This week of 18-22 July, I’ve been intensively involved leading our church’s Vacation Bible School and did not book any trips so as to devote full attention to that effort. I did make it out on two evenings on Stillhouse just to try to keep up with the movements of bait and gamefish with the rapidly dropping water levels so once my schedule lightens I can once again get clients right on the fish.

Densely grouped white bass on this area made for very productive slabbing while they “stayed put”, which usually isn’t too long in the summer when fish metabolism is high and fish are patrolling regularly.

These two evenings I found the fish fairly sedentary until about the last hour before sunset. On the 18th, with calmer winds, I found “wolfpacks” of largemouth bass and some larger schools of white bass pushing bait to the top and feeding at the surface just briefly to the E of Area 251. I observed these fish as I fished on Area 251 after seeing excellent sonar readings of fish using this underwater irregularity. Both evenings fish were located on the side of this feature impacted by the wind.

On the 18th I boated 14 white bass all by way of slabbing, as well as 5 topwater largemouth on a Cork Rig. On the 20th, there was no observable topwater action. I caught 24 white bass and 1 drum, all on the slab.

TALLY = 19 Fish on 18 July and 25 Fish on 20 July.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp: 98F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.2 to 85.7F

Wind: Winds were S4 on 18 July and SSE8 on 20 July.

Skies: Skies were fair and 20% clouded with cumulus clouds.

I fished a morning half-day trip of ~5 hours in length today with Bernard and Trish K. of Austin, and their two children, Benjamin (8), and Amanda (6).

Amanda K. of Austin with her first fish caught as an adult!! She attributed much of our success today to all the gadgetry onboard the boat, thus potentially greasing the skids for husband Bernard to obtain some more fishing gadgets of his own!! Truly an enviable position for any fellow to be in!

Benjamin, a young man with a penchant for precision, “nailed it” almost every time as he let the downrigger balls down to “just the right depth” time and time again today. It paid off!!

This family just returned from a whirlwind summer vacation trip of a few days in length down to Sea World, and between the late return home the night before the trip and the early wake up the morning of, little Miss Amanda never really made a showing today. Young Benjamin, on the other hand, was ready to go, had a laser-focus on the fishing activity and stayed enthusiastic and engaged the entire time. Dad had done quite a bit of fishing, so he left the fishing mainly to mom and Benjamin to enjoy on this outing.

We experienced an easterly component to the S. wind this morning, and, as I’ve noted for the past 4-5 weeks in this blog, that seems to dampen the fishes’ mood a bit. They didn’t shut down or anything, but it required more passes over more fish to comb out the active fish among them.

Our first hour gave up one strike and no fish boated — the slowest start we’ve had in over 3 weeks. By 7:25 we headed to Area 833-214 and picked up our first two fish — two white bass which both struck the larger of the two baits we had out — the Swimmin’ Image.

As we came in view of the Area 830-831 complex, it was as if nature very suddenly woke up. Whereas just a few minutes previously I had commented on how there were no deer drinking, no buzzards flying, no songbirds singing, and no bait flipping, all of the sudden we saw buzzards, observed a flock of cormorants begin to feed in the water, saw martins began to sip insects from over the surface of the water, and saw some topwater eruptions began to occur as white bass and hybrid began to push shad to the surface.

We slipped over to the topwater action and immediately boated 5 fish on Cork Rigs with 2 more lost right at boatside. As the fish quickly settled back down, we then went with a smoking tactic using slabs and put 9 more fish in the boat with one more lost at boatside right at Area 848.

Once I saw that the concentration of fish was beginning to thin and knew that the heaviest of the feed was subsiding, we went right back to a downrigging regimen and put two more fish, both keeper hybrid, in the boat at that time.

By now, (around 9:30) Miss Amanda had reached the limits of her attention span, so, dad very unselfishly opted to take her on over to a swimming area as a suitable distraction while allowing wife and son to continue to enjoy the fishing.

