NOT EVERYTHING IS LEARNED IN SCHOOL — 83 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, September 30th, I fished with Mr. Chris Henry, his son, Ethan, Chris’ friend, Kevin Smith, and Ethan’s friend, Grayson Ginn.

As Chris initially described it to me, his son  Ethan, and Ethan’s buddy, Grayson, joined a bass fishing club in Kyle, TX, called 5th Day Anglers.  The boys are scheduled to fish a Faith Angler Network tournament on Lake Belton on October 19th, and all three were hoping for a peek into fishing Lake Belton before showing up on the day of the event.  Since the FAN rules place the lake off limits 7 days prior to the tournament, we got this trip in today.

I was very upfront that I do not specialize in black bass fishing.  Nonetheless, all four fellows got some valuable insights into the Lake Belton fishery as we caught white bass, largemouth, smallmouth, and blue catfish over the course of our 4 hours on the water.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left – Grayson Ginn and Ethan Henry with a pair of bass the boys caught sight-casting to fish which were driving shad to the surface.  That smallmouth was the first smallmouth of Ethan’s life.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   … and this was the first smallmouth Grayson ever landed.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   We caught fish in the 0, 1, 2, and 3 year classes today via downrigging and with vertically worked tailspinners.  From left – Kevin Smith, Chris Henry, Grayson Ginn, and Ethan Henry.

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass. largemouth & smallmouth bass, & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  30 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:   We had unstable weather today and that definitely impacted the fishing, but we still landed on our feet and did well.  I first pursued low-light, shallow water white bass with downriggers, keeping an eye peeled for topwater action.  The murkiness of the cloud cover and wind speed did not allow for topwater action but, just as was the case on Saturday, the fish still showed up, they just didn’t come all the way to the surface.  We landed 21 white bass coming as singles, multiple doubles, and multiple triples on the 3-armed umbrella rig, all in our first hour on the water.

Next, we sought out topwater black bass, and landed both largemouth and smallmouth as the boys sight-cast to them in shallow water as those fish aggressively pursued shad.  The boys put another 4 fish in the boat during this effort

We moved on and found 2 distinct groups of white bass.  The first was totally turned off, so, we left them and went looking for more.  I used the downriggers to not only eliminate unproductive water, but also to gauge white bass activity levels.  Those schools of white bass which were aggressive enough to overtake and strike our downrigged presentations were good candidates for vertical work with tailspinners.  By finding fish with the ‘riggers, then setting up on them to work vertically, we added 47 fish to our tally, bringing us to 72 fish landed to this point.

We set aside our last 45 minutes to pursue blue catfish.  We chummed fish in and then sealed the deal with doughbaits, landing another 11 fish, and capping the trip off with a total of 83 fish coming over the gunwale this morning.

TALLY:  83 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  We had very unstable weather this morning.   It was 100% cloudy the entire trip, but ranged from “squinting brightness” to periods with drizzle falling.  After sunrise, the more murky and dark the skies, the less cooperative the fish.  When the clouds thinned and brightened the sky (although still with 100% grey cloud cover), the fishing improved.  I observed a large school of white bass (several hundred individuals) on Garmin LiveScope just milling about in the lower third of the water column totally ignore our presentations for the 10-12 minutes we stuck with them and tried to get bit.  Typically, only fish glued to the bottom will behave like this, but this morning I feel the back and forth light level played into this behavior.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:45am

End Time: 10:45am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation:  1.30 feet low, 0.05′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   82.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE11-14 all morning

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies all morning completely obscuring the sun for the entirety of the trip.  A few moments of light drizzle over the course of the last 3 hours.

GT = 55

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0154C to 814 – center of mass of low-light downrigging effort for 21 fish

**Area  B0167C – sight-casting to topwater large/smallmout

**Area  vic 788 – found white bass via downrigging, then worked them with tailspinners/Garmin LiveScope

**Area B0178C – chummed up blue cat and caught them on doughbait

 

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

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK — 55 FISH FOR HER BIRTHDAY!

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Saturday, 28 September, I fished with Miss Lilee Oliver and her friend, Lilli Moss, both accompanied by Lilee’s mom, Yvette Oliver.  This trip was in celebration of Lilee’s 6th birthday, and was the third consecutive year the three ladies have come aboard for a fishing trip in celebration of that event.

