WACKY WEATHER WHITE BASS – 128 FISH @ BELTON (AM TRIP)

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I fished with Mr. Mike McLaughlin of Georgetown, TX, his son-in-law, Keith Duncan, and Keith’s 13-year-old son, Alex.  Alex has been out with me every year in the autumn, with the exception of last year during the massive flooding, since he was just 6 years old.

Mike is retired from law enforcement, Keith is in the tech industry, and Alex is working his way through homeschooling at the eighth grade level.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1: From left: Mike McLaughlin, Keith Duncan, and Alex Duncan with part of our catch of 128 fish, all taken from ~33 feet of water this morning.

 

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Saturday, 30 November 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Fishing took place in two distinct spurts this morning, all driven by the weather.  It all began last night around 7PM when a warm front moved into Central Texas, taking the temperature quickly from 53F, up to 71F in a matter of a few hours.  This warming caused the lingering fog of the daytime hours to dissipate, but the atmosphere remained humid.  This morning, I had light mist on my windshield driving to the lake, but our fishing hours were all dry.  As we launched, there was a 13 mph SW wind and thick grey cloud cover.  Once it got light enough to illuminate the depths, the fish began to bite under clouds and wind.  Soon, that wind died to calm and we caught zero fish during that entire span (nearly 2 hours).  Finally, around 10AM, the lightest ripple began from the SW and quickly shifted W, then NW a a mild, clearing Pacific cold front moved in.  We took our fish count from 28 to 128 in the 1.75 hour span between 10AM and 11:45AM.  All of the fish came on an easing tactic using only 3/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks attached.

TALLY: 128 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   No helpful bird action this morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    7:10AM

End Time:  11:50AM

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  71F

Elevation: 2.67 feet low, 0.01′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  61.0

Wind Speed & Direction: SW12 @ obscured sunrise, followed by a 2 hour period of calm, murky, warm conditions, followed by clearing, drying conditions with the arrival of a minor Pacific cold front.

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies and warm, humid conditions through 10AM, then clearing and drying with the arrival of a Pacific cool front

GT = 5

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0199C / 1292 — fished this area twice, once as the wind blew before the calm and again after the wind started again after the calm;  caught 28 the first time and 60 the second

**Area vic B0012C — 40 fish

 

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

WHITE FRIDAY — 106 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: No crazy shopping mall scenes nor door-buster drama for Mr. Sam Simon and me.  Nope, just a foggy, deserted Lake Belton and hundreds of white bass ready to get all over our slabs on this Black Friday turned White Friday here in Central Texas.

Sam, a retired U.S. Army veteran, has been out with me once before and fishes, mainly for largemouth bass, from his own boat, so we run into each other from time to time.  Sam was planning on his brother visiting from Thomasville, GA, for the holiday and booked the trip for the two of them, but, when that didn’t pan out, Sam thought fishing was still better than turkey leftovers and college football, so, we made an afternoon of it.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  Retired U.S. Army vet Sam Simon of Killeen and I had the lake to ourselves this cool, damp November 29th.  The fish were already wet, so they didn’t mind a bit.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: These are the tools getting the job done right now – Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks attached.

 

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Friday, 28 November 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED:  As I looked at the forecast as my evening trip wrapped up on Wednesday before I took yesterday off, I saw some funky weather I preferred to avoid forecast for this morning.  I consulted with Sam, and we agreed to fish in the afternoon instead.  That turned out well.

The morning weather had a lingering, more persistent fog than was called for, along with cool, windless conditions — not good.

This afternoon’s weather saw the fog lift and become more of an occasional mist, with a little bit of heating and a little ESE breeze — not great, but enough to get the fish going.

We met up at 1:00p and were on fish by 1:15p.  The first area we fished (of a total of five) was the only one where I had to locate fish using sonar exclusively.  The remaining four areas were indicated by light bird activity.  Each of the five areas we fish gave up for for about the same 30 to 40 minutes or so, and then went quiet, necessitating a move.

Once again, and as will be the case for some time to come, an easing tactic using slabs equipped with stinger hooks was the way to go.  The white, 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook did the trick over and over and over again.  I make and sell these myself now after some “supply chain issues” in the past caused delays for my clients in purchasing them elsewhere.  Check this link: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/fishing-guide-product.php

Even if you don’t use my Stinger Hook, at least use someone’s stingers or make your own, but don’t fish a slab without one!!

