DESTINATION: CENTRAL TEXAS — 52 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:   This past Sunday evening I fished with Jaime Mata, Nate Renteria, Caleb Perez, and Oscar Mendoza, all relatives from Odessa who headed to central Texas for a short family vacation which included this evening’s fishing trip, and a visit the following day to the BSR Cable Park in Waco.  All the arrangements were made by Angie, Jaime’s wife.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Oscar Mendoza, Caleb Perez, Jaime Mata, and Nate Renteria, each with one of the blue catfish we took on free-floating juglines in the first half of the trip while waiting on the white bass to get ready for their sunset feed.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left:  Jaime Mata, Caleb Perez, Nate Renteria, and Oscar Mendoza with 4 of the 46 white bass we took on downrigged Pet Spoons as the white bass assaulted the shad as the sunlight failed in the late evening.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR: White bass late, blue cat early

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  11 August 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: I normally don’t fish on Sundays, but, with my wife away spending time with her dad and older sister, and with the limited window Jaime and his family had to accomplish all they’d hoped to on their family getaway, I went ahead and booked them for an evening trip, being very upfront with them that the first half of the trip would be very hot and the fishing slow during that time. They were good with that.

As I’ve mentioned numerous times over the past several weeks since this very stable high pressure, hot, dry weather has been in place, the fish are in a solid routine and are not varying from it.  Trying to catch white bass much before 6:45pm is very tough, so, I’ve been focusing on other, more cooperative species, including blue catfish.

This evening we put about 1.5 hours of effort into duping blue catfish using free-floating juglines baited with shad.  We landed 6 fish using 35 jugs.

We closed out the trip downrigging with 3-armed umbrella rigs for white bass.  We equipped the rigs with Pet Spoons.  The white bass have shown a significant preference for the size 13 over the size 12, so all rigs are now 100% rigged up with #13’s — no more mix and match as I’d been doing as an experiment. 46 white bass caught and released, including singles, doubles, and triples.

TALLY:  52 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Today was the 4th of 4 consecutive days in which NOAA called for a heat advisory.  Afternoon temps would climb to 101 and feel like 106F.  No evening topwater bite observed.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   5:30P

End Time: 8:45P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 101F with a heat index of 106F

Elevation:  0.15 high, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 69 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   88.9

Wind Speed & Direction:  Steady at SSE10 through 7P, then tapering down to SSE7 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  Cloudless blue skies

GT =  0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     N/A

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**From Area B0117C through 185 – 6 bluecat on 35 jugs in 1.75 hours

**Area  814 to B0154C – center of mass for low-light evening  downrigging

 

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