WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning, Oct. 4th, I fished with returning guests Brett and Kristi Short who traveled in from northern California to visit relatives in the Central Texas area. Brett works in law enforcement, and Kristi works in the human resources department of a nursing home. Last year’s trip took place on Stillhouse in July. This morning we fished Belton.
PHOTO CAPTION: Kristi and Brett landed 140 fish on a morning when the conditions would normally not allow for such a take — northerly winds, and bright skies.
PHOTO CAPTION: Our largest catfish taken when targeting bluecat was actually this channel cat which came in to chum and took a prepared bait.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: 04 October 2019, PM
HOW WE FISHED: I told Brett as I communicated with him 2 days in advance of our trip that I was concerned about the weather in that the forecast called for a ENE breeze, and, although the velocity was okay, the direction always seems to diminish results.
I looked for a shallow water bite and found it, although it wasn’t where it had been, and those fish moving shallow at first light did not feed at the surface this morning. So, we ran downriggers throughout the entirety of the low-light bite period and did well, taking 32 fish as singles, doubles and triples on the trusty 3-armed umbrella rig rigged up with Pet Spoons.
After the sun began to shine brightly, we moved on and looked for fish where I’d found a nice bunch of them congregated on a breakline in about 32′ the evening before. I contacted these fish once again, only in water about 5 feet shallower this time. We took 55 fish from this energetic bunch and moved on as soon as the action began to wane.
We moved to similar action in even shallower water (thanks to the wind blowing about 9mph now), and caught another 33 fish smoking with tailspinners from a Spot-Locked position.
When the wind stopped around 9:50, so did the white bass action. We closed out the trip with another 20 catfish landed by chumming them in and catching them on prepared baits in ~44 feet of water.
TALLY: 140 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Even though the winds had a northerly component (ENE8-9), this was not frontally-related, and the bit of velocity to the wind did create conditions in which the fish followed a typical morning feeding routine, save the topwater action.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:50A
End Time: 11:15A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F
Elevation: 1.46 feet low, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 81.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: ENE7-8
Sky Conditions: Zero cloud cover
GT = 5
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1792 to B0165c – Low light downrigging on fish which came shallow but refused to break the surface thanks to a northerly component to the wind
**Area 1815 — 55 fish @mid-morning smoking with tailspinners
**Area B0128C — 33 fish @mid-morning smoking with tailspinners
**Area B0015/B0021 – 20 bluecat late morning chummed in and taken on prepared baits
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