WANNA BE ON STANDBY? — 123 FISH @ BELTON

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

#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

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

MULTI-TACTICS, MULTI-SPECIES – 83 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, 08 Dec., I was joined by returning guest Gary Davidson of Kerrville, TX.

Gary fished with me back on Oct. 9th this year, scoring high numbers of white bass, accompanied by his wife, Rachel, when the water temperature was still in the high 70’s.

One of Gary’s goals during that trip was to work through the maze of options on sonar and trolling motors out there to best equip a new deep-vee aluminum fishing boat he has on order.

As a semi-retired CPA, things get quiet around the office in December, so, he sent me a note to put him on the standby list in case someone cancelled on a last-minute basis.  Gary wanted to come back out, not so much to catch fish, but to iron out a few loose ends on sonar, and to understand additional white bass tactics as we head into cooler months.

With a sonar training postponement today due to COVID, I was able to customize a trip for Gary which included use of three different techniques for white bass, plenty of real-world sonar interpretation, and some blue catfish fishing, all finished up with the shore-based portion of my sonar training done in the parking lot.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Our multi-species efforts today included laying about 40 minutes aside to focus on blue catfish.

PHOTO CAPTION #2: As we used three tactics for freshwater pelagics (smoking, easing, and snap-jigging), we pulled dozens of white bass and 2 hybrid in for a real close look!

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 08 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

If you’ve followed my reports for any length of time, you’ll know I try to be an “honest broker”.  If I have a great day, I’ll call it what it was; likewise, if I have a tough day, you’ll know it, too.  I don’t just report on the highlights; I report on every trip I make.

All that said, today, for the first time since bringing my MAL Lure to market, I noted a decreased interest in that lure versus a slower tactic.  I felt certain this time would come, but I did not know at just what water temperature this slowdown would occur.  I am putting the “nail in the floor” at between 58 and 59F surface temperature.

I am definitely not mothballing the MAL Lure  — we actually caught at or above half of our catch on it, but, those fish we caught were active fish — they were either feeding under birds, or up high in the water column patrolling.

The fish we encountered in the first hour on the water did not fall into either one of these categories  — they were holding tight to the bottom and were not chasing shad, thus, they were not attracting birds.

When the fish were in such a mood, the easing tactic I’ve written much about produced fish steadily.  We used my 3/4 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab with Stinger Hook attached and slowly raised the slab upwards while observing fish behavior on Garmin LiveScope.  When we found the speed they liked, we just kept replicating that and observed how the bite slowly got more aggressive as the fish moved faster and farther from bottom, and as they followed the lure in greater numbers as compared to when we began.

Eventually, the activity level rose to the point where the fish were hitting the MAL Lure and, at the same time, drawing in birds.  Even when the birds settled, the MAL Lure attracted the remaining suspended fish still patrolling at a steady clip.

We stopped fishing for white bass at the 3 hour mark with 78 white bass, 1 largemouth, and 1 short hybrid tallied in order to spend some time on blue catfish.

We used some favorite doughbait of mine on my Catfish Plumbs to present our baits to fish in ~44 feet of water after getting their attention with range cubes.  We fished one area with no success, then moved and fairly quickly observed a fish creeping in along bottom toward Gary’s Catfish Plumb.  He had his finger on the braid so as to feel a bite and immediately set the hook well.  When the fish came to net we had a 6.75 pound bluecat on deck.  After a few photos, we decided, based on sonar returns showing white bass all around us, to invest our last few minutes into white bass.  We landed 1 more white and 1 keeper hybrid and called it a great morning before the fish gave up for the morning.

See the MAL Lure, Hazy Eye Slabs, and Catfish Plumbs 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: 83 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   There were 3 episodes of gull activity this morning.  #1 was birds on shad (no gamefish) in deep, open water right before and during sunrise; #2 was birds and fish on shad over ~40-45′ which lasted ~20 minutes from 9:20 to 9:40; #3 was birds and fish on shad over 40-45′ which lasted ~30 minutes from 10:10 to 10:40.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:45A

End Time: 12:45P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Elevation:  0.97 low with a 0.00’ 24-hour change and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 58.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  WNW6-7 all morning

Sky Condition: Bluebird skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 45% illumination

GT = 64

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 086; all fish on 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs (SP)

**Area vic 966-B0013G; fish split 50/50 on MAL Lures and 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs (SP)

**Area vic 1209; 1 blue catfish fish on dough bait (SP)

**Area vic 1277; all fish on 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs (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

DO YOU HAVE A LICENSE, & DID YOU WATCH THE VIDEO?? — 173 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, 07 Dec., I was joined by a whole boatful of returning clients.  I had a contingent from Bates Nissan in Killeen, including David Vahrenkamp, who coordinated the trip, and brothers Clay and Robin O’Dell.  They invited along Jerry Worley, owner of the Jerry Worley Insurance Agency in Harker Heights.

