WE NEEDED SOME ESTIMATIN’ OVER ON BELTON — 53 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:    This morning I welcomed Mr. Greg Graham of TAS Concrete aboard.  Greg treated three of the estimators from the commercial division of MW Builders to a multi-species fishing trip on Lake Belton.  Shown, from left to right in the photo below is Jason Crunk, Jay Brubaker, Bryan Hefley, and Greg Graham.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left, Jason Crunk, Jay Brubaker, Bryan Hefley, and Greg Graham with a few of the white bass we took later in the morning one the wind began to pick up.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Jay Brubaker landed our largest of the trip this morning, a hybrid striped bass that fell for a tailspinner in ~32 feet of water around 7:40am.

PHOTO CAPTION:  During the same flurry that produced Jay’s hybrid, Greg nabbed this hybrid of his own.  A nice mix of 15 whites and hybrids were taken during that brief spree.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Multi-species

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  25 June 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  As we headed out I was hoping for topwater action as we’d experienced the day before, but, it was not to be.  Between the borderline high winds at 12 rippling the surface and the easterly direction of that wind, we saw only a few minutes’ worth of topwater in the moments before sunrise and that was it.

When it was clear the topwater action would not redevelop, but while suspended, aggressive fish were still showing on sonar, we employed the downriggers to both catch and to find concentrations of catchable fish.  Upon finding one such concentration on bottom, we hovered atop them and vertically jigged with tailspinners, adding 15 fish to the 5 we took on topwater.

After that, the sun shone its brightest and the wind moderated for about 2 hours and the fishing got tough, giving up only a pair of white bass on the downriggers over that entire span.

Finally, the cloud cover began to thicken and the wind ramped up to around 14 mph.  We went to a heavily wind-impacted area and found nicely schooled, feeding fish in over 40 feet of water.  We added 31 more fish to our count of 22, all by jigging tailspinners.  At 11:30 the fish were done and the fellows had Miller’s Smokehouse in Belton on their minds.

OBSERVATIONS:  The unpredictability of June kicked in once again today; where thousands of fish fed yesterday for over an hour, we scarce found signs of life this morning.  There is consistently appearing topwater action now, which should build and improve other than around the full moon period.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 71F (rain cooled)

Elevation:1.04 feet high, 0.70′ 24-hour drop,  1667 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp:    81.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ESE12 at trip’s start, shifting to SE and increasing to 14+ by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:   ~80% cloud cover at trip’s start which quickly dissipated at sunrise, the redeveloped around 9:30, going back to around 80% white cloud coverage on a blue sky.

GT = N/A

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1657 – very brief low-light topwater in a 12mph ESE wind. 5 fish

**Area B0153C – downrigged to find fish here, then fished vertically to capitalize. 15 fish.

**Area  v1298 – late morning white bass action in over 40 feet of water with winds hitting morning high at ~SE15

 

 

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

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