WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, June 8, I fished with first time guests, Keith Hogwood and his friend, David Cluck. The two are long-time friends and coworkers at one of the ACER locations in Temple, Texas.
David introduced Keith to deer hunting with firearms a few years ago, and, when the opportunity to return the favor by taking David fishing arose, Keith seized up on it.
Here is how the fishing went…
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PHOTO CAPTION: David Cluck (left) and Keith Hogwood with a few of the 131 fish they landed as this morning’s favorable weather conditions offered both wind and cloud cover right up to around 10AM.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 08 June 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
Wow, what a blessing today’s wind and cloud cover were! I welcome Keith and David aboard, reviewed the safety equipment, set up the gear for them, prayed, and within minutes we were into what would be about an hour’s worth of very aggressive, low-light top water, action.
David handled a spinning rod very well, so I put an 8-foot St. Croix panfish rod in his hands, mated to a Pflueger large diameter Arbor spinning reel filled with 10 pound braid, and he was off to the races.
Keith was not as accomplished a caster, so the MAL Mini rig with a three-quarter ounce weight ahead of it served him better, whereas David had the lure only tied on to his outfit. I simply hunkered down between the two of these fellows on the front casting deck of my boat and ran the trolling motor so as to keep them both within a casting distance of the multiple schools of fish that were working young of the year shad on the surface.
By the time this action died as the wind slacked off, and the skies brightened a bit, we had boated 47 fish. As we went searching for where we might find our next catchable fish, I spotted four blue herons working over a well-defined patch of water, which told me there were whites pushing bait to the surface.
We made a beeline there, spotted the gamefish, assessed what size of bait the fish were feeding on, and used MAL Heavies with chartreuse tails to imitate the adult shad in this location. We put another 30 fish in the boat here before the wind knocked off even more, and the bite died.
I attempted a “mop up“ with downriggers. This resulted in the catch of one white bass, and a largemouth/blue cat double. With 80 fish now in the boat, it looked like our weather conditions were going to worsen, as the wind just about quit and the first direct sun of the morning begin to shine through the clouds. Despite this, I spotted four schools of whites, all close by one another out in open water about a half mile away, using my spotting scope.
We made a beeline to them and were able to add another 23 fish to our count, again using the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail, before these fish disappeared beneath the surface. About this time, the sun begin to shine, and then get covered back over by clouds repeatedly, and a sustained westerly breeze began to blow. This reignited the white bass topwater bite.
At the same time I got a call from a buddy, who had found an abundance of surface-feeding, white bass, as well. At this last location we fished was in a bit shallowerr water, and, as was the case with the first fish we encountered this morning, this last group consisted mainly of yearling fish, some of which eclipsed 10 inches, and some of which did not.
By 10:10 AM, the bite looked to be winding down as the sun stayed out more than it was obscured by clouds. David and Keith needed to be back at the ramp promptly by 10:30 to make a high school championship baseball game which one of David’s grandsons was in, so we called it a good day right here with 131 fish landed including 128 white bass, one blue catfish, one largemouth bass, and one smallmouth bass.
TALLY: 131 fish caught and released
Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: “Popcorn” schooling continued, as did the white bass population’s focus on young-of-the-year shad.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:15A
End Time: 10:20A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F
Elevation: 12.69 feet low, 24 CFS flow, a 0.03′ drop over the past 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: ~79.7F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: A steady 12mph SE breeze came up just prior to sunrise, then scaled back to SE6 by mid-morning. A calm ensued for about 20 minutes, then a wind at W7-8 blew for the remainder of the trip.
Sky Condition: 80% white cloud cover on a blue sky at trip’s start, decreasing to ~40% by trip’s end.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 76% illumination.
GT = 40
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area B0022C and w/in a 200 yard radius at first light — 47 fish on MAL Mini
Area B0202G – 30 fish on MAL Heavy; 3 on mop-up downrigging
Area vic B0093G – 23 fish on MAL Heavy
Area vic B0058G – final 28 fish on MAL Mini/MAL Mini Rig
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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