I really made a believer out of Sam when it came to stinger hooks this evening.  In my pre-trip brief, I told him why I used the stingers and that they would likely account for 50-60% of our hookups.

If I had $5.00 for each time Sam said, “That stinger hook really jacked that fish up,” meaning it was the hook which caught the fish versus the treble hook which was hanging outside the fish’s mouth, I believe I could have doubled my fare tonight.

All of our fish were caught in 26-33 feet of water and were located in the lower third of the water column.

As the fog began to redevelop around 4:20p, thus diminishing the light, we noted the fish were hesitant to come more than 4-5 feet off the bottom.  This was made very evident as we watched the fish react to our presentation on Garmin LiveScope.  So, we adjusted our presentation accordingly and continued to get bit.

We hit the 100 fish mark at 3:56, and fished our last area until it went dry at 4:26, then called it a day a bit early with exactly 106 fish landed including 2 largemouth, 12 drum, 4 hybrid stripers, and 88 white bass.

TALLY: 106 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Fish showed a definite preference for the 3/8 oz. slab versus the 3/4 oz. this evening.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    1:00P

End Time:  4:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  53F

Elevation: 2.67 feet low, 0.01′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  58.2

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE3-6

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies and list mist/light fog

GT = 5

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0119C/B0012C

**Area vic 1656 (w/ birds)

**Area B0200C  (w/ birds)

**Area vic 1802  (w/ birds)

**Area B0104C/B0197C  (w/ birds)

 

 

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

WE CAME BACK TO REALITY, AND IT WAS GREAT! — 139 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This Thanksgiving Eve I fished with returning guest Danny Marriott of Georgetown, TX, and his son-in-law, John Griffin, from the Houston area.

Danny is the operations director at First Baptist Church in Georgetown, and John is a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Game Warden covering the Houston area.  John and his wife and daughter drove in this morning to be with his in-laws for Thanksgiving and got in a little off-duty outdoor time for a change.

If you follow me here on Facebook, you know we had a heck of a day yesterday with rare prefrontal weather conditions which really turned the fish on.  Today we were faced with cooler conditions and northerly winds and it was “back to reality” with our results more in line with the season.  Regardless, with water temperature still hovering around 60F, the fish were still readily found and caught.  We ended up with 139 fish boated this evening.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  From left, John Griffin and Danny Marriott with a Thanksgiving Eve’s catch of white bass from Belton Lake.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Danny landed our largest fish of the trip, this zebra mussel-fattened freshwater drum that fell for his slab in about 33 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Wednesday, 27 November 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED:  Fishing was pretty one-dimensional tonight as it will be for quite some time to come as we ease into the cool-water period of the year.  We found fish, relying primarily on Lowrance StructureScan (pre-FishReveal software) to do an excellent job of target separation in deep water, thus allowing us to distinguish fish from the bottom.  Once fish were found, we used the i-Pilot Link system (Minn Kota trolling motor and Humminbird Down Imaging) to mark and then park on top of the fish.  We kicked on the thumper, let down our Hazy Eye Slabs (white, 3/8 oz., with Stinger hook attached) and used an easing tactic to tempt the fish until they would no longer fall for our charade.  Then, we moved on and repeated this process, all to the tune of 139 fish boated, including white bass, drum, largemouth, and hybrid stripers.

TALLY: 139 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  No helpful bird action this afternoon.  Fish were a bit finicky given the cloudy, cold-front conditions we faced.  Fish did not stay interested very long after their initial expression of interest in our presentations, therefore, we had to move a good bit to keep the action going.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    1:00P

End Time:  5:25P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  55F

Elevation: 2.63 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  60.2F (thanks to 67F air temperatures through 2:00AM this morning, just before the mild cold front rolled in)

Wind Speed & Direction: NE12-13

Sky Conditions:  Grey skies

GT = 95

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  B0184C/1679 – 2 hops

**Area vic 1819

**Area vic 1827

**Area B0199c/B0124C

**Area vic 817

 

 

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

THE RIGHT TIME, PLACE, WEATHER, & CREW – 276 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  Yes, that title is no joke!  My 3-man crew this morning landed fish, literally, at a rate of more than one fish per minute for 4.5 hours straight on Lake Belton.

