WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with Rick Snelgrooes, his 13-year-old son, Sean, from Liberty Hill, TX, and Rick’s father-in-law, Steve Rohner, in visiting from California.  Rick moved his family to Texas from California earlier this year.

From left: Sean and Rick Snelgrooes, and Steve Rohner with a sampling of the fish we took from under birds on this cloudy, breezy November morning.

Rick with the largest fish of the trip, a 19″ hybrid striper that came on a 3/4 oz. slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached.  This fish was suspended in over 52′ of water.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 15 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED: With ideal conditions (southerly breeze and cloud cover), the fish fed hard under birds this morning for a full 2.25 hours, then continued feeding in the lower third of the water column after the birds lifted for another half-hour.  By 9:45 most of this action was over, so I headed to deeper, clearer water to continue looking for fish.  We found a scant number of birds circling in open water, with 3 times as many resting, indicating a feed had taken place here, too, but was winding down.  We caught a few fish here and moved on to our last area.  In the deepest (52′) water we fished this morning we found a lethargic school of white bass mixed with a few hybrid.  We fished these until they tapered off right around 10:55.  All fish caught this morning were caught on the 3/8 or 3/4 oz. slab with the Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached. We used a smoking retrieve while the fish

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES:  Although this is true in most every season of the year, right now the morning bite is far outperforming the evening.

TALLY: 136 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:55a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp: 67.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-11

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover

Water Level: 2.33 feet low

GT = 135

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area spanning from 1022 thru 592 thru 103 under birds for 2.25 hours

**Area 2047 scant action

**Area vic 2049 – open water birds wrapping up a feed

**Area vic 717 – last of the morning bite in 52′

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with returning guests Mike McLaughlin, his son-in-law, Keith Duncan, and Keith’s son, Alex.  Mike’s wife has given him a fishing gift certificate each year for the past 5 years, and today was the day to cash in Christmas 2016’s gift.

 

We made 4 stops today and landed roughly 50 fish at each.  As we hovered in place courtesy of the Ulterra trolling motor’s Spot Lock function, all of commotion drew in drum and catfish.  This 4.25 pounder fell for Keith’s slab.

 

We caught white bass non-stop for nearly 4 hours under balmy, cloudy, breezy conditions — just right for temperate bass like whites, hybrid, and stripers.  From left Mike, Alex, and Keith.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, 14 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was easy this morning, although there was no helpful bird activity.  We were successful time and again in finding deep, heavily schooled white bass in feeding postures right from the first drop of our slabs around 7am, and until the fish quickly stopped feeding around 10:45.  We searched several areas after this time, but found nothing else to fish for.  100% of our fish were caught with a slab with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached, used in either a smoking retrieve (90%) or an easing retrieve (10%).

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: ~200-300 ring-billed gulls seen standing along the shoreline, but none led us to fish.

TALLY: 203 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-13

Sky Conditions: 70-80% grey cloud cover

Water Level: 2.33 feet low

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2046 — 51 fish by 8am

**Area 2047 — 103 fish by 8:45am

**Area 956 — 160 fish by 9:45am

**Area 2033/2048 — finished up with 203 fish by 10:45

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with Mr. Ray Elliott, Mr. Drew Kelm, and Miss Jessie Singleton.  Ray and Drew are co-workers at CSA Construction out of Houston and are working on a 3-year-long project building a drinking water treatment plant on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.  They thought they’d take in some local fishing since they’ll be in the area for while.  Jessie is Drew’s fiancee’, and quite an outdoorsy young lady. Hopefully her dad will demand a sizeable dowry for her, as she is not only an Aggie, but has earned her concealed handgun license, can run a boat, handle a spinning rod deftly, can drive (and park) the largest of pickup trucks, and outrun all of the 4th grade boys in her elementary school classroom! The two plan to wed in June ’18.

From left, Jessie Singleton, Ray Elliott, and Drew Kelm with a sampling of the mixed bag angling we experienced on Belton Lake this morning.  We landed white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, freshwater drum, and crappie.  Judging by the slime on his line,  we think Ray missed a catfish, and we know by the quarter-sized scale on Drew’s hook that he missed a buffalo fish.

 

We found a few crappie — all quality fish, and, strangely enough they all came out of in excess of 50 feet of water with no cover visible on sonar.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 11 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED: Thanks to thick cloud cover, the started a bit later than over the past several days with thinner cover which let a bit more sunlight through.  We fished 4 distinct areas.  Our first area involved vertical jigging with white slabs in ~35′.  At our second area, birds led the way to the action as ~ 8 gulls, 1 tern, 3 comorants, and 1 blue heron all worked a 2 acre area in which white bass were feeding heavily on shad.  Although some action did make it all the way to the surface, most was subsurface.  We used slabs vertically and bladebaits horizontally in this situation.  Our third and fourth areas fished were nearly identical with fish on deep, wind-impacted slopes in ~50 feet of water.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) A wind with a southerly component returned today.  2) We caught fish under birds for a 4th consecutive day, however, the action did not begin until about an hour after sunrise today.

