This past Tuesday morning I fished with Ethen and Alex Wells of Temple, accompanied by their mom, Sabrina.

Alex set the tone for our 114 fish trip with a triple on the very first downrigger set we put down this morning.

Just past the mid-point of our trip, we found some deep white bass in the lower fourth of the water column and got them worked up into a frenzy, allowing for a catch of over 50 fish from an area the size of my boat.  Ethen shows one of the 2-year class fish common in this congregation of fish.

Both boys had prior fishing experience and were both capable with spinning gear. Most of their prior efforts had been made casting from the bank. Before we shoved off from the courtesy dock, I went over how to hold and reel a baitcaster – – the kind of reels I use for downrigging, and how to hold and cast a spinning rod in case we ran into fish feeding on top water.

A very light easterly wind continued today with about 30% cloud cover on an otherwise fair sky. These near-calm conditions made for excellent sighting of any fish breaking the surface. Several minutes before the sun rose, I saw individual white bass dimpling the surface in a fairly small patch of water and, after seeing suspended fish down around the 20 foot mark on sonar in the same vicinity, decided we would attempt downrigging to start the day.

As I put the first downrigger down and explain to the boys how to do so in order that they could rig up their own downrigger for the remainder of the trip, we got Alex’s rod down and his rod went off with a triple before we could even get Ethen’s rod in the water. Over the next 25 minutes we landed 22 fish including three sets of triples and a number of doubles and singles. To satisfy the boys’ bent for competition, Sabrina “kept score” of how many fish each boy caught by using her cell phone as a counter.  All of these fish came on my summertime favorite – – a three armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons. These Pet Spoons do a very good job of imitating the young of the year shad so prevalent in the white bass diet right now.

After this area settled down, we moved to deeper water and began seeking out large schools of fish that we could hover over top of and jig for. We made one stop over a fairly sparse school of deep white bass and I hoped we could get them to coalesce beneath us using the thumper and by creating our own commotion by jigging, but, that did not pan out. After going back to downrigging for a bit in order to cover water and catch fish as we did so, we found a nice school of fish in the lower 7 feet of the water column in about 54 feet of water.

Using the Spot Lock function on the Minn Kota Ulterra, we hovered right over top of these fish and they stayed put long enough for us to get our first presentation of slabs down to them. Once the first fish was hooked, the school went on a frenzy. We sat over top of these fish and put 53 in the boat over about an hour’s time.

Eventually these fish played out and we returned to downrigging only to mop up a few more fish in the same general area before it became clear this bite was over. On the now glassy, calm surface, there were no baitfish nor gamefish apparent whatsoever.

Knowing that our most likely option for success from this point forward would be downrigging, and knowing that the boys had already done a good bit of that, I offered that we could pursue sunfish up in the shallows given that was a skill they could immediately apply to make their own bank fishing efforts more successful. The boys seemed genuinely interested in doing this, so, we headed up shallow to cover-filled water to pursue sunfish.  Up to this point the boys’ fish totals stayed “neck-and-neck”, but Alex got his mojo on when it came to sunfish…

We used slip float rigs on poles baited with worms and very quickly took our count from 75 fish to a final tally of 114 fish as the boys very handily got the hang of using poles to present our finesse offerings to sunfish of various species.

As we wrapped up our efforts right around 10:15, Sabrina commented that a trip to Academy for sunfish poles was most likely in their very near future!

TALLY: 114 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp: 83.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: E0-3

Sky Conditions: Low grey cloud bank in the east obscured sunrise, but once sun cleared that, ~30% cloud cover

Water Level: 0.30 feet high and slowly rising; 0 cfs release at dam

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 337-252 – downrigging for 22 fish

**Area 1954 – deep white bass on smoked slabs for 53 fish

**Area 189  – shallow sunfish on slipfloats for 39 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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

This past Monday evening I fished Stillhouse with Californian-soon-to-turn-Texan Rick Snelgrooes, his 13-year-old son, Sean, and Rick’s friend, Stuart Gehrke of the Austin area.

Rick Snelgrooes and his son, Sean, with a pair of 3-year-old Stillhouse Hollow white bass.  We downrigged until we found strong congregations of fish on bottom, then hovered over these fish using Spot Lock to then work slabs through the school.

Rick, a sailor at heart, decided to sample the area’s angling opportunities as he and his wife consider buying a home and property in the Georgetown area.

Our time on the water was pretty evenly split tonight between downrigging and smoking slabs.  The downrigging allows for a continuous catch of fish while at the same time allowing for a methodical sonar-search of fish-holding areas.  When solid concentrations of bottom-hugging white bass were found on sonar, we immediately set up over top of them in a hover to work them over with slabs.

Using the trolling motor/sonar connection known as i-Pilot Link allows me to touch the screen of my Humminbird sonar, place a crosshairs over fish schooling together on bottom, then give the trolling motor a “go to it and stay on top of it” command.  As the trolling motor does its job, I have a few moments to clear the downrigging equipment and get slab rods in everyone’s hands so we are all ready to drop slabs on top of the fish once the boat is in a hover over them.  Tonight, with 4 rods working, this put a lot of fish in the boat.

