2019 Fishing Reports | Fishing Report

FISHIN’ WITH THE FATHER-IN-LAW — 153 @ BELTON

November 1st, 2019November 1st, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, November 1st, 2019, I fished with returning guest Oscar Leal of Georgetown, and his son-in-law, Kevin Garlick, of Round Rock. This was Oscar’s third trip with me this year; he was accompanied by his good friend Dwight Stone on his first two trip’s out with me.

Oscar, after retiring, went back to work at AMD in south Austin where he does product testing on the hardware side of the house. Kevin is in sales for a national company focused on various forms of security systems.

If the weather cooperates, we hope to get Kevin’s kids (Oscar’s grandkids) out on the water next weekend. As an incentive, Kevin took some live video of the Garmin LiveScope in action. Evidently the kids are into the new VR (virtual reality) gaming, and, according to Kevin, the LiveScope is even better than VR!

With the water temperature falling through the white bass’ preferred temperature range of 62-74F (my observation), the action is really hot and heavy right now. If there is a downside, it is that there are simply a lot of small fish in the system right now. For every 10-12 fish caught, only 1 will be of a legal size (10+ inches). The action, however is incredible, and the bycatch of largemouth, drum, hybrid, and catfish keeps things interesting, as well.

PHOTO CAPTION: We had to put a bunch of fish in the boat to come up with enough keepers to do a photo to commemorate the trip, but, the action was non-stop this morning after the returning southerly wind began to blow just after 8:30. Every one of the 153 fish we landed this morning came on a tailspinner. That’s Kevin Garlick on the left and Oscar Leal on the right.

PHOTO CAPTION: We took a few freshwater drum and one hybrid striper as bycatch today.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 01 November 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: With the days now short and cold, there is really no need to be out on the water before sunrise. We met up at 7:30 and still had plenty of time to go over admin, safety, techniques, and pray before we took off after fish. We waited through a fishless hour while the winds were just barely rippling the surface. At 8:39 we landed our first fish, and from that point on it was near continuous catching for the rest of the morning. As the wind speed rose, the intensity of the bite rose with it. As evidence of this, we put a final 51 fish in the boat in the last 45 minutes we spent on the water, from 11:30 to 12:15. Prior to that, we’d boated 102 between the start of the bite at 8:39 and departing for our last fishing area around 11:30.

We landed 5 drum, 1 legal hybrid striped bass, and 147 white bass. Every last fish came on a smoked tailspinner fished at a moderate cadence. There is no other way to put it — there are just a lot of small white bass in Belton’s “system” right now. No matter what I try or where I go, I know I’m going to have to sift through 6-12 short white bass before landing one of substance. There is a definite gap between the smallest fish, which max out around 8.75 inches, and the next year class which stretches to just over 12 inches. It is my theory that because we have a lot of small bait (thanks to a very successful shad spawn this spring), all the white bass are mixed together. If there were an abundance of larger shad which this year’s crop of white bass would be too small to consume, there might be more segregation between year classes. I don’t really have a way to test this, nor does it really matter. Regardless, the action is great!

TALLY: 153 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: We experienced our first frost overnight last night. As I drove to the lake between 6:30 and 7:00am, the temperatures in the low spots reached as cool as 24F

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:40A

End Time: 12:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 29F

Elevation: 2.24 feet low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 64.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE2-3 until 8:30, then coming up rapidly to SSE12 until 10, then leveling off at SSE9-10

Sky Conditions: Clear blue skies until around 9:30, then slowly building to 30% thin white cloud cover

GT = 25

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas 2055, 1740, 1398, vic 327, and 1916 were all loaded down with bottom-hugging white bass

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

AGGIES ABOARD!!!! – 100 FISH @ (CHILLY) LAKE BELTON

October 30th, 2019November 1st, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This cold, rainy morning I welcomed aboard friends who came to know one another while part of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets — Doug Blackwell and Grant Olbrich. The men were in the same unit at A&M and have remained friends through the years.

Doug and his wife live in Killeen where Doug works in the pawn business. Grant and his wife now live in the China Springs area near Waco, following Grant’s retirement as a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, as well as from Delta Airlines where he worked as a pilot.

