WHO I FISHED WITH: On Saturday morning, August 10th, I met up with the crew from Real Star Property Management LLC for a little team-building and fun away from the office. This morning’s crew included trip coordinator Brandon Griffith, brothers Eli and Isaac Schlabach, and Isaac’s girlfriend, Hatice Alkaya. The three fellows had been out with me last year on Stillhouse when downrigging was the go-to tactic. This morning, they got a good introduction to hot-weather fishing on Lake Belton.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Hatice Alkaya, Isaac Schlabach, Eli Schlabach, and Brandon Griffith, each with a Lake Belton blue catfish we took during the second half of our trip on a combination of rods and reels and juglines.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass early, blue cat late
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: 10 August 2019, AM
HOW WE FISHED: This morning’s trip had three distinct components: low-light topwater, post-topwater downrigging, and late morning catfishing. The weather has been super-stable and the fish are just locked into a routine such that white bass are very tough to come by outside of the first and last 90 minutes of light morning and evening.
Hence, I’ve been experimenting with a number of ways to keep fish coming over the side of the boat on my multi-species trips. Sunfish (especially when I have youth anglers aboard) and blue catfish have filled that niche nicely.
So, we took topwater white bass (33 to be exact) by sight-casting, then we took another 9 white bass via downrigging after the topwater died, then we used a combination of 35 juglines and 4 rod & reel combos to catch blue catfish after the white bass feed was over. This catfishing produced 16 blue cat, including 11 on jugs and 5 on rod and reel. Bait of choice this morning was shad.
TALLY: 58 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Today was the 3rd of 4 consecutive days in which NOAA called for a heat advisory. Afternoon temps would climb to 101 and feel like 106F.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:20A
End Time: 10:40A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Elevation: 0.17 high, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 69 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 84.9
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8 the entire trip
Sky Conditions: High white haze over a blue sky just thick enough to cut some of the sun’s heat
GT = 0
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1764 to B0165C – low light topwater
**Area B0104C – center of mass for post-topwater downrigging
**From Area B0166C through 031, and half way to 591 – bluecat on jugs
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