As we caught our 50th fish, then our 60th, Sean asked what the average catch was on such a trip.  I told him last year’s average was ~72 fish per trip.  Once he heard that and realized we were still just short of 72 fish, he redoubled his own efforts to help get us to that mark.

After steadily landing fish and exceeding the 72 fish mark, Sean then asked if it would be possible to catch 100 fish.  With about an hour’s time left, I told him that would be possible, but that we’d have to work at it.  Due to the sun being obscured behind a thick bank of clouds in the west, “sunset” came earlier than normal this evening, thus cutting down on the time we’d have to make good on our pursuit of 100 fish.  After the deep slabbing bite died, we revisited the area where we’d first contacted fish with the downriggers shortly after launching.

Long story short, as 8:44 rolled around, Rick’s rod and Sean’s rod both went off within seconds of one another as they sat positioned in the downriggers’ rod holders.  In came two yearling white bass — #100 and #101.  We celebrated a bit with that milestone reached and, as we drove in, I told Sean about the truth of Proverbs 29:18 which says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish…”.  In this case, had we not set a goal of 72 fish, then of 100 fish, we most likely would not have seen that many fish landed as the inclination to stay focused and work towards that goal just would not have been there.

This was a great trip with great folks and we wrapped up with exactly 101 fish landed on the evening.

TALLY: 101 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 8:55p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 92F

Water Surface Temp: 84.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: E0-3

Sky Conditions: 100% thin, grey cloud cover still allowing for “squinting brightness” until an early sunset caused by a thick bank of clouds to the west

Water Level: 0.30 feet high and slowly rising; 0 cfs release at dam

GT = 185

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1716 to 067 – downrigging for suspended white bass at ~24 feet which led to one episode of smoking for bottom-huggers; 31 fish

**Area 1112 – smoking for 54 fish

**Area 067-1498 – twilight downrigging for a final 16 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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

This past Saturday afternoon I conducted the fifth free SKIFF program trip of the 2017 season, welcoming aboard Mrs. Mylani Cantero and her three children, Chloe (age 5), Boyka (age 6), and Ben (age 17).

Chloe Cantero, age 5, caught this 13.25 inch white bass — the first fish of her life.

Boyka Cantero, age 6, also caught his first fish during a free SKIFF program fishing trip available to all military kids separated from their parents.

Ben Kalio, age 17, took care of his siblings first by helping me operate the downriggers we fished with, and then caught the first fish of his life, as well.
Mylani’s husband, US Army Staff Sergeant Charles Cantero is currently deployed to Kuwait.

Our trip was initially scheduled for this morning, but a slow-moving line of storms which dropped over 3 inches of flooding rains on the Waco area, moved into our area right at sunrise and persisted through 3 PM.

When we met at 4:45 PM, I asked about the kids’ prior fishing experience. None of the kids had ever caught a fish before. I explained that Texas was a great state to catch your first fish in because the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department offers a “First Fish Certificate” to those landing their first fish in the Lone Star State.

To say that it was hot would be an understatement. We had a humidity level near 100%, cloudless conditions, and the sun shining brightly after the storms passed. This definitely did not make for great fishing conditions, nor great conditions to have young children in the outdoors.  The kids were already sweating as they sat still, even before I had them place their life vests on.

My first instinct was to get the boat moving and to do some downrigging so as to create our own breeze and make the trip a bit more comfortable for all concerned. We did so, and with our downrigger ball set around 24 feet, scored a first fish for each of the kids within our first 25 minutes on the water. Each child landed a cooperative white bass.

As is often the case with young kids, even when success is coming our way, the novelty can wear off and the kids start getting fidgety. I am very vigilant about looking for this and transitioning to something new when I see that happening.

So, shortly after everyone caught at least two white bass we moved on to targeting sunfish in shallow water. We were successful at that endeavor, allowing everyone to catch at least two sunfish.

Next, it was back to downrigging for a few more white bass, and then back to sunfishing for a few more sunfish coming off of a thick hydrilla bed.

Because some younger kids just simply can’t make a full four hours on the water, I let Mrs. Cantero know that if we needed to conclude the trip a bit earlier then the planned time of 8:45, that she could let me know that. Around 8:15, our youngest, Chloe, had absorbed all of the fun and sun she could stand and Mrs. Cantero let me know that it would be a good time to head back to the boat ramp.

We concluded the evening’s efforts with 27 fish landed and three First Fish Certificates earned.

TALLY: 27 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 8:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 95F

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE2

Sky Conditions: Clear skies at trip’s start with increasing high, thin haze

Water Level: 0.12 feet high and slowly rising; 0 cfs release at dam

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1716 thru 157 early downrigging at 24′

**Area 1948 sunfish

**Area 1132 downrigging at 38′

**Area 231 sunfish

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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

This past Tuesday morning, May 23rd, I fished with Mr. David Baird, a Temple, Texas, native now living in San Antonio, and his eight-year-old grandson, Huck Trottmann. The pair came based on a referral from long-time client Mr. Steve Niemeier, also of Temple.