Yvette is a public school teacher in the Killeen ISD with a heart for both the Lord and for kids, in particular special needs kids who need extra help getting through school.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Neat story here … we were all working tailspinners for white bass very successfully when my rod got thumped — hard!!  I set the hook and knew there was a large fish on the line — I figured a buffalo, blue cat, or drum.  The two girls were fishing to my left and right as we all faced over the starboard gunwale.  I said, “I’ve got a big one on.  Who would like to reel it in?”  Immediately, both girls said “Me!”.  Upon hearing her younger friend express a desire to reel in the large fish, Lilli said, “It’s okay, you go ahead,” and she let the birthday girl, Lilee have the honors.  You don’t see selflessness and consideration for others in an abundance of kids these day, so, to me, that was very encouraging!  That’s Lilli, who didn’t reel the fish in, holding the fish for the photo.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Once the girls got the hang of watching and responding correctly to their slipfloat being suddenly pulled beneath the surface, they started “whacking and stacking” the blue cats!

PHOTO CAPTION:  … and, of course we caught plenty of white bass.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  28 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:    Topwater action was non-existent this morning thanks to SE winds which were a bit too strong, however, the fish which would normally engage in the topwater feeding were still present, and were very cooperative on the downriggers.  Using 3-armed umbrella rigs rigged up with Pet Spoons, the girls landed a total of 21 fish by 7:50am, coming in as singles, doubles, and even one triple.  The downrigger bite in this area died shortly after sunrise and we moved on to chase blue cat.

The bluecat I found this morning were in a bit deeper water, holding around 35′ deep over a 40′ bottom.  They responded readily to chum and took our punchbait suspended at 35′ with slipfloats quite readily.  By the time the novelty wore off  on catching these, there were hundreds of bluecat beneath the boat.  We left them biting in order to keep things interested for the girls, but could have sat there and continued catching for quite a while longer.

Our last effort was made in targeting bottom-oriented and heavily schooled white bass using tailspinners viewed on Garmin LiveScope technology.  The girls just seemed to intuitively pick up on what was what on the screen — bottom, fish, and their lures — to name a few.  We landed fish after fish in a nice frenzy right up until a 4.5 pound freshwater drum entered the scene.  When it got finished pulling and fighting and charging around, the smaller white bass had departed, never to return.  So, we wrapped up the trip right at the 3.5 hour mark by landing a few more fish each on the downriggers and then the girls headed to Freddy’s for lunch.  The girls were a pleasure to have aboard, got along well, were considerate to me, Yvette, and one another, and they sure can catch fish!!

TALLY:  55 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:45am

End Time: 10:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  1.26 feet low, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   83.0F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE11-14 all morning

Sky Conditions:  A low band of grey, sun-obscurring cloud cover in the east formed as the sun rose, thus extending the low light period this morning; clouds continued  to build in all morning, quickly gradually to 70% coverage, then reversing that trend by around 10am.

GT = 5

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 812 was center of mass for solid, low-light downrigging for fish which refused to feed on topwater, including quality whites and short hybrid

**Area  vic B0178C – chummed up bluecat taken on punchbait

**Area vic 163 – vertical tailspinner work in combination with LiveScope for white bass

 

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

GREY SKIES AND SOUTH WINDS A GREAT COMBINATION — 116 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Friday, September 27th, I fished with Scott Herman and Paul Hattingh, both of Lago Vista, northwest of Austin near Lake Travis.  Scott is retired and is assembling his own retirement fishing rig slowly but surely.  Paul, born in Austria and raised in Africa, is a chemist by trade.  He established a company based on a proprietary method for corrosion-proofing metals, and still works at that at the present time.

Both recently traveled to Alaska to fish, and Paul recently dove on the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia, so, we had much to talk about as we motored from place to place and over lunch.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION: A flathead surprise — all 17 pounds of it — came to Paul Hattingh (in aqua shirt) as we worked tailspinners for white bass in about 25 feet of water.  As fun as the white bass were to load up on, and as fun as this lunker cat was to have in the mix, once we caught this bad boy, those smaller white bass scattered and never really reformed well for us.  Paul’s fishing buddy, Scott Herman, pitched in on the photo op.

PHOTO CAPTION: … and of course we caught plenty of white bass with southerly winds and periods of grey cloud cover!

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  27 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:    Topwater action returned this morning.  As often happens, it began shallow, moved offshore, and then dissipated, with fish still catchable via downrigging for about 20-25 minutes after the last of the topwater disappeared.  Pet Spoons sealed the deal for both topwater and downrigging.  We finished out this part of the trip with 29 fish boated.

