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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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

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