We hit a bit of a lull during which time we picked up just one hybrid, but then got back into the fish, finding a mix of white bass and short hybrid, this time showing a preference for a mid-sized Pet Spoon. We downrigged Area 686-844 thoroughly and combed out 11 more fish in our last 45 minutes before calling it a day right around 11:15.

Unfortunately the falling water has all but eliminated the sunfishing option we usually have this time of year to offer to younger children. The shoreline cover like logs, brush, man-made objects, and (on Stillhouse only) aquatic vegetation, is now all high and dry and the sunfish have pulled way back from the banks in most cases.

Thus, the use of downrigging to both catch fish and to help find active fish that can be worked over more thoroughly with other tactics, is about the only thing that I’m having consistent success with. The “slabbing” crowd has really thinned out due to lack of success near bottom and the topwater is definitely off since the last good feed I observed on 02 July.

That’s summer fishing — suspended fish and short bursts of action otherwise.

TALLY = 30 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~84.8F

Wind: Winds were SSE5 at trip’s start, slowly turning S6.

Skies: Skies were ~20% cumulus clouds on a blue sky.

I fished today with Steve and Lisa N. of Temple, and their 6 year old grandson, Caleb.

This pair of 18″ hybrid came out of a “wolfpack” of about 6 fish we spotted on sonar seconds before they struck.

When the tongue came out, the hybrid began to tremble.

The fish I am finding on Belton right now are suspended and just refuse to hit anything going vertically. I worked over the same stretch of water as several “regulars” today — mostly retired fellow that fish all the time. They were slabbing and their catch was in the single digits today whereas we ended up with 33 fish and could have kept right on catching but had to be considerate of the attention span of the 6 year old in our party.

Today’s trip was a typical, average summertime trip. We caught fish steadily over just about the entire duration of the trip, save on lull from around 8:00 to 8:20. At 9:00 to 9:35 we saw the peak activity for the morning. During off-peak times, we’d have to pass over 5-6 pods of fish, each pod containing 3-8 fish, in order to get one fish to bite. During the peak we got fish from every other pod we passed over.

We downrigged for 100% of our trip today boating fish from the patch of water found along the trace from Area 478 to 488 to 814 up until around 8:25. The action slowed here and I made a move to test the waters from Area 833 to Area 846. We picked up 3 small fish here over about a 35 minute span. I decided to leave these fish and go back to the patch of water found along the trace from Area 478 to 488 to 814, as we had left a lot of fish there showing on sonar but just not biting.

As we arrived here, the fish were right where we’d left them. We were fortunate in that we boated a healthy white bass the regurgitated its morning meal at boatside. I observed that the fish it had eaten were smaller than the presentation we were using, so, I downsized our lures and from that time on we kept rods popping on both hybrid and white bass. The downsizing of our lures made a very distinct difference in our success.

By around 10am young Caleb had reach the limits of his attention span and we thought it wise to wrap up the trip then and there as grandma, grandpa, and I had all run out of tricks to delay our departure any longer.

By trip’s end our tally stood at 33 fish, all caught and released, and which included 5 keeper hybrid, all right at the 18.00 to 18.50 inch mark.

TALLY = 33 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~84.8F

Wind: Winds were SSE5 at trip’s start, slowly turning S6.

Skies: Skies were ~20% cumulus clouds on a blue sky.

Today I had the pleasure of welcoming brothers-in-law Paul J. (the soccer coach) and Will G. (former marine and current Texas Housing Dept. employee) aboard.

Will landed the big one today, a 4.75 hybrid that fell for a downrigged shad imitator.

We had multiple doubles today wherein both fellows had fish on at the same time as the fish showed up on sonar in “wolfpacks” of 3-6 fish per group.