We moved on specifically looking for an opportunity to fish vertically for heavily congregated white bass using LiveScope because Scott just bought a LiveScope system and wanted to see a unit which was “dialed in” in use so he’d know what to expect on his own unit.  After today’s trip ended and we had lunch together, we took his system out on Stillhouse and got it dialed in, as well.  The fish cooperated to the tune of 72 white bass landed with the aid of LiveScope through about 9:45.

We closed out the trip today targeting blue catfish.  We chummed fish in and then used punchbait to seal the deal, accounting for 13 blues and 1 channel cat.

TALLY:  116 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:45am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  1.24 feet low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   83.0F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8-9 all morning

Sky Conditions:  A low band of grey, sun-obscurring cloud cover in the east formed as the sun rose, thus extending the low light period this morning; clouds continued  to build in all morning, quickly increasing to 90% coverage, thus allowing for times when the sun was obscured completely for long whiles.

GT = 40+M

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 016 to 1019 to 834  – 29 fish to start the morning with low-light downrigging followed by topwater, and finished out with downrigging

 

**Area  vic 692 – fished using LiveScope and tailspinners for 72 white bass and one large yellow cat

**Area vic 993  – finished up here on chummed bluecat on punchbait; fished ~ 75 minutes for 14 fish; left them biting.

 

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

GOING BACK FOR A SECOND HELPING — 110 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, September 24th, I fished with returning client Dwight Stone who fished with me for the first time just last week.  Dwight really enjoyed the multi-species approach we took, as well as the introduction to downrigging and to the use of sonar I tried to provide.  This time, he brought a friend with him — a friend of over 20 years, Mr. Oscar Leal, also from Georgetown, TX.  According to Dwight, (who both Oscar and I now realize to be slightly prone to exaggeration), Oscar has retired about 7 different times and is currently enjoying life while still working at AMD in south Austin.

Once again, the weather cooperated and allowed for an enjoyable, productive morning, yielding 110 fish for us.

 

VIDEO CAPTION: This Garmin LiveScope video clip shows how aggressive the white bass became when good southerly winds combined with about 25 minutes of thick cloud cover to turn the skies grey temporarily.  If you hover your cursor over the image so the runtime shows and watch just left of center at the 25′ bottom and between the vertical grid marks labelled 2 and 0,  you’ll see a tailspinner fall at the :13 second mark, fish swarm all over it as it rises upwards and one gets hooked. Then, the school of fish perks up and chases the hooked fish halfway to the surface.  This crazy spree helped us put 70 fish in the boat in short order.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Long-time fishing buddies Oscar Leal, left, and Dwight Stone enjoyed a multi-species kind of morning on Belton Lake today — white bass, largemouth and bluecat all cooperated for us.  Strangely enough, despite the good fishing, we did not land a single hybrid, nor see any low-light topwater action by white bass today.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  24 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:   We started off the morning anticipating a low-light, topwater bite but experienced none; however, the fish were present and did bite well on our downriggered presentations — they just didn’t rise the extra few feet to the surface to pin bait there.

After the sun actually cleared the horizon and rose, we chased some spotty largemouth action in two separate areas, landing a half-dozen just-legal fish.

We moved on to do some more downrigging and, shortly after beginning, encountered large, bottom-oriented schools of white bass.  Based on the past few trips’ worth of experience, I felt these could be hovered over and jigged for, so we got the Garmin LiveScope cranked up, sent the tailspinners down, and up came the white bass — 70 of them to be exact.  We finally left them biting in order to go chase some blue catfish before Oscar and Dwight had to hit the road.

We left about an hour or so for blue cat fishing.  We made a stop which yielded smaller fish than I’d been catching recently, so, we rolled the dice, moved again, and that gamble paid off.  We found the nice 14-16 inch fish which battle well on the white bass-sized spinning tackle we were using.  In all, we landed 20 blue cat which came into our chum and fell for our punchbait.

TALLY:  110 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Despite the good fishing this morning, we did not land a single hybrid mixed in with the many cooperative white bass we caught, nor did we see any low-light topwater action by white bass today.  There was nothing about the conditions (murky cloud color/thickness, high winds, frontal activity, etc.) which were the apparent cause of this.  In fact, there were plenty of fish present where I’d expected to see topwater action, and the fish bit well, they just did not rise to the surface to feed.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:45am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation:  1.15 feet low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   83.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE9-12 all morning

Sky Conditions: No sun-obscuring cloud cover in the east as the sun rose; but clouds began to build in at mid-morning, quickly increasing to 60-70% coverage, thus allowing for times when the sun was obscured for several minutes at a time.

