WHO I FISHED WITH: On Friday, May 29th, I fished with returning guests Tom and Tracie Byrd of Weir, TX, accompanied by Tom’s sister, Patty Williams. This trip was arranged by Tom in celebration of Tracie’s 71st birthday. Tom, a former USAF fighter pilot, and Tracie live “in the country” on the outskirts of Austin where they keep up with their own horses and board a few others’ horses, as well. Patty is a long-time Frost Bank employee. The Byrd’s have been out with me for a number of years, typically in celebration of Tracie’s birthday.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Tom and Tracie Byrd and Patty Williams with nice Lake Belton white bass taken on Hazy Eye Slabs during the late morning.
WHEN WE FISHED: 29 May, 2020, AM
HOW WE FISHED: With the annual spring peak hybrid bite (and shad spawn) nearly over, we opted to chase white bass this morning, instead. We started off the low-light portion of the trip downrigging and covering water resulting in a catch of 6 singles taken on Pet Spoons affixed to 3-armed umbrella rigs. The area we fished did not hold large concentrations of fish, nor bait, so we moved on spending about 70 minutes or so looking over multiple prime hybrid-holding areas, finding little.
As we arrived at yet another prime hybrid haunt, sonar revealed strong fish signatures, but they were clearly not hybrid. Rather, there were multiple large (300-400 fish) schools of fish in the area holding from bottom all the way up to 1/3 of the way to the surface. When fish are in this posture, they are ripe for plucking, so, we Spot-Locked, got slabs down and started pulling fish. We made two “short hops” here to stay on the fish and wound up pulling 57 white bass from out of this school before the action dissipated.
We moved a few hundred yards, keeping a sharp eye on sonar, and, in water about 10′ deeper, encountered yet another very large school of white bass. Again, we Spot-Locked, worked our slabs well, and brought another 19 fish over the gunwale until the fish finally cooled off for good around 11AM.
TALLY: 82 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Very light spawning shad activity at SHAD028 this morning, which was a wind-impacted shoreline given the NW breeze we had.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7A
End Time: 11A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F
Elevation: 0.26′ high, 0.25′ drop, 1607 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 75.5F
Wind Speed & Direction: NW10
Sky Conditions: 30% white, thin hazy cover on a blue sky
GT = 60
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1019 to B0197 – early morning downrigging for 6 smallish white bass
**Area vic B0041G to B0042G – 57 white bass via smoking slabs in 2 short hops
**Area vic B0148C and south to the 60′ countour – 19 fish in 2 short hops
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)
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Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
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