Both fellows are godly men, so the conversation today was encouraging and good-natured, despite the inclement weather. Grant recounted how his grandfather, who resided in Westphalia and Temple, taught him to fish on Lake Belton, so it was a bit sentimental to return to the lake many years later. Sadly, Doug lost his dad exactly 50 years ago on this date when he was only 6 years old. Both fellows had fond memories of catfishing as they were growing up. In fact, Grant shared that he proposed to his wife over a jason jar full of stinkbait!

PHOTO CAPTION: That’s Grant on the left and Doug on the right. Between Grant’s red hands and nose and Doug’s gritted teeth, you can bet it was chilly out there today. NOAA showed a windchill factor of 39F for the entirety of the trip. I suppose those Aggies just weren’t going to be outlasted by a West Pointer, though!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 30 October 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Due to the short day length and heavy cloud cover, we really didn’t have enough light to see well until around 7:35am. Additionally, there was much “sea smoke” as the lake gave up surface heat and created a mist at the surface which was patchy in nature and which was blown by the wind.

We found white bass in three distinct areas this morning, putting exactly 50 fish in the boat at our first stop (vic 1177), including 1 drum, 1 hybrid, 1 largemouth bass, and 47 white bass (BA). We moved on after catching these 50 fish, as the majority of the white bass were smallish. Thus far this season, moving to leave small fish in hopes of finding larger ones really hasn’t paid off, but, it never will if I don’t experiment now and then, and both Doug and Grant were okay with the move.

We moved to our second area and put another 18 fish in the boat, including 1 drum, 1 hybrid, and 16 white bass. The “keeper to short fish ratio” was a bit better here, so we were glad we made the move.

As these fish settled down, I let the fellows know we could move again and do more of the same vertical work with tailspinners, or, make an attempt at drawing some catfish action. Since both fellows had grown up fishing for cats, this appealed to them, so, off we went in pursuit of catfish. We chummed them in and then caught them with prepared baits in about 32 feet of water. It was interesting to note that of the 14 cats we landed today, half were channels and half were blues, with all of the blues coming early in our stop with the channels following. As the catfish bite slowed, our tally was at 82 fish landed. I offered that we could hit one more area for white bass to round out our day’s catch at right at 100 fish, then head in so the fellows could pay a visit to Mr. Dirk Miller over at Miller’s Smokehouse in Belton before parting ways.

We looked at two areas, finding no fish home at the first, and then plenty of white bass holding at the top of a breakline which began in 25 feet of water. We worked our trusty tailspinners, but a final 18 fish in the boat, and as we did, Doug hooked his lure onto the largest guide on the rod and sat down, readying himself for the final boatride to lunch.

TALLY: 100 fish caught and released (BA = 12G x 2)

OBSERVATIONS: (BA = 12G x 2) 1) Yesterday’s scouting certainly paid off. The fish I found yesterday did the same things at the same times and in the same places this morning, thus letting us do much more catching than fishing. 2) The lake has now turned over. There was no sulphuric odor coming over the dam yesterday morning, and, today, when I did a temperature profile at 5-foot increments down to 60 feet, the water was a uniform 68.6F from top to bottom.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:40A

End Time: 12:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Elevation: 2.12 feet low, 0.00′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW11-12 for the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Heavy grey, rainy skies

GT = 50

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1177 – whites

**Area triangulated by B0098C/2055/2054 – whites

**Area B0173C – catfish

**Area vic 1815 – whites

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

OUT SCOUTING WITH THE OLD TIMERS — 45 FISH @ BELTON

October 29th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This cold, rainy morning I went out for about 3 hours scouting on Lake Belton and invited along two Belton Lake old-timers — retired fishing guide George O’Connor, and long-time multispecies angler Rodney Tyroch. Mr. O sold his boat last year and Rodney and I wanted to make sure he still gets to wet a line now and then, so, when I made plans to check out some areas I’ve yet to fish so far in this cool season, I invited them along to help me in the scouting effort. When it comes to white bass and hybrid in the cool months, the more lines in the water creating commotion, the better.

