SKILL OR LUCK? — 128 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Columbus Day 2019, I fished with Mr. Chip Wells of Georgetown, accompanied by his son, 10-year-old Jake Wells, and by Thomas Jenkins and his 19-year-old son, Kyle.

Chip owns a glass business at the corner of Hwy. 195 and Hwy. 201 on the south side of Killeen, and Thomas is an employee there.

The trip got off to a humorous start when Jake volunteered that he’d previously landed a flounder.  I asked him if he thought it was skill or luck that led to the catch.  He said, “Well, I’d say mostly skill.”   Everyone chuckled at that.  But then, later, when Kyle hooked a nice white bass and brought it over the gunwale, Jake looked a little jealous, so, I asked him, “What about Kyle’s fish … skill or luck?”   Jake replied, “With that guy … it’s luck!!”.  More chuckles!!

Mutual friends Marty Wall and Jerry Worley referred Chip my way, and the weather cooperated well to produce high numbers for us.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Kyle Jenkins, Thomas Jenkins, Jake Wells, and Chip Wells with a healthy mess of Lake Belton white bass taken via downrigging early and via vertical tactics later in the morning.  The crew landed 128 fish, including 127 white bass and 1 hybrid striper.

 

 

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  14 October 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:    We began our day with downrigging.  Thanks to the murky skies, no topwater occurred, and may not occur again this year thanks to the dropping water temperature.  Regardless, fish did push shallow in large numbers and herded shad, moving quickly as they did so, for about 70 minutes.  We caught singles, doubles, and one triple during this time on 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons selected to match the forage size.  The majority of these fish were keeper-sized fish.

Once the fish began to retreat to deep water as the skies brightened, we intercepted them and vertically jigged successfully with 3/4 oz. slabs for very aggressive fish still working the lower half of the water column in ~40 feet of water.  We fished these fish until they dispersed.  Once again, the majority of these fish were keeper-sized fish.

After “squinting light” occurred (my name for that light level at which you squint just slightly even with polarized lenses on), the fishing became more consistent, but the size of the catch decreased, with a majority of the fish under 10-inches.  We tempted these fish with tailspinners, as they seemed less interested in the slabs when I did a side-by-side comparison with the two.

We worked tailspinners for the remainder of the trip, finishing up with exactly 128 fish boated, including 127 white bass and 1 hybrid striped bass.

TALLY: 128 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  There are just a lot of small fish in the system right now, thanks to a seriously abundant spawn this past spring.  I moved us 3 different times, leaving biting fish behind, in an effort to get on top of some larger fish, only to find the same scenario — more small fish with occasional larger fish mixed in.  Going forward, I’m going to stay with what we’ve found and enjoy the occasional larger fish that come along.  In retrospect, I feel like moving to look for larger fish really did not benefit us, and cost us a few additional small fish which we could have caught, had we not used that time to search.  These fish all look the same on sonar initially, so, you’ve got to get a bait in the water to see the size for yourself.  This past Saturday, the scenario was very different, in that our 11-13″ long fish slightly outnumbered the smaller 6-9 inchers by a slight margin on a 2-hour, 45 fish catch.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    6:50A

End Time:  11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  68F

Elevation:  1.75 feet low, 0.05′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  77.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE7 at trip’s start, falling off to SE4 by 8:30A and staying there the remainder of the trip.

Sky Conditions:  100% grey cloud cover for the entirety of the trip, with the lightest of rain falling on our ride to our first area, then dry thereafter.

GT = 35

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 792 to 1792 – center of mass for low-light downrigging; 26 fish

**Area B0180C – first post low-light vertical jigging stop; 23 fish – fished til they quit

**Area vic 1916 – smoking tailspinners; left to look for larger fish; 20 fish

**Area bounded by 1815-B0009C-1943 – 3 short hops each producing ~20 fish, but with a lot of small fish in the mix

 

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

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