WHO I FISHED WITH: This afternoon, Monday, Dec. 21st, I fished with Mr. Don Bousquet, Mr. Larry Miller, and four young men: Cameron Miller (3rd grade from New Orleans, LA), and Ryder Balmos, Hudson Slimp, and Luke Carlson (all 5th graders from Salado, TX).

Some weeks ago, Mr. Rodney Tyroch referred Don my way.  Don, owner of Ragin’ Cajun Boat Storage off of Adams Ave. just outside Temple Lake Park, left a message on my voicemail, as I was on the boat with clients at the time.  He said, “…I got three little kids that wanna catch a hundred fish; I don’t care what kind; I don’t care how big; the oldest one’s in 5th grade; we just wanna go catch some fish.”

Today, that very thing took place!

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  This was my crew this afternoon – back left: Larry Miller and Don Bousquet; front left: Ryder Balmos, Cameron Miller, Luke Carlson, and Hudson Slimp.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2:  Hudson (left) and Luke landed these two fish simultaneously as we were catching white bass at a fast clip from out of 34 feet of water on Hazy Eye Slabs.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #3: Ryder Balmos of Salado with his largest fish of the trip; a 3.50 pound freshwater drum.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #4:   3rd grader Cameron Miller came all the way from New Orleans to land this fish, as well as his fair share of the 124 fish haul we enjoyed catching and releasing this afternoon.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (PM), 21 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

After watching today’s weather forecast since this past Saturday morning, I decided with my clients’ input, to postpone this morning’s trip due to cold, bright, windless conditions.  Those conditions are the toughest one can face in pursuit of white bass.  In hindsight, I’m very glad we did so.

This afternoon’s conditions were a bit of a different story … winds were due to develop out of the SW, which did occur starting around 12:30pm.  We had a gentle but constant wind from 3-6mph all afternoon with increasing cloud cover.  The fish were already biting when we hit our first area and they didn’t quit all afternoon.

I hit 4 distinct areas, and made 2 “short hops” at each, relocating the boat a few boat lengths away from our initial position once the action began to slow.  We worked small slabs 100% of the time today just for simplicity’s sake.  One of the gentlemen I routinely compare notes with report good results on MAL Lures elsewhere on the lake after he also delayed fishing until the afternoon.

Since our focus was on the kids’ success, I changed all the lures over on my rods to 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hooks, thus removing the 3/8 oz. slabs I originally had on.  The extra weight would helps less experienced anglers get to, and stay on, bottom, and help lines hang more vertically so as to help avoid tangles.

We used a very straightforward easing tactic to successfully tempt white bass, largemouth bass, and freshwater drum at each of the stops we made, eventually piecing together a catch of 124 by 4:30pm.

By this time, all but Luke was doing more snacking than fishing, and given the fact that all four boys elected to wear shorts on a fishing trip in December, we wrapped it up at the 3.5 hour mark to avoid a cold, post-sunset ride back to the dock.

Hazy Eye Slabs, and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 124 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  1:00P

End Time: 4:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation:  1.08 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour rise and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 56.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW3-6 entire trip

Sky Condition: High, wispy white clouds at 10% at trip’s start, building to light grey coverage at 40% by trip’s end

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 45% illumination

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1077 (14 fish) and 1362 (18 fish)

**Area B0018C (12 fish)

**Area B0044G (13 fish) and 295 (10 fish)

**Area 0412 (42 fish)

**Area 1394 (15 fish)

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, Dec. 19th, I fished with father and son duo Jason and Mason Woolverton of Killeen.

Jason contacted me a few weeks back wanting to arrange something fishing-related for Mason’s 12th birthday.

The weather and weather forecast were both crazy, and the former bore no resemblance to the latter.  As I rose this morning, there was a 62% chance of rain over the first four hours following sunrise, and a total forecast accumulation of just 5/100ths of an inch … no big deal with some raingear on.

Well, in reality, we endured 2.75 consecutive hours of a cool, steady rain which dropped 6/10ths of an inch or more area wide.  The fellows were troopers, though, and were rewarded for sticking it out through the nasty weather.

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  I think someone had a great 12th birthday!!  Nice job, Mason!

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2: Father and son Jason and Mason Woolverton with white bass which made up the majority of our mixed-bag catch this morning.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #3: Jason Woolverton with a 14 1/8 inch Lake Belton crappie taken on a 3/8 oz., white Hazy Eye slab with stinger hook.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #4:  Not surprisingly, Mason thought he’d snagged bottom when this 24″, 6.75 pound freshwater drum struck and did not budge.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 19 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

While the rain fell heavily and kept the skies very dark, we caught not a single fish up to about 9:20AM (with a 7:55AM start).  At this time, I shifted us up shallower, hoping the better-illuminated bottom in shallower water would hold some feeding fish.  This turned out to be the case.