TALLY: 146 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 67.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE9-13

Sky Conditions: 100% heavy grey cloud cover

Water Level: 2.25 feet low

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 2044 – vertical work with slabs for a smaller school of white bass congregated on bottom in 35′

**Area 2045/2043 – horizontal blades and vertical slabs in 15-18′ for fish under birds

**Area vic 1945 & 1381 – deep vertical slab work for fish on windward slopes in 50+ feet of water.

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

 

WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with Steve Niemeier of Temple and his grandson, Caleb Fowler, age 12, of Belton. Steve makes his living as a certified pubic accountant, and Caleb is a 6th grade student at one of the Belton middle schools where he’s currently playing football as a defensive lineman.

 

As we grew accustomed to the sporty, but lighter pull of multiple white bass on the light spinning tackle we were using, Caleb got a rude awakening when this 9.25 pound smallmouth buffalo came knocking.

 

We definitely had to work for our catch today.  Although we amassed a tally of 107 fish, we had to stop at 10 distinct areas (each of which gave up at least a few fish) to do it.  Here Steve Neimeier and Caleb Fowler show some of the 2015-spawned crop of fish we landed.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday morning, 10 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED:  The raw weather brought in by the cold front that came in on Tuesday and kept winds northerly on Wednesday and Thursday moderated a bit today.  We had slightly warmer temperatures, ENE winds, and persistent grey cloud cover.  The same general areas and habitats that have been producing this week continued to produce, but the fish were definitely more reluctant to feed today.  We had very limited success going horizontal with bladebaits under lowlight conditions, and often had to “re-ignite” fish that had begun chasing smoked slabs and then quit doing so.  We did this by using an easing tactic, getting the struggling, hooked fish up above its schoolmates, and then observing sonar to see if they followed the hooked fish upwards.  If they did, a more aggressive smoking tactic would then produce once more.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) The number of birds on Belton continues to increase. 2) Once again, birds led the way to the morning’s first catch.  3) The wind shift to the east definitely put a damper on the fish activity.  4) We made 10 different stops to put together our 107 fish tally; no single spot just gave up a lot of fish.

TALLY: 107 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 10:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 49F

Water Surface Temp: 66.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE6-7

Sky Conditions: 100% heavy grey cloud cover

Water Level: 2.25 feet low

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1573, vic 525-526, 2039, vic 2037-163 – low light vertical jigging under birds for 40 fish

**Area  2040 and 2041 – sluggish whites in 42′ – 13 fish

**Area vic 2027 – most active fish of the trip, 34′ – 33 fish

**Area 2042 – 10 fish

**Area 2041 (again) – 11 fish

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

 

 

WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with Dave and Stephanie Covington of Belton, TX.  Dave makes his living as part of his family’s real estate business (Covington Real Estate, Inc. on Main St. in Belton).  He has been out with me twice before, once with his brother, Barrett, and once with his then 5-year-old son, Levi.  This was Stephanie’s first trip with me.  I could tell right off the bat that cold, dark, damp early mornings in the outdoors were not particularly high on Stephanie’s list of fun things to do, but, she was a trooper and a good student, and did very well this morning.

 

Hybrid, birds, and bait were a winning combination this morning.  The first significant number of migratory gulls and terns arrived with this strong cold front and immediately began to assist in the fish-finding equation.  Here, Dave and Stephanie hold hybrid landed seconds apart as we fished under birds.

 

The white bass were in a much more active mode right at (obscured) sunrise this morning.  We caught them on bladebaits fished horizontally and slabs fished vertically.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, 09 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED:  With continued cold, cloudy, breezy conditions, the white bass and hybrid striper put the feed bag on once again this morning right at sunrise (obscured).  We found fish shallower (20-25′) early on under birds and amassed a catch of 40 fish, half on blades and half on slabs (smoked).  After this shallow water bite died we moved on to deeper water where white bass in the 0-2 year classes just carpeted the bottom in 34-38 feet and fell for smoked slabs.  The small 3/8 oz. bait in white with a Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached was all that was needed.  The fish were so aggressive that Stephanie actually caught 2 fish on one lure at the same time.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) The number of birds on Belton continues to increase. 2) Once again, birds led the way to the morning’s first catch.  3) Stephanie had enough of the cold at the 2.5 hour mark, hence a lower tally than over the past few days, with 82 landed this morning; the indicators were all in place for a morning of at least 100 fish had we gone the full 4 hours.

TALLY: 82 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 9:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: N13 at (obscured) sunrise, tapering quickly back to N9 for the remainder of the trip

Sky Conditions: 100% heavy grey cloud cover

Water Level: 2.22 feet low

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 818 and 2037 – blades and smoked slabs in under 25′ for 40 fish

**Area 211 – smoked slabs in 34-38′ for 42 fish

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with Clay Lohse of Abileen, TX.  This was Clay’s 3rd trip with me this year.  Clay is a husband and father who works as a nurse and is studying to become a nurse practitioner through a master’s degree program.  He is very much a student of fishing, working on understanding fish behavior and seasonal movements and locations in order to become a better fisherman.  We spent 20 or 30 minutes before launching this morning pouring over a map of his “home” lake, Fort Phantom Hill Reservoir, in the cab of his truck by flashlight, and theorizing where fish might hold through the seasons.

