WHO I FISHED WITH:  On Saturday, December 02, I fished with Mr. Jarrid Lovenburg and his three kids, Chloe (age 12), Joshua (age 10), and Richard (age 8).

When Jarrid contacted me by phone several weeks back, he let me know how he’d tried to put the kids on fish on multiple attempts but only Chloe had managed to come up with a single crappie.

What this family may have lacked in experience, they made up for in enthusiasm, and even a bit of grit.  Despite the 43F start, everyone stuck it out with just a shirt and a hoodie on under conditions which called for much more clothing than that.

Here’s 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 Dec. 13 & 14

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Joshua (10), Jarrid, Richard (8), and Chloe (12) with a few of the white bass they landed later in the morning working Hazy Eye Slabs vertically through schooled fish on bottom.

PHOTO CAPTION: Pentupled up!  Jarrid and Richard reel five fish in simultaneously as we downrigged Pet Spoons through scattered, fast-moving white bass and hybrids.  Jarrid landed three fish and Richard caught two.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Jarrid Lovenburg looks like a proud pop as he and his daughter, Chloe, landed hybrid stripers at the same time.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 02 Dec. 2023 (PM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

With no major change of weather since Friday, I anticipated continued, tough fishing this morning, but prepared to make the most of what I’d witnessed on the water on Friday.

First, I anticipated that some bird activity would point the way to very scattered, early morning action for white and hybrids.  For this reason, I brought downrigging gear to enable us to scour a lot of water quickly and “U-turn” back over schools of fish sighted on and waypointed with side-imaging.

This turned out well for a number of reasons.  First, it allowed us to take advantage of this scattered fish activity while at the same time allowing the kids to remain bundled up with their arms crossed or hands in pockets during the first, coldest hour of the morning while still taking fish consistently.

We landed 18 fish in this manner, including 4 hybrid using #13 Pet Spoons on one downrigger and #14 Pet Spoons on the other.  The birds we keyed off of were moving at about 3 miles per hour headed into the wind.  I kept our trolling speed down to 2.4 mph by deploying the trolling motor sideways to create drag, and by trimming the outboard so as to thrust more upwards instead of directly rearwards.

Once the bird action died, we went looking elsewhere for schooled, active fish.  Fortunately, the bit of sun coming through the clouds began to take that cold bite out of the air, and the kids were now able to hold a spinning reel without getting any colder.

I trained everyone up on the Slow Smoking tactic, and we were off to the races.  Over the last half of the trip, the kids and their father put an additional 24 fish in the boat as they raised their white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs off the bottom toward the surface to goad fish into following and striking.

We wrapped up the trip at 11:30 as the bite died to nil.  The Lovenburg family put together their best ever family outing with 42 fish landed including 4 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 36 white bass.

Here is a tutorial on the smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ

TALLY: 42 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:  The water temperature profile measured on 01 Dec., was:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Elevation: 15.56 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 60.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW8 at trip’s start, rising to NNW12-13 by mid-morning, then dying to NNW4-5 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: ~60% thin grey cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 75% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas 1378 thru  B0100C provided downrigging action for scattered, fast-moving hybrids and whites

Areas B0004C and B0198G

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

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Friday afternoon, December 1, I fished with first-time guests, father-and-son, Wayne and Chris Franklin from the Georgetown area.

Wayne is a U.S. Air Force veteran who specialized in logistics, and Chris is employed in the fuel distribution industry.  The pair was very capable with spinning gear and took quickly to the smoking tactic we employed this afternoon.

If you read my morning report for this day, you’ll know the fishing was tough in the a.m., and the p.m. trip was really no different.

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 Dec. 13 & 14

PHOTO CAPTION:  Chris Franklin took this Lake Belton hybrid striper on a 5/8 oz. white Bladed Hazy Eye Slab during a 25-minute “mini-feed” as both fish and bird activity spiked, corresponding with an uptick in the wind.

PHOTO CAPTION: Wayne Franklin took this hybrid during the same spree in which his son, Chris, landed one.

PHOTO CAPTION: Father-and-son landed some quality white bass along the way, as well.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 01 Dec. 2023 (PM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

Having observed the fish behavior under cold front conditions this morning, I knew not to go here, there, and everywhere, hoping to find a large school of active fish, but rather focused on making the most of the smaller packs of fish I could find.

In this way, we spent more time with lines in the water pursuing fish — fish which still really took a lot of convincing.

If I would have done one thing differently in the morning (now with hindsight being 20/20), it would have been to fish for the smaller groups of fish we found, catch a few, and move on to the next group instead of consuming the time I did looking for schools of fish with great numbers of individuals in them, hoping the “competition factor” would provoke more fish to bite.  We really didn’t find many large schools, and, even when we did, these fish were no more aggressive than those in the smaller schools.

For every 20 or 30 fish we spotted on LiveScope drawn into the commotion we were creating by jigging and by using the splasher, we would get one or two interested fish to pursue and then some percentage of those to actually strike.

At one point when the nearly slack winds turned northerly around 3:30 PM, we experienced a slight uptick in the fishing and birds began to work briefly. But, after 25 minutes or so both the birds and the fish quit, and it was back to the slow status quo right up until sunset.

Using a slow smoking tactic with white, 5/8 ounce, Bladed Hazy Eye Slab, my two-man crew wound up with 34 fish in the boat including two hybrid striped bass, one largemouth bass, two freshwater drum, and 29 white bass.

If there was one consolation, it was that these folks were experienced anglers and understood how weather, especially cold front weather, can impact the fishing.

Here is a tutorial on the smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ

TALLY: 34 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:  The water temperature profile measured on 01 Dec., was:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 1:15P

End Time: 5:20P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 15.56 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 60.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable for the first two hours, then increasing and shifting to N8 thereafter

Sky Condition: Under 10% thin, white cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 83% illumination.

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

No areas produced an abundance of fish this morning; fish were scattered and tough.

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