WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, May 30, I fished with returning guests Marcus Mitchell, and Robert Butts, accompanied by a friend of theirs from church, Steve Wilson.
With the long Memorial Day weekend now passed, the lake traffic this morning was minimal and the weather pretty comfortable for late May, at least until late morning.
As conversation drifted from topic to topic, we discovered Steve was boyhood friends with Mike Hargrove. After announcing this, Steve then “teased us” by letting us know Hargrove became known in the sports world as the “human rain delay”. I’ll likewise tease you … look up “human rain delay” on YouTube!
Here is how the fishing went…
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Next available dates are June 28, & July 5, 6, 10 (all AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Robert Butts, Marcus Mitchell, and Steve Wilson with a few of the Lake Belton white bass they caught and released. The fishing was pretty easy in the first hour as fish popped shad on the surface under low light conditions, but got much tougher thanks to a lack of wind once the sun rose and brightened.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 25 May 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
I made our meeting time a bit earlier to account for the lack of cloud cover which was forecast today, and increasing day length. We met up around 6:20 and got right into fish forcing shad to the surface.
There was a mixture of young of the year shad and adult shed in this area. When presented with an option, I went with those schools pursuing adult shad, as that forage is much easier to imitate with lures. We kept up with the movement of the schools of fish for about an hour until the sun had risen high enough to sufficiently brighten the sky and pushed the fish down for good.
After that, fishing got pretty tough thanks to a lack of wind, or , at best, a light ESE breeze. We found pockets of fish here and there, most of which were suspended and chasing after young of the year shad. Although we did find a few collections of fish solid enough to stop and work vertically or horizontally for, most of the remainder of our catch of 64 fish came via downriggers.
After observing fish reaction to the downriggers wherein we passed numerous schools of fish with the downrigger balls set appropriately and still did not come up with fish, I decided to downsize from the #13 Pet Spoons I have been relying on thus far this spring to the smaller #12 Pet Spoon.
Our final tally of 64 fish consisted of 56 white bass and 8 hybrid, stripers, all of which were short.
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: 64 fish caught and released
Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: “Offshore” schools of nomadic white bass feeding on the tiny young-of-the-year shad continues to increase in frequency and abundance.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:20A
End Time: 11:20A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F
Elevation: 12.59 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.30′ increase over the long Memorial Day weekend
Water Surface Temp: ~78.1F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: Puffing from the ESE at 0-4 all morning
Sky Condition: Blue skies with under 10% cloud cover all morning.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 76% illumination.
GT = 155
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area BG0020CH to 1073 to B0169G – 33 fish on MAL Heavies sight-cast & counted down
Area vic B0030G – 12 fish via downrigging to find them, then capitalizing on the find via smoking MAL Heavies
Area vic B0093G – 3 fish smoking MAL Heavies, then 6 more fish using downriggers to “mop up” after fish lost interest; these fish were suspended at 20-25 over a deeper bottom.
Area vic 1404 – 10 fish via downrigging to find them, then capitalizing on the find via smoking MAL Heavies (2 separate visits)
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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