During the afternoon of Nov. 19th I met with a boat full of buddies from Sun City retirement community in Georgetown, TX. I welcomed back returning guest Pat Sprague. Pat brought with him Bob Hansell, a U.S. Marine Corp veteran, and Dennis Healy, a fairly new resident at Sun City.

Pat Sprague scored our largest fish of the trip with this solid hybrid going right at 4.50 pounds.  It fell for a bladebait fished just under the surface amidst other such fish forcing shad to the surface in the late afternoon.

Dennis Healy boated this nice 3 pound class hybrid striped bass just minutes after Pat’s large fish came aboard.  This fish also fell for a bladebait fished high up in the water column where actively feeding fish were patrolling for shad.

From left: Dennis Healy, Bob Hansell, and Pat Sprague with the 3 largest white bass we culled from among the dozens we landed.  These fish ranged from 13-14″.

This afternoon I met with a boatful of buddies from Sun City retirement community in Georgetown, TX. I welcomed back returning guest Pat Sprague. Pat brought with him Bob Hansell, a U.S. Marine Corp veteran, and Dennis Healy, a fairly new resident at Sun City.
After a morning during which we had to work for our fish thanks to tough, post-frontal conditions with characteristic clear skies, bright sun, and light winds, we continued down that path this afternoon.
We got off to a solid start as a gentle breeze that began blowing at mid-day moved the water a bit and turned the fish on until it resided. We got right down to business catching fish within minutes of departing from the courtesy dock, and caught about 1/3 of our entire afternoon’s catch at this location inside of our first hour on the water.
Over the next hour or so we made a number of quick stops to fish for congregations of fish we found on sonar. As was the case this morning, the bite was pretty subdued. Despite seeing a lot of fish on sonar, we caught fish only at a moderate rate until around 3:40p when the sun’s angle got sufficiently low to key the beginning of the evening’s low light bite.
At this time we positioned ourselves over a 20-22 foot flat, near the first breakline connecting the flat to deeper water. A I watched sonar, I could follow fish moving up out of deeper water and onto the flat to feed. Feeding gulls helped us with fish location, and sonar helped us zero right in on the “spot on the spot”.
We caught a mix of just-short hybrid, several keeper hybrid and white bass of all sizes at this area. These fish were numerous, but quite scattered, and so we opted for a horizontal casting tactic using bladebaits. Depending on fish activity, we fished these baits everywhere from just barely subsurface to hugging bottom.
This area produced as many fish as the first location, but it took a bit longer to put that catch together just because of how scattered the fish were, thus requiring several casts per fish caught versus the “one after another” results we experienced while fishing vertically just after getting on the water.
Smaller baits continued to produce best for us, with the 3/8 oz. Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 slab producing best when we went vertical, and the 3/8 oz. Cicada bladebait producing best when we went horizontal.
There was next to no sunset bite tonight thanks to the winds going completely calm about 30 minutes prior. For their efforts, the fellows wound up boating 84 fish this evening, enjoying both being with one another and in the great outdoors on a nice, clear, dry day here in central Texas.

TALLY = 84 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time: 5:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp:  68.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and primarily from the NW under 6mph all day

Sky Conditions:  Blue bird skies

Other: GT= 65

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1636 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

**Area 1635 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

**Area 1637 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

**Area 1638 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

**Area 1627/408 threw bladebaits horizontally for shallow whites & hybrids while observing moderate sub-surface activity/birds

 

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

On the morning of Nov. 19th I fished with Pastor Kip Nanninga, his son, Josiah, and one of Kip’s congregants, Andy Maindelle (my younger brother).  We fished Belton Lake, targeting white bass and hybrid striped bass using artificial lures.

From left: Andy Maindelle, Kip Nanninga, and Josiah Nanninga.  Despite tough, high-pressure, post-frontal conditions, we still caught both good quality and quantity today.  These white bass, all over 13″ were taken on bladebaits beneath aggressive white bass seen pushing shad to the surface under birds.

