Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION — 75 FISH @ BELTON

April 22nd, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning, 19 April, I fished with returning guest Clay Lohse of Abilene and a friend of his from the medical profession, Bryan Townsend. Both men work in the nursing field and both are pursuing credentials as nurse practitioners. Clay has his own YouTube channel named “RespectTheFish” and routinely posts instructional videos there. On today’s trip, he did a number of informal interviews to mesh with video and put up on his channel.

From left: Bryan Townsend and Clay Lohse with a sampling of the 30+ legal hybrid that fell for live shad this morning on a day with clear skies and light NW breezes.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, 19 April 2018

HOW WE FISHED: We fished for the first 3 hours with live shad targeting hybrid stripers, producing 51 fish, of which 31 were legal-sized hybrid, with the balance consisting mainly of short hybrid and white bass. In our last 50 minutes, we made a move in search of white bass to work over with slabs, and found abundant action in about 32′ of water. We aimed for hitting the 75 fish mark (24 additional fish) by 11 AM and succeeded. The white bass were sluggish at first and failed to respond to a smoking retrieve, so, we slowed down to an easing tactic, got them fired up to where they began to suspend off bottom, and then smoked through them with good results.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) The surface temperature exceeded 65.3 for the third consecutive day in over two weeks and as it did, the threadfin shad began to spawn once again allowing for “one & done” netting for a third day in a row.

TALLY: 75 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Water Surface Temp: 65.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: We saw a light NW breeze today at trip’s start, around 5-7, slowly tapering up to 9-10.

Sky Conditions: Cloudless blue skies.

Water Level: 2.04 feet low and slowly falling

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 187 & vic 1012- moderate, steady action on hybrid using live bait for 3.0 hours; 51 fish incl. 31 legal hybrid

**Area B0080C – fast action on white bass with slabs/Hazy Eye Stinger hooks; 24 white bass

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

ST. CHRIS, PATRON SAINT OF HYBRID — 100 Fish

April 21st, 2018April 21st, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, 18 April, I fished with a crew of four, including Brian House, a parishioner at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Killeen. With him was his pastor, Chris Downey, and a seminarian doing an internship at the church, Miguel Flores, as well as a buddy of Brian’s from CrossFit gym, Chris Moore.

Pastor Chris Downey has responsibilities for both the church and school at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Killeen.

The “ringleader”, Brian House, picked a solid date and coordinated everything for his party of four, including two members of his church’s staff, and a buddy from the gym.

Miguel Flores is a seminarian (described to me at a ministerial internship) at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Killeen.

Chris Moore and Brian House got to know one another through the gym where they both do CrossFit.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 18 April 2018

HOW WE FISHED: We fished for the first 3 hours with live shad targeting hybrid stripers, producing 71 fish, of which ~40 were legal-sized hybrid, with the balance consisting mainly of short hybrid and white bass. In our last 90 minutes, we made a move in search of white bass to work over with slabs, and found abundant action in about 28′ of water. We aimed for hitting the 100 fish mark (29 additional fish) by noon, and succeeded.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) The surface temperature exceeded 65.3 for the second consecutive day in over two weeks and as it did, the threadfin shad began to spawn once again allowing for “one & done” netting for a second day in a row.

TALLY: 100 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Water Surface Temp: 66.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: We saw a W wind at 6-8 slowly shift to N and increase

Sky Conditions: Cloudless blue skies.

Water Level: 2.01 feet low and slowly falling

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 187 – moderate, steady action on hybrid using live bait for 2.5 hours; ~8:15 to 10:45; 71 fish

**Area B0079C – fast action on white bass with slabs/Hazy Eye Stinger hooks; 11:20 to noon; 29 fish

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

MULTI-SPECIES BONUS – 35.5″ FLATHEAD!

April 19th, 2018April 21st, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning I fished with Steve Thomas and Jim Johnson, both retirees living in Georgetown, TX. Most of their local fishing experience came in the form of fishing shallow, visible cover for largemouth bass on Lake Georgetown. Their desire was to enjoy a blend of quality and quantity while learning tactics for fishing deep, clear water to help them expand their repertoire on their home lake. We fished for hybrid with live bait for 2.5 hours, then left the remaining 1.5+ hours for the pursuit of white bass using artificial lures.

