2016 Fishing Reports | Fishing Report

22nd Annual Buchholz Fishing Reunion — 154 Fish, Belton

April 10th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This morning, Saturday, 9 April, I fished with Mr. Don Buchholz, his son John Buchholz, and John’s friend Greg Horton. These men have met together every year at this time of year for 22 consecutive years for a fishing weekend and homecoming to Killeen, TX, where Don now resides.

While jigging for white bass and hybrid stripers in 26 feet of water using white slabs, this 10.25 pound flathead (a.k.a yellow) catfish mistook a slab for a shad and wound up in Greg Horton’s hands for this photo.

From left: Greg Horton, Don Buchholz, and John Buchholz on their 22nd consecutive annual fishing excursion. Missing this year was Gary Cheer, a friend from the UK, who succumbed to illness and couldn’t make the flight to the US.

We met at 7:15a and I explained the various options available to us which included fishing for high numbers of smaller fish with artificial lures, and/or fishing for better quality fish, but fewer of them, using live shad as bait.

There was no doubt about it, my trio was clearly interested in more action for more fish, regardless of size. So, with that in mind, we sought out bird action in shallow water which pointed the way to post-spawn white bass aggressively feeding on threadfin shad.

While waiting for it to get light enough for the birds to begin working, we slabbed off of a main lake point, picking up 22 fish right off the bat using an “easing” tactic with slabs. Although the skies were completely obscured with gray clouds and a very light rain was falling, the birds began to work around 7:45a, thus pointing the way to very active, very catchable white bass. We maneuvered into the midst of the birds in 12 to 15 feet of water, and began the fan casting blade baits and slabs using a lift-drop method and scored continuously through around 9:15 AM when the winds went slack, and the fishing eased back several notches.

At this time, I moved to the edge of the flat we’d been fishing over top of, and fished the breakline in about 22 feet of water, allowing us to continue using the easing tactic, and allowing us to score another 30 fish in no time at all, including a 10.25 pound yellow catfish.

Right about this time, as the fish were beginning to slack off, I got a call from a fellow guide who had found a nice bunch of keepers sized hybrid in deep water, using live shad. He invited me over, since his clients were keeping their limits of fish and their trip was about to conclude.

We Spot Locked with my Minn Kota right on top of the spot he had been fishing, and were also treated to his left over shad since he was headed on an anniversary vacation trip to the Texas coast, and wouldn’t be needing those baits this week.

This lead was a solid one, and allowed for everyone to catch a couple of keeper hybrid before the bite died, my trio got antsy for action, and we moved on to continue vertical jigging for more, but smaller, fish.

By 11:20a the morning bite had run its course, and with a storm cell sitting over Copperas Cove headed our way, we decided to call it a good day right at the four hour mark with 154 fish boated for our efforts, including three large mouth bass, three freshwater drum, one 10.25 pound flathead catfish, and a mixed bag of short and keeper white bass, and short and keeper hybrid striped bass.

TALLY = 154 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: Winds were ESE, but velocity varied greatly and frequently from near-calm to 13+

Sky Conditions: 100% grey skies the entire trip.

Water Level: 594.82 and falling with 594.0 being full pool. Water being released at 765 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.07 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 25

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1728 — mid-depth vertical jigging for 22 fish

**Area 1734 casting horizontally with slabs and blades for shallow whites under laughing gulls

**Area 1732 vertical jigging with slabs on the breadline

**Area 1288 keeper hybrid on live shad

**Area 1079/1023 deep vertical jigging with slabs
Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Eastside Baptist Men Go Fishing — 122 Fish, Belton, 08 April

April 9th, 2016April 9th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This morning, April 8, I fished with Gary Moore, Kirk Bateman, and Israel Lozada . All three men serve on the deacon body of their church, Eastside Baptist Church, in Copperas Cove, TX. Gary and Kirk have fished with me previously, and Israel has been experimenting with bank fishing at Belton and Stillhouse recently.

From left: Kirk Bateman, Gary Moore, and Israel Lozada — all deacons at Eastside Baptist Church in Copperas Cove, TX.

The morning got off to a bit of a slow start, thanks to bright sun and calm winds. We were able to put some short hybrid and white bass in the boat using live shad while sitting off of a point in about 32 feet of water after seeing these fish congregated on sonar. As that bite was just about winding down, I spotted some very widespread bird activity. About 30 laughing gulls were working over an area about 8 acres in size, and sonar revealed that wolf packs of white bass were patrolling actively throughout this area and feeding on shad.

