This past Wednesday afternoon, November 23rd, I fished with Mr. Mike Duecy, his eight-year-old son, Jacob, and Mike’s father, Pat. Mike and Jacob live in Buda, Texas, and Pat resides in Waco.

From left: Mike, Jacob, and Pat Duecy with some hard-earned white bass — post-frontal conditions plagued our efforts on what was forecast to be a solid, breezy day.

Jacob landed this large freshwater drum on a small, live threadfin shad we put straight down under the boat in about 27′ as Pat and Mike worked their slabs.  Note the cast on Jacob’s left arm — he didn’t let that stop him any!

I had big hopes for our results Wednesday evening after looking at the NOAA weather forecast early that morning.  According to the forecast, after the passage of a mild cold front, and the band of showers on its leading edge, we were to enjoy continued winds at 12 to 14 mph into the evening hours, around 7pm. Typically, the time between a cold fronts passage and before the winds begin to slack off, are excellent fishing conditions.

Unfortunately, not long after we began our trip, the winds began to slack off after they had plateaued toward the end of my morning trip, around 11am. As the wind subsided, so did the bite we were experiencing, leaving us facing a very difficult final two hours on the water.  Calm, bright, post-frontal conditions are among the toughest you can face, and that is exactly what we were facing at this point.

In our first two hours we found fish that were fairly cooperative given that it was still early in the afternoon. We used tandem rigs to jig vertically for fish that were holding very close to the bottom. Most of these fish struck the slab, and not the fly on the Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs we had on. The fishing stayed consistent until right around 3:15pm when the winds began to go alternately calm then would puff a bit then would go call him again, and so on. At this point, the only fish activity we saw was from very sporadic, and nomadic schools of white bass that would randomly pop up in open water very briefly.

Long story short, we put only three additional fish in the boat following the cessation of the winds. The final three fish came from shallow water as a small pack of white bass pushed shad towards the shore in a final, lowlight feed. We wound up with only 25 fish on a very slow afternoon following a fantastic morning. Today, timing was everything, and we got on the wrong side of nature’s “timer”.

The last thing I’d ever want to do while on the water with a youngster is have him or her leave bored and with a negative impression of fishing, so, I tried to introduce a number of transitions by showing Jacob how to fish with shad, having him catch the bait out of the tank, have him press the buttons to raise and lower the ball when we did a bit of downrigging, tap on the bottom of the boat with my thumping stick to try to interest some fish below us, steer the boat a bit, and so on.  These things (plus snacks!) I’ve found help keep kids’ interest in the event of slow fishing.

TALLY = 25 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time:  5:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp:  67.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NW12 at trips start, tapering off to NW9 by 3:00, then going calm to puffing after that time

Sky Conditions: Bright, clear skies following a cold front’s passage

Water Level:  0.20 feet above full pool

GT = 10(R40)

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1627 – vertical slabbing for whites ~45 min.

**Area 1827 – vertical slabbing for whites ~45 min.

**Area 1827 to shore – shallow last light bite on blades

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline

This past Wednesday morning, November 23rd, I fished with Barry Erskine, a Killeen native now living in Tyler, Texas, and his dad, George Erskine, also a Killeen native now living in Belton.

George Erskine took this 4+ pound hybrid striper on a live shad I’d brought as insurance against a tough trip.  A cold front’s passage was forecast for this morning, and, depending on winds, such conditions can be boom or bust.  This morning, it was “BOOM”.

Barry Erskine holds a pair of nice Belton Lake white bass he caught at the same time on a Hazy Eye Shad tandem rig.  The rig is anchored with a slab and has a lightweight “teaser fly” up above it.  

This past Wednesday morning, November 23rd, I fished with Barry Erskine, a Killeen native now living in Tyler, Texas, and his dad, George Erskine, also a Killeen native now living in Belton.

Barry is a small businessman who got his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, and went on to get an MBA from Baylor. George is a retired college administrator who worked for many years at Central Texas College.

In the early morning hours, a mild cold front passed through with a thin band of thunder, lightning, and rain. In its wake, cooler, clearer, and drier conditions developed.