My first question to everyone this morning was, “Do you have your license on you, and did you watch the video?” referring to the MAL Lure tutorial video I put together.

I’ve begun including that video in my pre-trip communication to clients so they have at least seen the basics on working this lure for white bass in a vertical “smoking”-style retrieve.

Everyone gave me a thumbs-up, so, off we went.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   From right: Clay and Robin O’Dell, David Vahrenkamp, and Jerry Worley. Can you tell it was a bit chilly out there?!?

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 07 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

As was the case this past Saturday, we caught the majority of our fish today in the last 2 hours, whereas up until this point (since turnover), the best bite has been in the middle 2 hours following sunrise.

Although there was some sunrise bird activity, these birds were really only after bait on the surface, not bait forced to the surface by fish feeding from below, so, we left these alone and went to find fish with sonar while most other boats I saw were distracted by the birds.

We found three groups of fish large enough to make me want to stop the boat and put lines in the water, all within an eighth of a mile from one another.  These groups all behaved in the same manner, characteristic of fish just beginning to feed — the vast majority were glued to the bottom and most would not give our lures a sniff, but, when one reacted, a few others would come along for a look as well.  Slowly these fish got a bit more aggressive and we began to take fish slowly, but steadily.  This went on for about 90 minutes, over which time we put 38 fish in the boat.

We then encountered some real bird action — action fueled by feeding fish.  In the 35 minutes or so during which this lasted, we put another 30 fish in the boat.  When the gulls rested, we departed this area.

We hit two areas along a lip dropping from 35′ down into deeper water and picked up about 10 fish at each stop, but nothing to keep me from leaving to look for greener pastures.  It was now around 11AM, and we had 87 fish in the boat.

I decided to check an area where we’d found fish earlier in the morning, but passed on them because they were so tightly holding on bottom, I could tell they weren’t going to cooperate.  The sonar returns here could not have looked better — fish up to 2.5 feet off bottom already feeding.  Then, when we dropped our MAL Lures down, a few aggressive individuals swam upwards to meet them — another excellent sign.  Long story short, we fished these fish for about 50 minutes and added a final 86 fish to our tally as these fish just lit up before shutting down for the morning once and for all.

We landed a total of 173 fish, of which 172 were white bass, with a solo largemouth mixed in.

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: 173 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   Brief gull activity at mid-morning which lasted for about 30 minutes — gulls and terns.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:40A

End Time: 11:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Elevation:  0.94 low with a 0.04’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 59.43F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NW7-8 all morning

Sky Condition: Bluebird skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 56% illumination

GT = 85

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 151 with 3 short hops; 38 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 2038; 30 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic B0050G with 2 short hops; 19 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 1489; 86 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

HOOKLASHED! — 145 FISH @ BELTON

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

DAD, I KNOW WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS!! — 126 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Wednesday, Dec. 2nd, I fished with Brian Linford of El Paso, TX, and his “homeless” father, Larry Linford, who is weighing his options after selling his home in Idaho Falls, ID, and is considering becoming at least a winter-Texas given that his adult kids all live down this way.

The two were visiting relatives in the Belton area and decided to give Lake Belton a try.  Larry hadn’t done much white bass fishing before, and Brian was eager to see how I put sonar, in particular the GARMIN LiveScope, into practice in a “real-world” fish-finding scenario.

After seeing what he saw, but knowing his wife would not be wild about the possibility of another sonar purchase, Brian considered his alternatives and informed Larry, “Dad, I know what I want for Christmas.”   Larry just laughed.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   From right: Larry and Brian Linford with a few of the 3-year class fish from our haul of 126 fish taken from Lake Belton on MAL Lures this morning in advance of a dry cold front which came in around 1PM.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 02 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

It was a pretty crazy weather day today which resulting in me having to postpone my afternoon outing due to forecast high winds.