These were both young, athletic guys, and both just a wee bit competitive (I think one shoved the other out of the way to be the first one on the boat this morning!). I always enjoy having athletes on board as their coordination is always good and they are often used to listening (well) to coaching. Both of these pay off when the subtleties of any technique I teach are explained and then are able to be applied without a steep learning curve. Such was the case with Paul and Will. I showed them only a time or two how to rig a downrigger spread and they were doing it independently thereafter, leaving me to focus on sonar and taking fish off the hook, which, in the long run, resulted in more fish as I was able to concentrate on the important task of locating fish and staying with them.

We located 3 distinct concentrations of fish today, all of which were suspended at 23-29 feet over deeper bottoms. The downriggers were the key to success today as they kept our baits “in the zone”. We found fish pre-sunrise to about an hour afterwards between Areas 841 and 843. During the mid-morning we found fish between Areas 843 and 487. Then in the late morning we found fish between Areas 846 and 214. Over this course of time we stopped 4 times to jig for fish and got exactly ONE fish for the efforts. These fish are definitely into a horizontal movement. I witnessed very few “slabbers” doing much this morning, although live shad fishermen who understood that the fish were suspended and fished accordingly were catching some fish.

Our largest fish today was a nice 4.75 pound hybrid that Will boated. He also missed one that we were sure would have beat that one out. I should mention here that I believe I witnessed Paul do a silent fist-pump when that unfortunate event occurred (I told you these guys were competitive!).

I fished a little longer than I have been lately as the fish continued to bite well up to around 11am as the SSW wind picked up and helped us out a bit.

Our final tally was 56 fish, all caught and released, with 8 of these fish being keeper (18+ inch) hybrid, mixed with other short hybrid and white bass of all sizes.

TALLY = 56 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 11:05a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.2F

Wind: Winds were S7 at trip’s start, slowly turning SSW10.

Skies: Skies were fair, dry, and bright with high thin clouds until around 9:30am.

This morning I was joined by Dave W. and his dad, Dwight. Dave is an electrical engineer and UT grad working in the semi-conductor industry in Austin, and Dwight is retired from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. where he worked as an administrator over state parks.

Dwight (L.) and Dave (R.) with 4.25 and 3.25 pound hybrid striped bass caught on slabs this morning on Belton Lake.

Today, for the 3rd trip in a row, there was no topwater action found in the areas we surveyed at first light.

With the majority of the fish we’ve been finding being suspended, sonar interpretation is critical. Once fish and/or bait is found, I’ve been downrigging to both catch fish and to find “jiggable” concentrations of fish. Once congregations of fish are found, the action has been typically lasting 15-20 minutes and then drying up as the fish continue to move in constant pursuit of bait.

Action first picked up for us in an area triangulated by Area 841/843/845. We downrigged with Pets and picked up a mix of white bass and short hybrid.

Next, we moved on along this same contour line and found fish in a ellipse between Area 840 and 488. We caught a majority of our fish in this vicinity primarily via downrigging and during one round of jigging for concentrated fish. All but one of our 14 keeper hybrid caught today came from this area. Once this tailed off I checked a few areas and came up empty until looking over the patch of water triangulated by Area 833/214/474. Here we found fish a bit deeper — down at 26-28 feet and continued catching fish, although the morning bite was on the downhill slide by this time with the heat and light level rising and the winds beginning to subside.

By the time we’d boated our 47th fish, we felt we were to the point of diminishing returns and decided to leave the ‘riggers down as we prepared the boat for travel and got ready to head in. As we idled along, the wind speed suddenly picked up. No sooner did this happen than I noted a sizable concentration of fish at Area 844. We boated 1 on the ‘riggers as we passed over and I immediately got us rigged up to jig for these fish. We managed 4 more fish here on slabs and finished out the day on a great note with 4 more fish coming over the side in just a few minutes.

Of the 52 fish we boated today, 14 were “keeper” hybrid, exceeding the 18″ minimum length set by TPWD on this species.

TALLY = 52 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.2F

Wind: Winds were S5 at trip’s start, slowly turning SSW7-8.

Skies: Skies were fair, dry, and bright with no clouds.

This morning I welcomed aboard a family of four from The Woodlands, Texas — Charles and Jodi C. and their children, Madison and Mason.

