WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, Mr. Tom Bierschenk of Leander brought three of his grandkids out for a morning of white bass fishing on Lake Belton.

Joining him were Andrew (age 15), Claire (almost 12!), and Anabelle, (age 9).  Tom is a University of Texas-trained chemist working with fluorocarbon applications in the medical industry.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next three openings will be on 22 & 23  December, and January 3rd.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Andrew, Claire, and Anabelle Bierschenk with a portion of their 53 fish catch on a morning which started out at 43F, chilled by a northerly breeze as the sun rose through grey cloud cover the day after Thanksgiving 2021.

PHOTO CAPTION:  When it’s so cold that coats don’t cut the mustard …  yes, that’s Claire and Anabelle huddling on the floor of my boat on our way to another fishing area!

 

 WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 26 November 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

The howling north wind which cranked up just after sunrise on Thanksgiving day settled back but was still pushing from the north this morning after dropping the overnight temperature to 43F and causing grey cloud cover to form.  We’ve had a lot of frontal activity in a short period of time and the fish have been very fickle, but, so long as we had both wind and clouds, I felt we could catch fish at a clip fast enough to keep my young crew engaged.

We worked MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) vertically for a solid 4+ hours and the kids’ technique was really on right from the start.  We experienced a bit of wide-spread, low-light bird action which got us in the general vicinity of some white bass early in the trip.  At this point we used no sonar as we fished so the kids could get their presentation down pat.

As we worked the kinks out of their retrieve, I then introduced Garmin LiveScope, and, although there was a tendency to “fiddle” with individual fish instead of working the lure as the they had been doing successfully, the kids all adjusted well when I explained the downside of doing this.  From that point on the kids used the sonar to help them time the rise of their lure past actively feeding white bass.

We caught fish in four locations. The fish we caught early on were all glued to bottom.  Our second area found fish suspended from 20-30 feet over a 38′ bottom; their location was given away by scant bird activity.  Our third area saw fish on bottom and suspended at up to 20′ over a 32′ bottom, so we had fish racing off bottom to overtake the kids’ MAL Lures, as well as fish beginning their chase from both a moving start and from a standstill as we move the MAL Lures past them as they suspended.

Our final 10 fish of the morning came under birds which worked just briefly in 28′.  Most of these fish were taken as they raced from off of bottom in 26′ of water to grab the MAL Lure as it ascended.

When all was said and done, we landed 53 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 1 juvenile hybrid striped bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 49 white bass.

Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 68 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Light but helpful bird action was observed throughout the morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  46F

Elevation: 1.89 feet low, 0.09 fall, 39 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 62.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW8 increasing to NNW11

Sky Condition: Light grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 60% illumination.

GT = 60

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 027 thru 1781 – 8 fish caught on MAL Heavy with white blade, chartreuse tail used vertically

**Area B0145C – 12 fish caught on MAL Heavy with white blade, chartreuse tail used vertically

**Area B0050G – 23 fish caught on MAL Heavy with white blade, chartreuse tail used vertically

**Area B0104C – 10 fish caught on MAL Heavy with white blade, chartreuse tail used 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

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Wednesday afternoon, November 24th, I fished with Devon Linzy and Chris Levy, along with Chris’ two sons, John (age 12) and Jude (age 15).

Devon hails from Buckholts, TX, and was hosting Chris and his family, who traveled in from Denham Springs, LA, for a little hunting and fishing over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next three openings will be on 22 & 23  December, and January 3rd.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Devon Linzy, and Chris, John, and Jude Levy.  We enjoyed two solid hours of fishing followed by two hours of struggle as our winds failed in advance of an approaching cold front.

 

 WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (PM), 24 November 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

This was an odd afternoon.  As I kept an eye on the weather, it became clear that high winds were going to prevent a quality outing on Thanksgiving morning, the time that Devon and Chris had originally scheduled.  So, I reached out to them on Tuesday to see if they had the flexibility to bump up to Wednesday afternoon, and they were able to do so.

As we got on the water, the fish were feeding under mostly cloudy skies with a pretty stiff S. wind at 14-15.  Everyone got the hang of using the MAL Heavy Lures and then got the hang of using them in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope and we were catching fish steadily.  We put 31 fish in the boat in our first two hours and I was hoping for an even better ending to the trip.

Right around 3:30, the wind downshifted significantly to just 6-7 mph, still from the S.  The fish really turned off at that exact point in time.  In our third hour, we picked up just 10 more fish, and in our final hour, that trickled down further to just a single additional fish as the winds went completely slack in our final 35-40 minutes on the water.

The incoming front which was fueling all of this wind and weather change was due to enter into Central Texas air space around 3AM the following morning (which it did).

As it turned out, the 42 fish we landed was still 42 fish more than we’d have boated on a trip cancelled by wind the following morning.  That forecast for high winds was accurate, as we saw NW winds at over 20 mph straight-line by 8A with gusts over 30 by 9A.

When all was said and done, we landed 42 fish.

Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 68 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The fish all but quit at 3:30p after the winds induced by pre-frontal warming stopped blowing.  No low-light sunset bite this evening as the winds went calm several hours before our next cold front’s arrival.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 1:30P

End Time: 5:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  72F

Elevation: 1.80 feet low, 0.03 fall, 39 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 63.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S14-15 at trip’s start, tapering down quickly right at 3:30 to S6-7, then fading to flat calm by sunset

Sky Condition: Blue skies with 60% white cloud cover at trip’s start with grey clouds building to the point of light, occasional sprinkles in our last hour

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 78% illumination.

GT = 75

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 376 – 9 fish caught on MAL Heavy with white blade, chartreuse tail used vertically

**Area 2032 – 8 fish caught on MAL Heavy with white blade, chartreuse tail used vertically

**Area 1024 – 14 fish caught on MAL Heavy with white blade, chartreuse tail used vertically

**Area 1659 – 11 fish caught on MAL Heavy with white blade, chartreuse tail used 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