GT = 5

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 793 to 1746 – 14 fish to start the morning with low-light downrigging; no surface action today

**Area vic 1918 – spotty largemouth bass topwater action – 3 fish

**Area  B0167C – spotty largemouth bass topwater action – 3 fish

**Area  163 to B0174C – found fish with downriggers; exploited what we found using LiveScope and tailspinners @ Area B0177C and Area 164 – 70 fish landed here

**Area vic 993  – finished up here on chummed bluecat on punchbait; fished ~ 60 minutes for 20 fish; left them biting.

 

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

5-PART HARMONY – 103 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Monday, September 23rd, I fished with first-time clients Cory Delz and Travis Caraway.  Both fellows work at Georgetown-based construction firm Embree Group.  Cory has followed my blog entries for quite some time and, with his curiosity piqued about successful summertime downrigging in particular, decided to give me a call and experience things firsthand.  Thanks to cooperative weather conditions, it was a great day to “show-and-tell” a number of different tactics on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION:    Cory Delz (left) and Travis Caraway with a few of the mixed bag of 103 fish landed on Lake Belton this morning.  Included in our catch were white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, and blue catfish.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  23 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:     We put together a 5-part trip this morning.  Part 1 was sight casting to surface feeding white bass and hybrid stripers.  Pets spoons did the trick for the ~30 minutes of action.  The run of fish we landed was the best in overall size/quality of the trip.

Part 2 – we sight cast to schooling largemouth popping small shad under bright conditions after the sustained topwater bite ended.  Smallest Pet Spoons were preferred although these fish were very stubborn regardless of what was thrown.

Part 3 – we downrigged in the vicinity of routinely surfacing “popcorn” white bass with balls set at both 15′ and 30′.  Added ~20 fish to the count with multiple doubles and triples.

Part 4 – we downrigged to find fish I could demonstrate the Garmin LiveScope with and were fortunate to quickly find what we were after.  We sat atop a single school of whites and boated 50+ fish before they tapered off.

Part 5 – spent the last few minutes Cory and Travis could stay using punchbait for bluecat chummed up with range cubes.  Landed 8 and missed a bunch more as the fellows went through the hooksetting learning curve right at first.

TALLY:  103 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:45am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  1.12 feet low, 0.05′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   82.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8-11 all morning

Sky Conditions: 40% grey cloud cover in the eastern sky at sunrise, then dissipating to 20% thereafter

GT = 40

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 793 to 1788 to 1746 – 21 fish to start the morning with a low-light topwater feed (6 short hybrid, 15 white bass)

**Area vic 1918 – spotty largemouth bass topwater action

**Area  B0175C to B0176C – downrigging with balls at 15′ and 30′ in the vicinity of routinely surface-feeding whites which stayed up only briefly under bright conditions

**Area  163 to B0129C – found fish with downriggers; exploited what we found using LiveScope and tailspinners – 50+ aggressive fish landed here

**Area 993/1940 – finished up here on chummed bluecat on punchbait with the time we had left – 8 landed, as least as many missed bites; left them biting.

 

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

FREE FISHING FOR SOLDIERS’ KIDS – TRIP #22 WITH THE GUYER BOYS

WHO I FISHED WITH:     This morning, Saturday, September 21st, I fished with Mrs. Danielle Guyer and her two boys, Aiden and Declan.  The boys’ dad, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Keegan Guyer, is an all-source intelligence officer in the U.S. Army.  He has served for 17 years, has been away from his family for long spells on multiple occasions, and is currently deployed with the Third Armored Corps (III Corps).   Danielle is a permanent substitute teacher working on getting credentials as a full-time teacher.  The Guyers are originally from Michigan.

This fishing trip was provided to this military family at no charge.  S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun.  This program began in May of 2009.  It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with.  S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing.  In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents’ military-related disabilities prevent them from taking their own children fishing.  I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 to 4 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round.

This morning’s trip was the 22nd SKIFF trip of the 2019 season.