Madison’s 2nd fish of the day was this record-breaking 5.00 pound, 23 3/8 inch blue catfish taken on a Pet Spoon.

Mason and Madison doubled up on hybrids from the deep toward the end of today’s adventure.

Nature seemed to be a little out of sorts this morning. Winds had a slight easterly component (which never helps the fishing) despite a forecast for mild SW winds, we didn’t see a lick of topwater in the low light period prior to sunrise, and even the downrigger bite on suspended fish was tough. For every 80-100 fish showing on sonar we’d only pick up 1 or 2 fish. It was just one of those tough days.

All of our fish today came via downrigging on both Pet Spoons and on the Swimmin’ Image. Our first spot of success came at the patch of water contained within Areas 840, 841, 843, and 488. These fish came at 24-26 feet over a deeper bottom. Toward the end of our trip we also picked up a few fish between Areas 813 and 474 from out of 27-30 feet of water over a deeper bottom.

Madison emerged as the star of the show today. Her second fish hit hard and battled long. She put her all into fighting what turned out to be a very healthy blue catfish. As soon as it neared the surface I suspected it may be a record, and by the time I’d netted it, I knew it was a record, beating out the former record by 1 1/8 pounds set last autumn.

I spoke with several “regulars” out on the water today and everyone had experienced similar results — slow fishing for scattered fish.

We ended up our trip over in Frank’s cove poking around in the shallows for panfish, but the resident hen mallard and her flock of ducklings stole the show. We did manage to boat a blacktail shiner and a green sunfish while on location, but, the novelty wore off pretty quickly as the sun grew hotter and the winds calmer.

We finished up today with a total of 20 fish. Congratulations, Madison, on your big catch.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:10a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.2F

Wind: Winds were SSE6 at trip’s start, slowly turning S4.

Skies: Skies were fair, dry, and bright with no clouds.

This morning I met Mrs. Lovette Vassar in Harker Heights, TX, to pick up her daughter, Sydney for SKIFF trip #13 of the year. Sydney was planning to bring a girlfriend of hers from church, but plans fell through and so the nod went to younger brother, Josh, who came out with his older brother on a SKIFF trip over Spring Break. So, the SKIFF trip was actually just for Sydney, but Josh got to go along for the ride — little did he know it would be his lucky day!

In under 35 minutes on the water, both Sydney and Josh had boated one legal hybrid a piece and several other short hybrid, as well as white bass.

Near the end of our trip, Josh bagged this new Belton Lake record white bass. The current Catch & Release record measures 14.88 inches; Josh’s fish measured 15.375 inches. It came on a 3/4 oz. TNT slab fished over 33 feet of water.

Just to get you in the right mindset for this whole narrative, you’ve got to think “city girl” when you think about Sydney. Her hair was all braided nicely, her fingernails were all polished well, she had an ornate silver ring on her right hand, and her super-cool sunglasses completed the whole image. Don’t get me wrong — Sydney is very well-mannered, very articulate, very considerate, and very easy going — she just hasn’t had a whole lot of outdoor experiences.

So, as we load into the boat, get lifejackets on and push away from the courtesy dock, I let them know we’ll be going around 30mph to get to our first fishing area. As I cleared the no-wake zone and throttled up, a screech arose from in front of the console where Sydney was seated. She screamed, looked back at me wide-eyed and said, “Okay, where are the seatbelts!?!”.

We soon got settled in over some shallow water hoping for some topwater action, but, none materialized this morning. By 6:35 it was apparent the fish were not going to show themselves on the surface today, so, we began plying our trade in deeper waters.

We downrigged successfully for about 2 hours straight in a patch of water triangulated by Areas 834, 840, and 488. We found suspended schools of hybrid striped bass and white bass down around 24-27 feet and ran Pets behind our downrigger balls to ferret them out. I watched sonar continuously hoping to see a congregation of fish dense enough to allow my rookie anglers to jig successfully, but that didn’t materialize until well into the morning. By 8:55, we’d boated 35 fish, all on downriggers, of which 21 were keeper (18+ inch) hybrid (that’s an unusually high proportion of keeper hybrid for Belton Lake!). Most of these were right at the 18.00″ to 18.50″ size, with 2-3 pushing 19″.