I suggested that while the winds were fairly calm we take what we could get and fish with slabs for the white bass until wind developed thus upping our chances of getting into larger hybrid stripers using live bait. Eventually, an easterly wind developed at about 12 mph.

We left the white bass action with fish still biting and headed to deeper, open water to search with sonar for hybrid striper. I searched four areas. The first area held nothing, the second area gave up a nice mix of short and keeper white bass, and short and keeper hybrid stripers. When that area died down, we moved up into a deep cove, and found abundant, but small white bass and hybrid striper.

We left that area behind after putting about 15 fish in the boat, and moved on to what would be our last area to fish, and the one that gave up the best proportion of keeper hybrid of all the spots we fished. This area sat on a breakline in 34 feet of water. The fish were so active and aggressive that they actually came up off the bottom while responding to the boat noise we made while positioning over top of them, and our baits immediately got hit as we set them first at 29 feet, and then up a bit higher at 26 feet once the frenzy really got underway. We wound up with exactly 22 fish here, seven of which were keeper hybrid stripers.Gary, who coordinated the trip, was the one who made the call when I gave my anglers the choice of sticking with a sure bet of small fish at our second to last area, or rolling the dice and leaving those fish behind and looking for larger hybrid striper. The rule of thumb is not to leave fish to find fish, but since these fellows were willing to trade quantity for quality, I was very willing to accommodate. We wrapped up our day with 122 fish consisting entirely of white bass and hybrid striper, with a single freshwater drum thrown in for good measure.

TALLY = 122 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp: 65.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light SSE breeze at under 3mph, ramping up to E12 by 9am

Sky Conditions: 20% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: 594.87 and falling with 594.0 being full pool. Water being released at 766 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.06feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= P

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1728 white bass and short hybrid on bait at sunrise

**Area vic 1732, 1733, and 752-738 white bass on slabs under feeding laughing gulls

**Area 346 – keeper hybrid, short hybrid, whites of all sizes on bait

**Area 1079 – lots of small fish

**Area 953 – most productive area for keeper hybrid on shad

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website:www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail:Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Mitchell Party Boats 59 – Belton Lake, 05 April

April 6th, 2016April 6th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This Tuesday morning, April 5th, I fished with father and son team Jim and Marcus Mitchell. Marcus lives in Cedar Park, TX, northwest of Austin, and his parents are down from Ohio, near Lake Erie, for a visit while their grandkids are on spring break from their homeschooling regimen.

Marcus Mitchell made a well-placed cast into a wolfpack of hybrid pushing shad onto the bank and came up with this nice Belton Lake hybrid striped bass.

Jim Mitchell came up with a whiskered surprise after boating several hybrid stripers on live shad while feeding in the same area.

As I was driving to the ramp on Belton where I’d agreed to meet the Mitchell’s a call came in from Bill Pasko, a very good local angler and all-around nice guy, letting me know he’d found some shad spawning up shallow. I met up with Bill minutes later and topped off my bait tanks and anticipated a great day on the water.Hybrid stipers, our quarry this day, just seem to bite better on days that the shad spawn during this peak season between the end of March and the third week of May.

Jim and Marcus showed up on time so we were on the water hunting fish before the sun’s direct rays struck the water. As we motored along out in open water, I kept my eyes on the shoreline in hopes of spotting gamefish crashing bait along the shore. Sure enough, along a 200 yard rocky stretch of shore, we found several wolf packs of hybrid stripers driving shad right up onto the bank. This behavior would be short-lived, but we had a number of hookups and 2 keeper hybrid brought into the boat before it all ended, and we’d only pulled away from the dock 11 minutes earlier!

As the morning unfolded, it would turn out to be a fairly bright day with low wind speeds, which never helps the fishing. We spent about 90 minutes fishing in ~34 feet of water after being drawn there by about a dozen gulls feeding on shad driven to the surface by hungry fish below. We landed the majority of our legal hybrid at this one area using live shad on downlines.

When that bite died, we faced the brightest and most calm conditions of the entire morning. For variety’s sake, I suggested we “go deep” and look for fish willing to respond to a vertical jigging approach. It is a truism for white bass and hybrid striper that the deeper the water, the larger and more tightly congregated the schools of fish tend to be. I’ve seen this on all of the lakes I’ve fished for these species, and in all seasons and water conditions.

