TWO YOUNG FISH “STEELERS” — 125 FISH @ BELTON

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

#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

BASSIN’ BUDDIES — 27 FISH @ STILLHOUSE

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Saturday morning, January 29th, I fished with bass fishing buddies Josh Brown and Sam Yeomans, both from the Austin area.

The two met through a bass fishing social media site and began fishing together about a year ago.

Sam is contemplating the purchase of a bass boat, and his search was going to bring him to this area as he kicked tires and spoke with folks at our various dealerships.  He and Josh figured why not get in a little fishing while they were at it, so, they gave me a call and we booked the trip.

I explained that Belton typically offers more, but smaller fish, whereas Stillhouse typically produces fewer, but larger fish.  Hearing this, the two opted for Stillhouse.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next few openings will be on Feb. 7th, 8th, and 9th.  Weekday mornings are always best.

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Josh Brown took this 5.00 pound Stillhouse largemouth out of 32 feet of water on a 5/8 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.

PHOTO CAPTION: Sam Yeomans took this 14″ white bass on a 5/8 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.  We landed over a dozen white bass which exceeded 14″ on this cold, clear morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 29 January 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

It was cold and clear this morning, with a 30F air temp. before sunrise.  The one positive weather feature we had was a southwesterly breeze which was blowing enough to help the fishing prior to sunrise, and which kept blowing until around 9:45AM.

Our fishing was 100% vertical with white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs fished with a slow-smoking tactic.  As simple as that sounds, the fellows’ strong bass fishing backgrounds made them prone to want to get fancier than need-be with their retrieves, but they were able to work through that, make their retrieves more “plain-Jane” pretty quickly, and put fish in the boat, occasionally aided by Garmin LiveScope.

We witnessed three distinct flocks of gulls working this morning, but none of them had fish just busting at the seams to feed on shad.  Overall, the fishing was average during out first two hours, then really dropped off around 9:45 AM after the southwest breeze scaled back to just a ripple.

Our final catch totaled 27 fish landed, including 1 largemouth bass, and 26 white bass up to 14 7/8 inches.

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

TALLY: 27 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

#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