Kip serves as a shepherd and coach to the many small group leaders associated with Hill Country Bible Church in Austin. Hill Country is a non-denominational, multi-campus church with a vision to make hope and fellowship available to people “within walking distance” by establishing neighborhood small groups throughout the Austin area. Josiah is a middle school student and the eldest of Kip’s 5 children. Andy works at Blizzard – a company focused on video game entertainment.
We faced tough post-frontal conditions this morning with bright, clear skies and calm winds. We launched at 6:40a and began catching fish within minutes finding plentiful, albeit somewhat reluctant white bass and hybrid striped bass on bladebaits in approximately 10-12 feet of water.  When I saw how many fish were showing on sonar versus the slow results we were experiencing, I decided to move us out of this area fairly quickly, opting to fish where the very light breeze that was present was at least rippling the water versus staying at the flat calm area at which we began.
Upon arrival we noted fish chasing shad to the surface and a few gulls arrived in response to this activity. We caught fish at a moderate rate here. In retrospect, this area gave up the best quality fish of the trip, with a majority of the white bass going right around the 13+ inch mark.  When the fish stopped chasing and the gulls lifted and left, the fishing wound down quickly as the light breeze nearly stopped and the sun’s rays soaked into the water.
We then entered the toughest 90 minute window of the trip at this point. We did a lot of looking, occasionally finding fish, however, these fish often moved quickly before we could get turned around, positioned over top of them, and get our slabs down to them, or they failed to perk up at our offerings if we were successful in maintaining contact with them. Those schools we found that did show interest typically gave up fish just a few at a time. We found it tough during that time to get a frenzied bite going beneath us.
Finally, right around 10am, a light NE breeze developed and began to move the water. The fish responded favorably after this wind worked on the water for about 15 minutes. We made a move to the 5th area that we would fish this morning and found fish in feeding mode in about 24 feet of water. These fish really put on the feedbag for about 30 minutes. During this spurt, we boated over 80 fish one after another with 3 or 4 of our 4 rods loaded up with a fish at any given time for the first 20 minutes or so of this burst.
By the time this feed was over it was approaching 11am, the time at which the morning feed has been winding down lately. We took a look at a few other areas, finding some gulls working in two areas. As we investigated, we found smalls schools of white bass forcing shad to the surface, and the birds responding to the commotion.
Chips, salsa, and the lunch special #54 at Sol de Jalisco in Morgan’s Point sounded better at this point than hunting and pecking to scrape up a few more fish, so, we called it a good morning with 141 fish boated and headed in for lunch.

TALLY = 141 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time:  11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 51F

Water Surface Temp:  68.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and primarily from the NW under 6mph all day

Sky Conditions:  Blue bird skies

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1621/1632 threw bladebaits horizontally for shallow whites & hybrids

**Area 1634 threw bladebaits horizontally for shallow whites & hybrids while observing moderate sub-surface activity/birds

**Area 1635 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

**Area 1636 smoking and easing for whites and hybrids

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This morning I fished with returning client Clint Murphy of Georgetown, TX.  We fished Belton Lake, targeting white bass and hybrid striped bass using artificial lures.

This hybrid striped bass was taken by Clint Murphy on a silver slab in 17 feet of water around 11:30am.  It weighed exactly 5.00 pounds on a certified Boga Grip scale.

 

These fish were taken in the first two hours of the trip as the rain and high winds began to move on from east to west.  These fish were taken in water under 12′ deep on bladebaits worked horizontally.  The fish on the left measured 14 3/8″ and the fish on the right measured 14.00″.  All 146 fish caught this morning were released.

Clint and I touched based 4 or 5 time prior to meeting this morning, starting as far back as last Wednesday when the extended NOAA forecast showed a wet cold front due to hit central Texas sometime today.  As NOAA’s “shot group” tightened as time went on, it appeared that the majority of the rain and wind would take place in the pre-dawn hours, leaving still-cloudy skies, tolerable temperatures, and falling wind speeds.  I felt confident, given the extraordinarily productive fishing we’ve enjoyed on Belton over the last 3 weeks, and given the still-high water temperatures, that we could catch fish today as long as it was safe to do so.

Clint, who makes his living in the concrete business, met me at the boat ramp right around 6:15a.  I parked on the ramp so the torrents of rain still falling would drain out of the boat as we waited for the storm front to pass.  Clint transferred over to my truck and we got to shoot the breeze a bit before it got light.  I took note that as I was approaching the boat ramp, I saw deer up and feeding, and, right at 7:00am, just as the heaviest of the rain ended and before we launched, a murder of crows flew over the parking lot in search of breakfast.  I always look for such natural “sign” as an indicator of what the fish will or will not do.  I was encouraged as be got on the water, despite the previous several hours of turbulent weather and the now falling air temperatures.

Suffice it to say that the fish were very much still in high gear today.  We put a total of 146 fish in the boat including white bass, hybrid striped bass, and even a few largemouth.  I was very pleasantly surprised to find fish regularly driving bait to the surface and I was also pleasantly surprised to find fish shallower on average than I’ve encountered them over the past 3 weeks.  Of the 146 fish we landed today, none came out of more than 20 feet of water, with many coming from as little as 6-7 feet of water.  Even when the fish “slid” off the shallow structure toward the first breakline, they stayed higher up on the flat versus slipping down to the shoulder of the break.