The timing for this morning’s trip was just right. We got on the water as the wind velocity out of the northwest was on the rise and fished right through its peak.

From the time the sun climbed above the cloud bank in the east up into the clear sky, the fish fed until right around 11:15 AM when the wind speed plateaued. We began in shallow water fishing under birds that were dining on dead and crippled shad injured by white bass and hybrid striper patrolling beneath in about 22 feet of water. Not knowing how the cold front was going to play out, I netted live bait this morning as a hedge against disappointment.

While Barry and George used blade baits casting off the portside, I hung bait on two downlines off the starboard. We regularly caught quality fish on both methods, including several hybrid in the 4 to 4 1/2 pound class.

After this shallower bite under birds died, we moved offshore into open water and began scrubbing a number of bottom features with sonar. We found fish in two distinct locations and fished them both in very much the same way. If sonar revealed active fish, we used a smoking technique, and if sonar revealed less aggressive, bottom hugging fish, we used an easing tactic. After the action died in a given location, we would “jog” a few boat lengths left, right, forwards, or backwards to reestablish contact with fish that had been nearby all the time but refused to move horizontally over to us.

More on the Erskine’s trip and, about tandem rigging is found in Sunday’s (27 Nov.) Killeen Daily Herald: http://kdhnews.com/sports/fishing/bob-maindelle-tandem-rigging-doubles-the-catch-in-cold-water/article_8f968e64-b463-11e6-a67d-a319425a64a3.html

As the wind increased, the aggression level of the fish did as well.  As I saw the bite strengthening at midmorning with winds around 14 mph, I changed us over to a tandem rig, and we routinely landed two fish at a time using this setup. Our fish count stood at exactly 90 fish at 10:30. We agreed to press on until we had reached the 100 fish mark. As I moved us into a new group of fish, we put our 100th fish in the boat, and fished that final school we encountered until the fish quit cooperating. By that time, our tally had risen to 118 fish.

Barry shared that one of the reasons he chose to fish with me was because of the data-rich reports I have posted on my website.  When he considered an outdoor excursion with his dad over the holidays and saw in one of my reports how the catch per trip in late November/early December typically outpaces every other month of the year, he decided to come fishing and see for himself.

TALLY = 118 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  10:55a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Water Surface Temp:  67.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NW9, steadily increasing to NW14, then plateauing there

Sky Conditions: Bright, clear skies following a cold front’s passage

Water Level:  0.20 feet above full pool

GT = 30

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1826 &1854 – casting with blades and downlining with live shad for equal results on whites, keeper hybrid, and a few drum

**Area 1827-1624 – easing tactic with small slabs for interested but still not truly aggressive white bass

**1672-1619 – spot hopped in this vicinity for the last 2 hours of the trip, fishing Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs aggressively for white bass, short hybrid, and largemouth

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Tuesday afternoon, November 22^nd, I fished a 1/2 day, multi-species trip on Lake Georgetown with my nephew, Trent Maindelle, who was home on Thanksgiving break from his junior year at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

 

 

 

The fish turned on for a brief, 45-minute feed just before a storm cell moved in from the SW and brought about a rapid change in conditions.  Here, Trent holds his “double” and my “double” — four fish caught just seconds apart as the fish went on a heavy, brief feed in advance of approaching rain.

After a very tough morning on Georgetown, I invited my nephew out for an afternoon on Georgetown.  He lives in north Austin, and, since I was already halfway there, I figured we’d grab lunch and catch up on things while wetting a line.

So, after a worse-than-bad lunch at Carl’s Junior on Hwy. 29, (should have known the food was iffy when they were the only restaurant in a 10-mile radius with enough parking for my truck and boat), we headed out in pursuit of a few fish.

As we got going, it felt like a repeat performance of the slow morning I’d just experienced (11 fish in 5.25 hours).   We downrigged for a few fish on the east end of the lake, but, as a small storm cell approached the area, the wind died down and the skies actually got a bit brighter.  At this same time, we spotted two gulls dip down over open water.  I moved in for a closer look and found a small area of bottom atop a high spot covered with fish.

