LOW PRESSURE, HIGH FISH COUNT – 199 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Wednesday, 13 October, I fished with Mr. Clay Earnshaw and his two sons, Jeffery and Wes, in celebration of Clay’s 62nd birthday.

Clay is a heavy equipment operator, Jeffery is a fire figher, and Wes is in law enforcement.

This trip was a surprise to Clay, as he was previously informed by the boys that they were taking him to go look at a boat to buy.  Evidently, Clay’s wife was also in on this.  The surprise was pulled off very well!!

The men would go on to land 199 fish during their 4-hour adventure.

My next three openings will be on 9, 17, and 30 November.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Jeffery, Clay, and Wes Earnshaw booked on a day with made-to-order weather.  The fish fed aggressively for four solid hours.  The MAL Heavy Lure worked its magic to the tune of 199 fish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 13 October 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ve now had nine consecutive trips with over 100 fish caught.

This morning’s fishing was fantastic from start to finish.  The weather was just right.  The wind was up and out of the south, the air had a heavy, humid feel to it, we had grey cloud cover letting just enough sun through that you still needed to squint a little without shades on, and barometric pressure was low thanks to the remnants of a hurricane from Mexico’s west coast passing slowly over Central Texas.

As I awaited my clients’ arrival, there was much greater than normal topwater fish activity randomly occurring around me as rough fish, game fish, and forage fish all were visibly active there.

Within minutes of launching we were on top of fish in about 20 feet of water.  Given how tightly bunched up these fish were, we went vertical with MAL Heavy Lures in silver blade/white tail.  We landed our first 40 fish in under 40 minutes.

As the morning moved along, our conditions stayed solid until the sun broke through briefly around 10:30.  Up to that point we fished four additional areas, all with excellent results.  By 8:46 our fish count increased to 76 at the second area we fished; we added just 6 more fish by 9:06 at the third stop; we increased the tally to 102 by 9:38 at the fourth area we tried, then piled ’em on, taking our tally to 175 at our next-to-last stop by 10:30.

This was the only area at which I found enough fish scattered along the bottom sufficient to make horizontal work worth it.  We landed about 40% of our fish here using the sawtooth horizontal method, and the remainder came vertically.  As the fishing here stopped producing quality fish, we left the fish biting to roll the dice and try to finish up with a few more quality fish.

At 10:30, the sun peeked out. That sun killed the bite for about 15 minutes, then, as cloud cover returned, the bite resumed until the morning feed ended around 11:30.

Our sixth and final stop did produce a better ratio of quality fish.  We landed a final 24 more fish as the morning bite died hard right around 11:30, taking our final total to 199 fish.

As happens each year around this time, the number of small fish in the catch tends to increase over spring/summer results, and we are definitely beginning to see this.  I suspect this is because the “young-of-the-year” white bass have now grow sufficiently to be attracted to shad roughly the same profile/length as the presentations white bass anglers typically use (jigs, slabs, spinners, tailspinners, etc.).  These fish have obviously been present since they were spawned, but were not yet eating that large of prey.

Of the 199 fish landed, 190 were white bass, with 1 largemouth bass and 8 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: 199 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The 2020 stocking of hybrid striped bass is really looking promising.  These should be to 3 pounds and 18″ by 2023.  They are showing up at about 3-4% of my white bass bycatch just about everywhere I’m fishing on Lake Belton now.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  74F

Elevation: 1.20 feet low, 0.04′ fall, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13-16

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies all morning

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 54% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0006G – 40 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 788/0190 – 36 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area vic B0179C – 6 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 381; 22 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area vic 165; 40% on MAL Heavy Lure (white blade/chartreuse tail), 60% on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 409; 24 fish with 3 taken horizontally

 

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 #mepps

STORM TROOPERS – 138 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, October 12, I fished with returning guests Brian Parker and Lucindy Packer, accompanied by first-time guests Mike and Kay Rush, Brian’s sister and brother-in-law, all from out west of the Waco area.

Despite the wind and rain, these hearty souls landed 138 fish during their 4-hour trip.  This was our 8th consecutive trip tallying 100 or more fish, thanks to cooling of the reservoir, leading to a breakdown of the thermocline.

My next three openings will be on 9, 17, and 30 November.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Mike and Kay Rush, Lucindy Packer, and Brian Parker, all with double fistfuls of fish taken vertically on MAL Heavy Lures (silver blade, white tail) under heavily overcast/light rain conditions on stiff SE wind.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 12 October 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ve now had eight consecutive trips with over 100 fish caught.

