08 | February | 2021 | Fishing Report

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, February 8th, I fished with Todd Hudler of Academy, Texas, and his sons, Luke (age 13), and Hunter (age 11).

Todd is part of the Nuclear Medicine Department at Baylor Scott & White in Temple, Texas, where he manages the mobile PET Scanning operations.

Both of the boys are involved in the Academy Future Farmers of America (FFA), and, at a recent fund-raiser, their dad bid on a fishing gift certificate I had donated.

The boys were off from school today for “fair day” which is when the kids involved with FFA make preparations for showing their livestock at the Bell County Expo Center, so they invested the morning in pursuit of fish then got down to business in the afternoon. The boys both raise rabbits and were planning on getting their prep done after the fishing trip.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Todd, Hunter, and Luke Hudler of Academy, TX, with slab-caught white bass taken under cool, foggy conditions this morning on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 08 February 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

The prevailing weather factor this morning was a persistent fog which cut visibility to about a third of a mile through around 10:30A when it finally began to thin (although it never cleared during the trip’s duration).

Given this scenario, I started looking for fish up shallow this morning where the limited light would be illuminating the bottom more so than in deeper water. We took our first 7 fish in under 25 feet of water after making a few short hops to target “fresh fish”.

Our next move was out to 30 feet of water. We found 3 pods of fish on a slow-tapering bottom and found them willing to strike as soon as we arrived, but also found they would shut off pretty quickly.

As I was looking for our fourth pod of fish in this same vicinity, some helpful bird activity pointed the way to our best fishing of the morning in terms of both quality and catch rate. About 30 terns aggressively worked a patch of water about 200 yards in diameter for about 30 minutes. Although the fish still were not uber-aggressive (after all, the water temp is just 53F), they were willing to chase MAL Lures better than the slower Hazy Eye Slabs we’d been using up to that point. Once the bird action subsided, our catch rate dropped back off, and we moved on to our two final areas, both in deeper (50+ foot) water.

We found primarily small fish carpeting small segments of bottom at two distinct areas and were able to tempt perhaps one in every 15 or 20 that showed themselves with some target separation off bottom.

We finished up right around 11:15 as the bite was slowing to a crawl with exactly 59 fish landed in our 4.25 hours on the water.

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

TALLY: 59 fish caught and released (2 largemouth bass, 2 drum, 55 white bass)

OBSERVATIONS: The fog, as usual, made it tough (but not impossible) to excite fish today … I wish I understood that connection. Understand it or not, there is definitely a connection between fog and slow fishing.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:15 A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 50F

Elevation: 0.60′ low with a 0.04’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam.

Water Surface Temp: 53F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE all morning at 9mph

Sky Condition: Light fog all morning to 10:30, then slight clearing to 100% grey cloudy conditions

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 12% illumination

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT: N.A.

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas: 606 thru 099 (shallow), B0111C thru B0117C (short hops), 1859 thru 1733 (bird assistance), BG0026 (deep), vic 1391 (channel side)

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

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#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning, Feb. 6th, I fished with a crew from ABC Supply Co. Inc., a building supply chain.

Stiles Parker put the trip together for his co-worker, including Sebastian Coy, Jay Stone, Thomas McCoy, Bryce Yount and,Tony Urquidi.

Stiles has fished with me a number of times previously and the rest of the crew joined me for the first time today.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Bryce Yount, Stiles Parker, Thomas McCoy, Jay Stone, Tony Urquidi, and Sebastian Coy, each with a white bass taken under birds from over a deep flat early on in our trip.

PHOTO CAPTION: Sebastian took this 5.00-pound largemouth from 38 feet of water while working his slab for white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 06 February 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Fishing was pretty tough this morning. Despite the fact that a mild, dry front was moving in, we faced much the same scenario as we did this past Thursday morning, with light winds moving from SE to W over the course of the morning in advance of the front.

We found fish all morning long, but typically caught just a handful upon arrival at a given area before the fish quickly lost interest in our presentations. Seeing this, and knowing what it took to catch fish under last Thursday’s similar scenario, I moved us frequently to keep the “novelty factor” going the best I could.

We used MAL Lures to catch about 70% of our fish in the first 3 hours while the fish were showing a willingness to chase, then switched over to 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye slabs in the final 2 hours as the fish got more and more reluctant as the morning bite tapered off.

Only at our first area fished did we find fish on deep flats under birds this morning for about an hour, then all else was fishing on the channel edge.

TALLY: 42 fish caught and released (1 largemouth bass, 1 drum, 40 white bass)

OBSERVATIONS: The lead edge of the wind shift came around 11:30, with the winds going W13, but they then died back around noon for a brief time before the actual front arrived with a stiff (20+) N wind around 2pm.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 12:00 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Elevation: 0.60′ high with a 0.00’ 24-hour change and 1 CFS flow thru the dam.

Water Surface Temp: 52.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE at trip’s start, slowly swinging thru S to SSW over the duration of the trip. Just after 11, a brief lull developed with the SSW wind going nearly calm, then, around 11:30 the first W winds began which would, about 2 hours later give way to a strong NW wind over 20mph which ushered in yet another mild, dry front.

Sky Condition: Overcast skies steadily thinning to clear conditions by 11 AM.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 31% illumination

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas: SH0080C thru 2019 (low light deep bite on deep flat), 1167 (channel edge), 0127 (draw with multiple short hops), 0113/Sh0085C (channel edge), SH0041G (channel edge)