The bite started slowly — we had to pry the first few fish one at a time off bottom, but, with each fish we caught and each “short hop” we made in areas that held bait and fish, the bite loosened up.  From 10:00 to 1:00 was game on, then the fish started to cool off once again.

I extended the trip since we had no luck in the first full hour plus, and, by 12:45PM, we’d managed to put together a catch of 85 fish.  I told the fellows we’d give it until 1:15PM or 100 fish, whichever came first, and they accepted that as a challenge.

During the 30 minutes that followed, we saw the lead edge of a cold front come through and saw the winds uptick significantly, but, this also briefly fired the fish back up.  By 1:08PM we hit 100 fish on the nose and quickly brought in our gear and ran for the ramp before the wind made for a very uncomfortable ride back for two guys who were already fairly soggy.

100% of our fish were caught on an easing tactic using my own 3/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hooks attached.  Shad regurgitated by the fish we caught confirmed this was the right size bait today.  In addition to the white bass, we landed 9 freshwater drum up to 6.75 pounds, 4 largemouth bass up to 3.75 pounds, and 1 crappie which taped at 14 1/8 inches long.

The crappie was a personal best for Jason, and Mason’s largemouth was a personal best for him.  Additionally, the 100 fish catch was the most the two had ever landed on a single outing.

Hazy Eye Slabs, and Stinger Hooks here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  Surface temp at dawn stood at 55.7F.  This is a few tenths of a degree warmer than it was as Wednesday morning’s cold front rolled in.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:55A

End Time: 1:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Elevation:  1.09 low with a 0.00’ 24-hour change and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 55.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SW0-5 prior to 12:45 when the lead edge of a mild cold front pushed in with 11-13 mph NW winds

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with rain through 10A, then some breaks and thinning in the clouds enough to allow the sky to brighten a bit.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 26% illumination

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas B0122C (3 hops), B0003G through 0150 (3 hops), 326 (2 hops), B0018C (2 hops), 2028 thru 2062 (2 hops), B0005G  — all areas produced on an eased 3/8 oz. slab.

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, Dec. 16th, I fished with returning guest and solid multi-species fisherman Dwight Stone of Georgetown, TX, and a fishing buddy of his.

Dwight retired from the restaurant business and now spends his time chasing fish and grandkids.

The key to success today was dressing for the weather.  We had a reinforcing cold front come in overnight, dropping this morning’s low to 32F, with a wind chill driven down to 25F by a 10-13 mph NW wind gusting to 15.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1: This photo about sums it up … frigid weather and white bass on slowly worked, small Hazy Eye slabs in 3/8 oz.  That’s Dwight (you’ll have to trust me) in his super-fancy, super-warm seal and otter fur headgear he got through a native Alaskan tribe.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 16 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

We went into the morning knowing that it was going to be a bit tough today, but, whenever that wind is blowing, white bass can be caught, so, we sought them out with sonar (as no birds assisted us this morning), and, after about an hour of fruitless searching, found a nice bunch of fish in three different areas, each covering a sizeable area of the bottom in distinct groups, each with several hundred fish per group.  These fish were packed together in three different areas, each perhaps 200 feet in diameter.

The presentation today was “low and slow” — we used an “easing” tactic with my 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs equipped with stinger hooks to seal the deal on 102 fish, including 2 drum, 3 largemouth, and 97 white bass.

We never landed a single fish outside of the lower third of the water column.  The speed at which the fish wanted the lure presented varied with activity level, so, it was great to have three guys fishing abreast of one another AND watch each others’ presentation on Garmin LiveScope to see who was getting hit.  In this way, the other two guys could adjust presentation speed “on the fly” and everyone started catching until the fishes’ mood changed again and we had to experiment with speed once again.

We caught a lot of smaller fish today as I moved away from some of the areas I’d been on in order to escape the wind, and because these areas showed to hold no fish early on in the morning.

Our best fishing went from 9 to 11, with a slow tapering off as the winds dropped to below 8 fairly suddenly around that time.  We wrapped up right at the 4-hour mark, as I had a follow-on sonar training to conduct this afternoon.

See the MAL Lure, Hazy Eye Slabs, and Stinger Hooks here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 102 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   We lost another full degree of heat thanks to a brisk, overnight cold front.  Surface temp at dawn stood at 55.3F.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:45A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 32F

Elevation:  1.07 low with a 0.03’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 55.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW13 through 10A, then tapering down to NW10

Sky Condition: Cloudless, bluebird skies as high pressure built in with a cold front which arrived overnight.

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon, 2 days past new moon at 4% illumination

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas B0005G, B0186C, and B0003G all produced well on “eased” small 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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, Dec. 11th, I fished with returning guests Gary and Rachel Davidson of Kerrville, TX, and their friends, first-time guests Mike and Nora Cook, also of Kerrville.