Sure enough, as we headed out to 38-43′ of water the sonar began to confirm the presence of lots of bottom-hugging fish. It was clear these were smaller fish, but, at least this would provide some action until the wind began pushing the water.

We spent about 45 minutes jigging, making 4 short stops in deep water, and finding the same results at each — the fish would fire up at the initial appearance of our slabs near the bottom allowing each of us to hook up 2, 3, or 4 times, then the fish would cool off, settle back to bottom, and become much more difficult to tempt.

Finally, around 10am, the wind began to blow S10-12. We resumed our search for hybrid striper. We found the classic, thick yellow and red sonar arches suspended about 4-6 feet off bottom, and in good numbers at one location, got baits down, put 3 short hybrid in the boat, and then, just as they had done on the slab bite, the fish turned off. Even the use of chum wouldn’t get them turned on again.

From here it was a downhill slide with steadily decreasing evidence of active fish on sonar and steadily decreasing activity on the bait rods. By 11:45 we agreed the bite was over and we called it a good morning with 59 fish boated.

I now have the following 5 mornings left during this peak hybrid season:

28 April AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

03 May AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

06 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

12 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

13 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: S6 at trip’s start, then going slack, then increasing to S10 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Fair, cloudless skies.

Water Level: 594.85 and rising with 594.0 being full pool. Water being released at 252 cubic feet per second. Lake rose 0.03 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1731 solid hybrid bite on shad initially beginning under birds
**Area 1728 brief bite by mainly white bass on slabs
**Area 953/1544 brief bite by mainly white bass on slabs
**Area 1487/953 brief bite by mainly white bass on slabs
**Area 1390/787 brief bite by mainly white bass on slabs
**Area 346 brief bite by mainly short hybrid striped bass on bait

TALLY = 59 FISH, all caught and released

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Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Fred & Bill Mix It Up with Belton Hybrid — 115 Fish

April 5th, 2016April 5th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished with brothers-in-law Fred Reitman, of Houston, and Bill Harris, of Temple, TX. We were targeting hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake.

Fred Reitman lips the largest hybrid striper to come aboard thus far in the 2016 season, a 22.5 inch, 5.25 pounder taken on shad.

Fred’s brother-in-law, Bill Harris, also caught his fair share of hybrid and excelled on the vertical jigging.

We got going right at sunrise (around 7:30 AM), and immediately spotted about 15 gulls actively working over fish. We found a heavily congregated mix of white bass and hybrid striper in about 34 feet of water.

As I encountered this past Saturday, there were so many smaller fish mixed in, using live bait proved to be a fruitless situation, as the smaller fish would attack and kill the bait without getting hooked. So, as long as I saw these fish on sonar, we stuck with using slabs and did very well using an “easing” tactic. After this first bit of action, I moved to one of our more successful locations from Saturday’s trip and ran sonar over it. We found abundant, aggressively feeding fish, that no birds had yet taken notice of.

The situation here was pretty much the same – a lot of smaller fish only too willing to tear up a perfectly good shad. So, we stuck with the slabs and landed a nice blend of short and keeper white bass, and short and keeper hybrid. After this location continued to give up mostly small fish for over an hour and 15 minutes, I suggested we move in hopes we could encounter some larger fish.

This turned out to be a good gamble, as we found a nice concentration of 18 to 22.5 inch hybrid stripers holding on a breakline. We put six keepers in the boat right off the bat, and then here came a bunch of small fish attracted by the commotion we created in landing these larger fish. As before, we simply converted over to slabs and kept right on catching a blend of short whites, keeper whites, short hybrid, and keeper hybrid.

Right at 11:20, the fish just seemed to give up. The sonar screen went blank and what had been a very steady and productive bite on the slab ceased.

Fred and Bill finished up their morning with exactly 115 fish boated. Fred caught the largest hybrid I’ve had come aboard yet this calendar year – – a 5.25 pound, 22.5 inch hybrid. This was a very healthy, thick fish, traditionally atypical for Belton. It is quite clear that last year’s flooding and the excellent shad spawn that resulted from it has allowed these fish to put on weight over the cool months.

I now have only the following 6 mornings left during this peak hybrid season:

07 April AM (7:45a – 11:45a)

28 April AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

03 May AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

06 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

12 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

13 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

TALLY = 115 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 65.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: S6 at trip’s start, increasing to S10 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Fair, cloudless skies.

