WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday evening I fished with Paul Cox and his 15-year-old son, David. I normally don’t take evening trips during the summer as few folks enjoy the first 2 hours of heat before the last 2 hours of better fishing kicks in, but, I saw a wrinkle in the weather headed our way, and the timing of everything looked promising, so, on a last-minute kind of deal, I took this father-and-son pair out — and the effort paid off.
Paul is a dentist with a practice in Temple and David just got through his freshman year of high school where he enjoys running short-distance track.
PHOTO CAPTION: Paul Cox looks on as David holds a nice 19″ Lake Belton hybrid striper taken from 32 feet of water on a tailspinner.
PHOTO CAPTION: David Cox (left) and his dad, Paul, with a sampling of the 56 white bass we landed, in addition to 10 hybrid striper and two blue catfish.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: Multi-species
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: 22 July 2019, PM
HOW WE FISHED: We began our trip downrigging with a pair of 3-armed umbrella rigs run at 28 feet for fish showing from 30-34 feet in a “band of life” on sonar. This accounted for consistent action in the normally slowest part of the afternoon, from 4:15p to 6:30p. During this time, we landed 22 fish, including 17 taken on the downriggers, and 5 taken on tailspinners after we located a small concentration of fish while downrigging, which we then stopped and worked vertically for.
Next, we got poured on in a rain event which lasted about 15 minutes as the wind shifted from SW through W to NW on the lead edge of a mid-summer cold front which was forecast to bring cooler, drier weather to us through early morning Friday. Concerned about lightning, I beached us and we waited it out. After about 1/2″ of rain and 2 claps of thunder, a rainbow came out, the skies cleared, the NW wind which had picked up to 13-14 idled back to NNW6, and we got back to fishing.
We downrigged once more for just 3 more fish and then turned our sights on finding better concentrations of fish to work vertically for after seeing sonar indicate that the passing weather spurred on fish and baitfish activity.
We found what we were after in about 32 feet of water. In a matter of 20-25 minutes we took our tally from 25 fish up to 44 fish by working tailspinners vertically in conjunction with LiveScope and my thumper.
As a grey cloud bank in the west brought an early sunset and the light level dimmed prematurely, the fish moved shallower and up higher in the water column. We found downrigging the best approach once again, running baits at just 14′ over a deeper bottom. We put a final 24 fish in the boat (including singles, doubles, and a triple) right up to dark at about 8:50pm.
TALLY: 68 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Despite a solid sunset feed, there was little topwater action thanks to both the wind going northerly, and the “tad too much” ripple the N wind put on the water at that critical time around sunset.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 4:15p
End Time: 8:50p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 97F
Elevation: 0.52 high, 0.03 24-hour drop, 0 flow
Water Surface Temp: 90.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: SW through 5:45p, then a shift thru W to NNW13 accompanied by a rainstorm, then clearing skies and a wind drop to NNW6-8
Sky Conditions: Clear skies through 5:45p, then 100% grey clouds ushering in a rainstorm, then clearing skies to 40% cloud coverage.
GT = 25
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1079 – B0103C – downrigging early for small fish
**Area vic 2055 – downrigging leading to LiveScope work with tailspinners
**Area B0132C – LiveScope work with tailspinners for 24 fish
**Area B0154C through 793 – downrigging circuit with baits set around 14′ as fish moved into 20-25′ water and up in the water column.
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