Around 9am we did finally find a sizeable school of fish in the lower 1/3 of the water column in 33 feet of water. I was initially drawn to this spot after seeing a quick burst of topwater feeding activity. As I motored over the area I’d mentally marked, sonar lit up and I put us into a hover over this area. We got our slabs (TNT 180’s in 3/4 oz. white) down to these fish and “smoked” the slabs to provoke the fish to hit. We boated a mix of fish here including 4 more keeper hybrid, several short hybrid, and a mix of legal and short white bass. The last white bass that struck here was on Josh’s line. When he brought the fish to net, I could see it was a nice white bass that just dwarfed the other white bass we’d been catching. I measured and weighed the fish and used my iPhone to consult the TPWD records database and found that the fish beat out the current Jr. Angler Catch and Release lake record (determined strictly by length) by exactly half an inch.

We took all the required photos and I’ve since submitted the record application to Joedy Gray at TPWD who manages the Angler Recognition Program.

That white bass was the last fish we caught on Area 841, and the fish were beginning to thin out now as we approached 10am, after having boated 12 fish off that small patch of water.

I suggested we run the ‘riggers again to shoot for one more fish a piece and then call it a day. The kids, who both had sweaty brows by now in the near-windless, humid conditions, thought that sounded good. The Lord was good to us and granted one more hybrid to Sydney and one more white bass to Josh. With 49 fish boated for the morning, we called it a day.

Sydney “struck again” as we prepared the boat and were about to clear the downrigger lines and reel the balls in. In her deepest, most serious voice she said to Josh and I, “Okay boys, let’s bring ’em in.” She then chuckled and said, “I’ve always wanted to say that!”.

Sydney and Josh’s dad, Dameon is a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army and is serving in Kuwait, providing communications support to units in Kuwait and Iraq. He is on a 1 year deployment which will end in February of 2012. His wife and 5 children eagerly await his return. By that time his oldest son, Devonte, will have left for college in San Angelo where he’ll be a part of the Air Force ROTC program.

Thank you all for you support, donations of money and equipment, your time spent fundraising, and your notes of encouragement to keep S.K.I.F.F. afloat!!

Sincerely,

–Bob Maindelle

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 5:55a

End Time: 10:05a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.4F

Wind: Winds were S4 at trip’s start, slowly turning SW2-3 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair, dry, and bright with no clouds.

This morning’s trip on Belton Lake was the twelfth S.K.I.F.F. trip I’ve run for 2011.

Sisters Nadia (L) and Isabella (R) with a pair of fish we came up with on two separate downrigger. The girls landed these at the same time after we passed over a suspended school of mixed white bass and hybrid stripers.

Big sister caught the big fish this morning!

S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) exists to take the children of deployed or deceased soldiers on fishing trips at no charge to the soldiers’ families. Below is my report to the membership of the Austin Fly Fishers and other SKIFF supporters …

02 July 2011

This morning I fished with 9 year old Nadia Meyer and 7 year old Isabella Meyer, accompanied by their father, First Sergeant Phil Meyer who is currently serving with the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division at Ft. Hood. Phil’s wife and the girls’ mother, First Sergeant Jovana Meyer is also on active duty and is now stationed at Forward Operating Base (F.O.B.) “Sharana” in Afghanistan with Alpha Company, 1-227th Aviation.

Phil, who will retire in October, has been deployed to Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, and Iraq (twice). Jovana has been deployed to Iraq twice and now Afghanistan.

