WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, Dec. 11th, I fished with returning guests Gary and Rachel Davidson of Kerrville, TX, and their friends, first-time guests Mike and Nora Cook, also of Kerrville.
If Gary’s name sounds familiar, it is because he took advantage of a last-minute cancellation this past Tuesday morning when he and I put 83 fish in the boat on what was more of a teaching effort in which I introduced Gary to some of the tactics which will be necessary as cold weather sets in.
Gary had let me know earlier in the month that he’d like me to call him if I had any cancellations pop up.
Yesterday, a corporate client had those he’d hoped to entertain cancel on him, thus leaving another hole in the schedule, which Gary also filled.
If you are reading this and have flexibility in your calendar and would like me to contact you about discounted trips like this, please let me know so. I will call you before posting such vacancies on Facebook to give you “right of first refusal”.
I can’t promise what the discount will be, but I can typically take a bit of the forfeited deposit and put it towards your trip to make it a win-win for both of us. $45 off is normally how it shakes out.
PHOTO CAPTION #1: This was my jolly, albeit soggy, crew of four this morning. From left: Gary and Rachel Davidson, and Mike and Nora Cook, all of Kerrville, TX.
PHOTO CAPTION #2: I kidded Nora, who has made of career in both public and private schools, that teachers are hard to teach. After getting the hang of things, Nora more than pulled her own weight on the fish tally this morning. She landed our two largest fish of the trip.
WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake
WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 11 December 2020
HOW WE FISHED:
The fishing was a bit tougher than I anticipated this morning as the wind forecast did not match reality. We never had more than a 4mph breeze at any time, and it was often flat calm. Fortunately, the grey cloud cover helped overcome some of that, and we did go on to put together a nice catch.
Our first 40 minutes was very slow, with only 8 fish to show for our efforts as we tediously worked slabs to fish glued to the bottom. Slowly the sky lightened and a bit of a ripple developed, fueling a light feed by a flock of ~20 terns in two different areas over a roughly 1.25 hour span.
By the time the birds had enough to eat, we’d landed 68 fish and it was around 10:30A. We moved on and relied exclusively upon sonar from this point on to find our fish.
We experienced our best action from ~10:50 to 11:45 with abundant fish both chasing baits hard from off the bottom, and showing a propensity to suspend and patrol. This last area we visited produced a final 55 fish, putting our grand total for the morning at 123 fish.
The LiveScope was indispensable for tracking suspended fish and allowing my guest to know when to reel and when not to reel so as to time the rise of their lure to match the movements of the fish see on the screen.
We landed our first 8 fish on slabs when things were uber-slow, and then worked MAL Lures the remainder of the morning with good results.
The 123 fish included 1 drum, 1 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 120 white bass. Sad to say, Rachel had a giant of the fish on her line, which we suspect was a large yellow catfish by its behavior. She hooked it and it stayed on bottom the entire fight. It ran upwind about 80 yards (as I chased it with the trolling motor) where it finally tangled in brush. We “see-sawed” with it in the brush for a while, but it was clear that it wasn’t coming out. I finally made the call to pull slowly and directly on the line. One of the treble hook’s tines broke as I did so, and we recovered the damaged lure. If we didn’t catch the fish, it was at least good to know we didn’t leave the fish unable to extract itself from the tangle it swam into — she’s still out there!
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: 123 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: There was but 1 episode of helpful gull activity this morning.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:45A
End Time: 12:15P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F
Elevation: 1.03 low with a 0.02’ 24-hour fall and 34 CFS flow thru the dam
Water Surface Temp: 59.4F (a slight increase versus Wed. AM)
Wind Speed & Direction: Varying between calm and SSE under 4mph, despite NOAA’s forecast of SW10-13 all morning
Sky Condition: Light mist to light rain all morning under heavy grey skies
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 14% illumination
GT = 65
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area B0118C (slow early action)
**Area 2038, 682, and 346 – steady action under birds
**Area 150 – moderate action
**Area 593/097 – best action at late morning, last stop
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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