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