Mr. O’Connor is a first generation American. His dad came from the “Old Country” (Ireland) and worked until he died at age 75. George is a Vietnam veteran who served in-country as a military policeman after doing a prior enlistment in a US Signal Corps military occupational specialty.

Rodney was born and raised on an east Bell County farm by Czech parents and grandparents, and started his own plumbing business, among other things, at a young age.

Both men are good friends, have helped me tremendously since I was just in my 20’s and all through the years as I was building my business. They’ve both come to “see the light” on catch-and-release, and have great stories to tell every time we’re on the water together.

PHOTO CAPTION: That’s George O’Connor, age 81, on the left in his trademark snowmobile suit, and Rodney Tyroch, age 68, on the right. We found 0, 1, 2, and 3 year class white bass, short hybrids, and drum all mixed together and all feeding on shad about 2.5″ in length, spread over a 200-yard areas and feeding in a way they typically do in cool-water conditions.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 29 October 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: We did more driving and sonar reading this morning than fishing, stopping only when the configuration of fish showing on bottom looked to be a sure bet. We stopped three times and caught fish at two of those stops. The first stop was for a small patch of small fish in just 17′, we caught fish immediately after dropping down, landed 3, and the action was over. Later, we found a widespread group of mixed fish (whites, hybrid, drum) feeding from bottom in 37′, all the way up to the surface, occasionally seeing a fish swipe in the chop.

We used a combinations of slabs and tailspinners to land another 42 fish, with several others getting off as George and Rodney worked through the learning curve of working tailspinners on braided line.

By 10:30, Mr. O was getting cold, and when Rodney mentioned an early lunch at China Cafe, that just sealed the deal. We reeled ’em in and headed for the ramp very satisfied that we’d found and caught fish under some tough conditions.

TALLY: 45 fish caught and released (BA = 24G)

OBSERVATIONS: (BA = 24G) The fish behaved in a manner very typical of cool water fish in that they fed throughout the water column with a majority of the fish in the lower third. No real response to the thumper yet. Fish did respond to a snap-jigging tactic, an easing tactic, and a smoking tactic. Up until today, the smoking was about the only way I’ve had very consistent success. I experimented with slabs, comparing performance side-by-side (literally) with tailspinners. The tailspinners performed more consistently still, but, I suspect that trend will reverse as the water continues to cool.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 10:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation: 2.12 feet low, 0.01′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW13 at obscured sunrise and for 1 hour thereafter, then scaling back to NW9

Sky Conditions: Heavy grey, rainy skies

GT = N/A

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic B0117C – 3 white bass

**Area triangulated by B0098C/2055/2054 – mixed bag of 42 fish

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

POST-FRONTAL NEAR MISS – 136 FISH @ BELTON

October 27th, 2019October 27th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday I fished with the leadership team of Real Star Property Management LLC — Eli and Isaac Schlabach and Brandon Griffith. This was the crew’s third trip with me, in addition to a sonar training I did with Eli and Isaac back this past summer.

The fellows originally scheduled near back-to-back trips in late summer this year, so, instead of doing the same thing twice, I suggested they delay their second trip so as to allow me to introduce them to cool weather tactics. Fortunately, this panned out well yesterday.

This makes the third time now we’ve had a significant cold front blow through in which the day after the front’s passage we’ve still had sufficient winds from a northerly direction to move the water, versus the often still conditions that can be a part of post-frontal weather. Although the clear, dry, cold “bluebird” skies still existed, the wind trumped all of that and allowed us to keep right on catching fish today, and with very sparse traffic on the lake thanks to the 45F pre-sunrise temperatures and brisk breeze which created a wind chill

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Isaac Schlabach, Brandon Griffith, and Eli Schlabach, each with a pair of white bass taken on tailspinners in 25-28 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: Brandon had become accustomed to the smaller whites we were catching when this just-legal hybrid took ahold of his presentation.

PHOTO CAPTION: Eli took this nice specimen of a drum. Drum haven’t made up a large part of my catch lately because I haven’t really been using slabs much with the water still in the 70’s. That’ll all be changing real soon.

