WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Friday, November 10, I conducted the season’s eighth SKIFF trip for Duke Myers, the son of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Maddison Myers, a U.S. Army Air Defense Artilleryman.

Duke’s mom, Kristie, tried to coordinate a trip for her son previously, but weather and schedules prevented back during Duke‘s recent fall break from public school, so, we rescheduled for this Veterans’ Day break by which time Duke‘s dad had returned from his most recent military obligation.  Hence, CW2 Myers was able to join his son this morning.

ABOUT SKIFF:  This fishing trip, like all SKIFF trips, was provided to this military family at no charge.  This program began in May of 2009.  It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with, namely The McBride Foundation and Subaru.  S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing.  SKIFF trips are also provided, free of charge, to Gold Star families who have lost their service member while he or she was on active duty.  In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents are bona fide disabled veterans.  I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Cavazos in Bell County, TX, year ’round.  Call or text 254.368.7411.

Here’s how the fishing went.…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Nov. 14, 15

PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Maddison Myers and his son, Duke, age 9, put up with some raw weather to land 171 fish as this most recent cold front sent the fish into overdrive this morning on Lake Belton.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Friday, 10 November 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

As is often the case when an incoming cold front shifts winds from the north, and while that wind velocity is still on the rise, white bass this morning fed long and hard.

Aside from sustained, late summer topwater fishing, this tends to be the most aggressive feeding scenario white bass display. Indeed, these two fellows with no prior white bass fishing experience, put together a 171 fish catch in just 3.5 hours, and took all of these fish off of just two areas, both in right around 30 feet of water.

Surprisingly, there was no bird action accompanying this aggressive feed.

These fish, just like the hundreds of other fish caught from Lake Belton this week alone, all responded very favorably to a white, 5/8-ounce Hazy Eye Slab fished using a smoking tactic. That tactic is explained in this tutorial video…

SMOKING TUTORIAL

Duke was a real trooper. Our morning started off at 53° and, never rose above 54F thanks to a thick blanket of clouds and a stiff north wind. I know Duke got chilly because his hands were quite red when he took his gloves off to take a final father-and-son photo as we closed out the trip. Despite all that, this nine-year-old young man’s enthusiasm never waned.

Our 171 fish catch consisted of exactly 170 white bass and 1 largemouth bass. I was quite surprised that we had no drum or hybrid stripers in the mix this morning.

TALLY: 171 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:  No bird action this morning for the third morning in a row, despite the presence of ~150 birds roosted along the shoreline at sunrise.  Here was the water temperature profile down to 60′ taken Tuesday, 07 Nov.:

0 feet, 67.4F
5 feet, 67.4F
10 feet, 67.4F
15 feet, 67.4F
20 feet, 67.4F
25 feet, 67.4F
30 feet, 67.1F
35 feet, 66.8F
40 feet, 66.4F
45 feet, 65.9F
50 feet, 64.4F
55 feet, 62.9F
60 feet, 62.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 10:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Elevation: 15.09 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 65.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NW9 at trip’s start increasing to NW15 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover all morning with a fine mist falling all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 8% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas:

Area vic 150 – 150 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0042C – 21  fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, November 9, I fished a rain-shortened trip with first time guests Billy and Betsy Meyerdirk. These long-time Austin residents recently bought property in Morgan’s Point adjacent to Lake Belton, and Billy wanted to get a bit of an introduction to the lake as well as catch fish.

He originally intended to bring a buddy who has treated him to a number of guided trips, but that buddy was not yet sufficiently recovered from some recent surgery, so we got to enjoy the company of Mrs. Betsy, instead.

Here is how the fishing went…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Nov. 14, 15

PHOTO CAPTION:  Billy and Betsy Meyerdirk came to both catch and learn.  Their rain-shortened trip produced 63 fish before a November cold front came and made it feel pretty nautical out there.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Thursday, 09 November 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

As I drove to the boat ramp this morning, there was just the finest bit of mist falling here and there. The air had a heavy, humid, warm feel to it at 71°. A cold front was forecast by everyone, but no one could agree on the arrival time, the rain quantity, nor the wind velocity, so, knowing full well that the fishing is going gangbusters right now, we pressed on.

