October | 2019 | Fishing Report

JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED — 146 FISH @ BELTON

October 6th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday, October 3^rd, I fished an evening trip with Baylor Scott & White hand doctor, Dr. Doug Fornfeist, and his 16-year-old son, Jacob. The two had a limited window of opportunity to make the trip happen, and between previous commitments and support of the Fishing for Freedom effort, an evening trip was all I had to offer. Although I had not fished Belton in the evening for a long while, the weather looked suitable for a good trip, so, we went for it.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jacob Fornfeist and his dad, Dr. Doug Fornfeist, with a few of the 146 fish taken on an evening trip this past Thursday on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 03 October 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED: As with most afternoon trips, I anticipated a slow start and a strong ending. I intended to search for some deep bluecat in our first hour or so, especially since the winds were light and the the sun was bright. I as searched near the second locale I’d located catfish at with my morning crew, I hit shallower water and started seeing what looked like tightly congregated, bottom-hugging white bass in 32-35 feet of water. I scramble to get us Spot-Locked on these fish and to get baits down to them. That started a 69-fish run of white bass caught between 4:00p and 4:50p, all on tailspinners fish with a smoking-style retrieve. Eventually, these fish dispersed right after Doug hooked, played, and landed a 3+ pound yellow cat which evidently spooked the smaller white bass as it struggled during the fight.

We moved on and encountered similar action and interest at another similar bottom construct, only in slightly shallower water. We once again worked tailspinners and took our tally to 102 fish before departing, leaving these fish biting, in order to roll the dice on some low-light topwater action.

We surveyed this third area with sonar while using downriggers and put a number of 3-year class white bass in the boat while doing so, and while watching the upward and shoreward progression of fish that took place as sunset approached.

In that time between sunset and dark, the fish went truly shallow into less than 7 feet of water and allowed for a hookup on just about every cast with the Pet Spoon until, right at the end of “seeing-light”, the action ended. Between the downrigging and sightcasting, we added another 44 fish to the tally.

TALLY: 146 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: This was the first evening trip I’ve fished on Lake Belton since May. The evening’s activity was very much a mirror-image of the morning as far as location and activity level of fish. Here is the temperature profile down to 60 feet measured prior to my morning trip. Seeing this, I feel “turnover” will take place soon after our first few coldfronts, as there is very little difference in the temperature (and therefore density) of the warm water above and the cooler water below …

0 feet 82.5

5 feet 82.9

10 feet 82.9

15 feet 82.9

20 feet 82.9

25 feet 82.9

30 feet 82.9

35 feet 82.9

40 feet 82.9

45 feet 82.7

50 feet 81.9

55 feet 79.4

60 feet 77.6

65 feet 76.4

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:30pm

End Time: 7:38 pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 93F

Elevation: 1.42 feet low, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Less than SSE7-9, tapering off to SSE3-4 around sunset

Sky Conditions: About 20% white cloud cover on a blue sky.

GT = 55

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 2027 – 69 fish by 4:50p

**Area B0171C – 33 fish by 6:00p

**Area 1804-1805 – pre-sunset downrigging

**Area 018-1641 – low-light sight casting

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)

BUENO PESCADO, AMIGO — 59 FISH W/ THE LOPEZ CLAN

October 5th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, October 3^rd, I fished with Mr. Maximo Lopez of Harker Heights, accompanied, by his 82-year-old father, Max Lopez of Miami, FL, and the elder Lopez’s brother, Zenon Lopez of Pacifica, CA. In his 82 years on earth, Mr. Lopez had never before landed a fish!

Mr. Lopez is one of eleven siblings of which Zenon is the youngest. The men’s mother lived to be 100 years and 7 months of age. Our trip was originally scheduled for early next week, but, the forecast for the arrival of the season’s first significant cold front made me suggest we bump up the timing. We were glad we did!

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Max Lopez, Zenon Lopez, and Max Lopez with the largest of our morning’s catch — a pair of legal (18″ +) hybrid striped bass taken just before sunrise as fish fed heavily by trapping threadfin shad against the slightly choppy surface. The crew of three went on to land a total of 59 fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 03 October 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: This morning’s skies were the clearest we’ve had in quite a spell at sunrise, and was just right for a topwater feed to occur. Although there was abundant, aggressive topwater action for quite a while this morning, I strictly downrigged for these fish as there was 1) a language barrier between me and two very novice would-be casters, and 2) mobility issues that convinced me a less aggressive approach would be prudent. We downrigged the perimeter of numerous schools of surface feeding fish and, by 8:35, had boated 48 fish. The fish moved gradually deeper and offshore as the sunlight pushed them down. After they hit the 25 foot contour, they shut down and we moved on, but not before boating 48 fish including 44 white bass and 4 hybrid striped bass.