This morning, Tuesday, November 26th, I welcomed aboard long-time client Steve Niemeier, accompanied by his grandson, Caleb Fowler (age 14), and his great nephew, Tevan Gilmore (age 15).

With a cold front due in around 11pm this evening, we had pre-frontal activity which is always among the best weather scenarios one can encounter if timed correctly.

Adding to this was the fact that all three anglers have fished with me before, and, more importantly, have used the tactics we used today (vertical jigging with slabs) previously, so there was no learning curve to get through.  Finally, the boys were very competitive with one another which kept them engaged and their concentration levels high. Finally, my crew set a high goal for themselves.  On a previous outing on Stillhouse (15 March 2015) which included just Steve and Caleb and also occurred in pre-frontal conditions, the two landed 256 fish in just under 4 hours.  My crew wanted to beat that tally today — and they did!!

Steve very much appreciates the consistency and productivity of fall fishing, and routinely books several trips in November as far in advance as July or August to make sure he and the kids get to cash in on this high-numbers bonanza.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  From left, Tevan Gilmore, Caleb Fowler, and Steve Niemeier landed 276 fish on Lake Belton under ideal pre-frontal conditions during this morning’s half-day trip.

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Tuesday, 26 November 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  Despite the fish being in overdrive this morning, there was no helpful bird action to key off of.  I suspect this might be because the water was already whitecapping before the (cloud-obscured) sunrise, thus making it difficult for these birds to spot subsurface activity.

So, we relied upon good old sonar to get the job done.  We fished only 3 areas this morning and used a fast easing tactic to provoke the fish we’d found into striking.  These areas were all gently sloping, all in 31-35 feet of water, and were all relatively clean bottoms with ample baitfish in the vicinity.

Our bait of choice was the smallish 3/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook attached.  The stinger accounted for easily 45% of our catch this morning.  We had very few other bycatch species today — only drum.  No largemouth, no hybrid, no crappie, no bluecat, which was also surprising given how ramped up the white bass were.

I often fish alongside my clients as it helps create and maintain the commotion which keeps fish interested and holding beneath the boat as fish are caught and then regurgitate and defecate, thus creating a natural chum-line of sorts.  Today, there were many instances where I just put my rod up in the holder and unhooked and released fish because the catch rate was that high.  The thumper also did its part to draw and hold fish beneath the boat.

With the water temperature fairly stable at around 60F and only a mild, short front due in overnight, plus being in the dark of the lunar cycle, I anticipate the fishing will stay strong for as long as our current weather forecast looks ahead (about 5-6 days).

TALLY: 276 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  No helpful bird action possible due to strong winds.  Had credible report of evening bird action which occurred under “calm before the storm” conditions prior to cloud-obscured sunset.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    7:00A

End Time:  11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  55F

Elevation: 2.60 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  58.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW4-6 at sunrise, increasing to SW11-12 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  Fair blue skies

GT = 100

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   NOTE THE WINDSHIFT DUE AT ~9PM AND THE WESTERLY COMPONENT TO THE WIND THE ENTIRE DAY PRIOR TO THE FRONT’S ARRIVAL

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0156C/B0132C – 185 fish caught here by 9:36am

**Area B0003C/B0195C

**Area B0198C

**Area B0199C (successful post-trip scouting)

 

 

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

HE CAME 3,147 MILES FOR LAKE BELTON WHITE BASS — 141 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, November 25th, I fished with father/daughter pair Warren Howard and Kristi Hendrick.  Military duty pulled Kristi’s husband away for the holidays and so her dad flew down from Alaska to make sure she didn’t eat turkey alone.  While he was at it, he thought spending some time in Texas’ well-lit outdoors (they’re only having ~ 3 hours of light each day in Fairbanks, Alaska, right now) and warmth would be a great idea. So, although he is much more accustomed to fishing for grayling in moving water, Warren decided to give Texas white bass a try.

Kristi shared a crazy story that illustrated how austere life can be in Alaska.  Fairbanks is one of Alaska’s 6 largest cities with a population of 31,516 according to the 2018 U.S. Census.  Kristi said that folks in Fairbanks were very excited about soon being able to go to the new Sonic restaurant being built in Wasilla, a short SIX HOUR DRIVE AWAY (yes, that’s one way)!