We got going right at 7 AM with leaden grey skies dimming the already low early morning light level more than usual. We got on fish and got them to perk up and bite by around 7:30 AM and caught well at two locations right up until 9:35 AM when the raindrops got larger and colder, and the wind started to blow increasingly harder from the north.

The fish we found responded well to a smoking tactic as Billy and Betsy used white, 5/8 ounce, Hazy Eye Slabs fished vertically using the smoking tactic detailed here…

SMOKING TUTORIAL

Since one of Billy‘s desires was to understand other tactics used throughout the year, I also spent a short time demonstrating downrigging, demonstrating the sawtooth method, and demonstrating the easing tactic.

As I drove us from our first area to the second and final area we fished, I pointed out a few features about the lake, and the kind of fishing which could be expected through the seasons of the year.

Billy and Betsy stepped off the boat around 9:45 AM. I remained behind and scouted two other areas with sonar, knowing that the fish often get very aggressive on an incoming cold front, despite the uncomfortable conditions. I was able to locate one additional group of fish to keep in the back of my mind for the future.

On this weather-shortened morning, the Meyerdirks managed 63 fish, including 2 short hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 60 white bass. As is typical for this time of year, we had about 50% short fish.

TALLY: 63 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:  No bird action this morning for the second morning in a row, despite the presence of ~200 birds roosted along the shoreline at sunrise.  Here was the water temperature profile down to 60′ taken Tuesday, 07 Nov.:

0 feet, 67.4F
5 feet, 67.4F
10 feet, 67.4F
15 feet, 67.4F
20 feet, 67.4F
25 feet, 67.4F
30 feet, 67.1F
35 feet, 66.8F
40 feet, 66.4F
45 feet, 65.9F
50 feet, 64.4F
55 feet, 62.9F
60 feet, 62.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 9:35A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 71F

Elevation: 15.14 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: WSW3 at trip’s start; NW12 by trip’s end with incoming cold front

Sky Condition: 100% light grey cloud cover all morning with drizzle turning to light rain as the front arrived at 9:35A

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 15% illumination.

GT = 150

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas:

Area vic 1552 – 35 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area vic B0187C – 28  fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, November 7, I’ve fished with a crew assembled by Horizon bank officer Jonathan Briscoe from over at the Horizon Bank branch on Highway 317 north of Belton.

Jonathan brought with him David Clark, Ben Fulcher, and Phillip Jennings. David makes his living as a physician specializing in ear, nose, and throat maladies, Ben works in construction finance, and Phillip works in the tech industry at a data center.

Ben and Phillip share an interest in high-end pyrotechnics and even put on their own legitimate fireworks displays to share with others.  Having been a combat engineer myself, trained in the surgical use of C-4, when it comes to things that go “BOOM!”, I’m in!!  So, I listened intently to their stories about thermite, ignitors, mortar tubes, and more.

Perhaps the most gratifying thing about this trip was that all four men are Christ followers, and that their language, their demeanors, and the topics they chose to discuss, all reflected that well.  Sometimes I wonder about the next generation; today’s trip allayed some of those concerns.

Here is how the fishing went…
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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Nov. 14, 15

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: David Clark, Jonathan Briscoe, Phillip Jennings, and Ben Fulcher with a few of the 2-year class fish they landed over the course of our 4.5 hour morning trip which yielded 241 fish.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Just as Ben (left) asked how to go about telling the difference between a white bass and a hybrid striper, he and David landed one of each simultaneously allowing me to point out the single tooth patch on the back of the white bass’ tongue, and the pair of tooth patches on the tongue of the hybrid (right).

PHOTO CAPTION: For the 2nd day in a row I had a “double” pulled up – two fish striking the same lure at the same time — one on the treble and one on the single stinger.  Nice way to finish the trip, Phillip!

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Tuesday, 07 November 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

We are squarely in the midst of the fantastic fall bite which takes place annually between turnover and the time at which the water temperature falls below 58 to 60°.

Today, we even caught fish during the demo I provide prior to leaving the boat ramp area to search for our first fish of the day!

Once again, there was some light, scattered bird activity in two separate areas, each involving about a dozen gulls, but the fish beneath these birds were suspended and fast-moving. After taking one shot at them, I decided to hunt down more well-grouped and less mobile fish.

We fished five locations, with that span of time between 9 and 10 AM providing the best action of the morning.

