WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, July 25th, I fished the season’s fifth SKIFF trip of the 2023 season for a family separated from their loved one by his military duty. Joining me this morning were Mrs. Melinda Whitacre, and her three kids, Natalie, age 13, Lily, age 9, and Evan, age 6.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Eric Whitaker has served in the US Army for 11 years. He is currently deployed to southwest Asia with his Patriot Missile unit.
ABOUT SKIFF: This fishing trip, like all SKIFF trips, was provided to this military family at no charge. This program began in May of 2009. It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with. S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing. SKIFF trips are also provided, free of charge, to Gold Star families who have lost their service member while he or she was on active duty. In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents are bona fide disabled veterans. I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 to 4 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.
Here is how the fishing went…
—————————————————————————————————–
Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php
Next available dates are July 31 & August 14 & 21 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From the left, that’s Natalie and her mom, Melinda Whitacre, in the back row, and Melinda’s two youngest, Evan and Lilly in front, each with one of the white bass they landed in the first part of the trip.
PHOTO CAPTION: Triple for Lilly right off the bat this morning!
PHOTO CAPTION: … And a triple for Evan right about the time we switched from downrigging to sightcasting at mid-morning!
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 25 July 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
With zero cloud cover and calm winds, the fairly light surface activity which presented itself this morning was very easy to spot. I glanced at the clock on my chartplotter as soon as I saw the first evidence of white bass on the surface; it was 6:38 AM. This morning’s feed was less aggressive, and of a shorter duration than yesterday’ss feed, despite nearly identical wind and weather conditions.
None of the kids were already familiar with casting spinning gear, so, despite topwater action which would have lent itself to sightcasting, I opted to keep downriggers in for as long as the fish showed themselves on the surface. By around 7:20, these fish left the surface and did not linger in the area and continue feeding heavily beneath the surface as they did yesterday. We put 21 fish in the boat during this first round of activity.
We made a move and probed a new location we had moved to with downriggers as I kept an eye on sonar as well as the lake’s surface. Seeing consistent action along a roughly 60 yard stretch of shoreline about a half-mile away, I brought in the downrigging gear, Spot-Locked a long cast’s distance from these fish, and sightcast to them whenever they showed themselves, as well as blind cast to this general area when the fish sounded.
I did the casting and handed off the rod for the kids to do the reeling and the catching. Given these fish were eating young of the year shad and were in under 7 feet of water, I opted for using the MAL Mini, and it worked like a charm.
We moved routinely, but only yards at a time in order to keep up with the fish as they continued to pin shad against both the surface and the bank. We took our tally from 21 up to 48 before the kids interest began to wane, and the consistency of the fishing began to slide. Although Lilly would likely have hung with me all day, that was not the case for young Evan.
As I see younger kids begin to grow disinterested, I try to insert a transition. In this case, I came prepared to pursue sunfish in shallow water using red worms and slip floats. We beached the boat in one spot, and put a final 27 fish in the boat from within a 20 foot radius of the point we had beached at. This included a mixture of bluegill sunfish, long-eared sunfish, and green sunfish.
Our final count today was 75 fish, all caught and released. This included 48 white bass, and a mixed bag of 27 sunfish. We wrapped up right at the 3.5 hour mark.
TALLY: 75 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 on Monday, 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: 9:50A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F
Elevation: 14.93 feet low, 56 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 87.5F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S5-7 all morning
Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover cover
Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 46% illumination.
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area 080 – low-light downrigging for 21 fish
Area 1760 thru 1041, and 689 – sightcasting near shore for 27 fish
Area 1583 -27 sunfish
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
#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec