WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, June 4th, I welcomed aboard Derrick Fontenot, his girfriend, Veronica Merritt, and their friend, Tony Siefner, whom Derrick works with. All three are veterans — Derrick and Veronica served in the U.S. Army, and Tony served in the U.S. Navy.
This trip was a long time in the making. Derrick originally scheduled this trip last summer, but weather hindered our efforts and the peak spring hybrid bite was over by the time things settled down. Once again, Derrick was scheduled during the peak spring hybrid bite this year, but, flooding rains with lightning moved in the morning of our trip. So, this makeup to the makeup finally happened, and, according to my crew, it was well worth the wait.
This morning’s catch included our greatest tally of legal hybrid striped bass in this 2019 season — 44 in all.
PHOTO CAPTION: Veronica Merritt led the big fish contest with the 4.75 pounder until late in the game when Derrick came up with a dandy.
PHOTO CAPTION: Derrick Fontenot with our single largest fish of the trip. This thick rascal went 5.50 pounds.
PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Navy vet turned Samsung engineering tech Tony Siefner with a sweet 5-pounder that crushed his live shad hung in 48 feet of water.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Hybrid Striped Bass
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: 04 June 2019, AM
HOW WE FISHED: We met this morning at just before 6am and looked for some pre-dawn topwater action from white bass and hybrid stripers chasing shad in shallow water. The forecast called for light winds, but in reality, the winds were 9-10 from the SE before sunrise, which put both a chop and a bit of swell on the water, thus making spotting topwater fish very tough. We landed 1 largemouth, 1 white bass, and 2 bluecat on paddletail grubs, but wrapped that effort up early and went right to live shad fishing in deeper water.
We fished 3 deepwater areas this morning. The first was loaded down with white bass and short hybrid to the point where I was concerned about just burning through bait, so, we used bait just long enough for everyone to work out the kinks on when to do what with the barbless circle hooks so they were good to go once we encountered larger, legal-sized hybrid, and then we worked the whites and short hybrid over with tailspinners in 48 feet of water, landing 25 fish and then moving on in search of large hybrid.
The second and third areas we hit today were similar in depth and topography. Thanks to the ideal weather conditions, the hybrid on both areas were on the prowl, up off bottom, thus making them much easier to spot on sonar as we searched for them. After we found them, fishing was straightforward. Smaller shad once again outperformed medium- or large-sized threadfin (and I tend to avoid gizzard shad).
Everyone quickly got the hang of the timing of their response when the bait-clicker alerted them to the presence of a fish taking the bait, and from then on our results were solid. We ended up with a total of 95 fish, of which 44 were legal hybrid, with the top two fish going 5.00 and 5.50 pounds. We had very few issues with bothersome blue cats today and only occasionally got visited by white bass once we moved away from that first location.
Derrick came prepared with a lot of good questions and determined he would join me for on-the-water sonar training sometime later this summer.
OBSERVATIONS: Today’s weather conditions were PERFECT. This is just what I would have ordered if the weather was selectable. Fish were still very tight to the bottom once again today. We caught 100% of our fish 3 cranks up.
TALLY: 95 fish caught and released, with 44 legal hybrid in this mix of hybrid, short hybrid, white bass, largemouth bass, channel cat, and blue cat
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:00a
End Time: 11:15a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F
Elevation: 5.68 feet high on a 24-hour fall of 0.51 feet and with a flow of 4586 cfs
Water Surface Temp: 79.7F
Wind Speed & Direction: S7-8 all morning
Sky Conditions: 100% cloudy all morning with perfect “squinting light” brightness
GT = 15
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1646/1653 – pre-dawn drift and cast for 4 fish
**Area vic 187 – 25 whites/short hybrid on tailspinners
**Area vic 1556 – solid hybrid bite on live shad
**Area vic B0152JWC – solid hybrid bite on live shad
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