WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I was joined by father and son Frank and Marcos Sumner. Frank lives in Killeen and Marcos, his wife, and their 2-year-old daughter live down in San Antonio where he works from home (thanks to COVID) in the banking business.
The two went out with me last winter when we enjoyed easy fishing under birds, then Frank brought a buddy towards the end of the spring bite earlier this year.
As I normally do with 2-man parties, I stood between Frank and Marcos so I could easily take fish off for the both of them, do some coaching, and keep the Garmin LiveScope dialed in.
As Frank and I were watching LiveScope together, we saw a school of 5-6 white bass enter onto the screen from the left side. Frank timed the rise of his lure to intersect these fish as they passed. One of the fish pursued his MAL Lure, grabbed it, was hooked briefly, then shook off. We watched that spooked fish turn on the afterburners and head down to bottom at a 45 degree angle back in the direction it had come from. It was then that Frank coined a new term. He calmly said, “Hmmm, looks like that fish got hooklash or something.”
PHOTO CAPTION #1: From right: Marcos Sumner and his dad, Frank, with a sampling of our white bass catch from a chilly December morning on Lake Belton.
WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 05 December 2020
HOW WE FISHED:
Our morning started out a bit squirrely today. We had heavy, grey cloud cover and light winds which kept the fish pretty reluctant right through around 9AM. From our start around 7:30 through 9:00A, we’d hit several areas finding nothing at all on sonar, then we began seeing small groups of white bass in deep water (45+ feet) beginning to come together, but, we got minimal results as we worked for them. By just after 9A, we’d only put 16 fish in the boat.
At this time, the wind picked up, not greatly, but enough to fully ripple and move the surface. The thick, grey cloud cover also began to thin, letting more light through, with steady clearing taking place from this point forward.
Once the fish started, they really made up for lost time. Frank and Marcos put 129 fish in the boat from about 9:15 to 11:45. That would have been a solid result for a 4 hour trip, but they landed all of those fish in about 2.5 hours. During this time I just stood between the two of them and took fish off as fast as they could catch them.
We didn’t see much variety today — just 1 freshwater drum landed, and one largemouth which escaped on a boatside jump, otherwise, it was all white bass and every last one caught on the MAL Lure worked vertically as described in my tutorial video (link below).
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: 145 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: No gull activity today.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:30A
End Time: 11:45A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 33F
Elevation: 0.94 low with a 0.04’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam
Water Surface Temp: 59.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: Light NW breeze all morning at ~4
Sky Condition: Completely grey skies at dawn gave way slowly to light blue skies with 20% white cloud cover.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 76% illumination
GT = 25
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 151; 16 fish on MAL Lures (SP)
**Area vic B0050G; 52 fish on MAL Lures (SP)
**Area vic B0195C; 77 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
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide
#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing
#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport
#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday
#Fitec