WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, December 11, I fished with returning guests, Dwight and Duayne Stone. Dwight is retired from the restaurant business and now resides in Georgetown, Texas, and is hosting his brother who retired as a state trooper up in Alaska. Duane resides near Glennallen, Alaska.

Joining Duane was one of his grandsons, 19-year-old Alex Buck. Alex works construction, and on his family farm about 20 miles from his grandfather.

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:  From left: Duayne Stone, Alex Buck, and Dwight Stone with a few of the 13-inch class white bass we took by moving constantly this morning under low-wind and bright sky conditions.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 11 Dec. 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

We were met with bright, sunny, low-wind conditions this morning, and although we found fish all morning, the fish were none too enthusiastic about biting.

Having lived through plenty of days like this already this winter, I knew that moving frequently would be necessary to put together a decent catch.

I have found that under less than ideal weather conditions, the white bass’ most aggressive response will take place in the first few minutes spent atop any given school. After that, interest level simply flattens out, and eventually tapers to nothing. The trick is to keep moving to stay on top of active fish found upon arrival.

With this is our game plan, we managed a catch of 64 fish, including 62 white bass, one largemouth, bass, and one short hybrid striper. All but three of the white bass were of legal size with our top 10 or 12 hitting the 13 inch range.

At no time this morning did we experience helpful bird activity. There was a 25 minute window where a large group of birds sitting on the water began to flit nervously with occasional birds diving on top of fish driving shad to the surface, but this was very scattered bird activity with very limited fish activity beneath.

If you look at the list of areas we had to hit this morning, and the number of fish taken at each, you’ll see what I mean.  We had to move the boat 11 different times today — this is usually more like 3-5 times under better weather conditions.

All but two of our fish came using white, 5/8-ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope, and also using the thumper to consolidate fish as well as a metronome to avoid retrieving our lures to quickly or too slowly, while using the slow-smoking tactic.

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

TALLY: 64 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:  The water temperature profile measured on 07 Dec., was:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 12:20P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 32F

Elevation: 15.79 feet low, 40 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 58.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE2-3 at trip’s start and until ~10A, then rising to SSE5-6 thereafter.

Sky Condition: Bright blue, cloudless skies

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 3% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic 714 – 5 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic 1141 – 2 fish downrigging #13/14 Pet Spoons

Area 1743 (2 hops) –  14 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 1280 –  10 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0107G – 7 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 346 – 3 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0013C – 12 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 1543 – 7 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 1012 (2 hops) – 4 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. 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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