CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, November 5th, I fished with returning guests Ken Powell and Jay Florence. Ken is a retired high school football coach now residing in Burnet, TX, and Jay runs his own lawn fertilization company in the Odessa area.
DATE: Tuesday, 05 November 2024 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 29 & 30 Nov. November, 2-6 December (weekday AMs). Next Saturday opening: 30 November (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jay Florence and Ken Powell took white bass up to 14 3/8″ using a “sawtooth” retrieve with 1 3/8 oz. White Tornados for fish feeding aggressively as winds increased following a cold front’s passage.
PHOTO CAPTION: Taking full advantage of side-imaging, I had my clients cast either to the port or starboard side as we watched aggressive schools of hundreds white bass chasing shad in ~22′ . The 1 3/8 oz. White Tornado helped select for larger fish thanks to its profile closer to a gizzard shad than a threadfin shad.
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
It looks like (and now feels like) autumn is finally here. A strong cold front moved into Central Texas around 6P last night, and dropped about 1 to 1.5″ of rain area wide through around 10P. Light showers and grey cloud cover persisted through our 7A start time, and the air temperature dropped to 61F.
The fishing got off to a later start today, but, once the fish began feeding, they fed hard for a full 3+ hours.
Deeper water did not produce well early on as the thick cloud cover kept it pretty dark in 30+ feet. I moved shallower and we found our first fish of the morning in 24′. We never moved off that location for 2.75 hours, taking a total of 109 fish there, all on the heaviest White Tornado (white color, 1 3/8 oz.).
Once that area played out as the clouds got a few holes and allowed some sun to come through, we found another group of fish in 31′, catching another 15 white bass there through 10:35. All of these fish were taken on “smoked” MAL Originals (chartreuse tails) fished vertically.
We made one final move, this time finding fish (all small whites and small hybrid) scattered throughout the water column in 37′. Once again, we smoked MAL Originals vertically with the aid of Garmin LiveScope to capitalize on this find, landing a final 26 fish before we wrapped up at 12:30p.
Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
RESULTS: 151 fish, including 6 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 91 white bass.
LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used MAL Originals (w/ chartreuse tails) vertically & white, 1 3/8 oz. White Tornados today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 101 fish, including 9 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 91 white bass.
OBSERVATIONS:
1) We are in a solid, classic autumn pattern now, which should hold up until the water temperature near bottom falls to around 60F
2) Mornings are much more productive than evenings at this point in the fall.
3) As NW winds ramped up following a cold front’s passage, we saw light gull activity (the first of the fall), and some topwater action. We also spotted a mature bald eagle and numerous osprey.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:30 AM on Friday, 01 Nov….
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 12:30P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F
Elevation: 2.20′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow; .00′ fall in last 24 hours
Water Surface Temp: 73.7F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: NW10-12 all morning
Sky Condition: 100% heavy grey cloud cover all morning, with short breaks in the clouds beginning around 10:30A
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 16% illumination.
GT = 55
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area vic 1845 – 109 fish sawtoothing White Tornados
Area B0314G – 15 fish smoking MAL Originals
Area B0315G – 26 fish – 5 smoking MAL Originals; 10
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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