If Gary’s name sounds familiar, it is because he took advantage of a last-minute cancellation this past Tuesday morning when he and I put 83 fish in the boat on what was more of a teaching effort in which I introduced Gary to some of the tactics which will be necessary as cold weather sets in.

Gary had let me know earlier in the month that he’d like me to call him if I had any cancellations pop up.

Yesterday, a corporate client had those he’d hoped to entertain cancel on him, thus leaving another hole in the schedule, which Gary also filled.

If you are reading this and have flexibility in your calendar and would like me to contact you about discounted trips like this, please let me know so.  I will call you before posting such vacancies on Facebook to give you “right of first refusal”.

I can’t promise what the discount will be, but I can typically take a bit of the forfeited deposit and put it towards your trip to make it a win-win for both of us.  $45 off is normally how it shakes out.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  This was my jolly, albeit soggy, crew of four this morning.  From left: Gary and Rachel Davidson, and Mike and Nora Cook, all of Kerrville, TX.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2:  I kidded Nora, who has made of career in both public and private schools, that teachers are hard to teach.  After getting the hang of things, Nora more than pulled her own weight on the fish tally this morning.  She landed our two largest fish of the trip.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday (AM), 11 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

The fishing was a bit tougher than I anticipated this morning as the wind forecast did not match reality.  We never had more than a 4mph breeze at any time, and it was often flat calm.  Fortunately, the grey cloud cover helped overcome some of that, and we did go on to put together a nice catch.

Our first 40 minutes was very slow, with only 8 fish to show for our efforts as we tediously worked slabs to fish glued to the bottom.  Slowly the sky lightened and a bit of a ripple developed, fueling a light feed by a flock of ~20 terns in two different areas over a roughly 1.25 hour span.

By the time the birds had enough to eat, we’d landed 68 fish and it was around 10:30A.  We moved on and relied exclusively upon sonar from this point on to find our fish.

We experienced our best action from ~10:50 to 11:45 with abundant fish both chasing baits hard from off the bottom, and showing a propensity to suspend and patrol.  This last area we visited produced a final 55 fish, putting our grand total for the morning at 123 fish.

The LiveScope was indispensable for tracking suspended fish and allowing my guest to know when to reel and when not to reel so as to time the rise of their lure to match the movements of the fish see on the screen.

We landed our first 8 fish on slabs when things were uber-slow, and then worked MAL Lures the remainder of the morning with good results.

The 123 fish included 1 drum, 1 hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 120 white bass.  Sad to say, Rachel had a giant of the fish on her line, which we suspect was a large yellow catfish by its behavior.  She hooked it and it stayed on bottom the entire fight.  It ran upwind about 80 yards (as I chased it with the trolling motor) where it finally tangled in brush.  We “see-sawed” with it in the brush for a while, but it was clear that it wasn’t coming out.  I finally made the call to pull slowly and directly on the line.  One of the treble hook’s tines broke as I did so, and we recovered the damaged lure.  If we didn’t catch the fish, it was at least good to know we didn’t leave the fish unable to extract itself from the tangle it swam into — she’s still out there!

See the MAL Lure, Hazy Eye Slabs, and Stinger Hooks here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 123 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   There was but 1 episode of helpful gull activity this morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:45A

End Time: 12:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation:  1.03 low with a 0.02’ 24-hour fall and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 59.4F (a slight increase versus Wed. AM)

Wind Speed & Direction:  Varying between calm and SSE under 4mph, despite NOAA’s forecast of SW10-13 all morning

Sky Condition: Light mist to light rain all morning under heavy grey skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 14% illumination

GT = 65

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0118C (slow early action)

**Area 2038, 682, and 346 – steady action under birds

**Area 150 – moderate action

**Area 593/097 – best action at late morning, last stop

 

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, 09 Dec., I fished with returning guests Eric Martin and Christian Hunter.

The two first became friends in the 8th grade in the Belton Independent School District, and have been buddies ever since.

The trip was furnished courtesy of Eric’s grandmother, Sandra Gehler, as an early Christmas present.

On my full day trips, we plan on fishing ~4 hours in the morning, and ~4 hours in the afternoon, with an off-the-water lunch break inbetween (which I always spend at Sol de Jalisco in Morgans Point!).

Today we fished from 7:30A to 11:15A, then again from 1P to 5:25P.  We saw the bite develop, peak, and taper off on both portions of the trip, with a midday cessation of feeding activity.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: Although our target species was white bass, having a hybrid striper crash the party is never disappointing.  Here is Eric Martin with our first hybrid of the morning.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #2: As I netted Eric’s hybrid, this one struck Christian Hunter’s MAL Lure as we fished in about 40 feet of water.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #3: The white bass were crushing it most of the day today.  We had a few lulls when the winds went briefly slack, but otherwise, with a light west wind, the bite was full-on.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 09 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

If there was any doubt in my mind yesterday concerning the impact falling water temperature has had on the white basses’ decreased likelihood to aggressively pursue a fast moving lure, that doubt was eliminated today.

