WHO I FISHED WITH: Yesterday morning, Christmas Eve 2019, I fished for a second time inside the space of a week with the Gladden family of Harker Heights, including Kelvin Gladden Sr., his wife, Angela, and their boys Kelvin Jr. and Tevin.  Kelvin is a retired U.S. Army veteran, Angela works for the Children, Youth, and Student Services (CYS) organization on Fort Hood, Kelvin Jr. works for Walmart in Harker Heights, and Tevin is now entering his final semester in college up in Anchorage, Alaska, where he’ll graduate in May with a degree in computer science.

Even though our conditions this morning were similar to our conditions last Saturday during the Gladden’s first holiday trip with me, we managed a 35% increase in our catch as everyone was more experienced and paid much closer attention to their technique today.  The Gladdens amassed a catch of 135 fish.

PHOTO CAPTION:   This is the fish that led to the title for this log entry.  Angela’s younger son, Tevin, started off the fishing trip fast and furious, landing 8 fish at our first location and within the first 20 minutes or so while the rest of the family had only managed 1 or 2 fish each during that same time.  Tevin thought it necessary to taunt the rest of the family by reminding them of his personal total, all of which consisted of average-sized white bass.  When Angela set the hook on this 4-pounder, her rod bowed deeply and I scrambled for the net.  We landed the largemouth bass, took it out of the net, and I put a clamp on it for Angela to hold for a photo.  She took a deep breath, let it out, looked squarely at Tevin and said, “Who’s yo’ momma?”   Everyone laughed out loud and I told them right then and there that was going to be the title for this summary of our trip! 

PHOTO CAPTION:   Lake Belton gave up some plump wintertime white bass today.  A slow, vertical presentation with small, shad-imitating slabs was the ticket to success once fish were located.

WHEN WE FISHED:  Tuesday, 24 December 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED:  Once again we had calm, foggy conditions with the same, bright light conditions within the fog thanks to the fog being localized and just hovering over the lake’s surface, thus allowing the sun to illuminate it from above.

From their trip on Saturday, everyone knew going into this morning’s trip how critical correctly executing the vertical jigging tactics we employed was.  A consistent jigging speed, consistent contact with the bottom, and intentionally slow movements were all necessary from start to finish this morning.

We caught fish best under the darker conditions caused by the fog.  Once the fog cleared, the fish activity slowed as we were then left with clear, calm conditions.  We move around a good bit, finding small clusters of fish willing to bite.  Not until a significant breeze finally kicked in around 11:30 did the fish get back into a strong feed.  This lasted right about an hour and then tapered off.  We landed 44 fish under fog cover, another 35 fish during the last hour with wind blowing, and the other 56 fish came more slowly in the calm, bright conditions between the fog and wind.  We wound up fishing 8 different areas, and did a few “short hops” at several of those 8 areas.

TALLY: 135 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  No bird activity this morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    7:45A

End Time:  12:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  34F

Elevation: 2.97′ low, 0.02′ 24-hour change, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   53.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm and foggy conditions which were very localized.  The entire area was not foggy, only the lake’s surface due to the temperature disparity between the cold air and the warmer water.

Sky Conditions: Sun obscured all morning by fog through around 9:40A, then slowly clearing to calm and bright, followed by the arrival of a light SE breeze around 11A

GT = 15

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic  B0113C

**Area vic 1671

**Area vic  B0002G

**Area vic  172 to B0172C

**Area vic  380 (sparse)

**Area vic  B0071C (sparse)

**Area vic  1882 (sparse)

**Area vic  B0003G

 

 

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

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