Although we had a few sub-legal fish, most of the fish were just over the legal limit of 10 inches. I use the lightest tackle I employ over the course of the entire year at this time of year, knowing that the winter months often produce a lot of smaller fish in this high-numbers fishing scenario.

We had a few remarkable things happen today. The first was spotting the season’s first mature bald eagle. The second was having a “double“ caught, where in Phillip landed two fish on his slab at the same time with one hooked on the treble, and the other hooked on the single stinger hook.

The fishing was very straightforward. I went with my go-to default slab – – the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab  in the white color and in the 5/8 ounce size.  We used a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope, as described here:

Smoking Tutorial

We used that lure from start to finish today and boated a total of 241 fish. This included 4 hybrid striped bass, 3 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, and 232 white bass.

TALLY: 241 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:  This was the 2nd consecutive morning of helpful bird activity I’ve spotted thus far this fall occurred this morning.  Here was the water temperature profile down to 60′ taken Tuesday, 07 Nov.:

0 feet, 67.4F
5 feet, 67.4F
10 feet, 67.4F
15 feet, 67.4F
20 feet, 67.4F
25 feet, 67.4F
30 feet, 67.1F
35 feet, 66.8F
40 feet, 66.4F
45 feet, 65.9F
50 feet, 64.4F
55 feet, 62.9F
60 feet, 62.0F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Elevation: 15.18 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW9 at trip’s start, building to SSW13 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 40% white cloud cover on a blue sky most of the morning

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 30% illumination.

GT = 85

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas:

Area B0105G – 17  fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 717 – 35 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0021C – 101 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0016C – 13 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0066G  73 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Friday, November 3, I invited longtime friend, Jerry Worley of Harker Heights aboard, along with his son-in-law, Nolan Beede, to accompany me on a scouting trip on a Lake Belton.

Thanks to a great amount of environmental change in a very short period of time, the fishes’ locations changed substantially versus where I last made contact with them last Wednesday afternoon.

I have found through the years that a little time invested in scouting will pay great dividends over the following span of time during which we enjoy more stable weather.

Here is how the fishing went.…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Nov. 14, 15

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Nolan Beede and Jerry Worley joined me for a successful scouting trip to locate fish once again after recent heavy rains and a cold snap moved them from their previous locations.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Friday, 03 November 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

The plan today was to do a lot of looking in the Cowhouse Creek arm, the main basin, and the Leon River arm of Lake Belton to figure out where the fish relocated to following the addition of almost 4 feet of water in a very short span of time, accompanied by a 7° water temperature drop during that same span of time.

By the time we wrapped up, I had determined that the fish have now moved shallower, that birds are now present, and that the thermocline has completely disappeared thus leading to fish holding exclusively on bottom.

In my last trip prior to all of this change, I was locating fish between 35 and 40 feet deep. Today, all of the fish we caught came between 25 and 32 feet of water. Our approach was to use sonar to find fish, then limit our catch to about 10-15 fish per area, leave those fish while still biting, and go find additional fish while the morning’s feeding window remained open.

In all, we were able to find fish at 13 locations, and 9 of these produced fish. Again, due to the rapid cool down, I defaulted to the white, 5/8 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab, andcontinued using that as the fish we caught regurgitated shad of that same size as well as shad both larger and smaller.

At each of the locations where we found fish, a smoking retrieve with a default of seven handle turns upwards off the bottom did the trick to draw the fish we initially found, and, once those fish got excited, they began to draw in additional fish. Despite seeing roughly 100 birds on the main lake right around sunrise this morning, we did not follow any bird action to fish, nor did we see any to follow, although I am sure that time is not very far off.

Our tally for the morning was 106 fish which included three hybrid striped bass, one largemouth, bass, six freshwater drum, and 96 white bass.

TALLY: 106 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:  1) ~120 birds present in open water, but no fish found as a result yet.  2) Water temperature profile measured 7:40AM, Friday, 03 November.  At long last, the thermocline has disappeared…

0 feet, 64.9F
5 feet, 66.1F
10 feet, 66.4F
15 feet, 66.4F
20 feet, 66.4F
25 feet, 66.4F
30 feet, 66.4F
35 feet, 66.4F
40 feet, 66.4F
45 feet, 66.4F
50 feet, 66.3F
55 feet, 66.3F
60 feet, 65.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:40A

End Time: 12:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Elevation: 15.44 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 64.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6 at trip’s start, building to SSE12 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 20% white cloud cover on a blue sky, building to 30% by trip’s end

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 68% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas:

B0171G – 3 fish

150 – 11 fish

B0009C – 17 fish

B0011C – 12 fish

B0016C – 10 fish

B0242G – 11 fish

1555 – 7 fish

1151/301 – 13 fish

B0196C/B0196G – 22 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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, October 25, I fished with a crew from the Sun City Rod and Gun Club out of Georgetown, Texas.