Where fish were in under 12 feet of water and mostly scattered horizontally, we most effectively fished with Cicada bladebaits fished horizontally.  Where fish were deeper and more heavily congregated, we used slabs fished vertically in a minimum of 15 feet of water.

The final hour on the water, from 11a to noon, was the most productive window of an overall very productive morning.  During this time the wind blew the most consistently and with the greatest velocity that we experienced over the duration of the trip.  During this final 60 minutes, we boated exactly 58 fish and finally just left them biting when we made a 4 hour trip into a 5+ hour trip and I had to head in for a commitment I’d made at church.

As has been the case over this past 3 week’s worth of awesome fishing, large hybrid were in short supply — only 3 keeper were boated today.  However, today’s take of white bass far exceeded the average catch of the past few weeks, with at least half of our white bass being solid keeper-sized fish, with the top two taping in at 14.00″ and 14 3/8″.

One of the reasons Clint booked today after our last outing chasing schooling largemouth on Decker Lake back in the summer was to see how I put sonar to work for me in finding fish, and how I employed the use of slabs and bladebaits.  Clint’s desire is to put these lessons to use on Lake Georgetown near his home.

We really dodged a bullet in that this cold front did not bring in severe cold at a time of year when we are overdue for some frigid weather.  This incredible bite on Belton continues.  There are now but a handful of open dates over the next 3 weeks (the time over which I expect this kind of fast fishing to continue).  Please don’t delay getting a trip on the books if you’ve been thinking about it.  This bite will only degrade as the water temperatures falls with shortening days and more frequent and severe cold fronts.

TALLY = 146 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:05a

End Time:  12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F (falling from 70F at 4:30a, and continue to fall to ~53F by trip’s end)

Water Surface Temp:  68.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: Variable throughout the morning, never exceeding 10mph after storm front’s passage around 6:45am.

Sky Conditions:  Heavy grey cloud cover the entire trip

Other: GT= 80

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1632 threw bladebaits horizontally for shallow whites & hybrids

**Area 1625-1631threw bladebaits horizontally for shallow whites & hybrids while observing moderate sub-surface activity/birds

**Area 1622 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids

**Area 1629 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids

**Area 1630 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids, first tipped off by birds

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

After letting all of my clients know last week about the exceptional fishing taking place on Belton right now, I had a number of folks call me right away to try to strike while the iron is hot.  This afternoon, after all 4 of us set time aside to corporately worship the Lord this morning, I was joined by Marvin Waley, Danny Marriott, and James Roppolo.  These fellows are all friends from the same church in Georgetown, TX.

Good fellowship and good fishing today under grey skies and breezy conditions.  From left: Danny Marriott, James Roppolo, and Marvin Waley.

 

That is a magnum white bass James is holding — right at 14.5 inches and chunky.  Like many other white bass today, it fell for a small slab intended to match the plentiful threadfin shad the white bass are now preying upon as the water temperature cools.

I had the pleasure of fishing with Danny and his elderly parents back in 2009; he works as his church’s facilities manager.  Marvin joined me for the first time today, and is recently retired from the food service industry.  James also came out with me for the first time today, and is the vice-president of a construction company.  Each had an ample supply of entertaining hunting and fishing stories from years gone by.  My favorite:  The one James told of a drunk teal hunter who critiqued James’ unsatisfactory job of filleting a black drum.  When James tactfully offered the knife to the expert carver, said carver promptly inserted said knife into the palm of his own hand.  Witnessing this, the drunk teal hunter’s “friend” called for whiskey.  No one gathered nearby was sure if it was for drinking, for sterilizing the wound, or both!!

Once again, with the great bite that is taking place as the water begins to cool, I was able to put all 3 men on fish from start to finish for 4 solid hours, thus amassing a catch of 162 fish including white bass, hybrid striped bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and crappie.

The majority of our catch came in the first two hours when the fish were more aggressive under more breezy conditions.  During this time we found fish consistently holding on the first breakline out from the bank in 22-26 feet of water.  These fish were heavily schooled along the bottom and in the lower 2 feet of the water column and were prime for catching on slabs fished vertically.  As soon as I saw such fish signatures on sonar I marked them and then used Spot Lock to hold over them.  We made a number of “short hops” in 3 distinct areas doing this manner of fishing.

