WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, June 28, I fished with first time guests, Mr. Nathan Cain, accompanied by his 15-year-old daughter, Bailey, and 11-year-old son, Cole.
Nathan is a Belton native, who, after spending some time working abroad, has now returned to Belton where he works in support of Amazon facilities throughout the southeast and southwest.
As we fished, he shared memories of riding his bike to Arrowhead Point and Temple Lake Park to fish as a kid, and how his ancestors lived in the Tennessee Valley community, now inundated by Lake Belton.
Here is how the fishing went…
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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Bailey, Cole, and Nathan Cain with a few of the 110 fish they caught by sight-casting and downrigging in the first 4 hours following sunrise.
PHOTO CAPTION: Cole Cain holds the only legal hybrid we landed today. This fish came out of ~18 feet of water and fell for a downrigged Pet Spoon worked behind a downrigger.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 28 June 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
With this week’s weather solidly controlled by the dome of high pressure sitting right over Texas, this week’s fishing has been “cookie-cutter“ in regards to cloud cover (none), wind direction and velocity (SSE 11 to 13), temperature (78F at sunrise rising to 102 by mid-afternoon) and humidity (around 80% at sunrise, dropping into the 20s by sunset).
Likewise, the fishing has been very predictable, as well. Each day this week the low-light topwater action began within 5 or 10 minutes of the same time, and also ended within five or 10 minutes of the same time.
This morning, the topwater feeding spree began at 6:35 AM and lasted until 8:28 AM. During this time we began by throwing MAL Heavies with white tails to heavily congregated white bass churning the surface while feeding on shad of all sizes. As one school would stop feeding and submerge, a new school would start feeding a few yards away, and so on. Most of these schools were roughly 20 yards in diameter and included several hundred individuals.
After the fish had fed for a while, we noted that they began regurgitating freshly eaten shad. As I observed this, it was quite clear that, despite the presence of adult shad, the majority of the baitfish being consumed were young-of-the-year shad less than 2 inches in length. Seeing this, I immediately switched everyone over to MAL Minis, and our already solid catch rate increased substantially. Everyone went from catching one fish every three to four casts to catching fish on just about every other cast.
To make a good thing even better, I coached everyone to retrieve immediately after their lure hit the water when the fish were churning on the surface, and to do a six-count, allowing the lure to sink before retrieving, whenever the fish were present, but not on the surface. By the time 8:28 rolled around and the last of the surface activity disappeared, my crew of three had landed 77 fish.
We left the area we’d been fishing and cruised around looking for evidence of the presence of fish (birds diving, bait jumping, fish churning on the surface). Seeing none, I moved us once again, and found an area loaded down with bait. We no sooner prepared for downrigging than we witnessed a brief additional topwater episode. We took 11 fish rather quickly, but that action dissipated within minutes. From that point on, we ran a single downrigger at first, and then branched out into twin downriggers, each equipped with three-armed umbrella rigs with #12 Pet Spoons on the business end. We took an additional 22 fish on the downriggers coming as singles, doubles, and one triple.
By the time the four hour mark approached, we had landed 110 fish, which included 3 hybrid stripers (of which one was legal), 2 freshwater drum, and 105 white bass.
TALLY: 110 fish caught and released.
Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: 1) USACE has stopped releasing water from the dam. 2) Temperature profile taken morning of 26 June:
0 feet, 84.2F
5 feet, 84.0F
10 feet, 85.1F
15 feet, 84.8F
20 feet, 84.5F
25 feet, 81.5F
30 feet, 75.6F
35 feet, 71.3F
40 feet, 68.1F
45 feet, 66.1F
50 feet, 64.9F
55 feet, 63.3F
60 feet, 62.2F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:10A
End Time: 10:15A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Elevation: 13.39 feet low, 0 CFS flow (thus causing a slight 24 hour rise)
Water Surface Temp: 84.3F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11 all morning
Sky Condition: Light blue, cloudless skies all morning
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 71% illumination.
GT = 40
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas 1376, 848, and B0201G — sight casting to topwater feeders; 77 fish
Area vic 1974 – 33 fish by downrigging
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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