WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday, May 3rd, I fished with Jack Oliver and his three sons, Asa, Isaac, and Eli, as well as Jack’s brother, Joe, and one of Jack’s old high school buddies, Darrell Connally — a six man crew.
We planned back at the start of the year for this to be a hybrid striper-focused trip, but the hybrid fishing has been a big disappointment thus far — I’m not catching them, my fellow guides are not catching them, the bank fishermen fishing the morning shad spawn aren’t catching them.
This is normally the time of year for big numbers of these quality fish, but, thus far, it has been a bust.
Jack and I discussed this several days prior to this trip and agreed we’d give it a few hours right off the bat, but that I’d come prepared to change over to targeting white bass if the hybrid did not materialize yet again.
PHOTO CAPTION: First-time guest Darrell Connally of Waco scored one of the two hybrid we labored long and hard for this morning. No, it’s definitely not “hybrid time” — in fact, I’m wondering if there will be a “hybrid time” this spring at all.
PHOTO CAPTION: Long-time client Asa Oliver took the other of the two hybrid we scored on live shad this morning.
PHOTO CAPTION: Isaac Oliver came up with a surprise … this 7-plus pound smallmouth buffalo slammed his live shad and was cleanly lip-hooked with the Gamakatsu Kahle-style hooks we set out this morning.
WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 03 May 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
We put in 2.75 hours of effort trying multiple areas which typically hold hybrid by mid-April. Now, in early May, there are still precious few fish in these areas. During this time we landed 2 legal hybrid, 1 blue cat, 1 smallmouth buffalo, and 4 white bass on large, hand-picked, quality threadfin shad.
With so few hybrid to show for our efforts, and under ideal conditions (grey skies with good southerly winds), we decided at that point to change our focus to white bass.
We found fish at three distinct areas and, after extending the trip by about an hour, managed to put a total of 84 more fish in the boat — all white bass — for a grand total on the morning of 92 fish.
Unfortunately, the early hunt for hybrid came at the expense of targeting white bass during the better (low light) portion of the morning, but, it was a risk we were willing to take. IF the hybrid turn on this year, one party willing to roll the dice like this will be the first to cash in. One silver lining: with some operations taking their business to other lakes due to Belton’s poor hybrid action thus far this season, there is now no crowding to contend with on weekdays.
The white bass are quite abundant and continue to filter back downstream following their annual spawning run. The rigors of spawning and the rising water temperature have these fish hungry and feeding aggressively for long periods of time. Even when the weather is off, these fish can still be caught in abundance right now.
We gave the original MAL Lure a workout with 6 rods going constantly and everyone tuned in with Garmin LiveScope to make up for some lost time in loading up on the white bass we caught and released.
MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
Tutorial on how to fish MAL Lures is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TALLY: 92 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Shad were running hard in a number of areas this morning, thanks to a balmy southerly wind and an air temperature greater than the water temperature experienced overnight.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 12:00 Noon
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F
Elevation: 0.56 feet low, +0.13 24-hour change, 26 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 66.2F
Wind Speed & Direction: S12-14 the entire morning with gusts 15-16
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover at trip start time, steadily clearing to blue skies with <20% white cloud cover by trip’s end
Moon Phase: Last Quarter with 53% illum.
GT = 35
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 835 to 344 – 5 fish on live shad including our only 2 legal hybrid
**Area B0083G – a suspended band of white bass between 45-50 feet which were tapering off as we encountered them
**Area 1469 to 295 – caught most of our white bass here with 6 short hops
**Area B0077G – added a final 12 to our count here around noon as the bite was shutting down quickly
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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