A FULL DAY TRIP ON BELTON — 271 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, 09 Dec., I fished with returning guests Eric Martin and Christian Hunter.

The two first became friends in the 8th grade in the Belton Independent School District, and have been buddies ever since.

The trip was furnished courtesy of Eric’s grandmother, Sandra Gehler, as an early Christmas present.

On my full day trips, we plan on fishing ~4 hours in the morning, and ~4 hours in the afternoon, with an off-the-water lunch break inbetween (which I always spend at Sol de Jalisco in Morgans Point!).

Today we fished from 7:30A to 11:15A, then again from 1P to 5:25P.  We saw the bite develop, peak, and taper off on both portions of the trip, with a midday cessation of feeding activity.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Although our target species was white bass, having a hybrid striper crash the party is never disappointing.  Here is Eric Martin with our first hybrid of the morning.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2: As I netted Eric’s hybrid, this one struck Christian Hunter’s MAL Lure as we fished in about 40 feet of water.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #3: The white bass were crushing it most of the day today.  We had a few lulls when the winds went briefly slack, but otherwise, with a light west wind, the bite was full-on.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 09 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

If there was any doubt in my mind yesterday concerning the impact falling water temperature has had on the white basses’ decreased likelihood to aggressively pursue a fast moving lure, that doubt was eliminated today.

The surface temperature slipped just a bit more overnight down to 58.3.

The fish we found early in the morning were in no mood to chase my MAL Lures, so, seeing this propensity develop over the last few days, I once again came equipped with slabs.

While the fish were unwilling or at least reluctant to chase quickly upwards, we used my 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook attached to tempt the fish with a slow, “easing” tactic.  Then, once the bite developed and fish began to strike more readily and began to show up suspended at least 3-4 feet from bottom, we found that the MAL Lure worked its magic and far outperformed the slabs from that point until the bite at a given area began to cool down.  A “cool down” takes place when the fish no longer move as quickly, nor as excitedly as they did when the bite was at peak conditions, and as the fish begin to return nearly exclusively to bottom (no more suspending).  Once this occurred, we could catch a few more on the slab, but found it wiser just to quit these fish and go find another school to “tease up”.

We did as described above at 3 distinct locations in the morning, and at 7 distinct locations in the evening, and found this approach was consistently effective.

We amassed a catch of 140 fish in the morning, and another 131 fish in the afternoon.  Included in this catch were 5 largemouth bass, 4 drum, 5 hybrid striped bass, and 257 white bass.

See the MAL Lure, Hazy Eye Slabs, and Stinger Hooks 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: 271 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   There were 1 episode of helpful gull activity this morning. The bite rose and fell with wind speed in both the AM and PM today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A  and 1:00P

End Time: 11:15A and 5:25P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F (AM); 66F (PM)

Elevation:  0.98 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour fall and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 58.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:  W6 at sunrise, tapering to W0-2 by morning’s end; then W5 from 1-2:30P, tapering to W2-3 thereafter.

Sky Condition: Bluebird skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 34% illumination

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

AM:  Areas 1543, B0061G, and 489

PM: Areas B0018C, B0062G, 1945, B0173C, 1882, and 817

 

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