KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE FORAGE — 204 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Monday, June 5, I fished with a crew of four from the Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen. This trip was coordinated by that organization’s president, Mr. Randy Rowley. Joining Randy were Bill Atkinson, Jim Magee, and Dusty Hunt, all club members.

Bill is a retired veterinarian, Jim is a retired Campus Crusade for Christ missionary, Randy is with Texas’ Health and Human Services, and Dusty works in the concrete cutting business.

I really appreciated Randy, as he is a detail-oriented person. He asked good questions and really laid the groundwork for his group to have a good outing as result of his pre-trip research and “due diligence”.

Here’s how the fishing went…

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Next available dates are July 10, 12, & 13 (all AM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen members (from left) Dusty Hunt, Randy Rowley, Bill Atkinson, and Jim McGee.  This crew landed 204 fish on MAL Mini Rigs early and MAL Heavies late.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 05 June 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:  This morning’s fishing broke down into two distinct parts. The first part involved gamefish pushing bait, most of which was young-of-the-year shad, to the surface in water under 20 feet deep while the light level was low and the cloud cover was 100% gray.

During this time we used MAL Mini rigs, and either sight-cast or counted these rigs down to no more than a four-count, and caught white bass consuming these small shad, the largest of which were perhaps 1.25 inches in length and about as large in diameter as a pipe cleaner.

The first group of fish we found included a majority of undersized fish, but after that, the mix was roughly 7 to 1 on legal versus under sized fish.

We found such fishing at two distinct areas, then, as the sun began to climb higher in the sky and burn off the gray cloud cover, this bite ended right at 8:04 AM.

The second chapter involved a distinctly different population of fish feeding on adult shad out in open water. These fish were holding at 16 to 20 feet down over a 32-foot bottom.

Occasionally, these fish would push bait all the way to the surface and expose their location, which allowed us to swoop in, catch fish by sight-casting, then, when they disappeared, by counting our lures down.

Once they sounded, we also found we could consolidate them by creating commotion with the splasher and our presentations, and by hooking and playing fish. As this happened, we were able to fish vertically using a smoking tactic both with and without the aid of Garmin LiveScope.

None of my crew had experience using LiveScope the way we used it this morning and that really seemed to be a treat for them. As was the case all week last week, the fishing began to taper between 9:40 and 9:50 and was over by 10:20.

This Fellowship of Christian Sportsmen’s crew landed exactly 204 fish this morning every last one of which was a white bass.

Bottom line: it was critical to watch and see what size shad the fish were feeding on, and then imitate that forage size via good lure selection.

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

TALLY: 112 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures  here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  Being prepared (i.e. with lures already selected and tied on) to imitate both juvenile shad and adult shad was key today.  The wind shift to the north did not seem to impact the fishery versus the SSE to due S winds we had last week.  Here is the water temperature profile I detected prior to sunrise:

0 feet, 78.6F
5 feet, 79.6F
10 feet, 79.9F
15 feet, 80.1F
20 feet, 80.1F
25 feet, 76.7F
30 feet, 71.2F
35 feet, 68.4F
40 feet 66.9F
45 feet, 65.5F
50 feet, 64.1F
55 feet, 63.2F
60 feet, 62.2F

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 12.63 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.01′ drop over the past 72 hours

Water Surface Temp: ~78.6F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW5-6 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover until ~8:00, then rapidly dissipating to blue skies and 30% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 92% illumination.

GT = 80

Wx SNAPSHOT: 

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic B0123C – 27 fish on MAL Mini rigs via sight-casting to surface feeders

Area vic 15576 thru 1411 – 37 fish on MAL Mini rigs via sight-casting to surface feeders & counting down to suspended fish

Area vic B02020G – 78 fish on a combination of smoking, sight-casting, and counting down MAL Heavies

Area vic B0129G – 89 fish on a combination of smoking, sight-casting, and counting down MAL

 

 

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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