We set up in a hover using the Ulterra’s Spot Lock function and caught the tar out of the fish until the rain began to fall, and then it was all over — for good.  During this time we caught singles and doubles using Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs for about 45 minutes.  We took our fish count from single digits up to 62 fish in this short period of time.  Once the rain came and left and left calm conditions in its wake, the fishing went right back downhill.  We landed only 2 more fish in our last 1.75 hours.

There’s an old saying in fishing — “Don’t leave fish to find fish.”  Should have stayed on Lake Belton.  But then there’s another saying — “Hindsight is 20/20.”

TALLY = 64 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:45p

End Time:  5:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp:  68.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW12, then falling suddenly to calm following the passage of a small storm cell.

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover, but thinner than in the morning, thus allowing for brighter conditions

Water Level:  2.31 feet below full pool

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 854-1850 via downrigging at trip’s beginning, and again at trip’s end

**Area 1853 – via vertical jigging with Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs in ~32 feet of water

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This morning, Monday, November 21st, I fished with Steve Niemeier, Caleb Fowler (age 11), and Tevan Gilmore (age 13) on Belton Lake. This was a half-day multi species trip focused primarily on white bass.

 

From left: Steve Niemeier, Tevan Gilmore, and Caleb Fowler with a sampling of the 115 fish we found ready and willing to strike once the wind began to blow this morning on our Lake Belton white bass fishing trip.

 

Tevan Gilmore of Belton landed this nice hybrid striper after it chased a silver slab, mistaking it for a threadfin shad.  This was our largest fish caught this morning.

Thanks to the most severe cold front of the season thus far which came in this past Friday, the water temperature finally fell out of the 70s and now sits in the high 60s. We encountered 68 to 69° water depending on location this morning.

Although the skies were still bright and cloudless following the cold front, the winds returned from the south today and put the fish in a biting mood once the winds picked up to over 8 mph and began to move the water.

We got off to a bit of a slow start, picking up just one crappie at our first stop, then catching only a few fish at our second stop.

As we made our way to the third area we would attempt to fish, the wind kicked in, and continue to ramp up to the 13 to 14 mph range, and the fish responded very positively. From roughly 8 AM through 10:30 AM, we never moved outside of a 70 yard diameter area, and picked up right at 100 fish sitting atop this single feature.

We used small, silver slabs with both a smoking tactic and an easing tactic, depending on where the fish were positioned in the water column.

Once we hit the 100 fish mark right at 10:20, we decided to give one more area a try before the fellows cut loose to head out to eat Chinese food for lunch. At our last stop, and in about 25 feet of water, we encountered a tightly grouped school of white bass. With all three of the fellows now well polished on the tactics we needed to use, they made short work of putting a final 15 fish in the boat by 10:45.

We called it a day right then and there while the boys had fond memories of the trip and so as to go out on a strong note.

Although lunch was on everyone’s mind to some degree, it was evidently foremost in Caleb’s mind.  As Caleb rattled off the names of good Chinese restaurants aloud, Tevan chided him about staying focused on the fish because, as  a group, we were gunning for at least 100 fish caught today.   Undeterred, Caleb continued naming restaurants, “… there’s Jake’s, and then there’s Dynasty…”.  Again, Tevan told him to focus on the fish.  Without missing a beat, Caleb exclaimed that Dynasty had seafood on their buffet!!!

TALLY = 115 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  10:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Water Surface Temp:  68-69F

Wind Speed & Direction: S12-13 by 8:00a

Sky Conditions: Clear and cloudless

Water Level: ~0.08 feet high and slowly falling at ~0.01 feet per day

GT = 30

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1665 – 1 crappie; incredible amount of shad, but no white bass

**Area 138/137 – a handful of white bass and 1 hybrid

**Area vic 1622, 1626,1629 – took tally to 100 fish here in ~2.5 hours

**Area 1847 – 15 white bass in short order at close of trip

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingthelin

This past Saturday evening, November 19th, I fished with Brian Olds, his wife, Tasha, and their two kids, eight-year-old Katelyn, and four-year-old Connor.  I planned an afternoon of white bass fishing with frequent transitions in tactics and locations so as to keep the kids engaged.

 

Katelyn Olds, age 8, with the last and largest fish of the 28 she and her family landed tonight using a combination of jigging and downrigging.

