OLD GUYS RULE (& THEN GO TO BED EARLY)! – 114 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday evening, May 27th, I fished with a great group of fellows, all in their late-60’s or early-70’s, and all with deep roots in the Temple-Belton community.

Joining me this evening was Gary Jones, Guy Fowler, Pat Mullins, and Harry Adams.  Gary is a retired banker, Guy and Pat are in real estate, and Harry is the president of Johnson Brothers’ Ford.  The trip came about when a few of the fellows bid on a fishing gift certificate I had offered to the Ralph Wilson Youth Club in Temple for one of their annual fundraisers.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Guy Fowler, Pat Mullins, Gary Jones, and Harry Adams with a solid result from their late May evening white bass fishing trip on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (PM), 27 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

After a pretty average morning trip thanks to the low pressure we’d enjoyed for over two weeks leaving us, I was anticipating an average evening, as well.  We had a few things working for us: some cloud cover and a southerly breeze, but the return to more normal barometric conditions was not going to do us any favors.

I tried to help everyone have realistic expectations at the get-go: that our first 90 minutes would likely be slow, then, we’d see fish express more interest and for longer periods of time from about 5:45PM toward dark.

Things trended very much this way, with more activity witnessed on the Garmin LiveScope and greater numbers of fish landed with each stop we made as we moved toward sunset.

Our best run of success came from 6:40 to 7:45 as we enjoyed non-stop action by white bass feeding strongly on the end of a deep point and in the lower third of the water column.  The white MAL Heavy worked its magic, and, by the time this school of fish began to ease up, we’d taken 114 fish over the side of the boat.

I let the fellows know as that group of fish wrapped up their feed that I’d need to move us to another location in order to keep catching fish through sunset (which would be obscured by grey clouds in the west).  It was now 7:45PM.  Someone (and I’m not sure how serious he was) mentioned something about missing their bedtime if we stayed that long.  The whole group then decided they’d like to end on the strong note at hand, and we decided to head back in about a half-hour early with those 114 fish as our final tally.

All of the fish we landed came on the white MAL Heavy.

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: 114 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  A flood-water juggling act continues with Proctor and Belton’s flows being reduced to allow Whitney to begin gushing water into the Brazos.  No stained water yet observed.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  4:15P

End Time: 7:45P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 85F

Elevation:  1.25 feet high, no 24-hour change, 1621 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 74.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE15 at trip’s start, tapering down to SSE12 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 65% white cloud cover above us, with grey skies to the west which the sun set behind

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination

GT =110

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0149C

**Area 561

 

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

ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END — 70 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning, May 27th, I fished with Mr. Eddie Dunn of Troup, TX, and his long-time friend and fellow teacher, coach, and school administrator, Joe Oliver, of Temple, TX.  Also accompanying Eddie was his 7-year-old grandson, Briggs Dowdy.

Unfortunately, the low-pressure system that has fueled the uber-successful fishing for the majority of this month passed over us and to our east over night and into the early morning hours, and with that, we experienced a return to more seasonally “normal” fishing.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Joe Oliver, Briggs Dowdy (age 7), and Briggs’ grandfather, Eddie Dunn.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 27 May 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

Instead of an intense, 4-hour long bite which had become the norm of the past 2+ weeks, we experienced so-so fishing for the first several hours of our trip, then were fortunate to be “tipped off” by gulls to the presence of a large, migrating school of white bass which, in our final hour, produced the majority of our catch of 70 fish.

Up until that time, we had some short-lived success right at first light, then hopped around a good bit taking just a handful of fish at each place we went to as the fish (which were present but simply not aggressive) would “flare” up and then settle back down after we caught just 3 or 4 of them.

All of the fish we landed came on the white MAL Heavy.

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: 70 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  A flood-water juggling act continues with Proctor and Belton’s flows being reduced to allow Whitney to begin gushing water into the Brazos.  No stained water yet observed.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:40A

End Time: 10:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation:  1.25 feet high, no 24-hour change, 1621 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 73.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE9-12 all morning

Sky Condition: Murky grey for the first 90 minutes, then lightening, but still 100% grey

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination

GT =40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0094G – this was the only area that really produced more than a few fish for us all morning; fish were loosely schooled, but there were hundreds of fish spread over a wide, open-water area; even these fish were not overly aggressive

 

 

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