Water Level: 622.86 and falling with 622.0 being full pool. Water being released at 1131 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.0190 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 40

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1720 strong slab bite

**Area 805 strong slab bite

**Area 1720 strong slab bite (on return visit after first bite here died)

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

From Tears to Cheers — 88 Fish, Ft. Hood SKIES “Fishing 101” Trip

April 4th, 2016April 4th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

After a cold morning chasing hybrid over on Belton, this Saturday afternoon was spent in pursuit of white bass over on Stillhouse with Mr. Ryan Brandenburg and his almost-7-year-old son, Aaden.

Aaden and his dad, Ryan, both celebrated their April birthdays on the lake today catching white bass.

Ryan Brandenburg is a U.S. Army infantryman and a Chicago-area native — and not a bad fisherman, either!

Ryan’s wife, Clare, booked this trip for “the boys” through the Fort Hood SKIES Unlimited program.

As I welcomed Ryan and Aaden onto the boat and got right down to business with a safety briefing, followed by instruction on vertical jigging, I looked over to my right where Aaden was and found him nearly in tears. All of this was so new to him, that he was a bit overwhelmed and just needed some reassurance that things would be okay.

So, Ryan and I did our best to give Aaden peace of mind each step along the way, from pushing off from the dock, to throttling up, to slowing down, to positioning over the first batch of fish we found, and so on.

Fortunately, of the first two areas I searched with sonar, the second was loaded down with hungry white bass, so, Ryan and I were into fish in no time, which allowed Aaden, who was seated well away from the gunwale and not fishing at this point, to see that catching fish was enjoyable. He perked up a bit when I showed him the features of a couple of our caught fish close-up.

Next, when I hooked another white bass, I offered to let Aaden reel it in. He did so, and, for the first time since stepping on the boat, he cracked a smile. Things rapidly improved from that point to where he was fishing independently and doing very well.

All of the fish we caught this evening came on slabs from out of 32-37 feet of water. We experienced solid fishing from 4:15 to 6:00p, a lull from 6:00 to 7:00p, then a resurgence of activity as the light began to fail from 7:00p to 7:45p.

As we turned the key to crank up and head to the dock, my father-and-son team had put together a catch of 88 fish consisting of 87 white bass and 1 short largemouth. Most of the fish were in the 2-year class, and right at 12.25 inches with good body condition.

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 = 88 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Water Surface Temp: 65.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW9-11 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Fair, cloudless skies.

Water Level: 622.86 and falling with 622.0 being full pool. Water being released at 1131 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.0190 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1720 strong slab bite

**Area 805 strong slab bite

**Area 1720 strong slab bite (on return visit after first bite here died)

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

25% of the Disciples Ready for Duty — 133 Fish, Belton

April 3rd, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

On Saturday morning, April 2nd, I met up with a 3-man party for a morning chasing hybrid stripers on Belton Lake. Joining me were Matthew Grout, Peter Shimeall, and James Choi.

Matthew, James and Peter used neither nets, nor the other side of the boat, to bag their catch of 133 fish this chilly April morning.

Peter and Matt are brothers-in-law (Matt married Peter’s sister). Back in September of 2015, Peter’s mom got a fishing gift certificate for Matt. Matt invited Peter and James, a fellow lieutenant from his military unit, along for the excursion.

It was nippy this morning after a wet cold front passed on Friday. The 43F north winds killed any chance of shad spawning this morning, so, it was fortunate that I’d planned ahead and collected enough bait while the getting was good last Thursday (then meticulously baby-sat them!).

The bite started slowly, and gulls rafted out in open water (not flying nor feeding) further verified that not much was going on beneath the water’s surface.

We used a combination of live bait and slabs at our first stop to take white bass and short hybrid with a blue cat or two thrown in for good measure. Seeing that most all of the fish were smallish, we moved on after about 30 minutes

We searched 2 mores areas with sonar without seeing much, then hit a third area off the tip of a deep point, found ample fish and bait, and got a few average white bass and a few short hybrid, but the results were a bit disappointing considering all we saw on the sonar before Spot-Locking on it with the #Ulterra.

It was about this time that I saw what looked the makings of some gulls looking tentative about feeding over fish. What started as 8-9 birds, quickly turned into about 40 (ring bills and laughing gulls) and within 6-7 minutes we found ourselves in the midst of a full-blown feed.

