WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, October 13, I fished with returning guest, Ken Powell, from near Lake Buchanan, joined by first time guest Jay Florence, from Odessa, Texas.
After working as a welder in the oil industry, Jay now has his own lawn care business which allows him more time with his twin 14-year-old sons. Ken retired some years ago from coaching high school football.
Jay does a lot of fishing from a kayak. As we were trolling for white bass with downriggers, the topic of ideal trolling speed came up. I told Jay and Ken that I thought maintaining a speed of ~2.6 mph was ideal; that happened to be the speed at which we were then trolling. Jay then volunteered that he thought he might just be able to get to that speed and hold it in his pedal-type kayak, depending on how hard he’d worked the day before and how many tacos he’d had for dinner!
Here’s how the fishing went…
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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ken Powell and Jay Florence worked at it for 4+ hours and put together a 2-man catch of 81 fish primarily “smoking” MAL Heavy Lures from the bottom upwards.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 13 October 2023
HOW WE FISHED:
We were all hoping that the cold front, which had been forecast earlier in the week to enter into Central Texas air space this morning, would come to fruition. But, as it turned out, with every subsequent forecast update, the cold front’s arrival was pushed further back. We saw only southeasterly winds shifting to the south, and then just slightly west of south during our time on the water with no northerly influence at all.
For the fourth morning in a row, the skies were heavily clouded with gray clouds, thus eliminating the chance of topwater action occurring. We began the day successfully downrigging, but did so only as long as necessary before transitioning to vertical tactics once fish began to show up and feed on the bottom. We boated 19 fish via downrigging using three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with #13 Pet Spoons.
Once fish began showing on bottom, we began using MAL Lures vertically and continued in that manner for the remainder of the trip.
We hit four distinct areas, each in 27 to 32 feet of water, after sonar revealed a spattering of white bass in these areas. At no time today did we find large collection of white bass massed together tight to the bottom as was the case on Wednesday and Thursday.
When we identified white bass in an area, we put the trolling motor on Spot-Lock, used Garmin LiveScope to keep track of our baits and fish response to them, and wound up putting a grand total of 81 fish in the boat for Ken and Jay by 11:30.
Based on recent reports from clients of mine on both Lake Texoma and Lake Buchanan, I experimented with something this morning. After catching fish during their usual frenzied display of interest when we first arrived and began catching fish on MAL Lures, as those fish began to show less interest in the MAL Lures, I dropped a Bladed Hazy Eye Slab (white, 5/8 ounce) down to the still present fish and “eased” this lure up off the bottom slowly but steadily at a rate of rise slower than that which the MAL Lures were being retrieved at. This accounted for a few more fish today – – enough that I will keep a set of rods on the boat rigged to do this tactic with my more experienced clients going forward and see if this behavior was the exception, or the rule
As we wrapped up at just a little over the four hour mark, a gray cloud deck was moving in from the west, indicating our cold front would arrive in the next few hours. Indeed, lows tomorrow morning are forecast to be in the high 50s or right at 60° versus 74° this morning. Our tally of 81 fish included 2 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 76 white bass of which about 70% were of legal size.
TALLY: 81 fish caught and released.
Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: For the fourth consecutive day, no topwater action materialized thanks to a very slow brightening of the morning skies under thick, grey cloud cover.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:20A
End Time: 11:40A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F
Elevation: 18.89 feet low, 47 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 75.8F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5-6 for ~3 hours, shifting to SSW in the final hour
Sky Condition: Grey cloud cover at 100% thru 9:45A, then clearing to 50% white clouds on blue sky for about an hour, then clouding up again as a dry cold front approached from the west.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 2% illumination.
GT = 25
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area B0234G thru 1356 – downrigging for 19 fish
Areas 1356, 354, B0238G, and B0056G – smoking MAL Heavies for 62 fish
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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