David Baird and his grandson, Huck Trottmann, landed 62 fish this past Tuesday, May 23rd, on Lake Belton.
We started our trip under cool and cloudy skies with an ambient temperature of 65°. Although it looked like it could rain at any time through around 10:45 AM, we never did see a drop.

We started our morning in pursuit of hybrid striped bass using live shad in around 42 feet of water with our baits suspended slightly above bottom. We managed to catch 15 hybrid in our first hour. At that time, the easterly winds we had began to settle to near calm.  As we prepared to move on to our second area, Huck gave a summary of our success, clearly communicating that he had landed more fish than his grandpa – my first clue that this young man was a tad competitive.

We moved on to a second area in pursuit of hybrid on live shad, again in 40 to 42 feet of water and put another 17 fish in the boat of which roughly 1/3 were hybrid. This bite ended when the winds begin to abruptly blow at about 8 to 9 mph from the northwest as a storm cell passed to the north of us.

The bite weakened a good bit and we finished our pursuit of hybrid at that time, choosing to pursue white bass using slabs instead of putting young Huck through a live bait waiting game that appeared to be materializing with the weather change. This turned out to be a good choice. We were able to find fairly active white bass in 50 to 52 feet of water and used a smoking retrieve to take our fish count from 32 fish up to 51 in about 45 minutes’ time.

Around 10:45 we experienced yet another weather change. The wind went calm once again and our cloud cover burned nearly completely off. This did not bode well for the slabbing bite we were into, so, based on a comment made by Huck earlier in the day expressing interest in trolling, we wrapped up our trip using downriggers to put a final 11 fish in the boat.

That brought our tally to 62. Huck was shooting for 62 fish today because he had read my report about Steve Niemeier and his granddaughter, Macy, catching 62 fish and he wanted to do likewise.

It took a bit more than 4 hours, and there was some doubt that it might happen at all, but, by trip’s end we had “mission accomplished”!

TOTAL = 62 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Water Surface Temp: 73.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: Variable, see report text above

Sky Conditions: 100% cloud cover until ~10am, then clearing rapidly to <20% cloud cover

Water Level: 0.9 feet above full pool and falling; 45 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 70

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1297/150 – 15 hybrid on live shad by 8a

**Area vic 1269 – 17 fish with a 3:1 mix of hybrid to white bass by 9a

**Area 1945/1290/1325 – spot hopping for “patches” of schooled white bass on bottom with slabs

**Area 1945– downrigging at 30′ over a breakline cresting at 33′ for 11 whites coming as singles and doubles on a pair of tandem-rigged Pet Spoons

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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

This past Thursday morning, May 11, I fished with the Campbell kids from Gatesville, Texas. Joining me today were David who is about to be 12, Dalton, Shiloh, and Nicole.  This trip was in celebration of David’s birthday.

From left: Nicole (16), David (12), Dalton (10), and Shiloh (14).

We took a multi-species approach this morning and fished for what was most eager to bite. The first thing we found were very willing hybrid striped bass in 42 feet of water with next to no white bass intermingled with them. We enjoyed two hours and 45 minutes of continuous hybrid action and during that time put 38 legal hybrid and 4 white bass in the boat on both live shad and on some special cut baits I prepared.

There were times when I wasn’t sure if David or Dalton had a fish, or if the fish had them! These hybrid stripers were a good bit larger and much more aggressive than the largemouth bass, catfish, and sunfish they are accustomed to catching from the bank.

At one point, the hybrid were so numerous beneath the boat that I pointed out their signatures on sonar to the kids.  David said, “Wow, there must be a whole college of them down there!”   When Nicole asked if he meant to say “school”, David replied, “No, these fish are too big for school.”

About the time the hybrid stopped hitting both live and cut bait, the wind was beginning to ramp up beyond a level I was comfortable in keeping kids out in open water, so, we retreated to the protection of one of the tributaries, and searched out bottom hugging, tightly congregated white bass. The first area we located fish at gave up a few whites, but the fish were pretty nonchalant about chasing our baits. I gave up on this in hopes of finding some better action, and I was glad I did.

In 44 feet of water at the base of a gentle slope, I found hundreds of white bass within 3 feet of the bottom. Using the Minn Kota’s “Spot Lock” feature, we hovered right over top of these fish, got our three-quarter ounce slabs complete with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks down to them, and began using a smoking tactic to land fish after fish. We took our tally from 42 fish up to 73 fish in the final 50 minutes on the water fishing two distinct areas just a few boat lengths apart, but over the same group of fish.

At the close of the trip I was sure to mention to Mr. and Mrs. Campbell how respectful and well-behaved their kids were. All four are homeschooled and, given that they are growing up on a 40 acre ranch, all have responsibilities to tend to regarding schoolwork and livestock. Wish all of our kids in America could be like this crew.

TOTAL =   73 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:00a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 71F

Water Surface Temp: 73.5F

Wind Speed & Direction:

Sky Conditions: 40% white clouds on a fair sky

Water Level: 0.66 feet above full pool and falling; 0 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 45

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 150/1012 –  38 legal hybrid & 4 white bass by 9:40a

**Area 1942 – 31 white bass

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle