WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, May 11th, I fished with first-time guests Richard and Lindy McClure of Salado, TX.
Lindy, a member of the board for the Public Arts League of Salado (PALS), was high bidder on a fishing trip for two I’d donated to that organization recently. Among other things, P.A.L.S. ensures that Salado’s public arts are presented and maintained appropriately.
Lindy invited Richard, her husband, as her guest, and the two chose this morning to pursue white bass on Lake Belton.
The McClure’s recently retired to Salado from Annapolis, Maryland, where Richard served as the general manager of Carrol’s Creek Cafe for over two decades, right across Annapolis Harbor from the U.S. Naval Academy.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next openings will be on June 29 and July 5. 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 trips (until mid-March 2023).
PHOTO CAPTION: Richard and Lindy McClure on their first Texas fishing trip, and first visit to the waters of Lake Belton.
PHOTO CAPTION: After the McClures hit the 100 fish mark using MAL Dense Lures (shown above), we switched over the MAL Heavy Lures with barbless hooks to make things a bit easier on fish and fishermen.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 11 May 2022
HOW WE FISHED:
This morning was much like the last 5 or 6 trips I’ve fished so far as the weather was concerned … a manageable SSE breeze with a balmy 74F air temperature and nearly 100% cloud cover through to the end of the trip keeping it comfortable despite unseasonably warm temperatures.
The fish started biting right out of the chutes this morning as the thin grey cloud cover allowed for a noticeable brightening of the skies.
We landed 37 fish in under an hour, although 80% of these fish were undersized. Regardless, this allowed the McClures to work out the kinks in their presentations and laid a solid foundation which they built on over the remainder of the morning.
We fished two additional areas fairly quickly between 8A and 9A, with the fish being only moderately interested, landing 12 at the first and 29 at the second.
Our final move landed us on top of a school of white bass which was really turned on and feeding hard, occasionally chasing shad all the way to the surface. These fish fed well from right around 9A to around 10:30, then slowly “faded to black” by 11AM.
At 10:43, with 184 fish in the boat and with Lindy sitting it out after all the catching wore out her shoulder, I leaned over to Richard and asked if he wanted to see if we could make it to 200. We agreed we’d give it until 11AM or 200 fish, whichever came first. By 11, we’d landed 198 and called it a great morning right then and there.
All of our fish were taken using the “smoking” tactic with MAL Dense Lures until we reached 100 fish; then, I switched one rod over the the MAL Heavy Lure with barbless hooks to make unhooking faster and to cause less tissue damage on the fish we hooked.
A complete description of this “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Our 198 fish catch included 193 white bass, and 6 sub-legal hybrid striped bass.
The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 198 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Water temperature profile:
0 feet 76.7F
5 feet 76.4F
10 feet 76.3F
15 feet 76.3F
20 feet 76.3F
25 feet 74.8F
30 feet 72.7F
35 feet 69.8F
40 feet 67.8F
45 feet 66.1F
50 feet 63.9F
55 feet 62.0F
60 feet 60.6F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:45A
End Time: 11A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F
Elevation: 3.81 feet low, 0.032’ fall in last 24 hours, 36 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 76.7F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10 at trip’s start increasing to SSE13 with no gusting
Sky Condition: Moderate grey cloud cover persisted all morning.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 74% illumination.
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas vic 1579/181, Area 1012, and Area LOST ROD 2
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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