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  Belton’s freshwater drum, a routine bycatch while fishing for white bass, have become fat and sassy with zebra mussels as a new food source.  If you leave a slab holding near bottom very long, the drum will beat the white bass to it!

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2:  Warren landed this beautiful crappie on a slab.  As we vertically jigged for white bass, a small bit of wood cover showed up anchored to bottom as we watch LiveScope.  Out of that wood came this crappie.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #3:  And of course Warren and Kristi caught a mess of white bass this morning under very pleasant late-November conditions.  It was down to t-shirts by 11:00am!

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Monday, 25 November 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  The fish were a bit more relaxed today, as is often the case in the mild weather lulls between fronts.  We found some birds working, but not aggressively, and not for an extended period of time.  The catching today was a slower, steady take of fish with most of the fish very much bottom-oriented (versus suspended as we found them on Saturday with post-frontal, breezy conditions.

We stuck with the 3/8 oz. slab for all of our work today and used an easing tactic to catch every last one of the 141 fish we boated.  Our catch once again included a bycatch of solid drum (which I know for certain are devouring zebra mussels, as quite a number of the drum we’ve caught have regurgitated them), hybrid stripers, and a single crappie.

We hit 6 areas in 4 hours to put together this catch, hence an average of 40 minutes’ worth of action at each of the locations we fished.  Well adjusted down-imaging sonar was the key to seeing fish which are barely separated from the bottom.  This necessitates a leveled transducer adjusted at slow forward speed and the resulting boat angle.

TALLY: 141 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Birds worked less aggressively today and for only about 65 minutes from sunrise.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    7:00A

End Time:  11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  55F

Elevation: 2.60 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  58.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW4-6 at sunrise, increasing to SW11-12 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  Fair blue skies

GT = 100

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1579, vic 1924, and B0197C

**Area encompassed by B0189C/960/B0190C

**Area  B0195C, B0196C

 

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

FATHER AND SON TEAM PULL 184 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, November 23rd, I fished with first-time guests father-and son team Frank and Marcos Sumner.  Frank is a retired U.S. Army veteran residing in the Ft. Hood area where he now serves active duty soldiers by helping improve their eyesight by providing various medical procedures, just as he did while on active duty.  Marcos, who, while in college aspired to be a writer, now works for J.P. Morgan in the finance industry based out of San Antonio.

 

Lake Belton Fishing Guide

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Frank Sumner with a Lake Belton hybrid striped bass which fell for a 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Shad with stinger hook in the first hour after sunrise.

 

Belton Lake Largemouth Bass

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Marcos Sumner with a Lake Belton largemouth bass taken from 22 feet of water.  As the water cools, the number of largemouth showing up as bycatch has increased sharply over the past week and a half.

 

Hazy Eye Slab with Stinger Hook

PHOTO CAPTION #3:  My 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye slabs were a spot-on match for the forage (threadfin shad) the gamefish we encountered this morning were feeding on.  This shad was regurgitated by a hybrid striped bass as I unhooked it and prepared to release it.  The lure and the shad are both 2 1/8 inches in length.  Many slabs have a more slender, minnow shape versus this sway-bellied shad shape.  I find the fish respond to this shad-shaped lure much better.

 

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Saturday, 23 November 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  The post-frontal fishing with a NW breeze this morning was nothing short of spectacular.  We caught fish from sunrise at around 7:20, right up until we departed around 11:30.  The fish fed well this entire 4-hour stretch.  We enjoyed the first episode of widespread bird action leading to feeding fish thus far this autumn.  The birds worked, sometimes more aggressively and sometimes less, continuously for the entire morning.

Fishing was super simple.  We found fish on sonar assisted by bird action; we focused on bottom-dwelling fish as those fish we found suspended were “fast movers” and hard to pin down; once we found a concentration of fish on bottom, we Spot-Locked, activated the thumper, got our slabs down where the fish were and commenced to catching them until the school we were over dissipated.  We wound up hopping about seven times over the course of the 4 hours.

Although the majority of our catch was comprised of our target species (white bass), we also caught numerous hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, and freshwater drum.