I met the trio at the dock at 5:45am so we could get in some casting lessons before launching as I had a strong suspicion that we’d be treated to a topwater bite at first light. As we pushed away from the dock and idled through the no-wake zone, Phil’s phone rang. It was Jovana calling from Afghanistan. She was about to board a helicopter to head out to more remote locations to check on her troops and wanted to check in with Phil before she left the relative safety of her F.O.B. That was a surreal moment. Here we were starting our day in shorts and t-shirt on a boat going fishing in America, and this mother of two was in pounds of hot combat gear on a dusty flat spot somewhere a half a world away ready to board a helicopter to bring encouragement to other soldiers serving under her.

Today’s fishing story was written in three distinct chapters … with a happy ending

Chapter One — topwater action started at first light and lasted until sunrise. We caught 14 fish including both white bass and short hybrid striped bass on Cork Rigs as they fed over shallow water on shad they forced to the surface. This took place between Areas 014 and 027.

Chapter Two — when the topwater died, there was a bit of a lull as the fish and bait transitioned to deeper water. During this time, we continued to pick off fish using downriggers geared up with my summertime favorite – a pair of Pet/Licker combos, thus putting 4 baits in the water at one time and at the depth we saw fish holding at on sonar. We boated 6 fish as we downrigged.

Chapter Three — once the transition to deeper water occurred, more and more fish began to appear on a distinct, gentle mound rising 3 feet above the rest of the bottom in about 37 feet of water. I hovered the boat by e-anchoring and we “smoked” 3/4 oz. TNT 180 slabs to boat our final 31 fish of the day including our two largest fish — keeper-sized hybrid stripers going right at 18-19 inches in length and weighing in at ~3 pounds.

By the time 9:45 rolled around Nadia’s wrist was hurting from all the fish she’d reeled in, both girls were in need of a nap from their very early wake-up, and a T-Ball fundraiser awaited them in Temple, so, we called it a great morning of fishing right there and parted ways.

Lord willing, Jovana returns in April 2012. Thank you AFF and SKIFF supporters for creating a bright spot for the girls (and Phil) in their long wait for mom’s return!!

Happy Independence Day to all of you! Freedom definitely is not free.

–Bob Maindelle

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 5:45a

End Time: 9:45a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were S4 at first light increasing to S6-7 by trip’s end .

Skies: Skies were fair, dry, and bright with no clouds.

This morning I was joined once again by Chris and Cooper Kerbow of Austin.

Cooper’s largest fish today, this 3.125 lbs. hybrid he’s holding, came on a smoked slab, but, we also caught fish on topwater, casting swimbaits, and by downrigging.

Chris owns the Georgetown Catfish Parlour restaurant where my wife and I are regulars (by the way, you need to go to if you’ve never been, and, while you’re there make sure you at least sample the jalapeno tartar sauce). Chris and his 12 year old son Cooper have made it an annual Fathers’ Day tradition to go on a guided fishing trip with me for 3 years in a row now.

The topwater fishing has been very consistent, but, as the saying goes, the early bird gets the worm. The strongest action has been in the short window of time between first light and sunrise. Today we found fish between Areas 014 and 027 and caught them on Cork Rigs. Cooper really improved on his casting after shaking off the cobwebs in the first few casts. Releasing the line with his index finger at just the right time and following his lure to the water with his rod tip both helped him greatly. We boated 28 fish before the fish sounded and left the skinny water.

We next experience a resurgence of topwater action in open water between Areas 836 and 837. In this scenario, short hybrid striped bass were nailing good sized 3.5″ threadfin shad after driving them to the surface. We switched over to soft plastic swimbaits that offered a slightly larger profile to “match the hatch” and did well here, as well as just to the S. of Area 835. At both areas, when the fish sounded, we continued catching by letting our swimbaits sink, and, when the fish showed deeper (in the lower 1/3 of the water column over ~40-45 feet) we used slabs and smoked these fish. Our two largest fish came on TNT 180 slabs in 3/4 oz. They were right on with the profile of the bait these fish were feeding on in this deep water.

