WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, October 23, I fished with first time guests Mr. Ron Mahan and his longtime friend, Mr. Dave Ensminger. Ron resides on Cedar Creek Lake where he fishes routinely from a Skeeter bass boat. Dave is a resident of Euless, Texas, and fishes routinely from a kayak.
Ron has made a number of lure purchases from me and follows my reports on the Texas Fishing Forum. Today was as much about learning approaches to white bass fishing as it was about catching them.
For this reason, I tried to demonstrate as many tactics as possible as the fishing conditions permitted. Sometimes “retired guys” can be a bit tough to teach as they tend to want to do things the way they’ve always done things. In this regard, Ron and Dave did not fit the “profile”.
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 Oct. 26 & 30, Nov. 2 & 6
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ron Mahan and Dave Ensminger with a few of the Lake Belton white bass they took using a multitude of tactics under grey, rainy skies which would drop over 1.25″ of much needed rain on Central Texas between sunrise and sunset!
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 23 October 2023
HOW WE FISHED:
Cloud cover was heavy and gray this morning as I launched, and a steady, light rain began right as we put lines in the water. That rain lasted until about 9 AM when the skies began to clear. Under the dark skies, active fish moved up in the water column and suspended as they fed, which led me to choose downrigging as our initial approach. The men picked up 12 fish, all as singles, as the fish activity level was below average as compared to the brighter, drier mornings of late.
Once I saw fish moving and feeding along the bottom, primarily by viewing 2D Sonar, I switched us over as quickly as I could from downrigging to using vertical tactics.
We would go on to hit five areas, all holding fish, and all allowing for fish to be caught using a smoking tactic. We started off with a MAL Heavy Lures, since the water is still in the low 70s. As we got the fish worked up, I also showed how to smoke with Hazy Eye Slabs.
Then, as the fish began to lose interest and thin out after we spent a while catching on each of these five areas, I demonstrated how to slow things down, using an easing tactic with the same Hazy Eye Slabs.
The second to last area we hit had the most fish located at it, albeit at a time of day when the fish were coming off of their morning feed. Seeing that fish were well-schooled and spread over quite some square footage of bottom, I finally had an opportunity to demonstrate the sawtooth method with success. I put both MAL Heavies and MAL Dense Lures on for both fellows to give them an opportunity to compare the sink rate and the feel of these two lures side by side.
We stayed until about 12:45 and managed 92 fish this morning. This included four hybrid stripers, all of which were short, four largemouth bass, one drum, and the balance of white bass. This morning was a little atypical in that we caught nearly 50% small white bass. These were not necessarily short, but closer to 10 inch fish then they were the nicer 12 inch fish which have been making up the lion’s share of the catch over the last three weeks.
TALLY: 92 fish caught and released.
Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: Water temperature profile measured 7:10AM, Monday, 23 Oct. Although much slower to disappear this year thanks to prolonged heating, we’re finally seeing the thermocline disappear…
0 feet, 73.4F
5 feet, 73.3F
10 feet, 73.3F
15 feet, 73.3F
20 feet, 73.1F
25 feet, 72.8F
30 feet, 71.7F
35 feet, 71.6F
40 feet, 70.7F
45 feet, 69.0F
50 feet, 64.5F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:30A
End Time: 12:45P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F
Elevation: 19.37 feet low, 47 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 73.4F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-13 all morning
Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with some rain in the first 2 hours after sunrise
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 65% illumination.
GT = 155
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area vic B0233G – downrigging for 12 fish
Areas 1552 (2 hops, 48 fish), B0030G (8 fish), 2062 (15 fish), & 2063 (9 fish) – smoking & sawtoothing MAL Heavies, & smoking Hazy Eye Slabs
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