TALLY: 184 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    7:10A

End Time:  11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  41F

Elevation: 2.57 feet low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  59.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW8 the entire trip; tapering down as we departed around 11:30A

Sky Conditions:  Bright, clear post-frontal bluebird skies

GT = 35

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas B0194C

**Area bounded by 1923/1804/840/1791

**Area bounded by 496/1866/837

 

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

LET THE SLABBING BEGIN!!! – 216 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, November 22nd, I fished with long-time friend and client Jerry Worley and, for his second time out with me, David Vahrenkamp of Harker Heights.  Jerry owns and operates the Jerry Worley Insurance Agency, co-located in the Harker Heights Chamber of Commerce building on Knight’s Way in Harker Heights.  David is part of the sales staff at Bates Nissan dealership in Killeen.

As the days went by and the forecast got more grisly, the size of our party dropped down to just two.  These two were bound and determined to catch at least as many fish as the last trip when they were accompanied by two others.  The tally that day was 125 fish for four anglers.  We persisted today, did a lot of looking and, in the end, blew their goal away, landing exactly 216 fish, thanks, in part, to frontal activity really stirring the fish into a feeding mode.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1: David Vahrenkamp (left) and Jerry Worley with 1, 2, and 3-year class fish.  These fish, all spawned in March and April each year, are now 1 year and 7 months old for the 2018 year class, 2 years and 7 months old for the 2017 year class, and 3 years and 7 months old for the 2016 year class.  All of these year classes are of legal (10″) size now.  This year’s crop (7 months old) are around 7 inches and are in great abundance, making up the majority of the catch on Belton.  If the forage base holds up, we ought to see the 2019 year class do very well going forward.

WHERE WE FISHED:  Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Friday, 22 November 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: The operative word today was: SLABBING.  The fish, due to falling water temperatures, have turned off to the faster, flashier tailspinners now and are falling hard for the slab.  We caught 100% of our fish today on white, 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs of my own making, complete with stinger hooks attached.  The stingers accounted for about 40% of our catch today, and this percentage will rise as the water temperature drops.

You can find those here: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/fishing-guide-product.php

Although we experimented on occasion, the go-to tactic was the easing tactic this morning.   We caught all of our fish in the first 2 hours from around the 25-foot mark; all of our fish thereafter came from around 33 feet.

I truly believe the zebra mussel infestation has provided the freshwater drum with a bumper crop of food.  These fish are bigger and more abundant than ever before.  A slab “snap-jigged” on bottom instead of “eased” was more likely to catch drum than white bass.

We didn’t find fish everywhere we looked, but, where we found them, we found them in abundance.  The bite got stronger as the day progressed and as the front continued to move in.

Although birds are not yet abundant, they are present.  Only one of our six successful areas fished was indicated to us by bird action, and this was very tentative behavior by just 4-5 gulls.

TALLY: 216 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The damp cold front conditions got the fish fired up this morning.  The cooling water, now teetering at 60F has shut down the tailspinner bite and turned on the slab bite.  An easing tactic was best.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    7:00A

End Time:  1:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  55F and falling with an incoming coldfront

Elevation: 2.51 feet low, 0.03′ 24-hour rise, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  60.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW14-15 entire trip with incoming cold front

Sky Conditions:  Grey overcast the entire morning, with drizzle in first 45 minutes

GT = 105

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas  B0193C/B0191C/960, B0192C, vic 1909, B0122C/B0186C, 327/B0009C, 1943/1815

 

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

81 WHITE BASS BEFORE MILLER’S RAN OUT OF CHICKEN

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, November 20th, I was joined by Dwight Stone on what would be his fifth trip out with me since mid-September of this year.  After a solo trip with me on his first outing, he has brought a buddy out with him each time thereafter.  Today, I welcomed Jay Stien aboard for the first time.  He and Dwight first became acquainted at the church they both attend down near Georgetown, TX.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  We left high numbers of smaller white bass behind at Lake Belton this morning in pursuit of larger white bass over on Stillhouse and were not disappointed.  That’s Dwight Stone on the left and his friend, Jay Stien.  The largest white bass we landed (in Jay’s right hand), taped at 14 3/8 inches.  All but one of our fish came on a Hazy Eye Slab equipped with a stinger hook.  The 3/8 oz. version in white did the trick.