Over the next 2 full hours (~9:30 to 11:30) we consistently boated short and legal white bass, short and legal hybrid stripers, drum, and blue cats. The fishing was so fast and furious that it just did not make sense to use the live bait I’d come prepared with. In the time it took to bait up, let the shad slowly sink, set the bait clicker, put the rod in the rod holder, and observe for a bite, we could have caught and released two fish and had a slab halfway to bottom for a third. I also find when fish are really frenzied, and white bass or short hybrid are in the mix, I get a lot of shad killed without a hookup resulting. So, we stuck with a more efficient approach.

And so it went, right up until about 11:30a when the bite died. Over the course of the morning the fellows wound up putting 133 fish in the boat.

Since I’ve only fished two trips on Belton now during this season that traditionally involves the threadfin shad spawn, it is too early to tell if this is a trend, but, most all of the legal hybrid I’ve landed thus far have been just right at the 18.00 to 18.75″ mark, with only one fish out of the 192 boated thus far going over 22.00″. Time will tell.

There are now only 7 half-day trips remaining during this peak bite (now until mid-May). Please give me a call if you are interested; these catch-and-release trips run $305 for up to 3 anglers…

Thursday, 07 April AM (7:45a – 11:45a)

Thursday, 28 April AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

Friday, 29 April AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

Tuesday, 03 May AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

Friday, 06 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

Thursday, 12 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

Friday, 13 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

TALLY = 133 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Water Surface Temp: 65.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW11-13 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Blue bird skies.

Water Level: 594.21 and neither rising or falling with 594.0 being full pool. Water being released at 1026 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.00 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 903 smallish fish early

**Area vic 1728 aggressive bite under birds

**Area vic 1012 aggressive bite under birds

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

It’s Hybrid Time! — 59 Fish, Belton, 31 March

April 1st, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Thursday morning, March 31st, I fished with George Preston and his son-in-law, Jason Garcia, both from California, near San Diego. George’s daughter and his other son-in-law had their first child this week, and so George and Jason came to town for a visit to celebrate the event.

This morning’s trip offered up both quality and quantity hybrid fishing for Jason Garcia (shown) and his father-in-law, George Preston — a mixed bag of 59 fish.

At one point this morning, for a span of about 25 minutes, we could only keep one rod per man in the water baited and down as the fish came up off bottom to meet our baits and fed aggressively. Here Jason (left) and George show a few of the just-keeper hybrid we took during that spree.

If you follow this Facebook page and/or my blog, you’ll know I keep meticulous records of every single one of my fishing trips, and I have done so for Belton and Stillhouse since 1992, even before I began my guide service. Today was a perfect example of how that record-keeping paid off. I have not fished a single guided trip on Belton since New Year’s Eve thanks to the excellent quality and quantity of white bass that Stillhouse gave up (and is still giving up) this winter and early spring. That said, my logbooks pointed to this last week of March/first week of April being the start of what I define as a 7-8 week peak season for Belton hybrid striped bass.

This peak corresponds with the spawning of the threadfin shad. During this timeframe I consistently catch more and larger hybrid than during the balance of the year, and invest a lot less effort in doing so both in terms of gathering bait and searching for fish.

The best fishing will take place during the morning from now until mid-May. At this time, I have only 8 such slots left open. They are as follows. Please give me a call ASAP if you’ve been thinking about doing this:

07 April AM (7:45a – 11:45a)

08 April AM (7:45a – 11:45a)

28 April AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

29 April AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

03 May AM (7:30a – 11:30a)

06 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

12 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

13 May AM (7:15a – 11:15a)

A review of my records earlier this week showed trends on where I should expect to find bait and fish, and these records were spot-on. The bait showed up where and when I expected and I found fish where and when I expected. This allowed me to keep my clients on fish for the majority of their 4 hours on the water with me.

George and Jason had never fished with live bait in the manner we did today and commented a number of times about how productive the tightlining technique was when enhanced with sonar and #i-Pilot positioning technology.

We fished at 4 locations and searched 2 others. 3 of these 6 areas held ample numbers of fish. At each location we experienced mixed bag angling which yielded short and legal hybrid stripers, white bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, blue catfish, and freshwater drum. When all was said and done, we had boated 59 fish.

I expect this Friday’s cold front and the cold mornings (lows in the 40’s) forecast for Saturday and Sunday will temper things a bit, but with the returning south winds on Monday, things ought to fire back up again.

