I DON’T CARE WHAT KIND OR HOW BIG — 124 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This afternoon, Monday, Dec. 21st, I fished with Mr. Don Bousquet, Mr. Larry Miller, and four young men: Cameron Miller (3rd grade from New Orleans, LA), and Ryder Balmos, Hudson Slimp, and Luke Carlson (all 5th graders from Salado, TX).

Some weeks ago, Mr. Rodney Tyroch referred Don my way.  Don, owner of Ragin’ Cajun Boat Storage off of Adams Ave. just outside Temple Lake Park, left a message on my voicemail, as I was on the boat with clients at the time.  He said, “…I got three little kids that wanna catch a hundred fish; I don’t care what kind; I don’t care how big; the oldest one’s in 5th grade; we just wanna go catch some fish.”

Today, that very thing took place!

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  This was my crew this afternoon – back left: Larry Miller and Don Bousquet; front left: Ryder Balmos, Cameron Miller, Luke Carlson, and Hudson Slimp.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2:  Hudson (left) and Luke landed these two fish simultaneously as we were catching white bass at a fast clip from out of 34 feet of water on Hazy Eye Slabs.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #3: Ryder Balmos of Salado with his largest fish of the trip; a 3.50 pound freshwater drum.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #4:   3rd grader Cameron Miller came all the way from New Orleans to land this fish, as well as his fair share of the 124 fish haul we enjoyed catching and releasing this afternoon.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (PM), 21 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

After watching today’s weather forecast since this past Saturday morning, I decided with my clients’ input, to postpone this morning’s trip due to cold, bright, windless conditions.  Those conditions are the toughest one can face in pursuit of white bass.  In hindsight, I’m very glad we did so.

This afternoon’s conditions were a bit of a different story … winds were due to develop out of the SW, which did occur starting around 12:30pm.  We had a gentle but constant wind from 3-6mph all afternoon with increasing cloud cover.  The fish were already biting when we hit our first area and they didn’t quit all afternoon.

I hit 4 distinct areas, and made 2 “short hops” at each, relocating the boat a few boat lengths away from our initial position once the action began to slow.  We worked small slabs 100% of the time today just for simplicity’s sake.  One of the gentlemen I routinely compare notes with report good results on MAL Lures elsewhere on the lake after he also delayed fishing until the afternoon.

Since our focus was on the kids’ success, I changed all the lures over on my rods to 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hooks, thus removing the 3/8 oz. slabs I originally had on.  The extra weight would helps less experienced anglers get to, and stay on, bottom, and help lines hang more vertically so as to help avoid tangles.

We used a very straightforward easing tactic to successfully tempt white bass, largemouth bass, and freshwater drum at each of the stops we made, eventually piecing together a catch of 124 by 4:30pm.

By this time, all but Luke was doing more snacking than fishing, and given the fact that all four boys elected to wear shorts on a fishing trip in December, we wrapped it up at the 3.5 hour mark to avoid a cold, post-sunset ride back to the dock.

Hazy Eye Slabs, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 124 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  1:00P

End Time: 4:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation:  1.08 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour rise and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 56.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW3-6 entire trip

Sky Condition: High, wispy white clouds at 10% at trip’s start, building to light grey coverage at 40% by trip’s end

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 45% illumination

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1077 (14 fish) and 1362 (18 fish)

**Area B0018C (12 fish)

**Area B0044G (13 fish) and 295 (10 fish)

**Area 0412 (42 fish)

**Area 1394 (15 fish)

 

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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