Mr. Pat Patterson is the club’s fishing director, and he did a great job of communicating clearly and well in advance to the crew he assembled for this trip so as to make the trip as enjoyable as could be for the three fellows who joined him: Jim Pax, Russ Gibbs, and Bill Domescik.

Everyone had prior fishing experience, including experience with spinning gear, so we were in good shape for the morning. Here is how the fishing went…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Oct. 30, Nov. 2 & 6

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Jim Pax, Russ Gibbs, Pat Patterson, and Bill Domescik, all members of the Sun City Rod and Gun Club, converged on Lake Belton this morning for a 108-fish haul.

PHOTO CAPTION: Jim Pax took our largest fish of the trip, a hybrid striped bass in the 4-pound class.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: the 3/4 oz., 5/8 oz., & 3/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs complete with bladed treble hook and stinger hook will see increasing action as the water cools.  Our fish came on the white 5/8 oz. version this morning as it did the best job of imitating the size of the shad I saw the fish we were catching regurgitate.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Wednesday, 25 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

We had a third consecutive day of rainy, cloudy weather. There were about three 10 to 15 minute spans during the trip when it rained heavily enough to send us grabbing for our rain gear.

With the grey, dim skies at sunrise, the fish were not yet active on the bottom. I moved to a new location to search out some subsurface, low light activity, and was successful in finding just that.

We took nine fish via downrigging right off the bat this morning, including whites, hybrid, and one largemouth bass, before the skies got bright enough to illuminate the deeper water to kick off the fish feed there. I continued downrigging until I saw evidence of fish feeding on the bottom, and once I did, we switched over to a vertical tactic and never looked back.

Given my experience yesterday, finding schooled fish which were heavily congregated on bottom and eating shad roughly 2 inches in length, I stuck with the 5/8 ounce, white, Bladed Hazy Eye Slab instead of going with the larger MAL Lure. I believe this turned out to be a good choice, which put additional fish in the boat, especially given that many of the fish we encountered today were on the small end of the spectrum.

Over the course of the morning, we hit approximately seven deepwater areas and the scenario at each was the same. I spotted fish either with down-imaging or side-imaging, positioned atop them using the Spot-Lock feature on my Minn Kota, then maintained contact with these fish using Garmin LiveScope in downward mode. My four clients were all in the back of the boat so we confined all of the commotion we created to one area. I had them smoke the slabs from bottom upwards for a default amount of seven cranks. The first group of fish we got into allowed us a very quick 42 fish in about as many minutes, but the vast majority of these fish were small.

Feeling that everyone had the gist of the smoking tactic at this point, I offered that we could continue right on doing what we were doing, or roll the dice and hope to find larger fish in other locations.  This works out about 30% of the time. Everyone put their heads together and agreed they’d like to go after larger white bass, so we moved routinely, and all of the areas we went to produced at least a few fish larger than all of the fish we caught at that first area.

By the time noon rolled around, we had just eclipsed the 100 fish mark and took the count to 108 before the fish finally gave up the ghost.

Our tally of 108 fish included 1 largemouth bass, 5 hybrid striped bass, 8 freshwater drum, and 94, white bass of which about 45% were legal.

TALLY: 108 fish caught and released.

OBSERVATIONS:  Water temperature profile measured 7:10AM, Monday, 23 Oct.  Although much slower to disappear this year thanks to prolonged heating, we’re finally seeing the thermocline disappear…

0 feet, 73.4F
5 feet, 73.3F
10 feet, 73.3F
15 feet, 73.3F
20 feet, 73.1F
25 feet, 72.8F
30 feet, 71.7F
35 feet, 71.6F
40 feet, 70.7F
45 feet, 69.0F
50 feet, 64.5F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 12:10P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 19.37 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 73.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-15 all morning

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with scattered, occasional, brief, light rain over the 4 hour trip

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 85% illumination.