TALLY = 59 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Water Surface Temp: 65.5

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW11-12 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 50% clouds decreasing to 30% white cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: 594.75 and falling with 594.0 being full pool. Water being released at 1560 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.13 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 40

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1726 mixed bag fishing with live shad for short/keeper hybrid, white bass, blue cat, largemouth, and smallmouth

**Area 1727 mixed bag fishing with live shad for short/keeper hybrid, blue cat, white bass and drum

**Area 1074/1075 mixed bag fishing with live shad for short/keeper hybrid, white bass, and blue cat

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

I Need a Break! — 137 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow

March 30th, 2016March 30th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This afternoon I fished with Rev. Eric Whitfield and his wife, Kris, of Round Rock, TX. Eric sent me a pre-Easter e-mail with the subject line: Chaplain Needs a Break! So, today, I did my best to provide a little respite from the rigors of dealing with the terminally ill and their families and concerns.

This afternoon’s trip offered up both quality and quantity for Eric and Kris Whitfield — 137 fish, with many 3-year-class fish beating the 14″ mark in the mix.

Eric is a U.S. Army veteran who left the military following a parachute malfunction during his attendance at Ranger School near Dahlonega, Georgia. Kris recently sold the financial services business she had built and now volunteers as a volunteer coordinator and as president of the Round Rock Arts Council.

The two had above average prior fishing experience, both with spinning and fly gear, which helped reduce their learning curve and increase their catch this afternoon.

When I arrived early to launch, Eric was already walking the banks with light tackle in hand casting an in-line spinner. I commented as I prepared the boat for launching about how I really liked the weather conditions — balmy, breezy, and with solid grey cloud cover. I covered the two foundational techniques I felt we’d need to use today: jigging and easing, and then we were off to hunt for fish.

We didn’t have to hunt long. After finding no active fish at our first stop, I moved us after just 5-6 minutes to a second area. I got very excited seeing fish blanketing the bottom over a span of about 30 yards in about 36 feet of water.

The first unsuccessful stop we made had already allowed us to work out the kinks on technique, so now Eric and Kris were primed and ready to take full advantage of the potential the situation offered. Long story short, we sat on one boat-sized patch of water for over 2 hours and boated fish continually using both the jigging and easing tactics we’d practiced. By 6:00p, when these fish finally let up, our count stood at 114 fish.

Given the heavy clouds and strong bite we’d experienced, I felt our final 45 minutes would provide lesser results and I communicated that to Eric and Kris so they’d have reasonable expectations. In our final 45 minutes on the water, we jigged at two locations and tried casting blade baits up in shallower 10-15 foot water. The blade baits were ignored, but both areas at which we tried jigging gave up fish.

As the light failed, the fish moved up surface-ward to take advantage of the light still penetrating there. This level was higher than our easing tactics could reach, so, we actually began using a slow form of my “smoking” technique to access these fish. We finished the evening with exactly 137 fish, including over a half-dozen freshwater drum with the balance consisting of white bass.

TALLY = 137 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time: 7:50p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 69F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10-12 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover to the point of misting.

Water Level: 623.73 and falling with 622.0 being full pool. Water being released at 1135 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.15 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1720/088 deep vertical jigging for mixed 1-3 year class white bass

**Area vic 1048 vertical jigging for mixed 1-2 year class white bass

**Area vic 1725 vertical jigging and slow smoking for mixed 1-2 year class white bass at last light

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Genuine “Old Navy” — 44 Fish, Stillhouse

March 30th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Tuesday morning, 29 March, I fished with retired U.S. Navy Captain Ray Johnson or Harker Heights. Ray served our country as a physician and flight surgeon, and I’ve had the good fortune of fishing with him a number of times over the past several years.

This morning’s trip with retired U.S. Navy Captain Ray Johnson yielded a mixed bag including largemouth, crappie, drum, and (mostly) white bass.

Ray is now in his late 70’s, so I looked for a weather forecast that wouldn’t have us rocking and rolling in the wind and wherein the temperatures would be bearable. Last week around Thursday, I saw this morning’s forecast and bounced it off of Ray. He was ready to go!

As we got going a bit before 7:30a, the skies were overcast to the point of light drizzle, and the winds were calm. I thought we might see some topwater action, but only single fish could be seen here and there — no definitive schooling or aggressive, sustained topwater was noted.

