WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, June 23, I fished with three teens – – Ricky and Bronson Brown, and Tyler Hickman. This trip was arranged in celebration of Ricky’s birthday by his mom, Lori Brown.
This was a “Kids Fish, Too!“ fishing trip specifically for young people. These trips go a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4+ hours for adults, and they also are more economically priced.
Here is how the fishing went…
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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ricky and Bronson Brown, and Tyler Hickman took 75 legal white bass in their 76-fish catch this morning on Lake Belton. This was in celebration of Ricky’s recent birthday.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 22 June 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
A wrinkle in the weather overnight saw a line of thunderstorms sweep over Central Texas during the early morning hours. In that front’s wake, we were left with cloudy skies and winds from a variety of directions.
At sunrise, the winds were southeasterly. Then, within the hour, they switched to easterly, then northeasterly, and, by around 8:15 the winds were out of the northwest. During all of these wind shifts, the velocity stayed under 9 mph.
Since I did not see much low light surface action this morning, we started off by downrigging a pair of three-armed umbrella rigs with #12 Pet Spoons trailing behind. I saw both bait and gamefish suspended at around 16 feet over a deeper bottom and so we pegged the downrigger weights at 14 feet to keep the baits near and above the gamefish.
Ricky kicked us off with a triple, followed by a double boated by Tyler, then Bronson chipped in with a single. We continued catching doubles and singles until our tally had climbed to 18 fish, and the bite began to slacken as the winds shifted more easterly.
With that easterly wind shift, we went nearly a full fishless hour from about 7:10 to 8:00 before spotting some “popcorn“ white bass schooling activity. As I looked things over with sonar, I really did not see any consistency on depth nor location for these nomadic schools of fish, so we returned to downrigging in order to cover ground while studying sonar, yet still have baits in the water. Around 8 AM, I got a call from a buddy who was in the same location where I seen those “popcorn” schools earlier. He let me know that he was witnessing some more consistent surface activity.
We returned to the area, and continued to witness this same popcorn activity, but it was definitely with increased frequency, so, I put the downriggers back down and we lingered in that area to see if something might develop further.
That turned out well, as the bite slowly strengthened until finally, between about 9 AM and 9:40 AM a sustained topwater bite broke out, thus making the catching much easier for my youthful crew. Before this action broke out we had taken our tally to 32 fish. By the time this feeding spree ended at around 9:50, we had taken our tally to a final count of 76 fish.
As these fish fed on the surface, I had all three boys throw MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails toward the heaviest action they could spot and reach, let the lures fall to bottom in about 22 feet of water, and then bring them back using a plain-Jane retrieve with a moderately fast cadence. This ensured each cast covered the entire water column from bottom to top.
We chose the full-sized MAL Heavies because it was obvious by watching the fish feed on the surface that they were chasing adult shad (although smaller bait could certainly have been present, as well).
Of the 76 fish landed, 100% were white bass, and only one of these white bass was short.
TALLY: 76 fish caught and released.
Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: Temperature profile taken morning of 21 June:
0 feet, 82.3F
5 feet, 82.6F
10 feet, 82.7F
15 feet, 82.1F
20 feet, 78.9F
25 feet, 74.7F
30 feet, 72.8F
35 feet, 70.5,F
40 feet, 68.2F
45 feet, 65.5F
50 feet, 63.9F
55 feet, 62.8F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:15A
End Time: 9:50A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F
Elevation: 13.06 feet low, 65 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 82.3F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: At sunrise, the winds were southeasterly 8-9. Then, within the hour, they switched to easterly 8, then northeasterly 8, and, by around 8:15 the winds were out of the north west @6-8.
Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud cover until 8:15’s wind shift, then slowly clearing to 40% white cloud cover on a hazy blue sky.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 17% illumination.
GT = P
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area 667/B0030G – downrigging under sunrise low-light conditions
Area B0068G – downrigging until “popcorn” schooling got more intense and coalesced, then cast-and-crank with MAL Heavies
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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