 

WHERE WE FISHED:  Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED:  Wednesday, 20 November 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  Since this was to be Dwight’s fifth trip with me since mid-September, I offered an option to the high counts of mostly smaller fish which has been the trend this fall at Lake Belton.  I offered that we could introduce him to Stillhouse Hollow in hopes of catching better quality fish.  The weather looked very good (grey clouds and wind) and I had successfully scouted on Stillhouse last Wednesday just for such an occasion.  I explained the downsides would be a lower tally, and that catfish would not be an option — Dwight was okay with all of the above, so, at 7AM we launched and began the search for fish.

All of our fishing took place today within yards of the old Lampasas River channel as the white bass we found came and positioned on the breaklines from the old flood plain down into the channel proper.

Four tentative gulls led us to our first stop where we landed only one white and missed several more in addition to missing a nice ~4 pound largemouth, all on bladebaits.

After this, we switched over to slabs (with stinger hooks) and used a long easing stroke to tempt fish successfully in under 15 feet of water.  Eventually, these fish quit biting after we’d boated another 47 fish at this location.

Around 9:30 we made our next move into deeper water — about 36′ — and this time encountered schooled, suspended fish between 25 and 30 feet deep.  Using Garmin LiveScope to gauge fish location and response to our presentations, we brought our slabs up past these suspended fish to provoke a response.  We noted that our catch included quite a number of both largemouth bass and freshwater drum.  The largemouth are very clearly  drawn to the thumper.

By 10:45 this school of fish, from which we’d caught another 30 fish, dissipated and we continued our search.  We found one more small “patch” of fish about 80 yards from our previous stop, landed a final 4 fish and, with the wind now gusting to over 20mph, checked two more areas, found nothing, and wrapped up in hopes of getting Dwight and Jay over to Miller’s Smokehouse in Belton before Mr. Dirk ran out of smoked chicken!

Not only has a visit to Miller’s become a part of Dwight’s routine when fishing with me, he also has his wife addicted now.  They made a special, non-fishing related trip up this way recently, and stopped in only to find that the chicken was sold out by around 1pm.  He was not going to let that happen to Jay today!!!

TALLY: 81 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: As the water cools, it has become obvious that the thumper is again becoming more helpful in drawing and keeping fish below the boat.  The suspicion I had about the tailspinners’ efficacy tapering off at the 60F mark was further confirmed today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    7:00A

End Time:  11:25P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  46F

Elevation: 2.6 feet low, 0.01′ 24-hour change, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  61.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: S8 at obscured sunrise, slowly ramping up to S17 with higher gusts by trip’s end

Sky Conditions:  Grey overcast the entire morning, with the lightest veil of fog before sunrise.

GT = 10

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas SH0136C, vic SH0071C, vic SH0028C, SH0135C

 

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

PERSONAL BESTS IN ABUNDANCE – 160 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, November 19th, I fished with returning guest Marcus Mitchell, accompanied by a buddy of his from church, Eldon Lindberg.

Both men are a part of the Union Hall Baptist Church in Liberty Hill and decided to take a half-day of downtime from work to spend out in Creation.  Marcus works for a company which produces products to track down “bugs” in complex computer server systems, and Eldon is an accountant for a law firm.

Both fellows enjoyed a “Personal Best” in terms of number of fish landed on an outing, and for biggest fish of a given species.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Although this morning’s focus was on catching high numbers of white bass, we certainly didn’t turn away larger fish, nor those of other species.  We took a few hybrid and more than a few drum this morning along with our white bass.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Marcus Mitchell, left, and Eldon Lindberg with a few of the 160 fish we landed this morning, the majority of which were white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Tuesday, 18 November 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Today’s conditions were nearly identical to yesterday’s, therefore, I retraced our successful steps from yesterday and we put together a 160 fish tally in just over 4 hours’ time.  Once again, with the water now just slightly below 60F, we caught fish upon our arrival at a location via tailspinners, but, the fish quickly soured on them, instead preferring a slab worked with an easing tactic.  We found white bass, largemouth bass, freshwater drum, and hybrid striped bass all grouped together and feeding primarily in the last 3 feet of the water column, although we did encounter fish rising to within 10 feet of the surface in about 26 feet of water just before sun fully shone on the area we were fishing.