As the white bass we were vertically jigging for stirred up a little commotion, this flathead (yellow) catfish came in for a look and got a bit too curious about Jim’s slab. After a lengthy battle on the Fenwick Eagle medium light spinning rod he was using for the white bass work, we brought this 35.5 inch catfish to net and released it promptly after a few photos.

Steve with one of the many hybrid we took on live shad this morning. The fish showed a definite preference for threadfin shad over gizzards this morning. Along with the hybrid, we also encountered white bass, largemouth bass, crappie, blue cat, and drum.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, 18 April 2018

HOW WE FISHED: We fished at just one location this morning with live shad, then changed over after 2.5 hours of that to vertically jigging for white bass using a smoking tactic, primarily for white bass that were actively feeding at the top of the lower third of the water column under very windy conditions.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) The surface temperature exceeded 65.3 for the first time in over two weeks and as it did, the threadfin shad began to spawn once again allowing for “one & done” netting.

TALLY: 54 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Water Surface Temp: 65.3 to 65.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: S to SSW at 9-11 for the first 2 hours, then ramping up to 16-18 in the last 2 hours

Sky Conditions: Cloudless blue skies.

Water Level: 2.01 feet low and slowly falling

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0076C & B0077C – moderate, steady action on hybrid using live bait

**Area B0054C – moderate, steady action on white bass with slabs/Hazy Eye Stinger hooks

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED — 24 Fish @ Belton

April 17th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday morning I fished with three generations of the Oliver family, including “Paw” (age 87), three of his sons (Joe, Jack, and Jamie), and two of Jamie’s sons, Isaac and Eli. The fishing is still lagging a bit over what I traditionally encounter this time of year, thanks to still-low water temperatures and weather that just will not stabilize. Nonetheless, we caught fish, and some nice ones at that, but didn’t just “tear ’em up” today. Since Joe was fishing up in the front of the boat with Paw, he helped Paw on occasion with checking baits, etc. At one point in the trip when Joe was focused on assisting his dad, Joe’s rod got a nice pulldown. Instinctively, Jamie took a half-step right, flicked the reel out of freespool, and came tight on a fish — which turned out to be a nice hybrid. Joe protested, and the rest of the boat (save Jamie) acknowledged that, indeed, no good deed goes unpunished. Below, the first photo shows Jamie with “Joe’s fish”!

Why is Jamie holding Joe’s fish? See the narrative above.

Jack, the trip coordinator for this adventure, with a nice Lake Belton hybrid striped bass taken on live threadfin shad.

The aforementioned issue aside, Joe did get a few hybrid on his own.

Isaac Oliver with his first hybrid.

Eli Oliver with his first hybrid.

The patriarch, “Paw” Oliver” with one of the last hybrid we pulled in this morning.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a hybrid striped bass trip in which we focused exclusively on fishing for hybrid striped bass with live shad.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday morning, 17 April 2018

HOW WE FISHED: From start to finish this morning we fished 6 downlines with various sizes of gizzard and threadfin shad, just to see if the fish had any real preference. I noted that the largest gizzard shad got completely ignored. The 4-4.5″ shad took the best quality fish, and smaller shad caught both hybrid and other, smaller species like largemouth and white bass.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) Once again, no spawning shad after seeing the first spawning activity last Monday, 02 April. 2) Hybrid activity has been spotty and unpredictable. 3) Thanks to yet another stiff cold front with high winds this weekend, this morning’s low was 46F in mid-April.

TALLY: 24 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Water Surface Temp: 64.4 to 65F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE2-3 at trip’s start, quickly tapering up to SSE 13-14 by 9:30a and leveling of there

Sky Conditions: Cloudless blue skies with just a slight bit of white haze.

Water Level: 2.01 feet low and slowly falling

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT: Yes, that’s about 47F for a starting temperature this morning, 16 April!

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1556 – moderate, steady action on hybrid using live bait

**Area vic 1209/1294 – slow, steady action on hybrid using live bait

**Area vic 1381/1384 – slow, steady action on hybrid using live bait

**Area B0075C – moderate, steady action on hybrid using live bait

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

HAVE OXYGEN, WILL FISH — 107 FISH @ BELTON

April 14th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning I fished with David Burke of Belton, TX, and his friend, Glen Wagoner, of DeSoto, TX, near Dallas. The two have been friends for about 14 years. David first came out fishing with me solo during peak hybrid season last year and, this year, wanted to bring a friend along. The hybrid haven’t really turned on with any degree of consistency yet thanks to still-cool water and unstable weather, but, the white bass sure did cooperate for us – to the tune of 107 fish during our 4-hour trip.