The 180-degree change in wind and weather in such a short time (since yesterday’s cold-front conditions) definitely impacted fish location and behavior this morning.

Areas which had been producing consistently over the past three weeks offered slim pickings this morning, forcing me to find fish in new locations.  Also, despite solid fishing using horizontal tactics all summer and up through yesterday morning, the fish this morning wanted only a vertical presentation.  Of the 138 fish we landed, only 6 came on the attempts we made at fishing the sawtooth method.

I also noted that the fish that made up our catch this morning were, on average, smaller than on any of my previous seven trips made since turnover.

We fished five locations this morning, all in 28 to 36 feet of water.  We sampled several other locations which held fish, but found those fish disinterested, so, instead of wasting time hoping they would turn on, we kept moving and sampling (with lines in the water and Garmin LiveScope playing) until we found cooperative fish.  Aggressive fish would actually swim up off bottom to “greet” our lures as they fell.  Less aggressive fish would remain on bottom, but follow our lures upwards as we retrieved our MAL Heavy Lures through the water column.

Of the 138 fish landed, 130 were white bass with 2 freshwater drum and 6 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: 138 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: More teal and coots continue to filter in and, around 8:45, a large flock of migrating laughing gulls numbering about 70 birds flew over the lake from W to E, but passed on.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  68F

Elevation: 1.16 feet low, 0.02′ fall, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE11-16

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with scattered, light rain showers all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 43% illumination.

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0100G – 42 fish under low-light conditions; many suspended smallish fish moving horizontally; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 327/B0003G – 14 fish; all but 4 on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 1675/1815 – 55 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 409/0148 – 15 fish; all on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked vertically

**Area 1678 – 12 fish; all but 2 on MAL Heavy Lure (silver blade, white tail) worked 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

#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 #mepps

COLD FRONT SPURS ‘EM ON – 130 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Monday, October 11, I fished with first time guests Steve Miller, his friend, Kay Ingraffia, and Steve’s brother, Greg Miller, all from the Buda, TX, area.

Steve and Greg have their own boat and routinely pursue white bass and full-blooded striped bass on Canyon Lake, primarily using downriggers.  They’ve followed my reports for a while and have purchased my MAL Lures and wanted to try to tie everything together, including the all-important location piece of the puzzle, this morning.

They landed 130 fish during their 4-hour trip.

My next three openings will be on 9, 17, and 30 November.  Weekday mornings are always best.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Steve Miller, Kay Ingraffia, and Greg Miller with a brace of white bass taken on MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) using a sawtooth tactic early in the trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 11 October 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ve now had seven consecutive trips with over 100 fish caught.

The big question hanging over this morning’s efforts was “What has the cold front done to the fishing?”.

Overnight, from roughly 10:30 pm to midnight, a cold front swept through Central Texas from west to east, dropping the air temperature from the high 70s around sunset to 59F at sunrise.  A half-inch of rain fell area wide, and the strong southerly winds that blew all day Sunday shifted suddenly from the NNW with the line of passing storms.

There are a lot of opinions and literature out there about how cold fronts impact fishing.  My observation concerning white bass is this:  the time from a cold front’s arrival (and accompanying wind shift thru the west and to the north) and until the winds peak and then plateau, and just before the winds begin to decrease, will produce solid fishing.  As soon as the winds begin to decrease after a front’s passage, white bass fishing typically gets very tough until the south wind begins to blow again.

This tracked true this morning. There were 7-9 mph NNW winds in the wake of the cold front’s passage this morning, all morning.  These winds went slack very quickly around 11:15AM, at which time the bite died quickly.  Otherwise, the fish displayed about the same level of interest as they did with Saturday’s southerly winds and stable weather.

We landed 35 fish in our first two hours working MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) in 26-38 feet of water as side-imaging revealed large schools of fish spread along the bottom and patrolling in the lower light conditions.

Our final two hours produced another 95 fish as the winds peaked at NNW9.  During this time we transitioned out to slightly deeper 40-45 foot water, and alternated between working MAL Heavy Lures vertically (white tail, silver blade) when Garmin LiveScope indicated fish were stacked/passing beneath us, and casting horizontally using a sawtooth method with MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) when the side-imaging revealed heavier concentrations to the port or starboard side of the boat.

Of the 130 fish landed, 128 were white bass with 1 largemouth and 1 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: 130 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Spotted the fall’s first ring-bill gull (just one!) and the first pair of loons which evidently rode down on the cold front.  Plenty of monarch butterflies showing up, too.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  59F

Elevation: 1.14 feet low, 0.02′ rise, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 77.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW7 at sunrise, slowly increasing to and peaking at NNW9, then going slack around 11:15

Sky Condition: Clear, “blue bird” skies

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 32% illumination.

