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