 

From left: Katelyn, Brian, Tasha, and Connor Olds with a sampling of the white bass we landed this evening.  The Olds family also landed, hybrid striped bass, drum, sunfish, and a channel catfish.
This trip was a tall order to fill. I not only had younger children to be concerned with, but also fairly tough, post-frontal conditions in the wake of yesterday’s cold front passage which was by far the most severe of the season. Overnight clearing left this morning’s low at 39 Fahrenheit.

We began our trip at 1:30p, and by this time the north wind had subsided to about 12 mph, and the sharp bite had dropped out of the wind. As we launched, the air temperature was 58° and fell slowly through 51°.

We began the trip by searching bottom features between 25 and 40 feet deep and probing them with twin downriggers equipped with tandem rigged Pet Spoons. At the first area we fished, as we were downrigging, we encountered large schools of fish which I felt would give us a chance at successfully vertically jigging. As it turned out, although we gave vertical jigging a try on a number of occasions, the fish never really responded enthusiastically to that approach.

We tried vertical jigging in two other areas, both with timber on the bottom, so downrigging was not possible. We picked up fish at both areas, but they never really turned on strongly at either location.

At our last stop, we were able to use the downriggers once again, and given that Katelyn and Brian were my only active anglers at this point, as Tasha tended to Connor who had just about worn out on us, we just stuck with the downrigging as the fish moved consistently shallower as it got darker. We put a final seven fish in the boat at this last stop, and thanks to Katelyn’s willingness to stick it out for “just one more pass”, she was rewarded with our largest fish of the day, a 19 inch, 3 pound hybrid striped bass which fell for the downrigged Pet Spoon in just 14 feet of water.

As we wrapped up right at sunset at around 5:30, we had put a grand total of 28 fish in the boat and had managed to keep the kids engaged for the entirety of the trip using a variety of fishing techniques, sharing lots of snacks, allowing the kids to fool with the fish we kept in the livewell just for that purpose, and allowing them to experiment with the pair of binoculars that Tasha had wisely brought along for each one.

As we put a rope on the courtesy dock, from beneath his shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, hat, and blanket, young Connor said, “This was a blast.”

TALLY = 28 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time:  5:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp:  70.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW12

Sky Conditions: Clear and cloudless

Water Level: ~0.09 feet high and slowly falling at ~0.01 feet per day

GT = 60

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1845 – downrig to find fish to vertically jig for

**Area 138, 1846, and 137 – vertical jigging

**Area 1573 &1665- downrigging in 12-17 feet for low-lite fishing moving shallow

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingthelin

This past Monday morning, November 14^th, I fished a father and son trip on Belton Lake with Rodrick Rhoads and his 11-year-old son, Oliver. The Rhoads family is from Georgetown, Texas. Oliver is one of five kids, all of whom are homeschooled. His flexible homeschool schedule gave him and his dad the opportunity to fish together today.

From left: Oliver Rhoads and his dad, Rodrick with several nice white bass caught up shallow early in the morning while fog obscured the direct sunlight.

Oliver caught our largest fish this morning, a just-legal hybrid striper that fell for his slab in about 27 feet of water.

Rodrick makes his living as the owner of a chain of Comet Dry Cleaners stores out in the Midland-Odessa-Big Spring part of west Texas.
Today’s weather was certainly helpful to the fish-catching. We had fair, cloudless skies (not so good). But, we had a southwesterly wind which ramped up to about 12 mph by trips end. This was very helpful.

We caught fish today from start to finish. We encountered our first fish up in shallow water under lowlight conditions as we cast bladebaits in less than 10 feet of water. We experienced some helpful bird activity that helped us identify where fish were holding during this lowlight time. This action extended for about an hour after which we began to continue to throw blade baits, albeit in slightly deeper water, between 12 and 17 feet.

We landed exactly 54 fish in our first two hours on the water before the shallow water bite (in less than 20 feet of water) died.

Our last two hours we spent spot-hopping and encountered solid fishing at two different locations, and in 25 to 32 feet of water at both locations.

