsewhere.  SHAD025 produced well and showed potential for producing more than just this morning.

TALLY: 24 fish caught and released – including 6 legal hybrid

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  67F

Elevation:  6.04 feet high with a 0.71foot 24-hour rise, and a flow of 431 cfs.  This was due to heavy, area-wide rains mid-day Thursday and all day Friday, 2 & 3 May.  Downstream flooding on the Brazos is preventing the release of water, so it is presently just accumulating in Belton and Stillhouse.

Water Surface Temp:  70.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE9-13mph

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies with varying levels of cloud thickness through the morning

GT = 60

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1945 – low light bite for hybrid on live shad; late morning blue cat present

 

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

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Thursday morning I fished what has become an annual event with “The Chief”, including Temple Fire Chief Mitch Randles, Temple Police Chief Floyd Mitchell, and Belton Police Chief Gene Ellis.  These public servants are all stand-up fellows, earnestly concerned about the communities they live in and serve, and have a love for their own families that is, unfortunately, uncommon these days.  I look forward to this trip from the moment they schedule it a year in advance.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Temple Fire Chief Mitch Randles with an early morning Lake Belton hybrid striped bass.  A very short sunrise bite took place this morning, and then the impacts of the unstable weather kicked in an really ate into our hybrid catch this morning.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Temple Police Chief Floyd Mitchell with one of a pair of hybrid he landed on live shad before a cold east wind put a damper on the hybrid bite.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Belton Police Chief Gene Ellis with one of the six hybrid we landed on live shad Thursday morning before setting our sights on white bass.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:   Hybrid striped bass using live shad, and white bass using artificials

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:   02 May 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: The hot streak of hybrid fishing which began on 21 April faltered today thanks to some “wonky” weather which entered our area in the form of an outflow boundary (think of a mini-cold front) oozing out of the significant weather system that slammed into the DFW/north Texas area the day before.  Just hours before the trip there was thunder, lightning, and strong northwest winds.  By 7am, the winds had gone easterly, there was a chill in the air, and the humid, tropical feel to the atmosphere was gone.  In our first 3+ hours on the water, we managed only 6 legal hybrid and 2 white bass as we targeted hybrid with live shad.

Knowing that our results were driven by weather, not by failing to search where hybrid typically locate, I relocated us and, with the chiefs’ consent, shifted our focus to white bass using artificial lures.  In under 90 minutes’ time were were able to make up for some lost time and succeeded in putting a final 42 fish in the boat, including 3 short hybrid and 39 white bass, all taken from about 26 feet of water on a combination of Hazy Eye Slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks, and tailspinners.

As I bid farewell to the chiefs, I touched base with other anglers in my network.  One retired gentleman who is a very good hybrid angler reported just one hybrid caught by around 10am, and, as of 12:30pm, one of the other guides I spoke with had yet to land a single legal hybrid.   I noted that several other groups of anglers whom I typically see in pursuit of hybrid at this time of year were moving frequently in search of these weather-impacted fish.

 

OBSERVATIONS:  Area SHAD014 produced only scant results this morning.  A few shad moved onshore, then moved right back out and it was all over in a matter of minutes.  I managed to get enough netted to make up for what we would use for the morning, but not much more.  Also saw two small pods of shad, thanks to egret action, at SHAD022 , but did not attempt netting them.

TALLY: 50 fish caught and released – including 6 legal hybrid

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  63F

Elevation:  1.7 feet high with a 0.25 foot 24-hour drop, and a flow of 2700 cfs

Water Surface Temp:  69.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ENE9-13mph

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies with varying levels of cloud thickness through the morning

GT = 30

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0150C – low light bite for hybrid on live shad

**Area B0087C to B0088C – hybrid on live shad

**Area 708 to 788 – white bass on slabs/tailspinners

 

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