WHO I FISHED WITH: On Saturday, 22 Oct., I fished with Mr. Shaun Kluna and his two sons, Brandon, a Chinook helicopter crewman with the U.S. Army, and Wyatt, a 10-year-old fifth-grade student.
Shaun is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who specialized in signal and communications on active duty, and now instructs others on such matters at Fort Hood as a civilian.
After a string of sonar training sessions Tues. through Fri. this week, it was good to get back out on the water with clients holding rods instead of just pushing buttons.
Although the day’s strong winds did deny us access to a few areas, we made the best of the areas we could safely access. By the time we departed, we had straight-line winds at 20-22, gusting 28+.
Here is how the fishing went …
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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Brandon, Wyatt, and Shaun Kluna with a few of the 64 fish they landed on this particularly windy Saturday morning on Lake Belton.
PHOTO CAPTION: Largemouth bass are becoming a routine part of our bycatch as we target white bass now that the water is cooling and the white bass are using the same patches of bottom as the black bass.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 22 October 2022 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
The wind was the headline today — we had a SSW 13 mph blow going at launch time, and it only got stiffer as the morning rolled on — up to SSW20-21 by trip’s end. This limited our access to some productive open water areas, so, we had to take lemons and make lemonade.
Although I found fish at all but one of the areas I searched, the fish at those four productive areas were far from fired up. I can typically gauge what kind of mood the fish are in right from the very first lure drop down into them — if they are holding off the bottom and rise up to meet the falling lure, things are going to be good. On the other hand, if they ignore the first few “smoking” sequences and slowly meander over to where the lures are falling and only then begin chasing (or half-heartedly chasing), then things are going to be tough. We had one instance of the former, and three instances of the latter today, with our best run of fish coming around 10:40 to 11:10.
We used MAL Dense Lures (with white bodies and chartreuse tails) for 100% of our fishing today using only a vertical (smoking) tactic. Between the wind and a youngster aboard, casting just wasn’t going to work too well today.
We noted that the fish we observed today were both tight to the bottom and were moving horizontally pretty quickly — they tended not to stick around even with the commotion of schoolmates being caught taking place around them (which usually creates interest which keeps fish beneath the boat).
For their efforts the Klunas wound up boating 64 fish including 3 freshwater drum, 1 largemouth bass, 6 short hybrid striped bass, and 54 white bass.
TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
TALLY: 64 fish caught and released
Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: High winds were the most remarkable thing today. An unusually warm, dry wind from the SW cranked up late Friday and is forecast to blow hard until dusk on Sunday.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:30A
End Time: 11:45A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F
Elevation: 12.97 feet low, 0.06′ fall in last 24 hours, 384 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 71.9F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW13 at trip’s start steadily ramping up to straight-line winds at 20-22, gusting 28+
Sky Condition: Light grey cloud cover at 40% all morning
Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 10% illumination.
GT = 60
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas 387, 2041, 2028, B0156G (2 hops)
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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