WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, December 12, I fished with a crew of three – the management team from the Cedar Park Harbor Freight Store, including Chris Coufal, Austin Kuhn, and Sam Mills.

All three had prior fishing experience and were already familiar with spinning tackle, so we were starting the day with loaded deck!!

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: Chris Coufal holds the largest of the 6 legal hybrid taken today under birds on Lake Belton while fishing with his two assistant managers from the Harbor Freight Store in Cedar Park.

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Sam Mills, Austin Kuhn, and Chris Coufal with a few of the 87 fish they took on a nearly deserted Lake Belton this pleasant December morning.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 12 Dec. 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

With this morning‘s weather very similar to yesterday’s, I did many of the same things in the same places at the same times in order to keep these men on the fish. The fishing followed a normal, bell-shaped curve this morning with the best fishing taking place between 8:20 and 10:30. During this time, what wind we had blew and cloud cover slowly built in.

Also, during this roughly 2-hour window, birds worked in a helpful manner, thus reducing the need to rely on sonar to painstakingly search out large congregations of white bass to fish for. As the wind and cloud cover first got going, the bird activity spiked, and the birds moved at a fast clip, hence, we kept up with them using downrigging equipment and put 9 fish in the boat in short order using pair of downriggers both equipped with three armed umbrella rigs, each outfitted with three number 14 Pet Spoons.

There was truly an unmistakable correlation between wind speed and white bass activity.  No sooner did the SSE wind begin to push the water enough to completely ripple the surface than the birds began to respond on the surface to fish pushing shad to the surface from below — truly like someone flipped a light switch.

Other than during this roughly 25-minute-long window, we used white, 5/8 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs in a vertical fashion, using the slow-smoking tactic, aided by both Garmin LiveScope, and a thumper.

The thumper served two purposes: to draw fish in from around us, and to help all three clients retrieve their lures upwards at just the right speed by keeping beat with the thumper… one handle turn per beat.

The fishing began to taper right at 11 AM and the fish were completely turned off by 11:40 AM.

Our catch of 87 fish included 1 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, 9 hybrid stripers, of which 6 were legal, with the remaining 74 fish being white bass. Of these 76 white bass, only 5 were short.

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

TALLY: 87 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:  The water temperature profile measured on 12 Dec., was:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 36F

Elevation: 15.80 feet low, 40 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 58.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE3-4 at trip’s start, rising to SSE7-8 from 8:30 to 10:30, the falling back off thereafter

Sky Condition: Bright blue, cloudless skies

Moon Phase: New moon at 0% illumination.

GT = 135

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic 150  – 3 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0169G – 2 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 839 thru B0242G – 11  fish downrigging #14 Pet Spoons

Area 2038 – 5 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0152JWC – 4 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0024C (2 hops)  – 26 white bass smoking white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 1205 – 36 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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