PHOTO CAPTION: Isaac took this drum on a tailspinner. The fish, which we watched chase and strike the lure on Garmin LiveScope, came about 15 feet off bottom, following the lure before catching up to it and taking it.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 26 October 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: We fished this trip in 3 distinct segments. Just before, during, and after sunrise we downrigged in 20-25 feet of water for schooled and moving white bass cruising along the bottom just 0 to 4 feet off bottom in pursuit of shad. 3-armed umbrella rigs with Pet Spoons did the trick on these fish, giving up singles, doubles, and two sets of triples, yielding a total of 23 fish before that fishery shut down with the rising, brightening sun. I believe the days of shallow forays at dawn up into the 12-15 foot range will probably disappear with the chill brought on by this cold front.

Next, we sought out schools of tightly congregated white bass holding on slow-sloping terrain which we targeted with a smoking tactic using tailspinners. The fish we found this morning were a good 5-8 feet shallower than where we’d left them under Thursday’s pre-frontal conditions. 25-28 feet of water produced well this morning for another 74 fish, including white bass, hybrid striped bass, and a few drum. Our tally now stood at 97 fish by about 10:45am.

Our last effort targeted blue catfish. Strangely enough, the blues we found this morning were in the deepest water I’ve found them in throughout my blue cat experimentation this season — around 47 feet. We chummed ’em in and caught ’em up — 39 catfish in all, with a few channels amongst the blues.

TALLY: 136 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 1) On 12, 22, and 26 October Belton continued producing well after a cold front’s passage thanks to continuing winds from a northerly direction at 9-12 mph. 2) The white bass we found this morning were a good 5-8 feet shallower than where we’d left them under Thursday’s pre-frontal conditions. 25-28 feet of water produced well. 3) The blues we found this morning were in the deepest water I’ve found them in throughout my blue cat experimentation this season — around 47 feet.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation: 1.94 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 71.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW12 at sunrise and steady for the entire morning

Sky Conditions: Bluebird skies

GT = 25

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 812 was center of mass for downrigging effort – 23 fish

**Areas vic 327, vic 1827, and vic 1678 all gave up white bass on smoked tailspinners – 74 fish

**Area B0115C – 39 catfish

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

PRE-FRONTAL FRENZY – 284 FISH @ BELTON

October 26th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday I fished a full day trip with Randy and Patti Vines of Lubbock, Texas. The Vines are a retired couple who love to fish and do a good bit of traveling inside the state of Texas fishing for all different species of fish in all seasons and conditions, sometimes with guides, and sometimes on their own. Randy retired from working at a power plant and Patti retired from certified public accountant work.

I offer full day trips October through February when the days are cooler and shorter, and when the midday lull between the morning bite and the afternoon bite is also short.

Due to the incoming cold front, which was forecast for the afternoon, we fished a long morning trip (5.5 hours versus 4 hours) and then fished from 2:00 to 5:50pm, with an off-the-water lunch break in between.

The Vines originally scheduled 2 full days of fishing, but the incoming cold front saw to it that Friday’s effort would not come to be, thanks to straight-line winds over 20mph all day, with gusts to 30mph.

PHOTO CAPTION: Randy is a good sport and secure in his manhood! I’ll bet not 2 in 100 men would let me take a photo with their wife holding a bigger fish than the one they caught. Nice catch, Patti!! I will say that Randy was not grinning as widely as Mrs. Pat as this photo was snapped.

PHOTO CAPTION: We had to sift through a bunch of this year’s crop of white bass to catch keepers, but the action was strong and steady and the chance of getting an nice white bass was there all day, from sun-up until the weather drove us off the lake.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 24 October 2019, Full day

HOW WE FISHED:

MORNING PORTION: In the morning, we started off downrigging before the obscured sunrise. We put a total of 23 fish in the boat using 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons chosen to match forage size. Although a few fish went up shallow during this low-light feed, most hung back in 20-25 feet of water.

After the downrigging ended, we spent the remainder of the morning vertical jigging with tailspinners used in a smoking-style retrieve. We hit only two areas, both in 30-35 feet of water. The first gave up 50 fish including white bass and hybrid stripers; the second area gave up 77 fish, all of which were white bass. With the water temperature still in the low 70’s, the fish were chasing long and hard. We concluded the morning portion of our trip after landing our 150th fish.