By around 8:45a, the fish were throttling back and so we went with a downrigging approach from that point forward to top off our day with a total of 84 fish boated. Our ‘rigging spread consisted at first with a pair of Pet/Licker combos. Later, we changed one of those out with a Swimmin’ Image and did just as well. All of our downrigging was done in the vicinity of Area 835, along the breakline.

When this fishing went soft, we headed over to Area 214 and found a lot of bait, but it was relaxed and blanketing the bottom, not balled up and defensive. We managed our final fish, another short hybrid, here and then called it a day right at about 11am.

As I drove away from the launch site, I left the two of them enjoying one of the swimming areas on Belton Lake. They had the whole beach to themselves!

TALLY = 84 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were S3 at first light increasing to S6-7 by trip’s end .

Skies: Skies were fair, dry, and bright with no clouds.

I fished Belton Lake this morning, once again joined by the crew from Rockpointe Church, including Pastor Shayne O., “Youth Guy” Mario, “Small Groups Guy” Shane M., and Shane’s daughter, Grace.

Pastor Shayne landed our biggest fish of the trip today, an 18+ inch hybrid going right at 3.00 pounds. He’s flanked by (L-R) Shane, Mario, and Grace.

Everyone got to cash in today on mixed-bag, mixed-technique angling. Here the Rockpointe crew displays our best 4 white bass just before releasing them.

The winds were higher than forecast for this morning, in fact, there were already occasional whitecaps before sunrise. I had hoped to get this foursome on a solid topwater bite, but spotting the fish, much less keeping the boat constantly positioned well for four casters was a bit of a challenge. We did spot fish on the surface and we did manage to get everyone hooked up a few times over, but, it just wasn’t what it could have been with lighter winds. Regardless, we boated 13 fish in our first few minutes on the water, and the adrenalin definitely got going as we watched in anticipation of seeing “just one more school” of those fish blitz on the surface. This action cropped up between Areas 133 and 811 and was done by the time the sun peeked over the ridge to the north.

As the fish sounded, they moved out to deeper water and we found them again along the 27-32 foot contour in an area “boxed” by Areas 085, 488, 834, and 812 to the N, S, E, and W, respectively. In this area we found multiple large schools of active, suspended fish consisting of white bass and hybrid stripers. The “drill” was to downrig for these fish (with a pair of tandem Pet/Licker combos) taking what we could of the scattered fish all over this area, and setting up in a hover over top of larger schools as they appeared on sonar to present slabs by way of “smoking”. We caught a mixed bag of whites and short hybrid by both methods and left this action only when the winds got so strong in this exposed area that we could no longer determine if we were getting strikes on our downriggers. By this time the smoking tactic had fallen by the wayside as the schools of fish began to breakup or settle down to the bottom and became too inactive to respond to a smoking technique. As we departed, our tally stood at 31 fish.

We made a move to near Area 832 but, despite plenty of bait in and around the draw here, found only one hybrid, a just-keeper 3 pound fish.

The balance of the trip was spent in a stretch of water between Areas 307 and 214. We found abundant life here in a band from 27 to 33 feet deep over a 35-43 foot bottom. There were schools of shad everywhere, and as we did a combination of downrigging and jigging (right on top of Area 833) we picked up largemouth bass, short hybrids, white bass, drum, and small blue cat. The drum proved particularly suseptible to a hard jigging approach with a slab worked just over their heads. Over approximately 2 hours we sacked up exactly 30 more fish in this area.

Accolades once again go to Pastor Shayne. He earned the “Wanton Waste of Perfectly Good Fishing Equipment Award” today — it was an honest mistake, though. He saw the trolling motor working so hard keeping up with the wind that he felt it needed a mid-morning “snack” of 12 pound monofilament with a extra 3/4 ounce helping of slab thrown in there. He’s now a two-time qualifier for that distinction!

TALLY = 61 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~82.1F

Wind: Winds were at S12-13 by sunrise, increasing to and leveling off at S16-17 by 9:30am .

Skies: Skies were fair, dry, and bright with 10% clouds.