WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, Dec. 16th, I fished with returning guest and solid multi-species fisherman Dwight Stone of Georgetown, TX, and a fishing buddy of his.
Dwight retired from the restaurant business and now spends his time chasing fish and grandkids.
The key to success today was dressing for the weather. We had a reinforcing cold front come in overnight, dropping this morning’s low to 32F, with a wind chill driven down to 25F by a 10-13 mph NW wind gusting to 15.
PHOTO CAPTION #1: This photo about sums it up … frigid weather and white bass on slowly worked, small Hazy Eye slabs in 3/8 oz. That’s Dwight (you’ll have to trust me) in his super-fancy, super-warm seal and otter fur headgear he got through a native Alaskan tribe.
WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 16 December 2020
HOW WE FISHED:
We went into the morning knowing that it was going to be a bit tough today, but, whenever that wind is blowing, white bass can be caught, so, we sought them out with sonar (as no birds assisted us this morning), and, after about an hour of fruitless searching, found a nice bunch of fish in three different areas, each covering a sizeable area of the bottom in distinct groups, each with several hundred fish per group. These fish were packed together in three different areas, each perhaps 200 feet in diameter.
The presentation today was “low and slow” — we used an “easing” tactic with my 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs equipped with stinger hooks to seal the deal on 102 fish, including 2 drum, 3 largemouth, and 97 white bass.
We never landed a single fish outside of the lower third of the water column. The speed at which the fish wanted the lure presented varied with activity level, so, it was great to have three guys fishing abreast of one another AND watch each others’ presentation on Garmin LiveScope to see who was getting hit. In this way, the other two guys could adjust presentation speed “on the fly” and everyone started catching until the fishes’ mood changed again and we had to experiment with speed once again.
We caught a lot of smaller fish today as I moved away from some of the areas I’d been on in order to escape the wind, and because these areas showed to hold no fish early on in the morning.
Our best fishing went from 9 to 11, with a slow tapering off as the winds dropped to below 8 fairly suddenly around that time. We wrapped up right at the 4-hour mark, as I had a follow-on sonar training to conduct this afternoon.
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: 102 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: We lost another full degree of heat thanks to a brisk, overnight cold front. Surface temp at dawn stood at 55.3F.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:45A
End Time: 11:45A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 32F
Elevation: 1.07 low with a 0.03’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam
Water Surface Temp: 55.3F
Wind Speed & Direction: NW13 through 10A, then tapering down to NW10
Sky Condition: Cloudless, bluebird skies as high pressure built in with a cold front which arrived overnight.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon, 2 days past new moon at 4% illumination
GT = 55
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Areas B0005G, B0186C, and B0003G all produced well on “eased” small slabs
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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