WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, December 27, I fished with first time guests Michael and Carlee Barrington, joined by Michael’s friend, John Arnold. Michael and John work together in the commercial tire business.
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PHOTO CAPTION: Miss Carlee Barrington of Troy, TX, put on a real show today. Whatever bait I rigged or tactic I had her employ, she caught fish with them!!
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Michael and Carlee Barrington, and John Arnold with a few of the 45 white bass they caught, in addition to largemouth bass and hybrid striped bass.
Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 27 Dec. 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
After southwesterly winds warmed things up following a cold start yesterday, a reinforcing, mild, dry push of northerly wind dominated the weather today. I did not see that we got a real uptick in the fishing as we did on Christmas Day with a bona fide cold front moving in.
A fairly normal bell-shaped curve of fish feeding behavior was observed this morning, with a slow start, a slow end, and the best fishing coming at mid-morning. The majority of our fish were taken from off bottom as we used a slow smoking tactic with a very slow cadence to bring our white, 5/8 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and observed Garmin LiveScope to see fish chasing these baits.
Whenever a chase occurred, my crew would continue the retrieve until the fish either overtook the lure and got hooked, or broke off the chase and returned to bottom.
In our final hour, there was bird activity, but it was scattered over quite a large area, with fish broken into small, splintered, well-dispersed schools, and moving.
To contend with this, I tried to single out multiple small schools near one another, position the boat upwind of them, and had my crew array themselves abreast of one another across the stern and cast half-ounce jigs with white curl tail grubs directly downwind, and then work them back with a very slow sawtooth method. This accounted for our final 17 fish of the day including three keeper hybrid striped bass, and one short.
We wrapped up at 11:50 with exactly 50 fish landed including one largemouth bass, four hybrid, striped bass, and 45 white bass.
Here is a tutorial on the smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ
TALLY: 50 fish caught and released.
OBSERVATIONS: The water temperature profile measured on 27 Dec. was:
5 feet 56.5F
10 feet, 57.1F
15 feet, 57.1F
20 feet, 57.1F
30 feet, 57.1F
35 feet, 57.1F
40 feet, 57.1F
45 feet, 56.9F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:30A
End Time: 11:50A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 32F
Elevation: 15.48 feet low, 40 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 55.6F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: NW13-15
Sky Condition: Bright blue, cloudless skies
Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.
GT = 15
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Areas 098, 187, vic B0159G, B0052G, 681 thru 152 (with birds), B0173G, and 086 thru 681 (with birds)
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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