It’s cold.  It’s raining.  Why is this man smiling?    BECAUSE WE LANDED 105 FISH IN THIS SNOTTY WEATHER!!!

White bass were biting, short hybrid were biting, largemouth were biting — and we were the only ones on the entirety of Belton’s 13,000 acres this morning.  Loved it!!

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 08 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED:  Long story short — the fishing was definitely cold front-impacted early on.  The bite steadily gained momentum to a peak around 11am.  We began having to fish very slowly and methodically for fish mostly unwilling to chase a bait; by the end of the trip, a full-speed smoking retrieve did the trick.  At 11am, we sat at 55 fish, but were over top of a large school of very willing white bass sprinkled with a few hybrid.  I told Clay we’d give it 45 minutes to catch 45 fish and take our tally to 100 or more.   We (literally) caught fish at a rate of 1 per minute in the last 45 minutes of the trip, and ended the day with 105 fish.  We eased early on, then threw blades for small, well-spread bottom-oriented schools in ~25 feet of water.  After that, we moved deeper and used slabs with Hazy Eyes Stingers attached for the remainder of the trip, fishing 36 to 52 feet at 4 separate locations.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) We enjoyed this fall’s first fishing under birds this morning with action under ring-billed gulls. 2) The fishing improved steadily as the morning progressed.  3) Opaque white far outperformed silver under the grey, low-light conditions.

TALLY: 105 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 51F and falling to 41F throughout the trip thanks to a slow moving, damp cold front that began moving in yesterday.

Water Surface Temp: 68.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW12-13, gusting to 19

Sky Conditions: 100% heavy grey cloud cover with light, steady rain beginning around 10am

Water Level: 2.19 feet low

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 2032 – limited early morning success on suspended small fish over 30′

**Area 2036 – sluggish, heavily schooled white bass on this timbered, slow tapering underwater point

**Area vic1819 – better action on heavily congregated white bass holding on upwind side of the slope in 36′

**Area  717 – massive school of mixed white bass from 0-3 years in same location and at same time as yesterday, 52′

**Area 212/1392 – found lots of fish, but they wouldn’t “stay put” even with thumper and jigging/catching commotion

**Area 211 – grand finale with over 50 fish caught in 45 minutes in 36′ during a lull in the rain and wind

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Today I fished with Chris Lester and Mike White, both of whom work at the Blackland Research and Extension Center in Temple.  They are both husbands, dads with 10-year-old boys, pontoon boat owners, and, according to them, in need of a little instruction on successfully pursuing fish on Lake Belton. They were interested in seeing how all of the components come together, including boat, sonar, trolling motor, and bait selection and presentation — kind of a “Fishing 101”.

With action like this under the boat all morning, it took only 5 hours to put 202 fish in the boat.  The steady action on aggressive fish was fueled by the incoming cold front, grey cloud cover, and good breeze.  There were several hundred fish in this school which fed hard for over an hour.

By the time we got to fish number 40, Mike said, “I think that is more fish than the two of us have caught on Belton in our lifetimes, combined!!”.

As often happens when fishing over top of a large school of fish for an extended period of time, during which time feces and regurgitated baitfish sink to the bottom after being voided/vomited by hooked fish, bottom feeders like buffalo, drum, and catfish eventually show up.  This smallmouth buffalo fell for Mike’s slab.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, 07 November 2017

HOW WE FISHED: With Daylight Saving Time now concluded, we began at 6:40a.  I searched shallow water first (under 18 feet) to no avail.  Next, I moved on to some gently sloping terrain on the north side of the lake, where the wind had been impacting up until it shifted in the early hours of the morning.  I found ample schools of white bass in 36-40 feet of water in two separate, but similar, areas.  I “spot hopped” twice at the first area and fished just one hover at the second area.  This yielded 106 fish by 8:50am.  We them moved to the south shore (wind impacted) and found smallish, suspended schools of white bass and short hybrid working bait at 12-20 feet deep over a 34 foot bottom.  A smoking retrieve did the trick for these fish, as it did for the first batch we encountered.  Our final stop of the day came in 49-51 feet of water where the single largest school of fish I’ve observed so far this fall fed and fed and fed, allowing us to take our tally to exactly 202 fish landed before we called it a day at the 5 hour mark around 11:45am.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) No helpful bird action yet.  2) This was very easy pre-frontal fishing with fish activity spurred on by the change of wind and weather.

TALLY: 202 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 11:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 69F and falling throughout the trip thanks to a slow moving cold front easing into the area on a north wind

Water Surface Temp: 70.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: N8, slowly increasing to N13-14 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: 100% thin, grey cloud cover – not quite enough light coming through to force you to squint.

Water Level: 2.15 feet low

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  vic 957 – smoking for aggressive fish, followed by easing when the fish settled down

**Area  2035 – smoking for aggressive fish, followed by easing when the fish settled down

**Area  2034 – smoking with extra handle turns to get the bait to and past suspended fish at 12-20 feet over a 34′ bottom.

**Area  717 – massive school of mixed white bass from 0-3 years, with ~20% short hybrid in the mix

 

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

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

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle