WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, Oct. 26, I fished with Will Phillips and two of his three sons, Luke (age 12) and Lawson (age 10) on Lake Belton.
Will is an anesthesiologist at one of our local hospitals and had been out with me once before in May of 2017, when he chaperoned a group of three boys in celebration of Luke’s 8th birthday.
Here’s how things unfolded today…
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My next three openings will be on 2, 7, and 8 December. Weekday mornings are always best.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Luke, Will, and Lawson Phillips worked and stayed focused from start to finish today to achieve a 200 fish catch. We used MAL Heavy Lures with silver blades and white tails fished vertically for 100% of our catch.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 26 October 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
With a significant cold front due to enter Central Texas airspace around 3AM on Wednesday, the atmosphere was being squeezed and warmed today by pre-frontal, compressional warming. We had grey skies, high temperatures, and high humidity. In our final hour on the water a few sprinkles actually fell.
This murky sky condition caused the fishing to ease to a start instead of jump to a start, but, once it started, it was game-on until right around 11:15, then, things got tough.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” applied today. We kept right on doing what has been working like a charm to put, literally, several thousand white bass in the boat on Lake Belton since turnover. That is — using the MAL Heavy Lure in a vertical fashion to tempt bottom-oriented white bass into chasing and striking this shad-imitating bait.
We fished only four areas this morning and, thanks to the cloud cover, saw fish at each location come way up off the bottom once we got a frenzy going beneath the boat. I suspect they were using the greater amount of light there to help them hunt. No matter where we went, it seemed that 20 feet beneath the surface was about as far as the fish would voluntarily go. If they hadn’t struck the MAL Lure they were following by then, they would typically turn back and not strike.
The boys really enjoyed watching the fish pursue their presentation on Garmin LiveScope, and, I’ve noted over time that all of my anglers stay more engaged and work their baits more thoroughly when they know (and see) that there are actually fish present to work for.
The boys were very willing to be coached as they wanted to be successful. As a result, they maximized their catch, minimized time consuming tangles, and helped us all be efficient in our approach to fishing productive waters and leaving less productive waters behind.
Our fish tally stood at 174 fish at 11AM. The fish activity rapidly tapered off between 11 and 11:15AM as the morning bite wound down. The boys earnest desired to hit the 200 fish mark. I told them we’d give it some extra time (to 11:45 if need be) to achieve the goal, but that they’d really need to stay focused in order to transform each strike into a landed fish.
By 11:35, we’d landed our 200th fish.
Of the 200 fish landed, 188 were white bass, with 9 juvenile hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 2 blue cats mixed in.
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: 200 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS:
I took a temperature reading at 5′ increments down to 60′ before our front hits so as to compare that with our post-frontal temps later in the week.
0 feet 78.1 F
5 feet 78.1 F
10 feet 77.9 F
15 feet 77.4 F
20 feet 77.3 F
25 feet 77 F
30 feet 76.7 F
35 feet 76.6 F
40 feet 75.9 F
45 feet 75.2 F
50 feet 74.3 F
55 feet 74 F
60 feet 74 F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:20A
End Time: 11:35A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F
Elevation: 1.19 feet low, 0.03 fall, 59 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 75.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-13 all morning
Sky Condition: Gloomy grey skies all morning with 100% cloud cover.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 72% illumination.
GT = 100
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
**Area vic 0177 – 15 fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
**Area vic 0154 – 70 fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
**Area vic B0119C – 45 fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
**Area vic 098 – 70 fish, all on MAL Heavy Lure with silver blade/white tail fished vertically
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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