PHOTO CAPTION: With grey skies and southerly winds, the white bass cooperated and then some on top water this morning feeding aggressively on shad.  That’s Declan on the left and Aiden on the right.  The boys’ dad is currently deployed with III Corps.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  After the clouds dissipated a bit and the skies got bright, the white bass bite died down, so, we turned our sights on blue catfish.  The boys landed 11 keeper blues in short order as we chummed ’em in and caught ’em on no-stink punchbaits.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  21 September 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED: This morning’s efforts broke down into 3 distinct parts.  First, under low light conditions, enhanced by cloud cover and winds just-shy of whitecapping, we caught white bass on topwater casting spoons which matched the forage which looked to be around 2-inches long now.  When these fish quit the surface, they did it very suddenly, but the fish were still present, only they were suspended.  So, we got right on them with downriggers, moving progressively deeper until the fish reached 32′.  When they got to this depth, although we could see them clearly on sonar in distinct, tight schools, they would not rise even a few few after the downrigged baits as they had only minutes before in shallower water.  That closed “Part 1”.  We picked up white bass, hybrid, largemouth and smallmouth.

Part 2 involved chumming in bluecat and fishing for them with punchbaits.  I’ve been doing this successfully with swiveled trolling sinkers used as weights, but that requires a fast hookset which I didn’t feel the boys were going to get the hang of, so, instead, I came rigged with deep slipfloat rigging.  This allowed the boys to catch 11 blue cat with numerous “practice swings” on missed fish as they were working through the learning curve.

Part 3 involved mid-morning downrigging over deep water for suspended schools of white bass in our last 30 minutes on the water.  This also worked well, producing, among other things, a “double” and the trip’s only “triple” — one fish on each of the 3 baits on the 3-armed umbrella rig.

TALLY:  42 fish caught and released, including 3 hybrid stripers, 1 largemouth, 1 smallmouth, 11 blue catfish, and 26 white bass

OBSERVATIONS:   Although we have not yet had any significant cold fronts, the gradually shortening days, abundant cloud cover this week, and less intense heat has brought water temperatures down from the summer peak.  84.6 on the surface before sunrise today.  The up-sized Pet Spoons outperformed the smaller Pets this morning very evidently, to the point that I changed everything to #13’s in mid-bite.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   7:10am

End Time: 10:45am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation:  1.07 low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-13 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 80% cloud cover with very light sprinkles at sunrise; drying, brightening and clearing to 60% cloud cover by trip’s end

GT =  0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0132C through 1802 – low light topwater and downrigging activity thereafter

**Area vic 1918 – sparse post-sunrise topwater action pointed the way to continued downrigging

**Area vic 993 – chummed bluecats on punchbaits

**Area 1579 to 1581 – suspended white bass on downriggers

 

 

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

36 FISH HAUL FOR HAZEL GIBSON — S.K.I.F.F. TRIP #21

WHO I FISHED WITH:     This past Monday evening I conducted the 2019 season’s 21st S.K.I.F.F. trip.  Joining me was 5-year-old Hazel Gibson and her mom, Jennifer Gibson.  Back on August 17th, I fished with Hazel’s two siblings, 8-year-old Riley Gibson and 10-year-old Vince Gibson.  Due to the age difference, I thought pairing Hazel’s siblings with one other young man their age would work best, in addition to providing a shorter, less technically demanding trip just for Hazel.

Hazel’s father,  U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (E-6) Alan Gibson, has served for 12 years and is currently serving as a scout in a Ft. Hood cavalry unit.  SSG Gibson recently received orders sending him to Afghanistan.

This fishing trip was provided to this military family at no charge.  S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun.  This program began in May of 2009.  It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with.  S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing.  In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents’ military-related disabilities prevent them from taking their own children fishing.  I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 to 4 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:    5-year-old Hazel Gibson, daughter of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (E-6) Alan Gibson and Mrs. Jennifer Gibson of Harker Heights, with two of the 35 fish she landed during a free S.K.I.F.F. outing on Stillhouse Hollow.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  Sunfish and white bass

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED:  16 September 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED:  I tried to keep it simple tonight while making sure we had fish coming over the side of the boat routinely.  We began by sunfishing with a bream pole up in shallow water for the first half of our adventure, resulting in a catch of 30 sunfish, including bluegill, longears, and redears.

When Hazel’s interest in sunfishing dropped off, we headed out to deep water and used downriggers in two distinct areas to catch another 5 white bass and a single largemouth bass.