We had a mild, dry cold front approaching from the NW, but this morning’s trip did not coincide with the pre-frontal wind shift in advance of that front, so, we had enjoyable conditions, but pretty average fishing.  We were aided by light, grey cloud cover, but hindered by a lack of wind.

When the wind blew, the activity level of the fish rose noticeably, but, the opposite was also true.

We put our 100th fish in the boat today right at 11:20, the, because I had already made a call to postpone the afternoon trip and was under no time constraints, we hit an area I haven’t fished in a while to scout it out a bit.  I found fish in about 35′ on bottom, and we fished them until they quit, putting a “bonus” 26 fish in the boat and taking our final tally to 126 fish.

In that mix was 1 freshwater drum, 2 smallmouth bass, 8 largemouth bass, and 115 white bass.  No hybrid striped bass in the mix this morning.

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: 126 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   No gull activity today after a 4-day run of solid bird action.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A

End Time: 11:50A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation:  0.87 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 60.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light SE breeze at trip’s start, then just short stints of light breezes from the SW thereafter in the hours immediately preceding the arrival of yet another mild, dry cold front which started with a northerly wind around 1P, and which led to the postponement of this afternoon’s trip due to high forecast winds (18, gusting 25)

Sky Condition: Grey skies all morning with occasional mist, as well as occasional, brief breaks of sun through the clouds.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 96% illumination

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1483; 15 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 1489; 21 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 354; 34 on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic B0051G; 31 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 579; 25 fish 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

IT’S A CRIME TO PAY MORE THAN A DIME – 100 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: If you’ve ever heard the phrase “It’s a crime to pay more than a dime.” — you were most likely listening to a McLeod Auto Sales radio commercial.

This morning, Tuesday, December 1st, I fished with returning guest Travis McLeod, co-owner, along with his wife, Diane, of McLeod Auto Sales at 1601 E. Rancier Ave. in Killeen.

The McLeods have been in business for over 20 years selling used cars.  To take a break from that from time to time, Travis likes to get out and do some hunting and fishing.  Today, he braved some pretty tough weather to pursue white bass and sharpen up his own game on this abundant gamefish species on Lake Belton so as to be able to treat his own family, namely his grandkids, to some similar fishing.

Although we both enjoyed the catching, Travis also came to pick my brain a bit about tactics and sonar use.  He came away with a few valuable lessons, namely, that he’s likely been looking too shallow in his autumn fishing, and too dependent on the down-looking technologies of down-imaging and colored sonar, while not making full use of his side imaging on his own Humminbird Helix unit.

Travis is a well-traveled hunter and in that arena I picked up a tip or two from him, namely that I need to set aside time to go to the Dallas Safari Club’s Convention and Sporting Expo held annually in Dallas.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   Travis McLeod with one of several hybrid striped bass we took from about 40 feet of water as we focused on white bass using a combination of MAL Lures and Garmin LiveScope.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 01 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

After a sweet run of fishing for very aggressive fish spurred on by frontal activity this past Saturday and again yesterday, things settled back down to more normal conditions today as a southerly wind returned overnight after a very short post-frontal calm just at and after sunset last night.

Under these conditions, fish feed, but not for extended periods.  Fish chase, but not for extra long distances, and the energy they exhibit is generally less than when a rapid change of atmospheric pressure is taking place.

Today we wound up fishing 4 general locations, short-hopping a bit at the first three to keep up with the fish (under birds), to put together our catch of exactly 100 fish.  By 10:30, the winds, which were forecast to max out a 13 mph straight-line, actually rose to 16-17, with higher gusts.  It was such that we vacated open water for our last hour and fished more protected (but still wind-impacted) water.

Until we hit our last area, our ratio of young of the year fish to legal fish was very low, but, of the last 20 we landed, approx. 17 were shorts.  Regardless of size, it sure is fun to work individual fish while peering into the depths below with the LiveScope technology.

We ended up with exactly 100 fish caught this morning, including 3 hybrid stripers, 4 largemouth, and 93 white bass, with one big drum missed right at boatside which did not go on the “clicker” to be counted.

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: 100 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   2.5 hours worth of solid gull activity in the middle part of this morning’s trip.  First “killing” frost of the year occurred overnight.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Elevation:  0.86 low with a 0.03’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 60.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S12 at trip’s start, ramping up to S16 with higher gusts to 20+ by 10:30A

Sky Condition: High, thin white cloud cover at ~20% on a light blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 99% illumination

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic B0098C; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 086 to 1551; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 1391; all fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic 844; all fish 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