KINDA LIKE ICE FISHING — 130 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, Oct. 26th, I fished with pastors PJ Condit and Scott Smith.

The men became friends a few years ago when they attended an event at the same retreat center near Lexington, TX.

PJ is the lead minister at Community Christian Church in Round Rock, and Scott is the senior pastor at Crestview Christian Church in Copperas Cove.

My original Monday plans were to fish with a man and his 9-year-old daughter, but, on Saturday, when it looked sure that this morning’s weather was going to be only for the most die-hard of anglers, we rescheduled and I posted my “last minute” opening on Facebook.  PJ, who has fished with me previously and follows my Facebook page, was the early bird who got that worm.

 

Although it drizzled on us the entire time, we never got downpoured on, and, with a few layers of clothing and Gore-Tex on the outside, the conditions were tolerable.  It was kinda like icefishing — the wind was cold and the fishing was vertical.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  PJ Condit came up with our best fish of the outing in the final 30 minutes of the day.  We landed two other legal hybrid, as well.

PHOTO CAPTION #2:  If you glimpse behind Scott’s right hand, you can see this largemouth bass had plenty of company down in the lower third of the water column where dozens of white bass (and other species, I’m sure) were up an feeding on shad, and on our MAL Lures.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #3:  Pastors’ Day Off!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  Monday, 26 October 2020

HOW WE FISHED: 

Yet again I was blessed to have a booked trip which coincided with pre-frontal activity.  Although none of the weather sources I use (NOAA, KCEN-TV, KVUE-TV) got it exactly right, they all agreed that the front would arrive just after noon today.  That gave me from 7:30 (when it was sufficiently light enough thorough the heavy cloud cover to turn the bite on) until around noon to take advantage of the much better than average fishing which precedes a cold front’s arrival.

Indeed, the downrigger bite, which has been going 50 minutes tops, lasted over ninety minutes this morning, giving up numerous doubles, and a total of 44 fish by 9:00AM.  We left those fish still biting as soon as I felt the bite was waning so as to get on top of an even more aggressive vertical bite.

Although the fish were fired up this morning, I noted that on any given area, they only stayed really aggressive for 20-30 minutes, thus requiring that I find fish multiple times this morning.  We wound up fishing vertically in 5 distinct areas, and caught equally well at each one.

By 10:40A, the bite began to wane, and the temperature began to drop noticeably as cold air began to filter in slowly, but surely.  We landed our final fish at 11:30A and had to work for the final 3 fish we landed.

In all, we caught and released 130 fish, with 86 of those taken on chartreuse MAL Lures.  I used white and chartreuse interchangeably most times, but, with such dark grey cover this morning, I felt a bit more confident in the brighter chartreuse model.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 130 FISH (126 white bass, 3 legal hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass)

OBSERVATIONS: 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES: 

Start Time:  7:10A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F  (and dropping to 54F by trip’s end

Elevation:  0.34′ low with a 0.01′ 24-hour rise and 0 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 71.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  WNW winds all morning, starting and staying at 10-11, then ramping up from 10:40A to NNW14 as temperature began to drop noticeably.

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover

Moon Phase: A waxing crescent moon at 78% illum.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic  B0155C to B00156C  – low light downrigging for 44 whites with balls at 26-30′.  This bite lasted 2x the duration it had been lasting over the past 2 weeks.  We left at 9AM with fish still biting to get onto the even better vertical MAL Lure bite.

**Areas vic 1012, vic 098, vic B0149C, vic 355, and vic 355  – all areas produced 20-30 minutes’ worth of vertical fishing with MAL Lures worked directly beneath the boat in the lower third of the water column (SP)

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

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