A GIFT OF FISHING – 134 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday morning, November 9th, I fished with two fellows who’ve been fishing buddies for decades: Brad Phillips and Jim Davis.

Brad ran an industrial supply business in Temple for many years and currently does home inspections.  Jim recently retired from the commercial banking business.

Brad received this trip in the form of a gift certificate from Linda Hankins, a close friend of his who operates the Belton Small Animal Clinic.

Linda, Jim, and Brad (and a few others) have travelled internationally to fish together through the years, and I enjoyed having experienced anglers aboard.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  Jim Davis with one of the hybrid we took while fishing MAL Lures vertically primarily for deep white bass this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION #2:  This 4 lbs. largemouth was a bit of a surprise.  I came up off bottom after Brad’s MAL Lure as we fishing in 47 feet of water.  Most largemouth I take as bycatch when fishing for white bass tend to be smaller 1 to 2.5 pound class fish.

PHOTO CAPTION #3:  We caught a nice mess of white bass today, with above average-sized fish being the norm today as compared to the last 6 weeks’ worth of trips which have included a lot of small fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 09 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

As we got to know each other a bit at the start of the trip, I learned that Brad and Jim were both experienced, well-travelled anglers.  This actually concerned me a bit because oftentimes experienced anglers (and especially male experienced anglers) will not follow the guidance I provide very closely and wind up doing below average as a result.

Fortunately, when I tried to tactfully express this concern, both men understood what I was getting at, and had witnessed examples of other who failed to follow their guide’s suggestions do poorly.

Both fellows got the hang of using the MAL Lure very quickly and, as a result, they caught fish consistently from start to finish, landing 134 fish.

Things started a bit slow with a surprise layer of light fog settling in just before sunrise.  However, it dispersed quickly and we then got down to catching and stayed catching right up until the fish quit at around 11:30.

In all, we hit 5 areas, and each produced white bass which began on bottom (where we located them with sonar) and then climbed higher into the water column as the fish we caught created commotion and drew them upwards.

In all, we landed 134 fish, including 2 legal hybrid striped bass, 4 legal largemouth bass, and 129 white bass.

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: 134 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   No helpful bird activity witnessed this morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:00A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation:  0.59′ low with a 0.01’ 24-hour drop and 0 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 65.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were ~S6 with the fog, then picked up to S12-14 after the fog lifted.

Sky Condition: Light fog developed right before sunrise, then remained for about 40 minutes thereafter.  When it dissipated, 100% grey skies remained then began clearing around 10AM.  By trip’s end we had 50% white cloud cover on blue skies.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous at 40% illumination

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1152; 49 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0157C ; 6 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0051G; 20 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 593; 14 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 346; 45 white bass on MAL Lures (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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