WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, June 20th, I welcomed aboard Mr. Scott Sutphen and his grandsons, Josh (15), Jacob (12), and Jace (11).
Scott and his wife are from the Bryan-College Station area where Scott works for Lochow Ranch, a pond and lake management company, providing comprehensive private lake and pond management services throughout Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. They routinely camp at Lake Belton, and that’s how they came to book with me.
The boys are all from the rural town of Iola, out between Bryan and Huntsville.
After fixing them his “Paw Paw Special Breakfast” (that’d be Pop-Tarts), the crew drove over from their campground and showed up on time for our 6:30A start.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next openings will be on July 13th and 15th. 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: From left: Jacob, Josh, Jace, and Scott Sutphen with a few of the Lake Belton white bass we really worked for today under bright skies and near-calm wind conditions.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 20 June 2022
HOW WE FISHED:
We faced pretty tough conditions today — nearly cloudless skies, and nearly calm winds through 10AM. Our best run of catching actually came right at the close of the trip, between 10:10A and 10:55A, when we put a final 31 fish in the boat. This is atypical, especially in the summer, to catch more fish in the latter part of the trip, but, the fish turned on when the wind blew.
Until that wind kicked in, we faced very much the same scenario at each of the places we searched … we’d see a few fish on sonar, Spot-Lock on them, create some commotion to draw them in, and caught a few, only to have their interest drop off very quickly. We could not get fish to stay under the boat for any length of time. So, seeing this, we adjusted by moving frequently, taking a few fish from a given area, and then moving again as soon as the bite dropped off.
All of the fishing we did, up until the wind began blowing, was vertical smoking with the MAL Heavy (chartreuse tail). Once the wind started blowing, we got on top of a good school, caught some vertically, and then noted large, patrolling schools of fish on bottom out to our starboard side, as witnessed on side-imaging. I gave everyone targets on the horizon to aim for so their casts would fall among the fish, and everyone started catching using the “sawtooth” method on that same MAL Heavy. We never saw a single such school of feeding whites while under calm conditions.
By 10:55, the bite was waning, the heat was rising, and the boys’ appetites were increasing, so, we called it a good morning right there, having achieved a “personal best” for number of fish caught on a single fishing trip for the Sutphen crew.
A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Our 70-fish catch included 68 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 1 freshwater drum.
The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 70 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Here is the temperature profile I measured down to 60 feet. Note the 6-degree plunge between 40-45 feet:
0 feet 83.6F
5 feet 84.5F
10 feet 84.8F
15 feet 85F
20 feet 84F
25 feet 82.6F
30 feet 79.6F
35 feet 77.9F
40 feet 75.2F
45 feet 69.2F
50 feet 65.3F
55 feet 62.4F
60 feet 61.2F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:30A
End Time: 10:55A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F
Elevation: 5.17 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 38 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 83.6F
Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable from the south, puffing at 1-4mph through 10A, then picking up to S8 thereafter.
Sky Condition: 5% coverage with wispy, white clouds on a blue sky.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 57% illumination.
GT = 80
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS: We moved around a lot today, picking up a few here and there. The only areas which produced more than 10 fish were…
Area vic BDH005
Area vic 489
Area B0098G
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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