WHO I FISHED WITH: Yesterday afternoon, Monday, 20 September 2021, I fished with Jackie Holmes and her son, Pete Isgett. Jackie was in for a quick visit from the East Coast with her son and daughter-in-law who live in Killeen. She’d not been on the water in quite some time and, fish or no fish, wanted to leave land behind for a few hours.
My schedule was already full for this week, but, I worked the two in for a shortened 3-hour evening trip so the two could fish together before Jackie’s return flight on Thursday.
PHOTO CAPTION: Jackie Holmes and her son, Pete Isgett, with 2 of the 39 fish they landed in the 3 hours prior to sunset this past Monday on Lake Belton. Downrigged Pet Spoons caught our fish early, then MAL Heavy Lures landed the final 24 fish.
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (PM), 20 September 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
As is my custom on evening trips conducted from June through the summer months, I told Pete and Jackie, “We’ll likely catch as many fish in the last 45 minutes as we do in the two-and-a-quarter hours prior.”
Summertime afternoon fish activity is typically squeezed into a short window just before and after sunset. This pattern certainly held true today.
We set out around 5pm, looked at 4 areas with sonar, and fished two of them by downrigging after seeing bait and some suspended fish present. By 6pm, we’d landed 7 fish. At 6:15pm, while downrigging, we encountered the first organized, bottom-oriented school of white bass we’d seen to that point (all others had been suspended). We witnessed several fish come up off the bottom and chase after our downrigger weights from out of this school. As the 3-armed umbrella rigs passed by seconds later, they got hit, producing a double. At this point I stopped the boat and Pete and I began working MAL Heavy Lures horizontally in the vicinity of the school to see if they were yet excited enough to chase and strike. They were not.
Back to downrigging. Two more fish caught out of a similar scenario. No response as we cast to them. Back to downrigging. Two more fish caught out of a similar scenario. No response as we cast to them. Back to downrigging. Two more fish caught out of a similar scenario. This time, we hit paydirt as we “probed” with casting. The sun had dimmed enough to trip some internal trigger in those white basses’ brains that told them to start eating. It was now 6:55 and we had 15 fish in the boat.
Pete did all the heavy lifting because, true to her word, Jackie pretty much just sat in the front of the boat relaxing after reeling in a handful of the fish we’d tempted with the downriggers early on.
Over the next 55 minutes the action got steadily better and moved shallower until our last strike at 7:50 pm. In those closing minutes, we landed a final 24 fish, more than doubling the tally from the first 2 hours. All of our fish taken by casting were taken using the sawtooth method with an MAL Heavy Lure with white blade and chartreuse tail. I have really come to prefer this white blade in low-light conditions.
MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 39 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: With two mild cold fronts having already passed this month and another strong front on its way tomorrow afternoon, I’m already starting to see migratory bird species increase in numbers, namely teal and osprey.
Start Time: 5P
End Time: 7:50P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 99F
Elevation: 0.77 feet low, .03 foot fall, 41 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 84.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: S12-13 at trip’s start, tapering off slowly to S6-7
Sky Condition: Bright skies w/ ~10% cloud cover in combination with compressional warming from prefrontal atmospheric conditions
Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.
GT = 40
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 812, from the actual waypoint, and toward deeper, 34′ water for downrigging and the first few fish landed via the sawtooth method
**Area 1070 to 1746 via the sawtooth method as the fish moved shallower with the failing light.
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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