ELECTRIC TRAIN MONEY — 119 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, November 17th, I fished with Dr. Jim Wood of McGregor, TX, and a friend of his, Chad Tarvestad.

Jim was on my standby list in the event I had a postponement/cancellation.  The fellow I was due to provide sonar training to today had equipment issues, so, Jim jumped on the opening.

Jim’s medical specialty is wound care — a field he is ‘slowly retiring’ from.  He’s also a model train enthusiast.  So, when I asked him how many days a month he’s now working, he told me “about three”, and I observed that that was just enough for “electric train money and then some”.  He chuckled, and agreed.

Chad is a U.S. Army veteran originally from North Dakota.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   From left:  Dr. Jim Wood and Chad Tarvestad with a portion of their 119 fish catch made on vertical presentations this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 17 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:   

After cancelling a trip yesterday due to “textbook” post-frontal conditions (cold, calm, clear), we were due to have a bit more wind today, about which I was encouraged.

I moved our start time back to 7:30AM, and allowed the sun to rise and begin to fully shine on the water before we began hunting fish.

Our first area searched was a bust.  The second area produced fish from out of 43 feet of water.  We used MAL Lures worked vertically to put our first 38 fish in the boat, all of which were white bass.

Our next stop, made with a gentler breeze now blowing, gave up another 25 white bass from out of 52 feet of water, also on MAL Lures worked with a moderate cadence.

As we kept fishing, the wind kept dying.  Our third area gave up 18 fish; our fourth area gave up 29 fish, and the last area we hit gave up a final 9 fish.

We watched the wind go out of the fishes’ sails at that final spot we hit as the fish perked up as soon as we let our baits down, but then, after just 3 fish caught, the interest level dropped off with fish either half-heartedly chasing our baits, or not chasing them at all.

After having experienced this “end of the morning feed” routine the fish have been doing around 11-11:30AM, I came prepared with small slabs (3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks attached) to try a finesse presentation if/when the fish reached this point.

We put our final 6 fish in the boat using this “easing” tactic, but it was painfully slow fishing.  By 11:40, the fish were done.

Total catch was 119 fish, (1 drum, 118 white bass) of which 113 were taken on the MAL Lure, with the remaining 6 taken on the Hazy Eye Slab w/stinger.

 

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: 119 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Still no helpful bird activity in any amount after just 2 days of minimal assistance 2 weeks ago.  I think it just hasn’t been cold enough long enough to get the birds pushed down here and get the fish oriented on suspended bait quite yet.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 34F

Elevation:  0.71 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour rise and 35 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 64F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were WNW at 12 at sunrise, slowly tapering to near calm by 10:05A, then shifting SE1-3 thereafter.

Sky Condition: Cloudless

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 7% illumination

GT = 75

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0201C; 38 white bass on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0151C; 25 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 561; 18 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area B0050G; 29 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic B0150C; 9 fish on MAL Lures/Hazy Eye Slab (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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