WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, April 20th, I fished with returning guest Allen Naff of Bertram, TX, accompanied by his son, Todd Naff, of Bryan, TX. This was Todd’s first time out with me.
Allen is retired from the Texas Attorney General’s Office, and Todd, educated as a lawyer, started a company focused on the fracking industry.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next openings will be on May 11th and June 21st. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trip (until mid-March 2023).
PHOTO CAPTION: Allen Naff and his son, Todd, evenly split the 202 fish catch we made on Lake Belton this morning. We used Original MAL Lures up shallow early, then switched to MAL Heavy Lures as the fish moved deeper. The fish are so aggressive now, they’ll chase and strike a lure moving just about as fast as it can be retrieved.
PHOTO CAPTION: Todd Naff with a 5.00-pound Lake Belton blue catfish which fell for his MAL Heavy Lure (chartreuse tail).
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 20 April 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
With a stiff southerly wind continuing to blow since early Monday morning, along with abundant grey cloud cover, the conditions were once again excellent for white bass fishing this morning. That, combined with rising water temperature had the fish chomping at the bit to chase and eat all morning.
We began our trip up shallow, in under 15’, tossing MAL Heavy Lures out horizontally and working them back to the boat using a “sawtooth” retrieve. The fish would hit as the lure rose diagonally up off the bottom.
As we fished, I noted some “churn” up even shallower, in under 6’, as white bass corralled shad to the surface. I placed Allen and Todd, who had been casting from the gunwale, up on the front deck, and I manually ran the trolling motor to creep up on these fish. This turned into a real bonus as that area gave up fish after fish as father and son cast MAL Originals (for their lighter weight) using limber spinning rods up into these fish, catching one on nearly every cast for a nice span of time. Eventually, these fish moved on and, from that time on, we fished out deeper using vertical tactics.
Helpful laughing gulls were our clue to the presence of these deeper fish, a few of which were active enough to drive shad all the way to the surface, thus giving the gulls an opportunity to feed and giving us a chance to locate fish using other than sonar. Once we located the “center of mass” of these fish in about 32’, we got on them and never had to move again. These fish stayed active until right around 11:20AM, after which they finally shut down. We caught fish steadily here for 2+ hours straight.
This final area we fished yielded 136 fish, every one of which struck the MAL Heavy (w/ barbless hook and chart. tail) used as described here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Our final tally of 202 fish consisted of 2 short hybrid striped bass, 1 blue catfish, 1 largemouth bass, and 198 white bass.
Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 202 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: We are at a point in the spring where the fishes’ rising metabolism trumps all else – quantities of fish can now be taken even when poor weather conditions, which would otherwise hinder fishing, exist.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:50A
End Time: 11:20A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F
Elevation: 3.73 feet low, 0.02’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 66.9F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12 at trip’s start, steadily increasing to SSE17, gusting 24 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: 80-90% light grey clouds most of the morning.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 82% illumination.
GT = 50
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area 788, B0179C, B0063C, B0074C
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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