WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, May 5, I fished with returning guests — the father and son team of Kelvin Gladden, and one of his sons, Tevin.
I Kelvin is a US Army veteran and Tevin works in the computer industry over in Temple.
Here is how the fishing went.…
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Next available dates are June 21, 22, 27, & 28 (all AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Kelvin and Tevin Gladden with some mature Lake Belton white bass which came on MAL Heavy Lures worked vertically and on downrigged Pet Spoons when the fish were less aggressive.
PHOTO CAPTION: Triple! Tevin landed five sets of triples as we downrigged for increasingly disinterested fish after the winds reached a peak and then began falling off. We used #13 Pet Spoons behind twin umbrella rigs behind two downriggers.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 05 May 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
Due to high wind speeds forecast toward the end of our trip, I had to launch at a more distant ramp this morning than usual, and although I got there with no problem before 6:15A, the Gladdens got stuck behind a school bus and arrived a bit late, which cost us an opportunity at sight-casting to white bass forcing shad to the surface in shallow water under low light conditions.
Although this action was still going on as we got underway, we only managed three fish in the few minutes which remained of that action before the skies brightened, the shad moved out, the birds quit, and the white bass crept downward and outwards away from the shoreline.
We moved away from the shoreline out to the first breakline and were able to catch abundant, active white bass, just as we did under similar weather conditions yesterday. We took these fish with a vertical tactic using MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. After nearly an hour on these fish, found on two distinct areas along this first breakline, the bite began to wane.
Next, I spotted about three dozen Franklins gulls working over open water, got to them, saw abundant, but very scattered fish, and after making a quick attempt to see if we could draw fish to us with the splasher, I instead changed over to downrigging. This allowed us to cover water quickly, spot fish on side-imaging, then turn to port or starboard, and troll directly over top of them. This accounted for six fish very quickly before the birds quit flying and resumed resting on the water, and the fish dispersed.
With the southerly wind now picking up to right at 13 mph, I felt that some of the deeper topographies might begin producing, and this suspicion turned out to be right. We made three stops in about 32 feet of water and continued using the smoking tactic.
As the wind velocity built to a peak, the fish feeding activity also built to a peak. We were able to take our fish count up to 102 while the wind remained strong by fishing these three fairly similar areas. The first gave up 13 fish, the second gave up 9 fish, and the third gave up 30 fish.
The NOAA forecast called for the winds to peak late morning, and then begin falling off toward noon, and that is exactly what happened this morning. As soon as the winds slacked off, the bite begin to decline, as well.
With 102 fish in the boat at this point, I asked Kelvin and Tevom if they would prefer to move to a number of spots in rapid succession and try to pull a few fish at each, or would prefer to put the downriggers back down. They asked me which I thought would produce more fish. I told them I thought the downrigging would put a few more fish in the boat, so they went for that option. We wound up with 29 additional fish landed, including 5 sets of triples all landed by Tevin, over the final 40 minutes of our trip. We concluded with 131 fish all of which were white bass, except for a single short hybrid.
Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
TALLY: 131 fish caught and released
Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS:
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:50A
End Time: 11A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F
Elevation: 13.80 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.02′ fall over the last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 67.8F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7 at trip’s start, peaking around 10A at SSE13, then dropping back to SSE6-7
Sky Condition: 90% moderate grey cloud cover with brief spurts of direct sun breaking thru
Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.
GT = 5
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area B0196C – 44 fish on smoked MAL Heavies
Area B0171G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies
Area 0008 – 10 fish on smoked MAL Heavies
Area B0023C thru 1556 – 20 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons
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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