At both locations the situation was the same – – we found heavily congregated white bass in the last 3 to 4 feet of the water column on a sloped bottom. I put the boat into a hover using the Spot Lock feature of the Ulterra trolling motor. And then we got all 3 rods working with slabs right down on, or near, the bottom where we saw the fish showing on sonar. We were able to land an additional 46 fish in our last two hours, although the last 10 to 15 fish came very slowly and took quite a bit more convincing then all of the other fish we caught. For our efforts today we landed exactly 100 fish in 4.5 hours of effort.

We landed primarily white bass, with a single keeper hybrid landed, multiple short hybrid, one freshwater drum, and two largemouth bass.

TALLY = 100 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Water Surface Temp:  71.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW12

Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless after low morning fog burned off

Water Level: ~0.11 feet high and slowly falling at ~0.11 feet per day

GT = 50

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1664 and 1665 – shallow bladebaits for fish under birds

**Area 183, 1631, and 1828 for fish under 20′ deep on bladebaits

**Area 1681 – brief downrigging

**Area 1827, 1624, 1824  deeper 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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Saturday morning I fished a multi-species trip on Lake Belton, primarily targeting white bass with returning client Mark Herzer and his 14-year-old son, Zach.  Mark brought along a colleague, Alfred Brice, an Austin-area architect, and his 14-year-old-son, Paxton.

From left: Alfred Brice, Paxton Brice, Zach Herzer, and Mark Herzer.  White bass caught on a variety of tactics (bladebaits, slabs, and downriggers) made up the lion’s share of our catch this morning.  We also landed drum, hybrid, and largemouth bass.

Mark Herzer’s hybrid, landed on a white 3/4 oz. slab around 10:30am, anchored our stringer this morning.

I came into this morning’s trip having had a bit of a tough go of it the evening before under calm, bright conditions.  This morning’s forecast called for continued bright conditions, but, a NW breeze was due to push at 10-11mph, and, just after sunrise, that breeze, thankfully, did materialize and worked its magic on motivating the food chain to come alive.

Once the wind began to push, the bait began to stir, the gamefish began to feed, and the second helpful episode of fish-eating bird action of this fall season played out in front of us, letting us know exactly where the fish were.  I maneuvered the boat to within casting distance of the action and had four rods working for 75 minutes before the action slacked off and we had to change tactics.  During this time, working Binsky bladebaits in water under 14 feet deep did the trick for white bass in the 1, 2, and 3 year class.

Brice and Paxton had never used spinning gear before, but learned very quickly and, in no time were cashing in right along with everyone else.

After the shallow bite died, we did some downrigging and caught fish consistently, including doubles on the tandem rig and 3-armed umbrella rig.  Eventually, this bite which occurred out deeper than the bladebait fishing but in the same general area, also died out.

By now the sun was high and bright — a sure sign that we’d need to move our operation out to deeper water.  Fortunately, several deepwater area were also being impacted by the nice breeze that was blowing, and we found them to be productive, too.  The bite definitely began to wane in the last hour, as we had to frequently “jog” and “spot hop” in order to stay on top of fish that were rapidly losing interest.

When all was said and done, we’d managed to boat a grand total of 103, the largest of which was a 3 pound class hybrid striped bass which Mark handled very aptly on the light spinning gear we were all using.

TALLY = 103 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Water Surface Temp:  71.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW10-12

Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless

Water Level: ~0.22 feet high and slowly falling at ~0.11 feet per day

GT = 40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1634 and 1665 – shallow bladebaits for fish under birds

**Area 1573 – downrigging

**Area 1672, 1679, 1827 –  deep vertical jigging for heavily congregated fish

 

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Friday afternoon I fished a second trip with Father Brad St. Romain, the rector at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Temple.  We targeted primarily white bass in deep water using artificial lures.

Although the majority of our catch consisted of white bass, Brad managed several hybrid, including this, our only “legal” hybrid, which measured just over 18″.  It came on a slab in 27 feet of water and was “ghosting” along within a school of white bass.  This hybrid was the first fish from out of that large school to strike our baits.