AFTERNOON PORTION: We got back on the water at 2pm, mainly so I could be sure to give the Vines a full 8 hours of fishing if the weather turned bad before sunset (which it did). For variety’s sake, we started the afternoon gunning for bluecat using chum to bring the fish in after finding them on sonar, and using prepared baits to catch them. We landed 28 fish in 42 feet of water before the bite slacked off. We then got right back on the white bass with tailspinners, catching fish right up until the cold front hit. During this time we hit two more areas, the first and second in 30-35 feet of water and the second in 27 feet of water. All three areas were somewhat wind-sheltered (even though the wind was not blowing all that hard), and, as the pressure began to change in advance of the cold front’s arrival, gamefish began to get extremely active, chasing shad to the surface and throughout the entire water column. Our last area fished gave up a final 60 fish in only about 40 minutes’ time.

When the winds went calm we could see eerie black clouds out toward Gatesville and we knew it was time to go. We ran back in and, as I pulled the boat onto the trailer the north wind began to blow. By the time I stowed my gear and got on the road to head home, the temperature had dropped from 76F to 57F. By the time I made it home it was pouring, blowing, and dark.

TALLY: 284 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: If I could have custom-ordered a set of autumn weather conditions, the conditions we had today would be it. We had manageable winds with a southerly component all day, we had light grey cloud cover all day, and we had a front move in, thus allowing us to enjoy that pre-frontal uptick in activity in the hour or so before the wind-shift.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 5:50P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 1.94 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE10-11 all day until 5:30P, then going calm before the front hit, then blowing NNW20+ as the front hit right at 6PM

Sky Conditions: Overcast grey skies all day

GT = 25

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1882 downrigging for 6 whites

**Area 1177 to B0119C for 70 whites/hybrid

**Area vic B0178C for 8 catfish

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

2 GUIDES, 2 GALS, 2 DAYS – 314 FISH

October 25th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday and Wednesday, Rebecca and I welcomed to Texas and into our home Matt & Annette Langford of Queensland, Australia. Matt was our fishing guide back in February when we fished Lakes Borumba and Somerset in pursuit of Australian bass.

Matt and Annette took a several weeks long “holiday” to the US, beginning in Atlanta, going as far north as the Canadian Rockies near Banff, and as far west as Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, taking in more of America than most Americans ever see. That holiday will close out on the waters of Lake Hartwell in South Carolina, as Matt, the 2019 B.A.S.S. Angler of Year for Australia, competes in the B.A.S.S. Bass Nation event against competitors from other nations.

Much as I desired to do in Australia, Matt desired to learn new tactics and catch a variety of species while plying the waters of Lake Belton with me.

Annette, now 28 weeks pregnant, took an easier approach to Texas, sleeping in, going for walks, joining us for meals, and joining us for a short evening trip on our final day of fishing.

PHOTO CAPTION: It just wouldn’t be right to have Australia’s representative to BASS Nation fish with me and not put him on a largemouth! Matt took this nice 4.50 pound fish on Lake Belton this past Wednesday morning in 32 feet near some sparse timber.

PHOTO CAPTION: Matt was “keen” to land many species using a variety of tactics. We put down livebaits for hybrid and black bass, while soaking some cutbaits for larger catfish and drum.

PHOTO CAPTION: The next species we scratched off the list was a blue catfish.

PHOTO CAPTION: Matt (right) found many of our open water tactics used for white bass were very similar to the tactics he employs for Australian bass. That’s my brother, Andy, who joined us for Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning’s trips.

PHOTO CAPTION: My brother, Andy, came up with the best hybrid of the 2-day effort on Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: After a great lunch at Miller’s Smokehouse in Belton, my wife, Rebecca (in pink) and Matt’s wife, Annette, joined us for a 2-hour afternoon outing on Wednesday. The girls boated 79 fish, including 50 white bass and 29 catfish (both blues and channels).