GT = 125

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic B0171G – downrigging for 9 fish

Areas 717/0005 (42 fish), B0094C (5 fish), BDH010 in 42′ (14 fish), 0151 (18 fish in 2 hops), and B0240G (20 fish) for a total of 99 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Tuesday, October 24, I fished with returning guest, Mostafa Kassem. Mostafa fished with me once before during the summer months and returned today with a friend, Bobby Nkemka, to experience some fall fishing.

We truly had a multi-national fishing force assembled this morning — Mostafa was born in Egypt, Bobby was born in Nigeria, and I was born right here in the USA ; the two became friends, are both accountants in the construction industry, and both enjoy experiencing new things.  Bobby enjoyed his time on the water so much, he made mention of bringing his girlfriend out in the future.

Bobby had never been aboard a boat before, and had also never caught a fish before in his life; all that would change this morning

Here is how our morning went.…

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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Oct. 26 & 30, Nov. 2 & 6

PHOTO CAPTION:  Bobby Nkemka had never caught a fish before this morning’s 101-fish haul on Lake Belton.  He made up for lost time!

PHOTO CAPTION: Mostafa had fished with me once before, but in summer-time conditions over on Stillhouse, so he got some exposure to a different reservoir and to some different tactics this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: This is what took 99 of our 101 fish this morning … the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab. Mostafa and Bobby used the white, 5/8 oz. version to match the 3/4-grown shad the white bass were regurgitating.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Tuesday, 24 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

The rainy weather we experienced yesterday, thanks to bands of rain spinning off of a Pacific low pressure system off of Mexico’s west coast, continued this morning.  We have rain in the forecast for at least the next few days.

With the skies so grey, I opted to downrig for starters, but, the population of fish I’d been on for such a long time now for that early morning bite has now really thinned out. We wound up only taking one fish and losing another on the downriggers before some temporary thinning in the clouds allowed enough light to come through that I felt it appropriate to begin looking for heavily schooled fish in deep water on bottom.

I struck out at the first area I searched, but more than made up for it after finding fish at a second area.

That school of fish was large enough and stayed aggressive enough long enough to allow us a 99 fish catch from one Spot-Locked position over a three hour span.

For simplicity‘s sake with Bobby being brand new, and with the gusty winds blowing a minimum of 14 making things a bit challenging on boat handling, I chose to go with a smoking tactic using Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs in white color to tempt these heavily-concentrated, bottom-oriented fish

This smoking tactic seems pretty simple on its face, but there are definitely nuances which up your chances of success. The two nuances I focused on with Mostafa and Bobby were those of retrieve speed and retrieve smoothness. For speed, I simply gave them an example while they reeled up their lures at the same speed I did, as I provided them with a demonstration. I demonstrated retrieve smoothness in the same manner, and then also showed them how to identify when their retrieve was not as smooth as necessary by telling them what to look for in their own rod tip as they reeled.

As both men got the hang of reeling smoothly and quickly from the bottom upward, their success rate increased exponentially.

It is pretty rare to put together an entire trip on one location and at just one anchorage on that location, but that is exactly what happened today. If such a thing is going to happen, it will typically be between now and the middle of December, or sometime in late-April to early May, the two truly peak seasons of the white bass fishing annual cycle.

Our 101 fish catch included for drum and 97 white bass.

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released.

Find the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:  Water temperature profile measured 7:10AM, Monday, 23 Oct.  Although much slower to disappear this year thanks to prolonged heating, we’re finally seeing the thermocline disappear…

0 feet, 73.4F
5 feet, 73.3F
10 feet, 73.3F
15 feet, 73.3F
20 feet, 73.1F
25 feet, 72.8F
30 feet, 71.7F
35 feet, 71.6F
40 feet, 70.7F
45 feet, 69.0F
50 feet, 64.5F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 12:00 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Elevation: 19.34 feet low, 47 CFS flow ( a 0.02-foot rise)

Water Surface Temp: 73.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE11-15 all morning

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with scattered, occasional rain 8:45 to 10:45

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 76% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Area vic B0233G – downrigging for 1 fish

Area 717 – 99 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0239G – 1 fish smoking an MAL Heavy after the bite was over

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)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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