WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Thursday morning, Dec. 9th, I fished with first-time guests Nathan Hillyer and his 8-year-old son, Felix.

Nathan, a software developer from Minnesota now living in Pflugerville, texted me several weeks ago, saying, “Hello, Mr. Maindelle, my name is Nathan Hillyer. I’d like to book an AM trip Thursday, December 9th for a multi-species fishing trip with my 8-year-old son, Felix. It’ll be his first time doing some real fishing (we’ve caught panfish with worms a couple times).”

Felix had never been on a boat before, nor caught gamefish, so, this morning would be a morning of many firsts.

Here is how the fishing went …

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My next few openings will be on December 14th, and January 4th, 6th & 10th.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Nathan Hillyer and his 8-year-old son, Felix, used a variety of tactics to boat 75 fish on Lake Belton this morning.  This was Felix’s first time on a boat and to fish for anything larger than sunfish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 09 December 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

The fish were a little “fin”-icky this morning.  One of the variables which created some drag was the thick, grey cloud cover we had right around sunrise which continued well into the morning.  I’ve theorized that this prevents the sudden brightening of the skies which would normally occur on a cloudless day, thus, that “trigger” of changing light levels is not there on such days as this.  When cloud cover is heavy, the white bass bite always seems to ease into a late start.

We went nearly an hour looking for our first cooperative school of fish, finally finding multiple schools on a slow tapering slope in 18-24 feet of water.  Those shallowest fish did not stay put directly under the boat very long, but side imaging revealed they were not too far away after they moved from beneath us.

We started fishing MAL Heavy Lures (white blade, chartreuse tail) vertically, then transitioned to casting to them horizontally, working the same lures with a sawtooth retrieve.  It was during this effort that Felix learned to cast a spinning rod, and did very well at it.

We made our initial stop and two more “short hops” in this vicinity for a total of 34 fish in about 70 minutes’ time before the fishing slowed to a crawl, despite slightly brighter conditions and a slightly greater south-westerly wind velocity.

It was about 9:45AM now and we would go for about another hour looking largely unsuccessfully for our next bunch of willing fish.  During this time I found fish in various locations, but, although they showed to be moving on Garmin LiveScope, they were extremely tight to the bottom and would not respond to the MAL Lure, nor a more slowly worked slab.  We picked up only 6 more fish from across multiple areas during this lull.

Finally, around 11AM, we found a group of feeding fish after being “tipped off” by a portion of that school appearing in a feeding posture, chasing bait at mid-depth in about 30 feet of water, as seen on down imaging and traditional sonar.

Over the next 45 minutes we saw the bite develop, peak, then taper to nil.  We used  white, 3/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with a slow-smoking tactic to tempt these fish which were as much as 20+ feet off bottom.

We nearly doubled our catch in these closing minutes of the trip, adding a final 35 fish to our tally.

When all was said and done, we landed exactly 75 fish, including 1 largemouth bass, 6 juvenile hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 67 white bass.

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

TALLY: 75 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Thick cloud cover made things pretty tough, especially in our first hour.  The temperature profile looked like this:

0 feet 63.5
5 feet 63.1
10 feet 63.1
15 feet 62.9
20 feet 62.9
25 feet 62.9
30 feet 62.9
35 feet 62.9
40 feet 62.9
45 feet 62.9
50 feet 62.8
55 feet 62.6
60 feet 62.4

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:25A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  62F

Elevation: 2.01 feet low, .02 fall, 39 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 63.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW10 at trip’s start, increasing sharply to SSW14 around 9:30

Sky Condition: Thick 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 33% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

FISHING:

**Area 1864/029- 34 fish caught on MAL Heavy Lure with white blade, chartreuse tail using a vertical smoking tactic and a horizontal sawtooth retrieve

**Area B0022C – full-on 45-minute feed from 11 to 11:45.  35 fish on 3/8 oz., white Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

 

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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