WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, October 20, I welcomed aboard Ray Andrews of Georgetown, his grandfather, Butch Waddell of Amarillo, and Ray’s brother-in-law, Tyler Wimberly, from the Austin area.
Ray and his family are hosting his grandparents for a few days’ visit to Central Texas, and fishing was high on the list of things to do, along with eating at the Walburg German Restaurant and Biergarten in Walburg.
Ray is in the overhead door business in the Georgetown area, Butch, at age 84, is still working construction and keeping up with farm chores in Amarillo, and Tyler works at an AT&T retail location in the Austin area.
Ray came out with me previously for on-the-water sonar training after Josh Bingham and crew got him rigged up with a Minn Kota trolling motor and sonar for his new boat some time ago.
My crew of four would land 226 fish this morning. Details follow…
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My next three openings will be on 1, 2, and 6 December. Weekday mornings are always best.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Butch Waddell, Ray Andrews, and Tyler Wimberly landed 226 fish during their 4-hour morning trip. Most of the catching was done fishing MAL Heavy Lures vertically while viewing Garmin LiveScope.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 20 October 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
This morning’s weather was a bit funky early on. As I launched, a few sprinkles fell under heavy grey cloud cover (neither of which was in the forecast). Our first 70 minutes or so was the slowest 70 minutes on a morning trip in the past 3 weeks or so as the light level remained low.
Around 8:20-8:30, the grey clouds began to give way to more broken, white clouds, and the atmosphere brightened. As it did, the fish began to feed.
We fished seven locations this morning and caught the lion’s share of our fish using MAL Heavy Lures with silver blades and white tails fished vertically in conjunction with well-tuned Garmin LiveScope.
In reality, we could have conducted the entire trip at any 2 or 3 of these areas, but, once we encountered nothing but small fish in our catch, we moved on in hopes of adding more mature fish to our catch.
White bass continue to consolidate in the 30-foot range, hugging bottom in large schools.
No resident gulls have arrived yet, but, that will be the next “big thing” for the fishery, and will just further boost the off-the-charts fishing that is taking place right now.
This slow, tapering cool-down of the reservoir is just an ideal scenario for autumn fishing.
From a guy who makes and sells slabs, I am going to encourage any of you reading this who are still stubbornly insisting on using slabs at this time of year, to tie on one MAL Heavy Lure and give it a try the next time you find the same look on sonar that would normally cause you to drop a slab. The results will amaze you.
You can get these at National Athletic Supply in Belton, Wooded Acres Tackle in Streetman, Eagle Express in Harker Heights, or directly from me at https://whitebasstools.com/
By the time 11:30 had rolled around, we’d landed 226 fish.
Of the 226 fish landed, 208 were white bass, with 1 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 16 juvenile hybrid striped bass in the mix.
MAL Lure fishing tutorials:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM
MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 226 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: I’m seeing a trend that the final area I fish in the morning, right before the fish quit feeding, tends to be the longest, strongest bite of the morning. Then, the fish just shut down quickly, over a matter of 10 minutes or so. Very interesting.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:15A
End Time: 11:30A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Elevation: 1.09 feet low, 0.04 fall, 58 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 74.9F
Wind Speed & Direction: S5 at sunrise, increasing slowly to S9 by trip’s end.
Sky Condition: Grey clouds coverage at 100% in the first 90 minutes, then slowly clearing to 25% white cover by trips’ end.
Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.
GT = 80
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area B0135C – 25 fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
**Area 1659 – 18 fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
**Area B0005G – 38 fish, on both MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically & MAL Heavy Lure with white blade/chart. tail fished with sawtooth retrieve
**Area B0104G – 8 fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
**Area 447 – 13 fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
**Area B0105G – 44 fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
**Area B0118C/B0201C – 80 fish, on both MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically & MAL Heavy Lure with white blade/chart. tail fished with sawtooth retrieve
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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