The surface temperature slipped just a bit more overnight down to 58.3.

The fish we found early in the morning were in no mood to chase my MAL Lures, so, seeing this propensity develop over the last few days, I once again came equipped with slabs.

While the fish were unwilling or at least reluctant to chase quickly upwards, we used my 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook attached to tempt the fish with a slow, “easing” tactic.  Then, once the bite developed and fish began to strike more readily and began to show up suspended at least 3-4 feet from bottom, we found that the MAL Lure worked its magic and far outperformed the slabs from that point until the bite at a given area began to cool down.  A “cool down” takes place when the fish no longer move as quickly, nor as excitedly as they did when the bite was at peak conditions, and as the fish begin to return nearly exclusively to bottom (no more suspending).  Once this occurred, we could catch a few more on the slab, but found it wiser just to quit these fish and go find another school to “tease up”.

We did as described above at 3 distinct locations in the morning, and at 7 distinct locations in the evening, and found this approach was consistently effective.

We amassed a catch of 140 fish in the morning, and another 131 fish in the afternoon.  Included in this catch were 5 largemouth bass, 4 drum, 5 hybrid striped bass, and 257 white bass.

See the MAL Lure, Hazy Eye Slabs, and Stinger Hooks here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 271 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   There were 1 episode of helpful gull activity this morning. The bite rose and fell with wind speed in both the AM and PM today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A  and 1:00P

End Time: 11:15A and 5:25P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F (AM); 66F (PM)

Elevation:  0.98 low with a 0.01’ 24-hour fall and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 58.3F

Wind Speed & Direction:  W6 at sunrise, tapering to W0-2 by morning’s end; then W5 from 1-2:30P, tapering to W2-3 thereafter.

Sky Condition: Bluebird skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 34% illumination

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

AM:  Areas 1543, B0061G, and 489

PM: Areas B0018C, B0062G, 1945, B0173C, 1882, and 817

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning I was joined by father and son Frank and Marcos Sumner.  Frank lives in Killeen and Marcos, his wife, and their 2-year-old daughter live down in San Antonio where he works from home (thanks to COVID) in the banking business.

The two went out with me last winter when we enjoyed easy fishing under birds, then Frank brought a buddy towards the end of the spring bite earlier this year.

As I normally do with 2-man parties, I stood between Frank and Marcos so I could easily take fish off for the both of them, do some coaching, and keep the Garmin LiveScope dialed in.

As Frank and I were watching LiveScope together, we saw a school of 5-6 white bass enter onto the screen from the left side.  Frank timed the rise of his lure to intersect these fish as they passed.  One of the fish pursued his MAL Lure, grabbed it, was hooked briefly, then shook off.  We watched that spooked fish turn on the afterburners and head down to bottom at a 45 degree angle back in the direction it had come from.  It was then that Frank coined a new term.  He calmly said, “Hmmm, looks like that fish got hooklash or something.”

PHOTO CAPTION #1:   From right: Marcos Sumner and his dad, Frank, with a sampling of our white bass catch from a chilly December morning on Lake Belton.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday (AM), 05 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Our morning started out a bit squirrely today.  We had heavy, grey cloud cover and light winds which kept the fish pretty reluctant right through around 9AM.  From our start around 7:30 through 9:00A, we’d hit several areas finding nothing at all on sonar, then we began seeing small groups of white bass in deep water (45+ feet) beginning to come together, but, we got minimal results as we worked for them.  By just after 9A, we’d only put 16 fish in the boat.

At this time, the wind picked up, not greatly, but enough to fully ripple and move the surface.  The thick, grey cloud cover also began to thin, letting more light through, with steady clearing taking place from this point forward.

Once the fish started, they really made up for lost time.  Frank and Marcos put 129 fish in the boat from about 9:15 to 11:45.  That would have been a solid result for a 4 hour trip, but they landed all of those fish in about 2.5 hours.  During this time I just stood between the two of them and took fish off as fast as they could catch them.

We didn’t see much variety today — just 1 freshwater drum landed, and one largemouth which escaped on a boatside jump, otherwise, it was all white bass and every last one caught on the MAL Lure worked vertically as described in my tutorial video (link below).

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 145 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   No gull activity today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:30A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 33F

Elevation:  0.94 low with a 0.04’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 59.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light NW breeze all morning at ~4

Sky Condition: Completely grey skies at dawn gave way slowly to light blue skies with 20% white cloud cover.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 76% illumination

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 151; 16 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic B0050G; 52 fish on MAL Lures (SP)

**Area vic B0195C; 77 on MAL Lures (SP)

 

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

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

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