The morning conditions today were to be avoided.  Dead calm, very sunny, and unseasonably hot conditions persisted until around 10:30am.  These difficult conditions moderated a bit as a light SE breeze began and a high, white haze began to form thus moderating the temperatures a bit.  The forecast called for these winds to continue to build up to 6-8mph from the SE and for the cloud cover to reach 40%+.  This, unfortunately, did not materialize.

After the first 90 minutes or so of our trip, which we began around 1:45p, had slipped by, the winds quit and the skies brightened and thus we experienced a lull through the middle of our time on the water.  Fishing picked back up again in the last hour as the sun’s intensity lessened as the sun moved towards setting.

Although we found and caught fish this afternoon, the combination of bright sun and calm conditions really put the “dampers” on the fishing.  Active fish, which typically show on sonar as tightly grouped schools close to bottom with some of the individuals in the school up higher in the water column, were in short supply.  When we did find fish, they often failed to respond as we tried everything from a slow, dead-stick tactic to a fast, attention-getting retrieve.

We experienced our most productive fishing at the front end of the trip, which is unusual for afternoon excursions.  We had more cloud cover and more breeze at the beginning of our trip, and the fish reacted somewhat positively to that.

All of our fish today came from 25-32 feet of water up until within 40 minutes of sunset, when fish moved into shallower water, thus allowing us to catch a few between 16-20 feet.  Every fish we caught this evening came on slabs used vertically.

TALLY = 36 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:45p

End Time:  6:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  72.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light & variable

Sky Conditions: Slowly building thin white “whispy” cloud cover in the western sky on an otherwise fair, bright sky

Water Level: ~0.35 feet high and slowly falling at ~0.11 feet per day

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1624-1637 – deep jigging

**Area 153 – deep jigging

**Area 812-1186 – deep jigging

**Area 1824 & 1825 – deep jigging

**Area 1826 – low light jigging in 16-20′

 

 

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

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-LGrD-sm7Bo6tDPIv0z4jg

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/holdingtheline/

This past Saturday morning I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Andres Gamio and his friend, Riley Caple, both of Belton, TX.

10-year-old Riley Caple (camo Longhorns hat) and Andres Gamio (boonie-style hat) paired up to put 84 fish in the boat this morning under ideal white bass fishing weather conditions (with grey cloud cover and wind).  The “big kid” in the middle is Justin Caple, Riley’s dad, who arrived just in time to help with the photos!

Just minutes before my alarm was due to go off this morning I was awakened early by the National Weather Service radio alarm indicating a flash flood warning for Coryell and McLennan counties, including the Mother Neff State Park which is an upstream tributary to Lake Belton. I immediately switched on the weather radar on my smartphone and saw that all of the active weather was to our north and west and was moving to the northeast.  Something to keep an eye on, but not a threat to our trip.

As I met my two young anglers at dockside as they were dropped off by their dads, there was a light rain falling, a northeast wind blowing, and the barely perceptible flicker of very distant lightning occasionally illuminating the sky.

As we got to the fishing grounds, it was still a bit too early and dark for the fish to begin feeding, so I assessed the boys ability to cast with spinning rods and we worked on that until I was confident both of them could cast to any fish we saw near the boat.

Once the fish began to feed, they fed for a solid four hours both on top, and at mid-depths, but not as much near bottom today. I suspect that was because of the murky cloud cover preventing sunlight from penetrating to the bottom in the 20 to 30 foot depths we were probing.

The boys listened well and, as a result, were able to catch fish using a variety of techniques including casting with soft plastics, using several vertical tactics with slabs, and using the downriggers.

Two of Andres’ cousins (both girls) also recently fished with me, and Andres was anxious to try to beat their total. I told both boys they would need to stay focused in order to accomplish that feat. As 11:15 came around, our agreed-upon meeting time back at the dock, the boys had done their part and managed to land 84 fish today, including 83 white bass up to 14 inches, and one large mouth bass.

Our starting morning water surface temperature was still over 74° – – unseasonably warm and certainly very helpful to this strong, ongoing white bass bite.

TALLY = 84 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp:  74.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  E8-9

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: ~0.30 feet high and slowly rising thanks to light, area-wide rainfall

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 664-1665-1822165-788 – shallow casting early, then vertical tactics for the remainder of the trip.

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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