My observations  today reinforced my belief in “staying put” via the use of Spot-Lock.  Two other boats invited themselves uncomfortably close to us today and caught just a fraction of what we caught as they moved around constantly by manually controlling their trolling motors.  I strongly believe that Spot-Locking on an area makes that the center of attention where the action of my slabs, the vibration of my thumper, the commotion of fish being caught, and the rain of feces and regurgitated fish from those fish we hook falling to bottom, all create a very localized frenzy.  Such a frenzy never has a chance to develop beneath moving vessels.

Although plenty of birds were present today, none led us to fish.

TALLY: 160 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Slabs (equipped with stinger hooks) continued to outperform tailspinners today, which was the second day the overnight surface temp. dropped below 60F.  No organized bird activity although plenty of birds are beginning to arrive.  Our short to legal ratio of white bass improved greatly today; 1 in every 2-3 fish was of legal size.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    7:00A

End Time:  11:25P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  46F

Elevation: 2.53 feet low, 0.0′ 24-hour change, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  59.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW2-3 at sunrise, slowly going calm for about 90 minutes minutes, then shifting ESE5-6 thereafter.

Sky Conditions:  Clear and cloudless for the first half of the trip, then wispy white clouds building at high altitude in the southern sky

GT = 0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas B0191C to B0190C – fish moved steadily deeper as the morning moved on; started in 25′, ended up in 38′

**Area vic 150 (at the high point of the feature)

 

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

THE REAL “OLD NAVY” MANEUVERS ON BELTON – 159 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, Nov. 18th, I fished with returning guest Mike McLaughlin and his buddy, Alan Creekmore, who joined me for his first time aboard my boat.  Mike’s wife, Christa, got him a fishing gift certificate for his birthday a few weeks back, and today was the day he decided to cash it in.  Mike is retired from the Texas Dept. of Public Safety, after which he worked for various other law enforcement agencies.  Alan is retired from the State Attorney General’s Office.

Both fellows are veterans of the United States Navy.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: From the left, that’s Mike McLaughlin and his buddy, Alan Creekmore.  These fellows put 159 fish in the boat this morning including white bass, drum, and a single largemouth.

 

WHERE WE FISHED:  Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Monday, 18 November 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  I did a bit of exploring today after seeing migrating gulls in several areas on Lake Belton last week.  Well, that exploring paid off in that we found fish where I went looking, but, there was no significant bird activity, thus, all of our fish finding was done by methodically combing with sonar.  Also, we did a bit better on the keeper to short ratio today, but, there was still a lot of small white bass in our tally.  I think this is just going to be a fact of life on Belton this season, as no matter where I go and what I throw, I’m catching a lot of small whites, as are others I routinely compare notes with.

This morning we caught fish in four distinct areas with each area producing progressively longer bites right up until we decided Miller’s BBQ sounded better than catching more fish at around 11:30.

One very significant note today … the water dipped down below 60F in the overnight hours last night.  Coinciding with this was my observation that slabs (equipped with stinger hooks) outperformed tailspinners today.  The tailspinners would catch the most eager fish from the first time we dropped down and for a few minutes thereafter, but, as soon as those fish quit and the fish got hesitant, the slab performed like a super-star, and kept right on performing.

We took a total of 159 fish today including 1 largemouth bass, 7 freshwater drum, and 152 white bass, with about a 1:6 legal to short ratio on the white bass.

TALLY: 159 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Slabs (equipped with stinger hooks) outperformed tailspinners today, which was the first day the overnight surface temp. dropped below 60F.  No organized bird activity although plenty of birds are beginning to arrive. There was an interesting hatch of some sort of beetle today.  These beetles looked like traditional red and black ladybugs in shape, but had yellow shells with black dots.  There were thousands of them covering the water’s surface with most coupled together as if mating or grouping together to stay afloat, much like fire ants will do.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    7:00A

End Time:  11:35P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  45F

Elevation: 2.52 feet low, 0.01′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  59.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW11 at sunrise, slowly tapering back to WNW4 before going calm for about 30 minutes from 10:15 to 10:45, then shifting ESE4 thereafter.

Sky Conditions:  Clear and cloudless.

GT = 40

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas vic B0106C, B0111C/B0117C, vic 560, B0189C

 

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