19 | May | 2020 | Fishing Report

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday morning I fished with brothers Jack and Joe Oliver, and 2 of Jack’s sons, Asa and Isaac, on Lake Belton, primarily in pursuit of hybrid striped bass. Jack runs American Electric Company out of Marble Falls, TX, Joe is a retired school superintendent, Asa is a firefighter who works in the Lake Travis area, and Isaac is currently job-hunting after the restaurant chain he worked for fell victim to COVID-19 and closed its doors for good.

PHOTO CAPTION: Above, Jack Oliver, who coordinated this trip for his brother and sons, with a his second hybrid of the morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: Above, Joe Oliver with hybrid in hand.

PHOTO CAPTION: Above, Jack’s son Isaac landed our heftiest hybrid of the trip. This thick-bodied fish weighed in at 5.75 pounds.

PHOTO CAPTION: Above, Jack’s son Asa with a Lake Belton hybrid which absolutely slammed his live threadfin shad

WHEN WE FISHED: 18 May, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: We enjoyed much improved conditions over last week in that the weather is stable, and the flood gates at the dam were shut late last week, leading to a no-flow condition with slowly rising water. We lacked wind and cloud cover this morning, which certainly didn’t help our cause. Nonetheless, we got into the hybrid striped bass we sought over the first 2.25 hours of the trip, then, after finding heavily congregated and very cooperative white bass, we shifted gears, re-rigged with spinning rods and Hazy Eye Slabs and proceeded to wear out the white bass, thus enjoying quality and quantity on this morning’s trip.

TALLY: 115 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Abundant spawning shad at Area SHAD026.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 0.49′ high, 0.05′ rise, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 72.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light, under 4mph from the SSE

Sky Conditions: Blue sky with no cloud cover

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1384 – caught a majority of our 9 legal hybrid in the first 2 hours

**Area vic B0075C – switched over to vertical jigging for white bass upon finding heavily congregated fish around the midpoint of the trip

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)

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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#Fitec

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

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WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Sunday evening I fished with returning guests Brian Parker and Lucindy Packer, accompanied by Brian’s niece, Jamie Johnson from North Carolina, and Brian’s sister, Ruth Guy, from Florida.

Most of you know I don’t fish on Sundays, but, I made an exception for Brian. He scheduled this trip some time ago in conjunction with his relatives’ travel plans, and we were supposed to fish on Saturday morning. High winds and 0.75 inches of rainfall on Saturday forced a cancellation, and Jamie and Ruth were due to depart today, Monday, May 18th.

So, after church I grabbed lunch, got in a quick nap, and loaded up the boat to take on the Sunday afternoon recreational traffic at Lake Belton.

Despite the clear, bright skies, and light, northerly winds, the fishing actually exceeded my expectations.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ruth, Jamie, Brian, and Lucindy, each with a stocky Lake Belton white bass taken via a smoking technique using 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs.

WHEN WE FISHED: 17 May, 2020, PM

HOW WE FISHED: Due to the bright, near-calm conditions, I looked as deep as I could find life on the sonar — just shy of 50′ — for starters. Right off the bat I located a bottom-oriented school of white bass holding on a breakline. We stopped atop them and tried vertical jigging, but they were locked down tight. So, given the fish were spread over an area perhaps 40 yards in diameter, I gave downrigging a try with a single 3- armed umbrella rig. We put 8 white bass in the boat, including a triple, in 4 passes over the area before the fish dispersed.

We moved on and continued looking for fish, and were fortunate to essentially drive right to a very active school of white bass. We got on top of these fish and never left them until sunset shut them down, only repositioning a few yards at a time if the bite started to wane. Once everyone got the hang of the smoking with the 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs we were using with a smoking tactic, I layered in the use of LiveScope and it was like kids in a candy store. All of the ladies were uber-competitive, calling out their individual tallies each time another fish was landed.

As the sun set in the west, this deep-water bite quickly ended. By this time we’d amassed a catch of 104 fish.

TALLY: 104 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:20P

End Time: 8:20P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 0.48′ high, 0.05′ rise, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 74.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light, under 3mph from NW entire trip

Sky Conditions: Blue sky with no cloud cover

GT = 215

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1743 – 8 whites on downrigger

**Area vic B0149C – 3 solid hours of white bass action on smoked slabs – 3 short hops