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 22-23 October 2019, Full day both days

HOW WE FISHED:

TUESDAY MORNING SUMMARY: We had post-frontal conditions forecast today after a mild cold front moved through on Monday. This morning’s trip was the one that had me concerned, but, instead of a light northerly breeze under 4 (which was forecast), we instead enjoyed a 12 mph NW blow which allowed for a solid morning’s result. We began the morning downrigging, taking 6 solid white bass on 3-armed umbrella rigs before the cloudless sky was bright enough to allow us to find biting fish congregated in deeper water. Once we found heavily schooled white bass and hybrid stripers in deep water, mainly relying on pre-FishReveal Lowrance DownScan technology to do so, it was game-on. We sat in one area for about 2 hours and put an easy 70 fish in the boat as I introduced Matt to the use of Garmin LiveScope for vertical jigging (he uses LiveScope, but primarily for horizontal casting). We capped of the morning with a bit of blue catfishing just for grins, and landed 8 catfish, thus adding to Matt’s “species list”. We wrapped up the morning trip with 84 fish landed, then broke for lunch. 84 fish caught and released.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON SUMMARY: On Tuesday afternoon, we added my brother, Andy, to the mix and once again pursued heavily schooled white bass in deep water with vertical tactics, relying on my own tailspinners to do the heavy lifting. We were gunning for numbers this evening and even though the majority of the fish were small, we still landed some solid white bass. We hit five distinct areas, stayed at each around 30-40 minutes, and picked up between 13 and 24 fish at each before the fish lost interest. At and just beyond sunset, we headed up shallow; I used Humminbird Side Imaging to locate shallow schools of white bass moving up to gorge on shad one last time before dark in 12-15 feet of water. We threw Cicada bladebaits to these fish and landed a final 15 fish to bring our evening’s total to 101 fish landed. 101 fish caught and released.

WEDNESDAY MORNING SUMMARY: On Wednesday morning, we shifted gears, got out on the water well before sunrise and threw the castnet for shad, catching about 120 baits to use in the pursuit of hybrid. I gave Matt and Andy a disclaimer that I normally do not use shad nor target hybrid stripers specifically this time of year. The idea was to give Matt some exposure to yet another tactic and, perhaps, land a few hybrid. Beginning at sunrise, we put in 3 hours fishing livebaits on tightlines and picked up a total of 20 fish. There is no doubt the average fish we took on bait were larger than the average we had taken on artificials, but, our fish count also dropped. We landed several largemouth bass, several drum, several blue catfish, a few mature white bass, and one hybrid striper. In our last hour, we changed up and targeted very cooperative bluecat, as my brother had never fished for bluecat using the tactics I’ve been honing since the summer, and, Matt wanted to refine his hookset speed to see if he could up his strike-to-land ratio over Tuesday morning’s results. We put 30 catfish in the boat in our final hour on the water before we broke for lunch. 50 fish caught and released.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SUMMARY: After a great Texas lunch at Miller’s Smokehouse, complete with a goody-tray of burnt ends which Dirk Miller treated us to, we were back at it by around 3:30pm for a shorter trip which included me, Matt, Rebecca, and Annette. We split the trip between vertical work for whites in the first half and prepared bait fishing for catfish in the last half. We came of the water for the final time with 50 white bass and 29 catfish landed. 79 fish caught and released.

TALLY: 314 fish caught and released over the 2-day effort (185 on Tuesday, and 134 on Wednesday)

OBSERVATIONS: No real surprises on the water over these past two days. Shad were easier to net than I thought they might be; we found them suspended at 8 to 22 feet in open water and netted 120 with no problem. Additionally, Tuesday morning’s results were better than I anticipated in that this was forecast to be a typical post-frontal day with bright skies, calm winds, and cold temperatures. Although it was only 46F as the day began, the NW wind was still pushing at 10-12 before and during sunrise, then continued with enough velocity of put a chop on the water all morning, thus allowing for a very productive outing.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

DAY ONE AM

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Elevation: 1.92 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 74.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW11 at trip’s start, falling off to NW6-7 by 9:00A and staying there the remainder of the trip.

Sky Conditions: Bluebird skies

DAY ONE PM

Start Time: 3:30P

End Time: 7:00P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Elevation: 1.92 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NE6-7 the entire afternoon

Sky Conditions: Bluebird skies

DAY TWO AM

Start Time: 5:15A (early start to net bait)

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F

Elevation: 1.94 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8 all morning

Sky Conditions: Bluebird skies

DAY TWO PM

Start Time: 3:30P

End Time: 5:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 84F

Elevation: 1.94 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8 at trip’s start, falling off to SE5 by 9:00A and staying there the remainder of the trip.

