WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday afternoon, January 29th, I fished with three generations from the Morgan family, including Jerry “Pops” Morgan, his adult son, Chris, and Chris’ twin sons, Logan and Cash, who are almost 9 years of age.
After a stint as the offensive line coach with the Atlanta Falcons, Chris made a move to the Pittsburgh Steelers recently. The team is on break until after the Super Bowl, so Chris took the opportunity to escape the northeast’s wintry weather to come home to Texas and spend some time unwinding after the 2021 season.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next few openings will be on Feb. 7th, 8th, and 9th. Weekday mornings are always best.
PHOTO CAPTION: Chris Morgan hoists a 4.25 pound Lake Belton hybrid striped bass as his boys, Cash (on left) and Logan look on. All of our 125 fish came on white, 5/9 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs.
PHOTO CAPTION: All three generations of Morgans worked for a full 4 hours to put together a handsome catch of 125 fish — no small feat when the water has cooled to the low 50s. From left: Cash, Chris, Logan, and Jerry Morgan.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (PM), 29 January 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
After a chilly, clear start to the day, this afternoon’s temperatures moderated a bit, although the skies remained clear. As I launched and prepared for my crew around 1:30P, the air temperature hovered around 63F.
Once everyone boarded around 2P and the safety brief was over, I did a “demo stop” out in about 25 feet of water to introduce the boys to the slow-smoking method we’d be using. They got the hang of it pretty well, so we then headed out in search of fish.
My approach this afternoon was to move frequently in search of actively feeding fish. If I found fish on sonar, we got slabs down to them, and didn’t pull up multiple fish in the first few iterations of slow-smoking, we would just leave those fish to search for fish that were more responsive.
On this cloudless afternoon, the fishing got better the closer we got to sunset, the, at sunset, the fish quit quite suddenly.
At our first stop, we did 3 “short hops” within 75 yard of one another, putting a total of 5 fish in the boat. The fish were present, but generally disinterested. Our second stop was similiar — 3 short hops for another 8 fish with no real enthusiasm demonstrated by the fish, as seen on Garmin LiveScope.
We moved again, and, although it took a few minutes to get the fish stirred up and drawn over to our commotion, we put 21 fish in the boat in just one Spot-Locked position.
Our final stop, which we “camped out” on for over an hour, produced 91 fish. We caught white bass, short hybrid stripers, drum, and largemouth bass at this single location.
As the sun set below the horizon, the bite shut down instantly. The 125 fish we caught were all taken on the 5/8 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab fished with a slow-smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.
Our catch of 125 fish included 6 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth bass, 2 freshwate drum, 1 legal hybrid striped bass, 10 short hybrid striped bass, and 105 white bass
Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 125 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: We were treated to the sight of a golden eagle (the first I’ve ever seen in Texas), hunting coots. Over a span of ~3 minutes, the large raptor made 4 unsuccessful dives at the small waterfowl. Each time the eagle got close approaching from downwind, the coots would dive underwater for a few seconds until the eagle had passed upwind.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:10A
End Time: 11:10A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 30F
Elevation: 2.72 feet low, 0.02 fall in last 24 hours, 1 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 52.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: SW10 at sunrise, scaling back to SW5 at 9:45A
Sky Condition: Bluebird skies
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 10% illumination.
GT = 125
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas 0267 (13 fish), Area 0092 (3 fish), Area 0147 (3 fish), Area 0279 (8 fish)
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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