WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday afternoon, October 25, I fished with a crew of four visiting Salado, Texas, for corporate training with a larger contingent of their co-workers.
The training was put together by a company called The Offsite Company which coordinates “destination” training sessions with fun events mixed in.
My four guest were all from different parts of the country, but all work for Canvas Medical which designs software to help physicians keep up with their patients. They stayed at Shady Villa in Salado as their “home base” for this corporate event.
Although wine tasting and pottery making were also available as options, Juan Zapata, David Jantzen, Patrick van Nieuwenhuizen, and Kristen O’Neill opted to come out fishing with me.
Here is how the fishing went…
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Next available dates are Nov. 2, 6, 14, 15
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Juan Zapata, David Jantzen (with 5.25 pound hybrid), Patrick van Nieuwenhuizen, and Kristen O’Neill.
PHOTO CAPTION: Dave, Pat, Juan, and Kristen with a mess o’ white bass taken on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs.
PHOTO CAPTION: Pat took this largemouth out of 38′. I’m beginning to see incidental largemouth numbers creep up as part of my bycatch as the thermocline breaks down and fish return in large numbers to the bottom.
Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 27 October 2023
HOW WE FISHED:
Although I realize the “pressure” I felt was mainly self-imposed, I did, nonetheless, feel pressure to get my crew on fish this afternoon a bit more intensely than normal.
I had a couple things working against me. First, due to other events which The Offsite Co. had scheduled for all of the folks attending the training, I had to have everyone back to the boat ramp at 5pm. Next, we were starting at 2p which is toward the end of the midday lull — I would normally fish folks from 3-7p this time of year. Finally, this trip was shortened versus a normal 4-hour trip, again, due to scheduling, so, I had a net of about 2 hours and 40 minutes to “get ‘er done”.
This meant I needed to find large schools of fish, and pass on smaller schools or marginal-looking activity; and it meant that whenever the bite at a location began to wane, we needed to wind up and head elsewhere.
This is exactly the pattern I followed this afternoon. In doing so, we wound up catching fish at four distinct location, and testing, but quickly leaving, three others.
My job was made a bit easier having fished a full 4+ hour trip in the morning, but, Lake Belton fishes very differently in the AM versus PM. Regardless, the fish were still deep — holding on bottom just above the slowly sinking thermocline which is now around 42’.
I continued to have everyone use white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs for two reasons: they are simple to use and they nearly identically match the forage size, shape, and color of the threadfin shad the white bass we’ve been catching have been regurgitating.
Although it nearly killed me to take the time away from an already short trip, I spent (actually, invested) a few minutes doing a thorough demonstration of the smoking tactic we’d be using with the slabs so that we could maximize our catch once we found fish and not lose out on a bunch of fish at the start of the trip as my folks were going through a learning curve.
Fortunately, everyone was motivated to learn and willing to listen to coaching when I saw flaws in their technique.
Kristin asked me just a few minutes into the trip what I thought a good catch would be. I factored in the shortened trip duration, and the fact that stats bear out that PM trips normally produce about 70% of the catch as compared to AM on the same day on Lake Belton, and I gave her a number of 60 fish.
Fortunately, our final stop of the PM was our most productive (as we were now inside that PM feeding time), and, by the time all was said and done, the Canvas Medical crew landed 71 fish, including white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, and freshwater drum.
Kristin got “most improved”, Dave got “big fish”, Juan caught the most fish, and Pat landed the greatest variety.
TALLY: 71 fish caught and released.
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: 2:10P
End Time: 4:45P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F
Elevation: 19.37 feet low, 47 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 73.1F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE14-17 all afternoon
Sky Condition: Grey skies with two brief episodes of drizzle
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 85% illumination.
GT = 75
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas B0242G (11 fish), B0150C (14 fish), 2nd hop at B0150C (6 fish), B2063 (40 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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