Around 4pm the nice breeze we’d enjoyed began to taper down, and the fishing tapered down with it.  Around this time we spotted some light bird activity in the vicinity of Area 1627 over a ~20′ flat.  Gulls were in the air and a few cormorants were in the water, but the gulls were not focused on just one patch of water, rather, they were patrolling over ~3-4 acres consistently.  We idled around with sonar, found some fish and fancast with bladebaits and landed some decent white bass, but both the bird and fish activity settled to nil within about 20 minutes, so we moved on.

During the last hour, we fished Area 1625 by Spot Locking in 14 feet of water and fancasting bladebaits up into slightly shallower water.  We found willing white bass in small wolfpacks patrolling this fairly slow-tapering area.  These fish gave their location away as they broke the surface of the now-calm water as they chased shad up to the surface.

By the time dark fell, we’d put a grand total of 162 fish in the boat.  As has been the case all through this excellent bite, ~1 in about 4 fish was a keeper white bass, with slightly shorter whites and small hybrid mixed in.  The fish definitely showed a preference for small silver slabs.

TALLY = 162 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 2:00p

End Time:  6:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Water Surface Temp:  68.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8, tapering to calm by (obscured) sunset

Sky Conditions:  Heavy grey cloud cover the entire trip

Other: GT= 35

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1623 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids

**Area 1620 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids

**Area 1619/1622 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids

**Area 1628 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids

**Area 1624 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids

**Area 1627 low light shallow action on bladebaits under light bird action

**Area 1625 shallow fish revealed by light topwater/bird action

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Tuesday I fished a full day trip with Tom and Trisha Wells of Sun City, TX.  The Wells are members of the Sun City Hunting & Fishing Club and were in attendance when I was invited to speak there both this past spring and in the spring of 2014.  One of the things I highlighted was how commonly overlooked the excellent November fishing is on Belton Lake.  Every year, as the water temperatures fall from the 80’s down to the low 60’s, the white bass and hybrid bite on Belton goes through the roof.  Thankfully, Tom and Trisha listened, and took me up on a day on the water.  They were handsomely rewarded, landing a total of 346 fish between 6:30am and 4:00pm.  And, truth be known, we “left ’em biting”.

Everything was feeding heavily today — big hybrid, small hybrid, big white bass, and small white bass.  The fishing simply doesn’t get any faster than it is on Belton right now!  Tom landed this nice hybrid striper on a bladebait in 14′ of water within an hour of sunrise.

 

Tricia, also using a bladebait in 14′ of water, landed this award-winning white bass just minutes after Tom’s hybrid, shown above, was caught.  This white bass weighed exactly 2.00 pounds and measured 15 3/8″, thus qualifying Trisha for a TPWD “Big Fish Award”, putting her on the path toward Elite Angler status.

Tom and Trisha met and married in college, became a Vietnam-era Air Force family (where Tom learned the trade of a radiologist), and recently retired from private practice in Homer, Alaska, settling in Sun City, TX, near grandkids (and kids) living in Buda, TX.  They love the Lord, their family, … and fishing!!  They even run their own 22′ center console, primarily on Lake Georgetown.

There is no other way to put it … we had a once-in-a-lifetime kind of day on the water, amassing the second greatest daily catch I’ve ever put a guided party onto.

The day actually got off to a bit of a slower start as near-calm winds and a bright sun right at sunrise put the fish in a bit of a funk.  But, the south wind soon kicked in, and we relocated to be in a segment of lake where the water was being moved by that wind, and the fish responded well.  The fish then cranked it up about 10 notches when grey cloud cover accompanied that southerly wind, and it was “Katy bar the door” from that point on.

We caught fish on Cicada blade baits, 3/8 oz. slabs, and Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs for 6 hours straight in the morning, right up until 12:30p when the bite softened just a bit.  We came off the water, had a great lunch served up by Sol de Jalisco on FM2271 near Temple Lake Park, and then headed right back out and fished another 2.5 hours until 4pm, when Tom had to pull the rod from Trisha’s hand and head their Ford F-250 back south to Georgetown.

The approach was very similar at each area where we found fish on sonar.  As I approached a likely area at idle speed, I’d see a bottom-oriented school of fish, then we’d all work together to stop the boat on a dime and very quickly get baits in the water before we passed away from the school, or they continued swimming on, or both.  The critical thing was to hook a single fish and get it struggling on the line, thus captivating the attention of the remainder of the school, getting that school to stay put right under the boat.  Once that was accomplished, we “Spot Locked” on the fish and would catch fish after fish from that school.

Although there were ebbs and flows in the action, the action never stopped once it got started today, and the fish were still biting as we concluded our efforts at 4p!!

