WATCH YOUR BEAD! WATCH YOUR BEAD! — 272 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Saturday morning, December 4th, I fished with long-time client Stiles Parker, accompanied by his wife, Sarah, and the couple’s niece and nephew, Cassie and Derek Chasteen, the children of Sarah’s sister and her husband.

The Parkers live near Austin where Stiles is a salesman in the construction industry and Sarah works in the social media industry.

The morning was a bit of a “kid swap”; since Stiles and Sarah have two little ones under the age of 2, they “traded” for Cassie and Derek, leaving their own kiddos with extended family to get a break from diapers and drool for a few hours.

Here is how the fishing went …

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My next three openings will be on December 23rd, and January 4th and 5th.  Weekday mornings are always best.

PHOTO CAPTION: My crew of 4 landed an incredible 272 fish on Saturday, Dec. 4th with made-to-order weather – grey skies and southerly winds toward the end of an extended warming trend.  From left: Sarah Parker, Cassie & Derek Chasteen, and Stiles Parker worked MAL Heavy Lures all morning for aggressive fish under ideal conditions.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Uncle Stiles to the rescue!  This 7.75 pound blue cat was just a bit too heavy to hold at arm’s length for Cassie after she wore both herself and the fish out battling it to the boat.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 04 December 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

What a memorable outing this was!  Everyone arrived on time and had previewed the pre-trip video link I’d sent them so they all were familiar with how to work the MAL Lure.  Since use of the slab had been becoming more and more prevalent this week, I deomonstrated the technique for that lure at dockside before we launched, as well.

The weather was as close to perfect as it comes, with thin grey cloud cover and a SW breeze.

We essentially drove from the dock straight to a large school of white bass with zero searching with sonar required — I literally came off plane, got sonar adjusted, and found fish instantly.  So, we got an early start on the catching, and that catching never waned for 4 full hours.  As we approached 11:15AM, the fish were still biting but Cassie was ready the head for lunch, and the fish were definitely slowing down.

Only one time all morning, and then only just briefly, did we set aside the MAL Heavy Lures to use Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs instead.  The fish stayed actively feeding all morning such that even if they were not seen chasing bait up in the water column, they would still launch off bottom to overtake and strike our MAL Lures moving at a moderately fast clip toward the surface.

One of the things that takes many anglers some getting used to when using the MAL Lures is not reeling the fish in too far.  To prevent this, I use an Aquateko InvisaSwivel, which serves the dual purpose of preventing line twist on spinning gear and serving as a stop to keep the fish at least the leader’s length away from the rod tip.  Still, I try to coach my clients to leave another 2 feet of line between the InvisaSwivel and the rod tip.  My reminder phrase for this is “Watch your bead!” (because the InvisaSwivel resembles an elongated, clear plastic bead, and because “Watch your InvisaSwivel” is too many syllables for me to say repeatedly!

I kidded with my crew that instead of reminding everyone about this, I’d thought of just making a recording of myself saying “Watch your bead!” and then having my Smart Phone play that every 15 seconds or so!

We enjoyed the assistance of fish-eating birds helping us locate fish at two of the four areas we fished.  Thus far, no misleading loon-related chasing by these birds has become an issue.

When all was said and done, we landed exactly 272 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 6 juvenile hybrid striped bass, 7 freshwater drum, 1 blue catfish, and 257 white bass.

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

TALLY: 272 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 1) With stable weather topped off with a late-week warming trend and perfect white bass weather this morning, the fish went into overdrive and fed aggressively enough that the slower presentation of a slab was nearly uncalled for today.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  66F

Elevation: 1.94 feet low, 0.01 fall, 39 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 62.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW4-7 all morning

Sky Condition: “Squinting” light through a 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 145

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 0335- 68 fish caught on MAL Heavy Lure with white blade, chartreuse tail

**Area B0115G – 35 fish caught on MAL Heavy Lure with white blade, chartreuse tail (bird assistance)

**Area 574 – 18 fish caught on MAL Heavy Lure with white blade, chartreuse tail

**Area vic 029 – 151 fish caught on MAL Heavy with white blade, chartreuse tail; one short hop made to keep up with birds

 

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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