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