If you have any vacation time left this year, or are retired and are just sitting around the house, NOW IS THE TIME!   I don’t know how else to say this.  This isn’t wishful thinking or marketing hype, this is accurate, just-off-the-water reporting from the last 3 trips which saw 267 fish, 143 fish, and now 346 fish come over the gunwales.

Belton fishing is truly white hot right now, and, barring flooding or an extended, severe cold snap, looks like it will be this way for at least 2-3 weeks to come.

TALLY = 346 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30am

End Time:  4:00pm (with off-the-water lunch at mid-trip)

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp:  69F

Wind Speed & Direction: S9-12

Sky Conditions:  Light grey cloud cover moved in around 8:30am and stuck the remainder of the day.

Other: GT= 40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

AM

**Area 1621 low light shallow action on bladebaits

**Area 1625 shallow fish revealed by light topwater/bird action – fish here much larger than average

**Area 1620/1622/1626  slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids; moved in short hops to keep up with packs of fish unwilling to move horizontally

PM

**Area 1623 slabbed/smoked/tandem rigged for whites/hybrids

**Area 1624 slabbed/smoked/tandem rigged for whites/hybrids

**Area 618  slabbed/smoked/tandem rigged for whites/hybrids

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Monday morning I fished with returning client Bob Schwartz and his son, Will, who traveled in the night before from his home in Austin so we could begin our trip right at first light around 6:30am.  Bob, a regular customer at Rick Smith’s Marine Outlet in Temple, was referred to me by Rick, which I greatly appreciate.

White bass and short hybrid striped bass fell for slabs fished vertically this morning in 22-27 feet of water.  The fishing is as fast as it gets all year right now!

 

Although not making up a great percentage of the catch, keeper hybrid of 18″ or longer came along as icing on the cake this morning.  They were mixed right in with the rest of white bass and shorter hybrids we boated on slabs.

I had an opportunity to guide Bob on a trip this past summer when topwater action and downrigging was going strong, and then spent a few more hours on the water with him more recently helping him get his Lowrance sonar unit adjusted for fishing.  Bob operates his own very unique boat out of the marina in Morgan’s Point — a narrow, deeply V’ed panga which he shipped to the U.S. from Sri Lanka.  If you’ve ever watched footage of the Somali pirates doing their thing on Africa’s east coast, you’ll understand the style of boat Bob runs.

After a successful trip back in the summer, Bob and I agreed to put another trip on the books here in November when I felt confident that the traditionally excellent autumn fishing would be underway, thus giving Bob exposure to additional techniques.

We had grey skies and manageable winds from other than the north, so, conditions were favorable.

Long story short, we caught fish consistently from start to finish over a span of 4.75 hours, with the fish only letting up as the morning feed tapered to a close just after 11am.

There was a brief shallow feed from first light until the (obscured) sun rose over the horizon, then the fish shifted deeper, and the deeper bite turned on and stayed on.

The approach was the same in all areas we fished.  The edges of deep flats seemed to hold fish best.  When we found fish, we’d do all we could to immediately get a slab down in their presence (even while the boat was still moving!) to quickly hook the first fish from the school seen on sonar.  Once that fish was hooked, the rest of the school would really turn on and stay turned on as long as we kept pulling fish out of that school.  This was a situation where you didn’t want to pause to snack, pee, take pictures, etc. because as soon as you let up, the fish would relax, settle back to bottom, and drift off.

We caught a mix of white bass of all sizes, from as short as 7″, up to over 13″, with 1 in every 4 to 5 fish being a “legal” 10+ inch fish.  We also caught a lot of hybrid, although only 3 exceeded the “legal” minimum of 18″.

Every November the catch rate soars like this until multiple, severe cold fronts drive the water temperatures down into the 50’s thus causing the fishing to moderate thereafter.

Given that we have 69-70F water now and no severe cold fronts in the forecast, I anticipate we’ll see this excellent fishing window last beyond Thanksgiving.

If you are “thinking about it”, stop thinking and give me a call so we can strike while the iron is hot!!

TALLY = 143 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30am

End Time:  11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Water Surface Temp:  70F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE7-8

Sky Conditions:  Light grey cloud cover for the majority of the trip.

Other: GT= 90

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1621 low light shallow action on bladebaits

**Area 618 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids; moved in short hops to keep up with packs of fish unwilling to move horizontally

**Area 1620/1622 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids; moved in short hops to keep up with packs of fish unwilling to move horizontally

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This morning I conducted the single most productive trip of the 2015 season, guiding Barrett and Dave Covington of Belton, TX, to catch and release exactly 267 fish today.

 

Larger hybrid striped bass made up a low percentage of today’s catch of 267 fish, but were a welcome addition when they cooperated.

