WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, November 7, I’ve fished with a crew assembled by Horizon bank officer Jonathan Briscoe from over at the Horizon Bank branch on Highway 317 north of Belton.
Jonathan brought with him David Clark, Ben Fulcher, and Phillip Jennings. David makes his living as a physician specializing in ear, nose, and throat maladies, Ben works in construction finance, and Phillip works in the tech industry at a data center.
Ben and Phillip share an interest in high-end pyrotechnics and even put on their own legitimate fireworks displays to share with others. Having been a combat engineer myself, trained in the surgical use of C-4, when it comes to things that go “BOOM!”, I’m in!! So, I listened intently to their stories about thermite, ignitors, mortar tubes, and more.
Perhaps the most gratifying thing about this trip was that all four men are Christ followers, and that their language, their demeanors, and the topics they chose to discuss, all reflected that well. Sometimes I wonder about the next generation; today’s trip allayed some of those concerns.
Here is how the fishing went…
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Next available dates are Nov. 14, 15
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: David Clark, Jonathan Briscoe, Phillip Jennings, and Ben Fulcher with a few of the 2-year class fish they landed over the course of our 4.5 hour morning trip which yielded 241 fish.
PHOTO CAPTION: Just as Ben (left) asked how to go about telling the difference between a white bass and a hybrid striper, he and David landed one of each simultaneously allowing me to point out the single tooth patch on the back of the white bass’ tongue, and the pair of tooth patches on the tongue of the hybrid (right).
PHOTO CAPTION: For the 2nd day in a row I had a “double” pulled up – two fish striking the same lure at the same time — one on the treble and one on the single stinger. Nice way to finish the trip, Phillip!
Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 07 November 2023
HOW WE FISHED:
We are squarely in the midst of the fantastic fall bite which takes place annually between turnover and the time at which the water temperature falls below 58 to 60°.
Today, we even caught fish during the demo I provide prior to leaving the boat ramp area to search for our first fish of the day!
Once again, there was some light, scattered bird activity in two separate areas, each involving about a dozen gulls, but the fish beneath these birds were suspended and fast-moving. After taking one shot at them, I decided to hunt down more well-grouped and less mobile fish.
We fished five locations, with that span of time between 9 and 10 AM providing the best action of the morning.
Although we had a few sub-legal fish, most of the fish were just over the legal limit of 10 inches. I use the lightest tackle I employ over the course of the entire year at this time of year, knowing that the winter months often produce a lot of smaller fish in this high-numbers fishing scenario.
We had a few remarkable things happen today. The first was spotting the season’s first mature bald eagle. The second was having a “double“ caught, where in Phillip landed two fish on his slab at the same time with one hooked on the treble, and the other hooked on the single stinger hook.
The fishing was very straightforward. I went with my go-to default slab – – the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab in the white color and in the 5/8 ounce size. We used a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope, as described here:
We used that lure from start to finish today and boated a total of 241 fish. This included 4 hybrid striped bass, 3 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, and 232 white bass.
TALLY: 241 fish caught and released.
OBSERVATIONS: This was the 2nd consecutive morning of helpful bird activity I’ve spotted thus far this fall occurred this morning. Here was the water temperature profile down to 60′ taken Tuesday, 07 Nov.:
0 feet, 67.4F
5 feet, 67.4F
10 feet, 67.4F
15 feet, 67.4F
20 feet, 67.4F
25 feet, 67.4F
30 feet, 67.1F
35 feet, 66.8F
40 feet, 66.4F
45 feet, 65.9F
50 feet, 64.4F
55 feet, 62.9F
60 feet, 62.0F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 11:40A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F
Elevation: 15.18 feet low, 47 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 67.4F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW9 at trip’s start, building to SSW13 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: 40% white cloud cover on a blue sky most of the morning
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 30% illumination.
GT = 85
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas:
Area B0105G – 17 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
Area 717 – 35 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
Area B0021C – 101 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
Area B0016C – 13 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
Area B0066G 73 fish smoking Bladed 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
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