WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, June 30th, I welcomed aboard two returning guests — long-time friends Larry Brewer and Blake Hoekstra, both from the Georgetown, TX, area.
Larry has been involved in the Austin area HVAC industry for decades, and Blake is a retired accountant.
Here is how the fishing went …
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My next openings will be on 1, 10, & 11 August. 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: Our better sized fish were all taken on the MAL Dense (chartreuse tail) fished either vertically or horizontally. Smaller, but more numerous, fish came on the downriggers, but were quite scattered about.
PHOTO CAPTION: For the seventh consecutive trip we managed a “triple” — catching three fish at a time, one on each of the three Pet Spoons on my 3-armed umbrella rig fished behind a downrigger. This was our one and only triple today under continued calm, bright conditions.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 30 June 2022
HOW WE FISHED:
Despite a wind shift back to the south overnight, the wind velocity stayed quite low and the fishing was tough once again under hot, cloudless, bright skies.
We picked up about 15 fish in our first 40 minutes on the water as we downrigged, all the time looking for opportunities to stop and fish vertically in order to catch a lot of fish in a short span of time, but, that did not happen early on.
We continued downrigging, finding very little to get excited about through around 9A. During this time we picked up only 9 additional fish. On numerous occasions as we passed over schools which, under better conditions I’d have bet money on; however, many failed to chase and strike our downrigged presentations despite good depth and speed control.
Around 9A, after spotting multiple schools feeding briefly in the same general area on multiple occasions over a short span of time, I headed over to investigate, saw some promise on side imaging, Spot-Locked, and cashed in on a solid, final 90 minutes of fishing through around 10:30A.
During this time we watched multiple, aggressive schools of white bass, most about 80 fish in number, move under and around the boat. We worked MAL Dense Lures (chartreuse tails) vertically for the majority of our catch. If the screen got sparse, I looked for options out to our port and starboard and we worked the same lures with a “sawtooth” retrieve for additional fish in that manner.
During that final 90 minute span we landed an additional 41 fish until, just after 10:30A, the fish quit. By this time we had all sweated through our shirts and welcomed the self-made breeze of the boat ride back to the dock.
Our 65-fish catch included 61 white bass, 2 freshwater drum, & 2 largemouth bass.
TALLY: 65 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Bright, near-windless conditions really made it tough going this morning, for the second day in a row.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:30A
End Time: 10:35A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F
Elevation: 5.57 feet low, 0.05’ fall in last 24 hours, 50 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 84.3F
Wind Speed & Direction: Puffing 0-3 from SE for the entire morning.
Sky Condition: Cloudless, bright skies all morning.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 2% illumination.
GT = 35
Wx SNAPSHOT: For the second consecutive day the wx forecast missed the mark. We never had sustained wind and we never had any cloud cover. Tough!
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area 1614 produced fish on downriggers right at sunrise, then all other downrigged fish came from small, scattered groups – 24 fish via downrigging.
Area B0203G to B0204G – vertical and horizontal MAL Dense work from 9a to 10:30a for 41 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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