After the downrigging, at the younger Max Lopez’s request, we targeted blue catfish. The light winds hindered us a bit (as I’ve noted previously) as I believe the scent of the chum is not carried as far nor as quickly downwind so as to attract and consolidate fish beneath the boat. Nonetheless, we set up for bluecat using prepared bait on trebles and my crew wound up boating 11 of that species before we decided to call it a day a bit early at around 10am so as not to have the elder Mr. Lopez out in the increasing heat (which we all felt due to the low wind speed and lack of cloud cover).

We finished out the trip with 59 fish landed.

TALLY: 59 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Lowest water temperature I’ve measured thus far since the summer warmup (81.1 pre-dawn, and down just slightly from yesterday’s temp.).

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time: 10:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 1.42 feet low, 0.03′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 81.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: Less than SSE-5 all morning

Sky Conditions: An unobscured sunrise was followed by a bright, blue sky with only 10% cloud cover

GT = 10

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1716 to 794 – downrigging where indicated by topwater action under low-light conditions

**Area vic 2062 at 42’ contour – chummed up blue cat and caught them on prepared baits – 11 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)

THIRD TIME’S A CHARM — 105 FISH @ BELTON

October 2nd, 2019October 2nd, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, October 2nd, I fished with returning guest Dwight Stone and his friend and neighbor, Austin Donoho. This is the third trip Dwight has taken with me in as many weeks, first coming solo, then bringing a buddy, Oscar Leal, and now Austin. Dwight is really warming up to this whole retirement thing, although a few calls from the fast-food world of Sonic managed to slip in now and again. Austin runs his own framing and drywall business and grew up fishing some of the ultra-fertile east Texas lakes like Tawakoni.

Austin’s big interest was seeing sonar used in real-world scenarios and so I tried to point out as much as I could on the Garmin, Humminbird, and Lowrance units I employ for different tactics over the course of a given trip.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Dwight Stone and his neighbor and friend, Austin Donoho, boated 105 fish today.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 02 October 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Although we still have topwater feeding going on when the conditions are just right, we had a bit too much wind on Dwight’s first trip, and very murky, dark conditions on his second trip. The third time was indeed a charm. With winds only around 7mph and just barely enough light coming through the grey clouds in the east pre-sunrise, the fish fed long and hard this morning. We downrigged just a few minutes before they got going, then caught them on top by sightcasting for about an hour, then continued downrigging post-topwater for a few more minutes. Over this entire episode, we’d boated 49 fish during the low-light period, which was the best “first hour” fish count I’ve had clients enjoy all summer.

After the topwater was done, we moved on in an effort to demo the Garmin LiveScope for Austin. Fortunately, the fish once again cooperated. We found energetically feeding white bass holding in the lower third of the water column in about 26 feet of water. We stopped, Spot-Locked, worked tailspinners, and had barely any response from fish in 15 feet of water; then we moved 10 feet deeper, found the same look on sonar and commenced to wear ’em out. We had a lot of small fish in the mix, but the overall intent of demonstrating LiveScope was accomplished regardless of fish size. 33 fish later it was about 9:20 and Dwight was itching to go catch blue catfish and, in doing so, continue experimenting with some baits he brought and some improved versions of baits I’d created.

All went well with the bluecat, as well. We hovered in one locale over 40 feet of water and put another 23 fish in the boat with steady action the entire time. We chummed these fish in to consolidate them and then used prepared bait on trebles to close the deal.

TALLY: 105 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Lowest water temperature I’ve measured thus far since the summer warmup (81.2 pre-dawn). There is a major coldfront now forecast for Monday, Oct. 7th — the season’s first significant cooldown.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 1.39 feet low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 81.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6-9 all morning

Sky Conditions: Grey skies all morning completely obscuring the sun through 10am, then some breaks of blue sky seen through 80% coverage.

GT = 35

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 015 to 1657 – chased topwater white bass for about 200 yards as they fed and slowly herded shad into the wind

**Area 1802 was center of mass for post-topwater white bass downrigging – 48 white bass and 1 hybrid taken via topwater and downrigging by the time the low-light period ended

**Area B0179C – aggressive, albeit smallish white bass taken via tailspinners fished with the aid of Garmin LiveScope – 32 whites and 1 hybrid

**Area B0178C – chummed up blue cat and caught them on prepared baits – 22 blue catfish, 1 channel 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)