THEIR CHRISTMAS FISHES CAME TRUE — 134 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Saturday, 17 Dec., I was joined by returning guests Richard and Linda Schneider, accompanied by their daughter, Ashley, and Ashley’s friend, Armando Leos.

Everyone was able to take a little break this morning from their weekday routine, where Richard drives an 18-wheeler, Linda works for one of our Central Texas cities’ water department, Ashley helps prevent fraud at a local bank, and Armando works as an estimator at an automotive paint & body shop.

This trip was in celebration of Ashley’s 22nd birthday.

My next weekday opening is on 27 Dec. My next weekend opening is Sat., 07 January 2023.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Richard, Linda, & Ashley Schneider and Armando Leos with four of the 134 fish they landed on a chilly December morning on Lake Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: In addition to our target species of white bass, we also picked up a nice by-catch of hybrid striped bass.  We landed 5 legal (18″ or greater) hybrid, and 14 additional hybrid, all but one of which were 16-17 inches in length.  This bodes well for a Lake Belton hybrid rebound!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Saturday, 17 December 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

This morning’s bite rode a “bell-shaped curve”, starting at zero activity prior to sunrise, then quickly climbing to a peak, plateauing at the peak until around 10:25, then declining rapidly to nearly zero activity once again by around 11:15.

My crew did one thing and did it well today, and that was to slowly and steadily work the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab vertically in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.  They all knew their goal was to get fish to chase their lures and then to keep a steady cadence even as the fish chased — not speeding up, slowing down, stopping, pausing, or prematurely setting the hook.  Everyone got off to a strong start on this discipline, and then continued improving as the morning went on.

For the 19th consecutive trip (since mid-November), birds (mainly gulls now with a few terns mixed in) were helpful in pointing the way to fish location.  This morning we enjoyed a full 3 hours (of our 4 hours on the water) with bird assistance.  These birds were not always on the most fish, but they pointed the way to active fish and to a point where I could “close the loop” with side-imaging.

Our final total was 134 fish landed, which included 5 legal hybrid, 14 short hybrid, 4 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 110 white bass of which ~30 were short.

TALLY: 134 fish caught and released

Find Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hook here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) This was the 19th consecutive trip with helpful bird activity.  2) We had a much higher percentage of short white bass in our catch today than I’ve seen thus far this fall/winter.  3) 3+ hours of solid, helpful bird activity.

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Elevation: 13.12 feet low, 0.03′ fall in last 24 hours, 24 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 58.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NW10 at sunrise, slowly increasing to NW13 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: Broken grey skies for 1.5 hours, slowly clearing to cloudless, blue skies by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 39% illumination.

GT = 85

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic B171G – 48 fish (~50% short whites under stationary birds)

Area vic B0101C – 4 fish (under moving birds)

Area B0097G – 18 fish (under moving birds)

Area B0061G – 8 fish (under moving birds)

Area 835 – 40 fish (under birds as feed began to wind down)

Area B0183G – 16 fish (stationary, suspended fish over deep water as morning feed ended)

 

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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