 

 

 

White bass made up the majority of our catch this morning, with roughly 1 in every 5 or 6 going the size of these fish Barrett and Dave Covington are displaying — right around 12.00 to 12.75 inches.

First, I’ve got to say I appreciate the input of two fishing buddies out on Belton, Rodney and James, who kept me updated on the water quality situation following this weekend’s second dousing of 6+ inches of rain, and who gave me favorable just-off-the-water reports yesterday.

Barrett and Dave are the sons of former Belton mayor Jim Covington and his wife, Terri.  They presented Barrett with a fishing gift certificate this past Christmas and so today was the day to cash it in.  Being a good brother, he invited Dave along, with both taking a day off from the family real estate business.

The two are personable fellows who enjoyed keeping the sibling rivalry stirred up really good.  There were suspicions aboard that Barrett intentionally informed me the night before our trip that Dave required his spinning reel handles on the right hand side when he actually needed them on the left, all so as to slow Dave down in order for Barrett to get an early lead in the fish count standings.  That is still under investigation.

Once the fish started biting, they just didn’t stop for a solid 4+ hours today.  We found fish in 3 distinct locations this morning, each deeper than the next, with our first batch of fish showing up under light surface action in 22-24 feet, the second concentration of fish showing up in 26-28 feet of water, and the final concentration of fish showing up in 30-33 feet of water.

The Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 in holographic/black back did the trick for the lion’s share of the catching today.  I did experiment with the white 3/4 oz. version, but the smaller 3/8 oz. silver definitely outperformed it.

We had only 4 of all of these fish regurgitate their meals today in the boat, and this revealed swallowed shad of various sizes.  The size of the fish we caught varied, too, with about 1 in every 5 or 6 white bass going over the legal limit of 10″ (and typically right at 12.75″, the size of that 3-year-old year class of fish).  We only caught two decent hybrid in the mix all morning.

My detailed records from the past 23 years of fishing on Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow reveal that November and March are the two most productive months in terms of fish caught per trip.  Typically the 6 week span from the last week of March to the the first week of May is the most productive time for quality fish with lots of  large hybrid taking chunky, live shad during that time.

If you’ve been waiting for comfortable weather, excellent fishing, and an end to our drought conditions, now is the time to call and book a trip.  This is fast, simple, productive fishing, and it can end by the end of November, or extend into mid-December, depending on the frequency and severity of incoming cold fronts.

Phone lines are open and operators are standing by!!!!

TALLY = 267 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30am

End Time:  11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp:  72F

Wind Speed & Direction: S7-9

Sky Conditions:  Thin fog for a majority of the trip

Other: GT= 50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1618 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids after being tipped off by light pre-dawn surface action.

**Area 618 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids

**Area 1619 short-hopped 3-4 locations here to keep up with minimally interested fish as bite wound down

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This afternoon’s SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip exemplifies what SKIFF is all about, and it is what motivates me to work with others to perpetuate this program.  Please read on.

 

Carrolyn Lascano gave our local population of white bass and hybrid stripers a “reel” workout tonight!

 

Danny “Bubby” Lascano mixed in a little fishing with his shoreline saunter with Mrs. Rebecca, supplemented with plenty of snacks along the way.

Mrs. Kacie Lascano is the wife of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Danny Lascano.  Danny is  currently deployed and is working alongside the U.S. Air Force in the United Arab Emirates .  Kacie, therefore, has a Herculean task before her.  While her husband is away, she will single-handedly served as the parent, caretaker, guardian, and teacher for her two small children.  True, many military moms do this well.  However, Kacie’s situation is made infinitely more challenging by the fact that her youngest child, 5-year-old Danny (nicknamed “Bubby”), is profoundly autistic.

I am obviously not a physician, but, from just 4 hours on the water yesterday, I could see an unusually bright boy whose body won’t quite cooperate with all his mind is rapidly processing.  I also saw the resulting frustration in Bubby at that lack of synchronization.  One of the most startling results of all of this is Bubby’s lack of fear to the point where his sense of self-preservation is diminished.  Things like jumping into water of unknown depth or latching onto something sharp or pointy are just not things Bubby would balk at.  So, Kacie must be truly on-guard 100% of Bubby’s waking hours.  This is a tremendously tough, energy-intensive, and tiring job.  Bubby has come a long way with the help of his parents, teachers, therapists, and his big sister, Carrolyn (age 6), but there is still a long way to go.