Glen Wagoner holds up a 4.00 pound largemouth with his friend, David Burke, landed on a large shad fished directly beneath the boat. The bass looked like he’d been in a scrape with a gar or a big catfish.

We found very cooperative white bass with both sonar and by observing feeding gulls. We wrapped up our trip with exactly 107 fish boated. The white bass took vertically presented slabs and horizontally presented bladebaits equally well. Despite being on oxygen, David didn’t let that minor inconvenience keep him indoors, nor from catching a mess of fish!

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip in which we fished early on with live bait, then switched over to fishing for white bass with artificials in the latter part of the trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday morning, 13 April 2018

HOW WE FISHED: For the second morning in a row, under dark, murky skies and with a stiff S. breeze blowing, the hybrid bite was slow in the early hours of the morning following sunrise. We tried a few areas using live shad for hybrid striper, but the bite just wasn’t on during this window. By around 8:45a we switched over to targeting white bass with both vertical and horizontal retrieves and loaded the boat with a total of 107 fish that took both a 3/8 oz. slab and a 3/4 oz. Binsky blade.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) Once again, no spawning shad after seeing the first spawning activity last Monday, 02 April. 2) Hybrid activity has been spotty and unpredictable. 3) Another more mild, dry cold front is due in overnight tonight. We’ll see come Monday whether that triggers these hybrid into some consistent feeding, or not.

TALLY: 107 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp: 64.4 to 65F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW11-14 (much less than forecast)

Sky Conditions: <100% cloud cover

Water Level: 2.01 feet low and slowly falling

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0070C – fished live shad and picked up a 4.00 lbs. largemouth

**Area 692 to B0054C – aggressive white bass action under laughing gulls on slabs and blades

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

DOESN’T LOOK A DAY OVER 59 — 75 FISH WITH THE SWINGLERS

April 13th, 2018April 14th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning I fished an abbreviated trip with Mr. Jack Swingler and his son, Otto. Otto coordinated this trip as a gift to his dad for his 60th birthday. We got going around 7:25, but, due to a meeting Otto had to attend in Austin, we had to crank up to run back in by 10:15. I started us off with livebait after the still-stubborn hybrid stripers with it in mind that if we didn’t pick up a bunch of fish really quickly, we’d change over to white bass since neither fellow had a preference as to species. Although we did pick up one hybrid and had a few more missed pulldowns, by 8:45 I had us redirected to white bass which provided us with ample action right down to the last minute.

With a compressed schedule to find and catch fish this morning, Jack took just one hybrid striper on a slow bite and we then transitioned to white bass fishing for the last 90 minutes of our trip.

We found very cooperative white bass with both sonar and by observing feeding gulls. We wrapped up our trip with exactly 75 fish boated and left the fish biting to be back to the dock in time for Otto (left) to make a meeting in Austin.

WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip in which we fished for hybrid stripers early on with live bait, then switched over to fishing for white bass with artificials in the latter part of the trip.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday morning, 12 April 2018

HOW WE FISHED: This morning we fished with live shad for hybrid stripers right off the bat, but the action was slow, so, given our limited timeframe this morning, I switched us over to white bass by 8:45am. We enjoyed non-stop white bass action for 90 minutes and left them biting to get Otto back to Austin on time for a meeting. We fished two distinct areas for white bass. The first was an all-vertical bite in 28′ and produced mainly 1-year class fish. I laid out the “gamble” of leaving fish to find fish, and both Otto and Jack were okay with leaving our small fish for the chance to hook some larger ones, so, we made a move to a second area and were fortunate to find laughing gulls and terns aggressively working over a patch of water. In the heavy chop, we could see white bass chasing mature shad and pinning them against the surface. We began working vertically, but transitioned to sight-casting for these fish. The average size of the fish at this second stop was larger than that of those fish at our first stop, so we rode this area out until the clock dictated we stop.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) Once again, no spawning shad after seeing the first spawning activity last Monday, 02 April. 2) Hybrid activity has been spotty and unpredictable.

