WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, July 24th, I fished with first time guests, Mr. Dustin Marsh, and his nine-year-old son, Lucas.
The two fellows rose early to make the drive from College Station to Lake Belton for our 6:20 AM start.
Dustin runs a large animal veterinary practice just outside of town, and also raises his own cattle, chickens, and kids!
Although father and son normally chase largemouth bass, they recently “discovered“ white bass, and have been trying to get smart on finding and catching this species.
Dustin, let me know when he made the reservation for the trip that he would like to ask lots of questions, and I told him that was just fine with me. A guided trip ought to be a learning experience, not just a time to catch fish.
Here is how the fishing went…
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Next available dates are July 31 & August 14 & 21 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: This father-and-son trip was both for catching and for learning. I tried to find scenarios where I could demonstrate sight-casting, downrigging, smoking, and sawtoothing to Dustin and Lucas, and, fortunately, the fish cooperated.
PHOTO CAPTION: Triple!! Lucas actually landed two sets of triples today as we used downrigging as a tool to locate larger groups of fish which could be fished even more effectively with other tactics. This trio fell for a set of #13 Pet Spoons with silver prismatic tape and yellow feathertails.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 24 July 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
As we got going, I explained the approach I planned to take this morning. I wanted to first look for topwater action under low-light conditions and fish for whatever we found as long as we could. Before and after that top water action, we would be using downriggers, both as we waited on the fish to get going, and has the fish moved deeper in the water column and further offshore after the topwater ended.
We took a handful of fish while downrigging and, as the eastern sky brightened, some topwater action did develop. I equipped both fellows with MAL Mini Lures on long, St. Croix Panfish Series spinning rods, coupled with large arbor reels to maximize casting distance on these small lures which do an excellent job of imitating young of the year shad.
After the topwater action ended as the bright, direct sun struck the water, we immediately got back to downrigging and continued catching fish from the very same schools that had just been on topwater, but which had now pushed down 12 to 17 feet beneath the surface.
We downrigged until I found a sufficiently large quantity of fish out to either our port or starboard side, at which time we brought in the downrigging gear, Spot-Locked, and began working MAL Heavies with white tails, using a sawtooth method to take fish very efficiently and very consistently.
It was during this time that Dustin asked the best question of the morning, when he inquired about comparing and contrasting white bass behavior versus that of largemouth bass, which he already had a pretty good grip on.
I told him the biggest mindset change you have to make when going from fishing for largemouth to fishing for white bass is getting away from a “spot“ mentality. Largemouth bass, crappie, and other cover-loving, ambush-feeding fish will often hang out on “spots” which you can return to time and time again and expect to catch fish. White bass are nomadic, constantly roaming after threadfin shad. Although they will use general areas frequently, you really have to scrub a much larger patch of bottom as you look for white bass given this tendency they have to roam constantly.
Eventually, the fish we were casting MAL Heavies to dispersed, and we once again set out downriggers, picked up a few more fish, and then things got very quiet for most of the remainder of our trip. It was now around 9:10 and we had planned to fish until around 1020 or 1030.
I looked over a number of areas, and did not see anything that I could get excited about. After seeing about five “popcorn“ schools of whites in one fairly large patch of open water, we put downriggers down, and picked up five more fish before deciding to wrap up.
On our way back in, I decided to give one area, which we were going to pass by anyway, a look. We found a few fish in about 22 feet of water, and these fish gave me the opportunity to demonstrate the one tactic we have not had success with yet, and that was a “smoking tactic. Dustin and Lucas picked up four more fish there via smoking, bringing our grand total to 79 fish boated.
So, over a 4-hour span, the two got a successful introduction to topwater sight-fishing, downrigging, fishing the MAL horizontally using the sawtooth method, and fishing the MAL vertically using the smoking method.
Our count of 79 included 2 freshwater drum, 8 short hybrid, and 69 white bass, all of which were legal.
TALLY: 79 fish caught and released.
See a tutorial on the Smoking Method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Here is a tutorial on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: Water temperature profile taken this morning, 24 July, was as follows:
0 feet, 87.5F
5 feet, 87.9F
10 feet, 88.1F
15 feet, 87.0F
20 feet, 86.4F
25 feet, 85.5F
30 feet, 82.1F
35 feet, 73.0F
40 feet, 68.6F
45 feet, 66.0F
50 feet, 64.4F
55 feet, 63.8F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:20A
End Time: 11:00A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F
Elevation: 14.87 feet low, 56 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 87.5F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW6 thru 9A, then going calm until ~10:05, then picking up SE5 thereafter.
Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover cover
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 36% illumination.
GT = 105
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area vic 929 – downrigging, followed by topwater, followed by sawtoothing, followed by more downrigging — 70 fish by 9:10A
Area vic 1334 – 5 fish downrigging
Area vic B0031G – 4 fish smoking
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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