So today, my wife, Rebecca, and I sought to provide Kacie with 4 hours of down time by way of treating Bubby and Carrolyn to a fishing trip on Belton Lake.  Kacie’s plan was to have dinner with a girlfriend of hers before that friend moves with the military away from Fort Hood.  To accommodate this, Rebecca picked the kids up just outside the gates of Ft. Hood and dropped them back off after the trip to give Kacie as much time as we could and still work within the kids’ school and bedtime schedules.

Normally, I conduct these trips solo, but with hooks, and water, and a prop turning 6,000 rpm, I enlisted my wife’s aid this evening, and I’m glad I did.  While Carrolyn stayed engaged in the fishing the entire time, Bubby got restless after our 4th bluegill came over the gunwale, and we had to invent some alternative options.  We decided that I would continue fishing on the boat with Carrolyn while Rebecca took to the land with Bubby.

We left the protected cove we were in (which gave up a total of 8 sunfish and 1 largemouth bass), and headed to an area with flatter topography for Rebecca and Bubby to walk on.  The beaching operations went smoothly, and Bubby was immediately taken with throwing rocks (lots of rocks!!!) into the water.  Rebecca and I agreed to stay in sight of one another and in cell phone contact.

I have no doubt that the Lord transplanted just enough fish to the area all of this happened to take place in to give Carrolyn a wonderful time right up until dark.  No sooner did we drop Rebecca and Bubby off than the sonar lit up with fish where I did not really expect to find them.  We used downriggers at first and caught both white bass and hybrid striped bass on 3-armed umbrella rigs with Carrolyn doing all the button-pushing on the keypad of the Digi-Trolls to raise and lower the downrigger balls to keep our baits near the fish.  Eventually, more fish began to crowd into this area as the sun was about to set, and we simply set the i-Pilot on Spot Lock and sat over a boat-sized area and “wore ’em out” with slabs fished vertically.

We wound up catching 36 white bass and hybrids in all in this area, with our final few fish giving their positions away during a light topwater feed right before dark.  Back on shore, Bubby and Rebecca found lots of treasures, covered lots of ground, ate lots of snacks, but were ready to rejoin us when Carrolyn and I returned to shore to pick them back up.

When we got back to the launch site, we quickly transitioned from the boat to my wife’s car, got the kids car-seated, booster-seated, buckled up, and headed back to town while I stayed behind to do all the post-trip chores of draining and cleaning the boat up, re-organizing tackle, etc.

Thanks to the efforts of Dave Hill and Manuel Pena of the Austin Fly FIshers and their work with Cabela’s, as we said farewell to the kids, we were able to give each a tackle box with some basic tackle inside — a mermaid box for Carrolyn and a Spiderman box for Bubby.

Kacie’s plans for dinner with her friend went just right, and, by around 8pm she and the kids headed back through the gates of Fort Hood to prepare for bed and the last school day of the week.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service, thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals, organizations, and companies from all over the U.S. All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date. SKIFF is open to children in elementary and middle school, as well as youth in high school.

 

TALLY = 44 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp: 76F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8-10

Sky Conditions: Fair skies with 20% cloud cover.

Note: Lake rose sharply due to heavy rains on 24 Oct., but is now being drawn down.  Elevation fell 0.69 feet today.  Elevation now stands at 597.30 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1200 panfish

**Area 1617 low light bite on smoked slabs

**Area 040 and to the shoreline – post sunset light topwater action

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Sunday evening I welcomed aboard Rachel and Aaron Cherry of Nolanville, TX.

After several days of high pressure and winds from the N and E, the winds turned more southerly and the fish responded in a big way.  My two novice anglers boated 111 fish in their 4 hour evening trip including white bass, hybrid striped bass, drum, blue catfish, and largemouth bass.

Rachel and Aaron’s faces may be familiar to you, as I took both kids out separately earlier this week (Aaron on Tuesday and Rachel on Thursday).  Because she homeschools, mom thought giving the kids a bit of a break from one another might be a good idea.  However, they both came back from their trips so enthusiastic and wanting to go again, that Mrs. Cherry called me on Saturday to arrange another trip for the two kids together on Sunday.  Rachel’s trip fell under the Ft. Hood SKIES program, and Aaron’s trip fell under the SKIFF program banner.  I smiled realizing that fish weren’t the only ones who got “hooked” on the kids’ trips last week.

After days of winds from the north and east, and some pretty tough morning trips wherein the fish just stayed kind of sluggish, this afternoon’s wind shift to the south was quite welcome.  We got on the water and essentially drove right to the fish.  They were right where I’d anticipated they would be given the direction of the wind.  White bass and hybrid stripers often orient on underwater features, and, specifically on the side of those features being most impacted by wind-driven waves.  This afternoon was no exception.