TALLY: 75 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 64.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW13-17 (much less than forecast)

Sky Conditions: <100% cloud cover

Water Level: 2.01 feet low and slowly falling

GT = 70

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1940/993 – 1 hybrid and several white bass on live shad

**Area vic 709 – aggressive white bass action

**Area B0074C – aggressive white bass action under laughing gulls

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Fishin’ with the Benners — 85 Fish @ Lake Belton

April 13th, 2018April 14th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday morning, 11 April, I fished with the Benner family of Fort Mitchell, in northern Kentucky. The Benner’s 3 kids were on spring break and they came down to visit family, Michael and Jane Apodaca, in Salado. Aboard were Alex and Megan and their kids, Xander (age 9), Lilly (age 8), and Grace (age 5). If you keep up with my posts, you’ll know I normally don’t advocate taking kids under the age of 8 or so until the summer months when more variety and “instant gratification”-style fishing is available. Nonetheless, we gave it our best shot, taking what I’ve observed of the state of the fishery right now and putting the kids in situations that were the most engaging. As watching the end of a livebait rod sit for long whiles (which can be the case even on good hybrid fishing days) is really not kid-friendly, we did just enough hybrid fishing to pull a few quick fish in, show the kids how to use the equipment, introduce them to the fine art of chumming, and then we moved on to “Phase II”. Phase II involved waiting on the wind and some thin cloud cover to develop sufficient to turn on the white bass bite, then we found, fished for, and caught white bass after white bass until the only ones fishing were mom and dad. We landed a grand total of 85 fish on this trip, and, kept even little Grace engaged for the majority of our 4 hours on the water.

Mom broke the ice with the first fish of the trip just minutes after getting our livebaits down among scattered, suspended hybrid stripers.

The white bass cooperated “big time” today. From left: Lilly, Xander, Megan, Grace, and Alex.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday morning, 11 April 2018

HOW WE FISHED: This morning we fished with live shad for hybrid stripers as a “primer” for the kids to see one method of fishing and all that goes with it. When the novelty wore off, we quickly moved on to more engaging and more productive fishing, albeit for smaller fish, as we vertically jigged for white bass. The white 3/8 oz. slab with the Hazy Eye Stinger hook worked its magic for over 2 hours straight and accounted for the vast majority of our 85 fish this morning.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) Once again, no spawning shad after seeing the first spawning activity last Monday, 02 April. 2) Hybrid activity has been spotty and unpredictable.

TALLY: 85 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 48F

Water Surface Temp: 62.9F

Wind Speed & Direction: S7-12

Sky Conditions: <10% cloud cover

Water Level: 1.98 feet low

GT = 15

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0073C – 3 hybrid and 1 white bass on live shad

**Area B0066C – aggressive white bass action for 81 fish

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

DOCTOR’S DAY OFF – 100 Fish @ Belton

April 12th, 2018 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday morning, 10 April, I fished with Dr. Jim Wood, and two of his professional associates, Sky Sparks, and Adam Domecq. All three help people healing from significant wounds through the use of state-of-the art medicines and techniques.

We enjoyed steady action on quality fish this morning as we fished live and cut shad for hybrid striped bass in the first 3 hours of our 4 hour trip. Here, Jim Wood holds a pair of hybrid that came to net just seconds apart as a “wolfpack” of hybrids crashed into our bait spread.

Adam Domecq, a medical supply salesman, with one of his better fish of the morning.

Sky Sparks, a medical scribe for a wound care center in Killeen, was amazed at the number of fish we put in the boat today.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday morning, 10 April 2018

HOW WE FISHED: This morning we put 43 fish in the boat in our first 3 hours of fishing, of which roughly half were legal hybrid striped bass taken on live and cut shad, with the remainder being of mix of white bass and largemouth bass. We left the last hour for a bit more “hands-on” fishing with light spinning gear gunning for bottom-oriented white bass. We landed an additional 58 fish and quit at exactly 100 as the bite was beginning to wane around 11:35am.

OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: 1) Once again, no spawning shad after seeing the first spawning activity last Monday, 02 April.

TALLY: 100 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 49F

Water Surface Temp: 62.1 to 63.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: NE8-11

Sky Conditions: <10% cloud cover

Water Level: 1.96 feet low

GT = 70

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 192 in 26′ – hybrid and a mix of other species on live shad

**Area B0070C – hybrid and a mix of other species on live shad

**Area vic 1910 – hybrid and a mix of other species on live shad

**Area B0071C to B0072C – 58 white bass in about an hours’ time

Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)