TALLY:  36 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  The winds reversed 180 degrees over the course of the day today.  At sunrise, we had westerly winds around 12mph which swung around to ENE by the start of this evening’s trip as a less than tropical storm-strengthed disturbance in the Gulf moves closer to the Texas coast and is due to impact our weather through mid-day Friday.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   5:15pm

End Time: 7:45pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 93F

Elevation:  0.81 low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   87F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ENE9-11 with weather and wind becoming increasingly influenced by an organized low pressure system spinning in the Gulf.

Sky Conditions: 40% cloud cover

GT =  0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  SH0134C – 30 sunfish

**Area  vic 1150 – 3 white bass and 1 largemouth downrigging with balls set at 20′

**Area  vic SH0133C – 2 quality white bass downrigging with balls set at 28′

 

 

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

WINDS FROM THE WEST, FISH BITE BEST – 64 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Monday, September 16th, I fished with first-time client Dwight Stone of Georgetown, TX.  Dwight recently retired from operating a string of Sonic restaurants and intends to get back to his fishing roots in his retirement.  The purpose of this morning’s trip was two-fold; first, we went to catch fish, and second, Dwight wanted to see Lowrance, Humminbird, and Garmin sonar products in use in real-world applications so he could choose wisely when rigging up his Ranger bass boat.  We accomplished both of those objectives this morning.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:    Dwight Stone with the one and only hybrid striped bass we landed this morning.  It came as a “double” on a three-armed umbrella rig.  Hooked right along side the hybrid was a 2-year class white bass.  I thought it unusual that the fish looked lean in the belly given the tremendous amount of bait in the area.

PHOTO CAPTION:    Dwight Stone with a pair of white bass.  We caught fish just about everywhere we looked this morning.  I believe this past weekend’s poor conditions (bright, hot, calm), followed by this morning’s favorable conditions (west wind) combined to get fish in a feeding mood.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  16 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:    I wanted to give Dwight a solid overview of Belton’s fishery, so, we downrigged for white bass in 4 separate locations, we vertical jigged with tailspinners, and we fished for suspended blue catfish, all while covering a good bit of water so Dwight could see the various segments of the lake.

The low-light, shallow (<18′) bite was on, giving up 2-year class white bass on the downriggers at our first stop.  We then encountered smaller white bass caught on downriggers set at 22′ at our second stop and therefore moved on.  At our third stop we found a mix of young-of-the-year white  bass and 2-year class fish, plus a bonus hybrid all caught via downrigging with balls set at 26-28 feet.  In order to leave time to gun for bluecat, we left these fish biting and headed elsewhere for catfish.

The blues were easy once a density of suspended fish were found on sonar.  I got range cubes down to consolidate the fish, then followed up with punchbait on trebles to seal the deal.  We fished at 34 feet over a 40 foot bottom for these fish, all of which ran 13-16 inches — lots of fun on light spinning gear.

We closed out the trip right at 10:30 with one final round of downrigging which gave up two sets of triples (all three lures on the 3-armed umbrella rig caught fish), as well as a few singles.

Right at 10:30 I got Dwight back to shore per his request to honor his exercise class commitment he made to his wife.

TALLY:  64 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No prolonged topwater action today.  I thought it just might happen, but, the wind was a bit stiff (to the point of lightly whitecapping) and it did not materialize.  The westerly wind definitely had fish in a feeding mode today.  If we found them, they bit!

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:45am

End Time: 10:35am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  0.86 feet low, 0.2′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   82.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  W10-12 through 7:50, then scaling back to W5-6 for remainder of trip

Sky Conditions: 20% cloud cover in the eastern sky at sunrise, then dissipating to nil 

GT =  5

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1802 to 813 low light downrigging for whites

**Area B0174C center of mass for downrigging for whites (attempted vertical work twice; fish not interested)

**Area vic 993 – range cube/punchbait blue cats

**Area 1291 center of mass for downrigging for whites

 

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

IN A WORD: TOUGH – A 10-FISH SATURDAY ON STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:     This past Saturday morning I fished Stillhouse with Jason Earles of Temple.  Jason received a gift certificate from his in-laws this past Christmas and wanted to redeem it this weekend.  As we spoke by phone I laid out the pros and cons of fishing Belton and Stillhouse on a weekend, and the reduced traffic on Stillhouse appealed to us both.