In our first hour on the water the kids boated exactly 64 fish — catching more than a fish per minute, literally.  These fish were tightly bunched together on the bottom and responded well to slabs fished vertically.

This bite slowed a bit from 5:00p to 6:00, and then bounced back from 6:00p to 6:30p when we found some cooperative schools of suspended fish at the second location we searched.  Suspended fish call for downrigging, and the 3-armed umbrella rigs we used to present small baits which imitated the shad these fish were feeding on did the trick. We added 14 more fish to our tally via the downriggers.

By 6:30, we were within a half-hour of sunset, so I moved us a third and final time to position ourselves where I felt our best shot at a shallow, low-light bite would come.  As we idled in, I saw a lot of fish and bait, with most all of the action on or near bottom with a few “early bloomers” already beginning to move upwards in the water column for the last feed of the day.  We once again hovered and used slabs fished vertically to capitalize on what we’d discovered, then “mopped up” with the downriggers once the sun set and the fish began to wind down.  The kids added another 33 fish to the count as these fish also fed very aggressively.

Rachel and Aaron teamed up to boat a grand total of 111 fish of five different species this evening.  For the second evening in a row (and under excellent conditions tonight with a moon just past waxing past new) no topwater action occurred as the sun set.  I suspect this year’s topwater bite is over for keeps.

TALLY = 111 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 84F

Water Surface Temp: 78F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE10-12

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies with very dry conditions

Note: Lake has dropped 0.05 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 592.68 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1615 aggressive smoking

**Area 1610-1616 downrigging

**Area 1019 aggressive smoking pre-sunset

**Area 823 downrigging for last-light fish post-sunset

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Saturday morning I welcomed aboard Mohamed and Ethan Barry, accompanied by their mom, Ty.  This trip was booked through the Fort Hood SKIES program.

Mohamed Barry landed the largest fish of our trip, this plump 13″ white bass that fell for a Pet Spoon up shallow before the sun got up high in the sky.

Our first fish of the trip was landed by Ethan Barry, just prior to sunrise.

The very first thing that struck me as Ty and her kids made their way down from the parking lot to the floating courtesy dock where my boat was tied up, was how extremely skittish Ty was about the water.  She had a white-knuckled death-grip on the handrail of the ramp going from the shore to the floating dock, and was very, very nervous about just standing on the slightly moving dock itself.  Making the transition from the dock into my boat took all the courage she could muster, and, once she got in the boat, she sat on the floor as she felt more secure there than being up higher on the seats intended for passengers.  Slowly, she got more confident and moved up into a seat, but never to the point of being wild about the whole idea.  This lack of ease with the water and the fact that the boys had some lawn maintenance chores to tend to, led Ty to request that we only fish for 2 hours instead of the normally scheduled 4 hours.

So now the pressure was on.  I had to get some fish in the boat in just half the time I normally have to accomplish that task.

The boys were a bit cautious about the water, too, but that faded quickly once we got down to the business of fishing.  We began this morning right where I left off last night, up shallow in 15-20 feet of water, looking for white bass and hybrid striped bass there in pursuit of shad.  Despite the nearly dead calm conditions, and the very cool overnight temperatures, there were indeed some fish up shallow, and we managed to bag 5 white bass before the sun climbed up high enough to kill that shallow water bite.  Both boys landed the first fish of their lives right there and then.

Little Ethan’s excited laughter over being connected to a live fish on the end of his line was infectious.  He kind of laughed, and kind of giggled, but it was a nervous kind of thing as it was all so new to him.  When that fish, a 9.25″ white bass, came over the gunwale, he screamed excitedly and got me laughing so hard it made me realize how much I take for granted doing this for a living, and how used to it I’ve become.

Well, after that low-light shallow bite ended, and with about an hour to go, we headed up shallow and focused on panfish for the remainder of our time.  When beginners come out with me that do not have regular access to a boat, I always try to incorporate some panfishing in if the conditions allow, as it is a tactic that can be used from the shoreline with success.

The boys landed 14 bluegill sunfish and a small largemouth bass using slipfloats and live bait.  By 9:00am Ty’s “water-meter” had timed out and she was ready to return to terra firma .  We took some photos of their catch and headed back across the now-glassy surface to the boat ramp to send them all packing back to Killeen.

In their short trip the boys still managed to catch 20 fish and they had a blast doing it.
SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

TALLY = 20 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 9:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 78F

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE2-3

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies with very dry conditions

Note: Lake has dropped 0.05 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 592.68 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1069-302 downrigging

**Area 1200 panfishing

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com