WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, November 13, I fished with returning guests Frank Sumner and Steve Arnold. The two are longtime buddies from church and have been out with me a number of times.
I really appreciate that Frank is a plan-ahead kind of guy. Stepping off of the boat today he put in his reservation for the peak spring season fishing in May, just as he put in his reservation for today’s trip when his May 2023 trip wrapped up this past spring.
By doing this, he always insurers himself of getting in on the best of the best fishing both spring and fall.
Here’s how the fishing went…
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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Steve Arnold and Frank Sumner, both U.S. Army veterans, worked for their 116 fish catch. With a stretch of “between fronts” weather, we had to move more often to stay in the catching.
Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 13 November 2023
HOW WE FISHED:
We did not make a final call on the timing of this morning’s trip until 5:15 AM. Depending on your source for weather information, you could have been told this morning was going to be a rainout, or that this morning was going to be completely dry, or just about everything in between.
When I got up and viewed weather radar, it was clear there was a storm system to the northwest and another system to our southeast, and we were hanging between the two, dry as could be.
We never did see a drop of rain all morning.
As we got going this morning, it was quite cloudy and gloomy and cool. The fishing got off to one of the slower starts I’ve encountered over the past three weeks or so, but, as it got breezier, brighter, and warmer, the fishing kept getting better and better. As we get into lulls in the weather between fronts, this kind of thing is to be expected.
Although we wound up with 116 fish this morning, this trip required a good bit more effort than last week. The fish never got really fired up enough to chase baits aggressively for any length of time at any of the locations we stopped at prior to around 10:15. But, from 10:15 until noon it was a whole different story.
Fish were staging much higher up off the bottom, in much larger groups, chasing faster, swimming faster, and feeding more aggressively during this time span. We took our fish count from 68 fish prior to 10:15 up to our final tally of 116 fish, with these last 48 fish caught between 10:15 and noon.
Prior to 10:15, we used a combination of smoking with 5/8 ounce, white Hazy Eye Slabs, and using the sawtooth method with MAL Heavies with chartreuse tails. We enticed fish beneath the boat with the vertical tactics and the fish we saw grouped out away from the boat were tempted using the horizontal tactics with the MALs.
As Steve and Frank personally witnessed, even when the fish were not enthusiastic, a quick retrieve speed with the Hazy Eye Slab is still necessary to mimic the look of a panic shad. Whenever I saw their retrieve speed lagging, I would give them a little reminder and they would go right back to catching instead of fishing.
Our final count for this morning was 116 fish which included 114 white bass, 1short hybrid striper, and 1 largemouth bass. The average size of our fish today was much better than has been the case of late. We encountered only a handful of sub-legal fish this morning.
TALLY: 116 fish caught and released.
OBSERVATIONS: No helpful bird action this morning. Fishing was tougher given the weather lull we are now in.
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:10A
End Time: 12 Noon
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F
Elevation: 15.15 feet low, 47 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 64.7F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: NW6 at trip’s start, increasing to NW10-11 by 10:15A
Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover all morning
Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.
GT = 5
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas:
B0105G – 3 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
B0178C – 41 fish casting MAL Heavies & smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
B0187G – 12 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
508 – 12 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
B0066G – 7 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
1150 – 41 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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