WEATHER RADAR MORE USEFUL THAN SONAR! — 67 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:    This morning I welcomed aboard Belton Police Chief Gene Ellis who treated his grandson, 10-year-old Bryson Ellis, and his 13-year-old nephew, Braden Hofstra from Spring, TX, to a “Kids Fish, Too!” fishing trip on Lake Belton.  Chief Ellis was along as a hands-on chaperone to help me help the boys be successful.

My “Kids Fish, Too!” trips are tailored just for kids.  We focus on catching what is biting, we limit the time to ~3.5 hours (versus 4+ for adult trips), and the price point is my least expensive at $195.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Belton Police Chief Gene Ellis, his grandson, Bryson Ellis, and Chief Ellis’ nephew (his sister’s son), Braden Hofstra of Spring, TX.  Bryson landed these two keeper hybrid and one short hybrid (which we released before taking the photo), all at the same time on a 3-armed umbrella rig.

PHOTO CAPTION: Braden Hofstra, left, and his cousin, Bryson Ellis, with four fistfuls of white bass the boys took using a combination of sight-casting and downrigging in our first 75 minutes of fishing.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  24 June 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  Violent thunderstorms moved through the area overnight from midnight thru around 5am.  As we began our trip at 6:30am, we enjoyed ideal fishing conditions with light grey cloud cover, comfortable temperatures, and a very light SSE breeze in the wake of the passage of the overnight storms.  Distant lightning could still be seen to the SE. These agreeable conditions lasted about an hour during which time we sight-cast to white bass and hybrid stripers driving shad to the surface.  3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stingers did the job on these fish when retrieved very quickly.  Conditions declined when another storm cell, the vast majority of which would pass to our north, moved near and caused a wind shift to NNW.  Like someone turned off a switch, the surface action died instantly, although we were still able to catch fish for another 15 minutes or so via downrigging with 3-armed umbrella rigs.  We picked up singles, doubles, and one triple landed by Bryson, which included a just-legal hybrid, another 4-pound class hybrid, and a short hybrid.  After unhooking and releasing these 3 fish, we surveyed the situation, saw the wind was increasing rapidly, and moved to a more protected area.  The boys landed exactly 30 fish before this window closed.

The change in weather shut the whites and hybrid down, so, we headed up shallow and focused on sunfish as we waited for safe conditions to return.  During this time the boys learned how to use bream poles equipped with slipfloats to suspend live bait off bottom in shallow water in order to tempt a variety of sunfish, including mainly bluegill and green sunfish.  Over the next two hours the boys landed another 34 fish using this tactic.

Around 10am, we got a short break in the weather and got back out into deeper, open water in a final hunt for additional white bass using downriggers.  We found a mess of fish, but, for every 70 or 80 we went over, we’d tempt just one or two to strike.  These fish were tight to the bottom and were not budging.  We took one more double and one more single with two other missed opportunities in our final 45 minutes on the water and then called it a great day around 10:45 so Bryson could get to swim practice on time.

TALLY: 67 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:    We enjoyed the summer’s first organized topwater feed this morning with fish staying up and feeding versus the “popcorn” sporadic feeding witnessed up to this point, all involving young of the year shad.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:


Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F (rain cooled)

Elevation: 0.265 feet high, 0.11′ 24-hour drop,  1657 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp:    81.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were all over the map this morning, varying with incoming storm cells

Sky Conditions:  Humid, with 100% grey skies the entire trip

GT = 15

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  793-013-147 – generally following the westward trend in movement of topwater fish this morning prior to the north wind shift; 30 fish

**Area  502 (west side) – best sunfish action of the 5 areas tried; 34 fish

**Area 147-B0104C – successful downrigging early (after topwater died), and late; 3 fish

 

 

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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