WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, November 20, I fished with returning father-and-son team Dustin and Lucas Marsh from the Bryan, Texas, area. This trip was in celebration of Lucas’ 10th birthday.
Dustin is an Aggie who runs a large animal veterinary practice focused on dairy cows. One of his specialties is in vitro fertilization wherein an egg is removed from a cow, fertilized with bull semen, and is then implanted into another cow to produce a desirable offspring. As Dustin showed me a video of the procedure (which relies on sonogram technology), we remarked how similar the interpretation of the image was to interpretation of Garmin LiveScope imaging.
We really weren’t sure what to expect this morning as the forecasters were really all over the map on how an incoming front was going to approach central Texas.
Here is how the fishing went…
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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php
Next available dates are Nov. 23 (Thanksgiving morning), 27, and 28
PHOTO CAPTION: That’s a “Double Triple”!! — 6 fish landed simultaneously using a pair of 3-armed umbrella rigs behind downriggers.
Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 20 November 2023
HOW WE FISHED:
As we launched this morning, there was a thin gray layer of cloud cover with just the lightest bit of fog hovering over the water, and a light southwesterly breeze at under 3 mph. We enjoyed about two hours’ worth of moderate action under these low-light conditions, but it then brightened up and went calm before a wind shift to the west, which would begin ushering in a cold front.
We had landed 36 fish up to that point on white, 5/8 ounce, Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs, using a smoking tactic, but as that SW wind calmed, the fish turned off.
I could see small, splintered groups of fish here, there, and everywhere, so, we went with a downrigging approach until the wind returned and things improved. Downrigging actually yielded our single largest fish today which was a just-legal hybrid striped bass taken as one of six fish that came aboard simultaneously when both Dustin and Lucas landed a pair of triples on their three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.
After the wind began again, now due west, it puffed on and off through the end of our trip at 11:45 AM. By this time, my crew had amassed a 77 fish catch, including 2 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and the balance of 74 white bass, with only four of them being short.
Although there was some light bird activity this morning, most of it was taking place over top of cormorants working bait, although some white bass were also in the area. This involved only eight or 10 gulls.
Here is a tutorial on the smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ
TALLY: 77 fish caught and released.
OBSERVATIONS: The water temperature profile measured on 20 Nov., was:
0 feet, 65.9F
5 feet, 65.6F
10 feet, 65.6F
15 feet, 65.6F
20 feet, 65.6F
25 feet, 65.5F
30 feet, 65.5F
35 feet, 65.5F
40 feet, 65.5F
45 feet, 65.5F
50 feet, 65.5F
55 feet, 65.3F
60 feet, 64.5F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:10A
End Time: 11:45A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F
Elevation: 15.29 feet low, 47 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 65.9F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: Light SW, then calm, then due W & increasing from 0 to 10
Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud cover for 2 hours, then variable white cloud cover with breaks of sun thereafter
Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 50% illumination.
GT = 45
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas:
vic 098 – 6 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
vic 1482 – 10 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
B0075C – 6 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
1552 – 14 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
1151 thru 151 – 17 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs & downrigging
1385 – 2 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
717 – 11 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
682 – 9 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs
1390 – 2 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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