We kind of picked at the fish for the first 90 minutes or so, only putting 11 fish in the boat by 9am. I left the more murky, shallow water we started the morning in for deeper, clearer water, and, in 63 feet of water, we found our first good concentration of fish. We vertically jigged with 3/4 oz. white slabs for right at 75 minutes, enjoying consistent success, although the intensity level of this feed was pretty low. We observed a lot more fish chasing our lures on sonar than were willing to commit to actually overtaking them and biting as we watched things play out beneath us on sonar. Eventually this bite died to nothing, requiring a move.

We moved to a similar, but shallower area, in 36-38 feet of water and found a more aggressive school of white bass eager to bite. These fish were, on average, a bit larger than we’d found in deeper water. By now the time was around 10:50a, and I suspected the bite wouldn’t go much longer given that the wind, which had peaked around 10mph, was beginning to slow a bit. Indeed, these fish stayed fired up for only a short 10-12 minutes and then sulked with little response to our jigging after that, despite being readily identified on sonar directly beneath us.

We looked over 2 more areas with sonar, dropping slabs at one of them, but, the bit was over and so we called it quits around 11:50a with a total of 44 fish boated, including 1 crappie, 3 largemouth, 2 drum, and 39 white bass.

TALLY = 44 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time: 11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 65.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at start, picking up to SSE7-9

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover.

Water Level: 623.73 and falling with 622.0 being full pool. Water being released at 1135 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.15 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 0

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 116 shallow blade bait bite at (obscured) sunrise — 4 white bass

**Area 764 shallow blade bait bite in low light – 2 white bass

**Area 1724 shallow Rippin Rap bite in low light – 1 white bass, 1 largemouth bass, 1 crappie

**Area vic 947 deep vertical jigging for mixed 1-2 year class white bass

**Area vic 803 deep vertical jigging for mixed mainly 2 year class white bass

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

And the First Fish Award goes to …. 62 Fish, 26 March (PM Trip)

March 27th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This Saturday evening, 26 March, I met up with Chris Meck, his girlfriend, Jennifer Hayden, and Jennifer’s son, Justin Hayden, out on Stillhouse Hollow in pursuit of white bass.

Jennifer Hayden to big fish honors tonight with this fat, long Stillhouse white bass that fell for a downrigged bait worked down at 17′ over a deeper bottom.

Fishing was easy for the first 1.75 hours. We caught 55 fish off an area in 63′ of water during this time.

Neither Jennifer nor Justin had ever caught a fish before, so, they had a pretty steep learning curve to overcome this afternoon, but, they did great.

Afternoons lately have required near 100% vertical jigging, but tonight, due to some cloud cover in the west bringing some darkening of the skies a bit earlier than we’d normally encounter on a clear evening, we got to mix in a bit of downrigging and casting, and at a time when Justin’s 6-year-old attention span was due for a change of pace.

Our first 2 hours on the water was definitely the most productive. We sat in 62 feet of water pulling white bass after white bass up on slabs. Although this area has produced well lately, it had been giving up mostly small fish, but, today, over 60% were right at 11.75 to 12.25 inches, with the remainder being smaller.

Around 5:35p this bite shut down pretty quickly, sending us on a search for more fish that took nearly 30 minutes before we contacted fish again.

Once I found fish, they were suspended at 15-18 feet down over a 30-33 foot bottom, and required a downrigging approach to control the depth of the presentation. This is where my #Cannon downriggers came in — instead of throwing a crankbait or a Hellbender back behind the boat and hoping for the best, this downrigging setup very precisely places baits right where I want them when the downrigger is used in conjunction with sonar pinging off the transom. We boated a few fish this way, and then, for a final effort, we moved up shallow to check on low-light shallow biters, and found a few willing to chase our bladebaits.

Both Jennifer and Justin did indeed catch the first fish of their lives tonight, and as a result, Justin will receive a First Fish Award from TPWD.

Jennifer had big fish honors with a white bass that taped in at 15.25 inches, taken on the downrigger at 17 feet down over a deeper bottom and from amidst a large, loosely congregated school of white bass.

TALLY = 62 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time: 7:50p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp: 64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12-14, dying to SSE4 by trip’s end.

Sky Conditions: Fair skies with 40% cloud cover.

Water Level: 624.43 and falling with 622.0 being full pool. Water being released at 1139 cubic feet per second. Lake fell 0.14 feet in the past 24 hours

Other: GT= 60

Wx SNAPSHOT (a graphical look at the forecast that faced us today):