Sky Conditions: 30% white clouds on blue sky

GT = N/A

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

DAY ONE AM

**Area vic 1882 downrigging for 6 whites

**Area 1177 to B0119C for 70 whites/hybrid

**Area vic B0178C for 8 catfish

DAY ONE PM

**Areas 1000, 1819/2027, 2050, B0121C, 382/691 – deep vertical work for whites on tailspinners

**Area 526 – a final 15 fish on blades up shallow in low-light conditions

DAY TWO AM

**Area vic 1854, vic 1819, and vic 1936 – live bait for a mixed bag of fish

**Area 1909 – catfish

DAY TWO PM

**Area 387 and B0181C for white bass

**Area B0178C for catfish

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

FISHING AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE — 97 FISH @ BELTON

October 15th, 2019 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, October 15th, I fished with returning guests Oscar Leal and Dwight Stone, both of Georgetown.

You may recall Oscar is on his seventh career after retiring approximately 6 times now, and currently works at AMD in Austin, and Dwight recently retired after owning a string of Sonic restaurants.

PHOTO CAPTION: Dwight Stone landed his personal best smallmouth bass today on Lake Belton. As we jigged vertically for white bass, we heard and saw some near-shore commotion. As it turned out, a mix of largemouth and smallmouth bass were feeding on shad, pinning them against the surface under abundant cloud cover.

PHOTO CAPTION: The staple of our trip was white bass, which we caught on downrigged spoons, on vertically presented tailspinners, and on slabs.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: 15 October 2019, AM

HOW WE FISHED: I was excited about our prospects this morning based on the weather forecast (shown below). That forecast, however, did not materialize. Instead of a SW wind, we had a SE wind; instead of 10mph breeze, we had 5-8 mph breezes; and, instead of 75% cloud cover, we had very thick, 100% cloud cover. The fish were just noticeably sluggish this morning. I noted that not nearly as many fish came up to feed shallow this morning, only a few very active individuals rose upward in the water column to take our downrigged baits early on, and then the slabs we offered were typically refused in favor of smaller, more heavily vibrating tailspinners.

We downrigged from first light until the fish dictated we do something different, resulting in just 19 fish during the low-light period. As the wind backed off from 8 to 5 mph, getting a deep-water bite going was also a bit of a challenge. Fish would fire up, then cool off, then a few more would fire up, then the school would cool off again.

We saw a noticeable preference for tailspinners which, over the summer, have become a ‘new favorite’ for white bass in tough conditions. We worked on white bass through 10:15 AM, then left ourselves an hour plus to specifically pursue blue catfish, per Dwight’s request. We wrapped up the white bass fishing with 71 fish landed, including 2 hybrid stripers, 3 smallmouth bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 65 white bass in the 0-2 year classes. All but the largemouth and smallmouth came on gentle slopes in 28-33 feet of water.

I expressed my concerns about ‘leaving fish to find fish’ to Dwight and Oscar, giving them an illustration trying to draw a parallel between this and an ill patient leaving the hospital against medical advice. They assured me they were okay with leaving active white bass behind, so, in pursuit of blue catfish we went. This morning we caught far more catfish on bottom than we did while fishing with our baits suspended. I experimented with my new pink doughbait formula, and it worked very well. We were typically able to get at least two powerful hooksets per bait. We still relied on chum to consolidate fish that were already present, as seen on sonar. We landed 26 catfish, including 3 channel cats and 23 blue cats.

TALLY: 97 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:50A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 1.78 feet low, 0.02′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8 at trip’s start, falling off to SE5 by 9:00A and staying there the remainder of the trip.

Sky Conditions: 100% grey cloud cover for the entirety of the trip, with several brief periods of rainfall

GT = 55

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1805 – center of mass for downrigging; 19 fish

**Area 1666/1909 – sluggish white bass in 28′

**Area vic 1819 – sluggish white bass in 30′

**Area vic 1815 – white bass in 32′

**Area B0178C – catfish

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)