WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I welcomed aboard my brother, Andy Maindelle, who lives in North Austin. Although there was no way we could have planned this far ahead to hit some frontally-influenced fishing on the head, it worked out in more ways than one.
First, my “safety cutoff” for forecast straight-line wind speed is 18 mph, so, if I’d had paying clients on the books, I would have called them to postpone. Since we Maindelle boys are a good bit more risk-tolerant than most, we went forward with our plans. Secondly, the weather, aside from the wind speed, was ideal so far as fish activity was concerned, as we hit the water just minutes after the passage of the front’s wet lead edge and had the entire lake to ourselves at a time when the fish were feeding heavily and the birds were pointing the way to those feeding fish.
I commented (actually, yelled) to Andy at about an hour into the trip, with the NNW wind howling at ~25, “This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the jet engine roaring in my left ear!”. The boat was on Spot-Lock, pointed north, and we were facing out the starboard side casting in open water.
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 brother, Andy Maindelle, with a few of the white bass we took early on in the morning using MAL Heavy Lures horizontally with a “sawtooth” retrieve while fish and birds were the most active they would be all morning, just after the cold front’s wet, leading edge passed over Central Texas.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 06 December 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
Although the wind limited us to less open segments of the lake, because of this limitation, I searched areas more thoroughly than I otherwise would, knowing I had limited options if I couldn’t get these areas to produce.
Because the cold front’s arrival corresponded with sunrise, we got to fish the entire “window” during which the wind speed ramped up after the wet lead edge passed us by. During this time the fish were feeding aggressively, as were the birds, thus making the fish-finding puzzle quick and easy to solve.
We threw MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) and used a horizontal “sawtooth” retrieve to keep our lures near bottom where sonar revealed most fish were holding, yet still cover lots of ground to intersect these moving fish patrolling after shad. Our first three areas fished were fished this way.
Around 9A, the winds peaked and began to scale back, and the skies began to break and brighten with the first blue of the day showing through. Simultaneously, the birds quit and the fishing got instantly tougher. From this point on we relied on white Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. Andy used the 3/4 oz. and I used the 3/8 oz. with identical results.
By the time 10:30 rolled around, we’d amassed a catch of 114 fish (our goal for the morning was 100). Since we’d reached our goal, since the fish were still biting, and since Sol de Jalisco had not yet switched over to their lunch menu, we kept on fishing, however, the focus was now on simply confirming the presence of, and size of, fish at multiple locations (scouting) so I’d know were to focus later this week.
To do this, we looked for fish on sonar, Spot-Locked on them, worked to catch 5 as quickly as we could, then packed up and moved on to do the same thing elsewhere. This revealed an additional five areas where fish were holding and biting — invaluable information in this crazy season of frontal activity.
When all was said and done, we landed exactly 140 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 3 juvenile hybrid striped bass, 5 freshwater drum, and 131 white bass.
Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 140 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS:
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:30A
End Time: Noon
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F, falling into the mid-50’s by mid-morning, then warming back to 58F by trip’s end.
Elevation: 1.96 feet low, no rise or fall, 39 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 64F
Wind Speed & Direction: NNW24 at trip’s start, scaling back to NNW18 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: “Squinting” light through a 100% grey cloud cover all morning
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 7% illumination.
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
FISHING:
**Area 165 – 15 fish caught on MAL Heavy Lure with white blade, chartreuse tail using horizontal sawtooth retrieve (bird assistance)
**Area 527 – 9 fish caught on MAL Heavy Lure with white blade, chartreuse tail using horizontal sawtooth retrieve (bird assistance)
**Area 1822 – 39 fish caught on MAL Heavy Lure with white blade, chartreuse tail using horizontal sawtooth retrieve (bird assistance); 2 short hops
**Area B0001G – 12 fish caught on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, white, 3/8 and 3/4 oz., using easing tactic (bird assistance)
**Area B0108G – 39 fish caught on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, white, 3/8 and 3/4 oz., using easing tactic (bird assistance)
SCOUTING:
**Area 2032 – 5 fish caught on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, white, 3/4 oz. only, using easing tactic; moved after catching 5 to sample additional areas
**Area 1673/406 – 5 fish caught on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, white, 3/4 oz. only, using easing tactic; moved after catching 5 to sample additional areas (bird assistance)
**Area 1678 – 5 fish caught on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, white, 3/4 oz. only, using easing tactic; moved after catching 5 to sample additional areas
**Area vic 1666 – 6 fish caught on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, white, 3/4 oz. only, using easing tactic; moved after catching 6 to sample additional areas
**Area 1077 – 5 fish caught on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, white, 3/4 oz. only, using easing tactic
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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