BOBBY & THE BOYS — 77 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This evening, Tuesday, Dec. 27th, I fished with Mr. Bobby Golding III and his two sons Bobby Golding IV, and Billy Golding.

Bobby III, a U.S. Army veteran, has worked for many years at an industrial supply business in Temple, Bobby IV is a Tech Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force stationed in Florida where he works with aircraft-based weapons, and Billy is a heavy equipment mechanic working for a construction firm in Austin.

Bobby owns his own (very nice) Bass Cat bass boat, but doesn’t chase white bass routinely.  He just wanted to make sure his sons “got their strings stretched” and to spend some time with the both of them while they were home for the holidays, so, I was honored that he called on me to help with that.

We were originally scheduled for this past Saturday, but the frigid weather forced a rescheduling.

My next weekday openings are on 03 – 05 Jan. My next weekend opening is Sat., 07 January 2023.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Bobby Golding III, Bobby Golding IV, and Billy Golding, each with 2 of the 77 fish they landed under tough conditions brought on by the recent, rapid cooling of Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Tuesday, 27 December 2022 (PM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

We faced pretty tough conditions this afternoon with yet another total lack of bird activity.

We found fish were scattered, and that some fish had moved up to depths as shallow as 24′.

Even where we found concentrations of fish, those fish were in multiple, distinctly separated groups of perhaps 12-30 fish each.

Fish would generally get interested in our presentations immediately, allowing us to catch a few fish, then they would shut down fairly quickly.  Having seen this routinely this winter, I knew we needed to move on to find new fish as soon as the slowdown occurred.

We used white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs the entire trip using a slow-smoking tactic and Garmin LiveScope.  Of the first 51 fish we caught, only 1 white bass was short, however, of the final 26 fish we landed, only 4 were of legal size.

When all was said and done the Goldings landed 77 fish including 1 short hybrid striped bass, 5 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 69 white bass, of which 23 were short.

TALLY: 77 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: 1)  No helpful bird activity for 2nd consecutive trip.  2) On 21 Dec. the temperature profile to 55′ was a constant 58.2F; temperature is now 52.6F down to that same depth.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 1:00P

End Time: 5:00P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F

Elevation: 13.35 feet low, 0.01′ fall in last 24 hours, 24 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 51.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE5 at trip’s start, peaking at SSE12 by 4P, then settling back to SSE6 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: High, thin white cloud cover at 40% on a light blue sky.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 33% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area B0022C – 8 fish

Area B0075C – 7 fish

Area vic B0063G – 7 fish

Area B0159G – 7 fish

Area B0173G – 8 fish; second hop – 7 fish

Area 1291 – 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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