GT = 53

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 085/812 – 29 fish on our first stop under lowest light conditions; all sawtooth

**Area B0155C/B0156C – 6 fish as fish transitioned away from shallow water with rising light level; all sawtooth

**Area 1269 – excellent bite with peak wind conditions; 79 fish in ~90 minutes both vert. and horiz.

**Area 995/684 – bite died here along with the wind; a final 16 fish, all vertical

 

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 #mepps

SOLDIERS’ SONS LAND 136 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Saturday, October 9th, I fished Lake Belton for this season’s ninth SKIFF program fishing trip offered specifically to military kids and teens.  Joining me were Logan Sinks of Belton, and Drake Adams of Killeen.  The two friends are both 15 years of age.

SKIFF is an acronym for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. It is a program now in its 12th year, sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers, and supported by individuals and entities, all of whom desire that kids separated from a parent by that parent’s military duty, be given an opportunity to experience the outdoors through fishing during that time of separation, free of charge.  The program offers a time of respite for the home-front parents who may need a short break from single-parenting.

Logan’s dad, U.S. Army Master Sergeant David Sinks, is currently deployed to Camp Humphries in South Korea.  He has served for approximately 17 years and is in the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) field.  Drake’s step-father, Sergeant First Class Richard Rodriguez, is an Apache attack helicopter mechanic.  He has served for 21 years and was most recently deployed to South Korea, as well.

My next few openings will be on 9, 16, and 17 November.  Weekday mornings are always best.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Logan Sinks and Drake Adams landed 136 fish this morning, including 130 white bass, 4 juvenile hybrid striped bass, and 1 freshwater drum.  All fish were taken on the MAL Heavy lure, primarily with a vertical retrieve.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 09 November 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

I’ve now had six consecutive trips with over 100 fish per trip.

I’ve been off the water for a week on the annual home-building mission trip to Juarez, Mexico, I make each October with some folks from my church.  We returned around 6:45PM last night, I got a few winks of sleep and then got prepped to receive the boys for 7AM.

The fish were still in the same places doing the same things at the same times as when I last fished on 30 September.

The early morning, low-light bite was weak, with the energy level of the fish rising with light and wind as the morning moved on.

By 9:40, we’d landed 31 fish — 4 via a horizontal “sawtooth” method, and the rest via a vertical tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.  It was at this time that the wind ramped up sharply from about SSE8 to SSE13.  With this increase in wind came an increase in fish activity.

From 9:50 to 10:30, we more than doubled our catch, landing exactly 70 more fish in this 40-minute span, taking our tally to 101.  At the first hint that the bite at this location was starting to wane, I made a final move to a similar area.

From 10:35 to 11:00 we landed an additional 35 fish in those 25 minutes for a grand total of 136 fish boated.

Our primary means of catching this morning was to find fish holding tight to bottom, Spot-Lock on them, work MAL Heavy Lures (white tail, silver blade) vertically up off bottom to about the top of the lower third of the water column, then drop them back while all the time viewing Garmin LiveScope to gauge fish response, and to know when to reel and when not to reel.

The boys got the hang of this quickly, were willing to be coached to smooth out some of the “rookie mistakes” they made with their presentations, and their result benefited handsomely.

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: 136 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Since I’d been off the water for a week, I wanted to check the temperature profile at depth.  Here are the results … there is no longer any thermal stratification:

0 feet 78.8F
5 feet 79.1F
10 feet 79.2F
15 feet 79.2F
20 feet 79.2F
25 feet 79.2F
30 feet 79.2F
35 feet 79.2F
40 feet 79.2F
45 feet 79.2F
50 feet 79.2F
55 feet 79.2F
60 feet 79.2F
65 feet 79.1F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  64F

Elevation: 1.12 feet low, 0.03′ drop, 58 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 78.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5 at sunrise, increasing to SSE13 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Skies were 40% clouded at sunrise, decreasing to 10% by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 13% illumination.

GT = NA

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 812 – a few shallow fish in 24-26′

**Area 1374 & 1274 – fish were present, but not aggressive; caught a few and moved on

**Area 714 – fish were present and were more aggressive than they had been to this point, but most fish were smallish; moved on by 9:30 with 31 fish landed

**Area 1392/2053 – excellent vertical bite; 70 fish in 45 minutes

**Area B0099G – excellent vertical bite; 35 fish in 25 minutes

 

 

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 #mepps