WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, November 9th, I fished with returning guests PJ Condit and Scott Smith — both pastors serving here in Central Texas. PJ is the lead minister at Community Christian Church in Round Rock, and Scott is the senior pastor at Crestview Christian Church in Copperas Cove.
PJ brought with him two first-time guests including his 17-year-old son, Caleb, and John Byrd who works in the church’s ministry to kids. Caleb has his sights on petroleum engineering after college, and John retired from a company focused on industrial temperature control devices.
Here is how the fishing went …
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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Caleb and PJ Condit, Scott Smith, and John Byrd with a few of the 220 fish they landed on MAL Lures worked vertically under warm, breezy, mostly-cloudy conditions.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 09 November 2022 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
‘Twas a carbon-copy, cookie-cutter kinda day out there. Once again, low visibility due to early morning fog, a warm, moist SE breeze, mild temperatures, and abundant cloud cover made today’s fishing nearly identical to the solid results of Monday and Tuesday and the early part of last week.
The fish did the same things in the same places and at the same times as they did since last Friday/Saturday’s cold front passed. Our results were better simply today because we had more rods working, but the per-man catch of ~50/person over a 4-hour span was in keeping with the results from earlier this week.
When the conditions are right, like they have been these past few trips, fish are just easier to find as they position further from bottom as they feed, thus, there is greater “target separation” between them and the bottom, making them easier to spot, especially at great distances on well-tuned side-imaging.
Once the fish are spotted, I’m using the i-Pilot Link system connecting my Humminbird Solix with my trolling motor to very quickly and accurately position atop these fish, then get baits down to the fish quickly so as to keep their attention and prevent them from moving off.
We relied on MAL Originals with white tails and MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails and barbless hooks (for multiple, quick releases and extra weight to get lures to bottom more quickly), and both performed the same, although everyone had to be careful to leave ~4 feet of line hanging down past the rod tip to prevent lost fish right at the boat.
We used the “smoking” tactic described in the video link below to catch 100% of the fish we boated today, varying our retrieve speed as the fishes’ enthusiasm level ebbed and flowed with light level and time of day.
My 4-man crew landed 220 fish including 201 white bass, 17 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, & 1 freshwater drum.
TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
TALLY: 220 fish caught and released
Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: 1) a 40 cfs flow continued today, 2) I once again spotted multiple single gulls, but none helped locate fish, 3) the lake is now slowly falling again at a rate of ~0.03′ feet/day.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:55A
End Time: 11:00A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Elevation: 13.25 feet low, 0.03′ fall in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.
Water Surface Temp: 68.3F
Wind Speed & Direction: SE5-6 at (obscured) sunrise, steadily increasing to SE12-13
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover through ~9:45, then partly clearing to ~50% white cloud cover on a blue sky
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 99% illumination.
GT = P
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas B0171G (13 fish), vic B0159G (22 fish), vic 0404 (28 fish), 187 w/1 short hop (124 fish), 294/2059 (33 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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