Jason works for McLane’s in Temple, grew up in the Houston area and hasn’t done as much fishing as he’d like to since job and family responsibilities have come along.  Despite the slow fishing, Jason commented a number of time about how nice it was to be outside of an office environment and in the relative quiet of Stillhouse’s 6,500 acres.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Those are definitely NOT fishy sky or wind conditions!!  Fishing was tough today, but, we persisted and pulled a few healthy white bass regardless of the weather.  That’s Jason Earles with a pair of 2.5 year old fish.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED:  14 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:   With bright skies and calm winds, there was zero natural sign to leverage on — no birds, no bait working, and only gar sipping on the surface here and there.  We did a lot of downrigging to cover water, and I kept at least one ball near the bottom hoping to pull up fish laying belly-to-bottom that we could then hover atop of and jig for.  We therefore alternated between downrigging and working tailspinners assisted by LiveScope.

Between 9:30 and 10:30 am, over a patch of water perhaps 2.5 acres in size, we found repeated incidents of small (young of the year) white bass feeding on shad they trapped at the surface.  I worked over this area intensively, hoping to find larger fish nearer the bottom in this locale (and did see 2 such schools on sonar), but ultimately caught only small fish here.

Between 10:30 and 11:15 I returned to one area where I’d seen larger white bass showing on sonar earlier in the morning, but which refused to go for our vertical presentations.  When we got to this area, fish were still present, and we picked up 2 solid white bass on downriggers while witnessing more “belly-to-bottom” fish rise 6-12 feet off bottom to investigate the downrigger ball.  I changed over quickly to working tailspinners to try to excite a school of fish and draw other fish beneath the boat, but the fish were not having it.  We pulled only one fish on the tailspinners here and wrapped up at 11:15 with 10 fish landed.

Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to the change of seasons.  The idea of grey skies, wind, and not sweating through my clothes by 8:30 am seems almost foreign at this point!

TALLY:  10 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: N/A

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:45am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Elevation:  0.77 low, 0.0′ 24-hour fall, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   85.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light and variable the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 0% cloud cover 

GT =  20

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1708 thru SH0133C thru 645 – a few quality fish here at ~35′

**Area 1146 – topwater action by Y.O.T.Y. whites

 

 

 

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

CAN WE ASK MY DAD FOR MORE TIME? — 64 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:     This morning, Friday the 13th of September, I fished with Mr. Max Lopez of Harker Heights, his college-aged son, Max, and young Max’s cousin, 13-year-old Eli Lopez, of Killeen.

If the name looks or sounds familiar, that’s because Max came out with me just ten days ago on September 3rd during which I gave him a “fishing overview” of Stillhouse Hollow, and went over some boating fundamentals, given that he is a new, first-time boat owner.  Based on his fishing experience that day, Max wanted his son and nephew to experience what he had just experienced

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:    From left,  father and son Max Lopez and Max Lopez, and Eli Lopez, the elder Max’s nephew, with three of the 64 fish we landed this morning.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass, sunfish, and blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  13 September 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  My aim today was to give the boys a “broad brush” introduction to different types of fishing for different species of fish in Lake Belton, after doing likewise for their dad/uncle over on Stillhouse about a week and a half ago.

Over our time on the water this morning we successfully downrigged for white bass, worked tailspinners vertically for white bass, fished up shallow for sunfish under slipfloats, and used punchbait to fish for chummed-up blue catfish (the topic of this coming Sunday’s Killeen Daily Herald article).

In all, my crew landed 64 fish (not counting quite a few that dropped off right at the boat while we worked through a learning curve on leaving some line between the rod tip and the hooked fish while working tailspinners).

I was gratified to note that, as the trip began, the boys were talking about video games, modern-day electronics, and features of their smart-phones; by the time the trip came to a close, both boys were silent and focused on their rod tips with a death grip on their spinning rods, anxiously awaiting the next “thump” of a bluecat striking their bait. Then, when Eli’s dad phoned us to check in to see if we were headed back yet, Eli lobbied for “just a little more time” to fish!

 

TALLY:  64 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   6:45am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation:  0.79 low, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   83.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light and variable the entire trip

Sky Conditions:0% cloud cover through 9:00am, then 20% cloud white clouds on blue sky thereafter

GT =  0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0154C through 1792 – low light downrigging

**Area B0172C – center of mass for downrigging white bass, plus 3 short-hops here for tailspinner white bass

**Area B0168C and 184 – sunfish

**Area B0173C – blue catfish

 

 

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