Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

Purple Heart Pescadores — 76 Fish on the 2nd SKIFF Trip of 2017

May 24th, 2017 by Bob Maindelle

This past Saturday evening, May 20th, I finished the 2nd Soldier’s Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip of the 2017 season. Joining me this evening were Alicia Wegmann (15), Jayden Lamay (9), and Giovanni Lemay (8). Chaperoning the kids were their mom, Michelle Oster, and Michelle’s mother, “Oma” Denise.

From left: Alicia Wegmann, Jayden Lamay, and Giovanni Lamay, each with a white bass they caught while we downrigged in the opening minutes of our afternoon SKIFF program trip.

Alicia, age 15, caught the largest and the most this evening as she followed directions well and stayed very focused on the fishing.

Michelle and Alicia lost Alicia’s father, Sergeant Robert Wegmann Jr. in 2008. Sergeant Wegmann received a Purple Heart after being wounded overseas when a roadside bomb exploded. Sergeant Wegmann and his battle buddy would both lose their lives as a result of this incident.

A wet, mild cold front moved through Central Texas this morning forcing a postponement of my morning trip. As the front slowly moved out, the skies cleared, the humidity dropped, and the lightest of northwesterly breezes replaced the dead calm of the midday period.

All three kids had fairly limited previous bank fishing experience, so we began with downrigging for loosely schooled white bass which were both suspended and bottom dwelling. With the pair of Cannon Digi-Troll electric downriggers I’ve got on board, I ran both balls at 25 to 30 feet deep trailing tandem rigged Pet Spoons behind each. Over the course of 90 minutes we landed a total of 20 white bass which came as both singles and doubles.

When it became clear that the boys were getting a little antsy even with our success, it was time for a transition.

By request, we made a special trip to the base of the Belton Lake waterfall where Michelle must have taken, literally, 100 photos of her and the kids with the waterfall in the background from a number of different views I provided by maneuvering the boat.

With this request scratched off the list, we began our final chapter of this evening’s fishing trip by parking over top of a group of deep, bottom hugging white bass using the Minn Kota Spot Lock technology. I equipped each of the kids with a spinning rod rigged up with a three-quarter ounce slab retrofitted with a Hazy Eye stinger hook.

Just as we got on top of this area, the northwest breeze ramped up just a tad, and the fish responded positively to this little wrinkle in the weather. We sat on top of this one area then later “spot hopped” just a few yards to the west, over a 52 foot bottom and wore out the white bass and short hybrid stripers. The kids ran our tally up to 76 fish including two keeper hybrid, one drum, one largemouth bass, and a roughly 1 to 6 ratio of short hybrid striper to white bass making up the balance.

As the sun set right around 8:20, the action died quite quickly.

SKIFF program trips are provided free of charge to kids who are separated from their military parent by that parent’s duty, be it something as short as a TDY assignment or gunnery, to something as lengthy as a deployment or NTC/JRTC rotation. A call to me at 254.368.7411 is all it takes. The generous men and women of the Austin Fly Fishers make this possible.

TOTAL = 95 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time: 8:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Water Surface Temp: 73.9

Wind Speed & Direction: Near calm at trip’s start, then a NW ripple in the last 90 minutes or so

Sky Conditions: Bluebird, post-frontal skies

Water Level: 0.85 feet above full pool and falling; 45 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 210-1606-1291 – downrigging for suspended whites

**Area 1945 – smoking for whites

**Area 1552 – smoking for whites

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Catfish Conversion — 95 Fish, Belton, 19 May ’17 (PM)

May 21st, 2017May 21st, 2017 by Bob Maindelle

This past Friday evening, May 19^th, I fished with Jeff Atchison of Killeen, his dad, Ricky, and Jeff’s son, Logan. With their own boat, these fellows normally pursue catfish on either Inks or Buchanan, but wanted to sample some variety closer to home.

Jeff Atchison with a nice 4 pound class hybrid — one of several we landed before the winds ramped up too high to stay on ’em.

Ricky came up with a nice surprise as we were working slabs for white bass. As you might imagine, a hybrid like this landed on spinning gear intended for white bass “took a little doing”.

Look at that grin! Logan was really focused in his fishing and did very well at all of the techniques we used this evening.

Jeff and I spoke briefly at this past January’s Central Texas Boat Show after he heard my presentation about the use and interpretation of marine electronics. Jeff is a Killeen native and owns Budget Used Car Sales in Killeen, which he bought from his father. Jeff and his dad do some ranching, as well, raising livestock and coastal grass on acreage south of town.

Jeff, Ricky, and Logan were all up for using a variety of tactics for a variety of species, so, given that the wind forecast showed our winds to be lightest at the beginning of the trip, I hit open water early on in an attempt to catch hybrid striped bass using live shad.

This worked out well, as we were able to land six hybrid in right at 45 minutes before the wind ramped up to the point where our baits were being jerked up and down very unnaturally and we decided to close out this chapter of the trip pretty quickly.

Next, I introduced the fellows to downrigging. We found scattered, suspended white bass holding consistently at 24 to 25 feet beneath the surface and so we ran Pet Spoons rigged on tandem rigs on a pair of downriggers and wound up catching a double followed by a single in short order.

Next, I endeavored to find deep, heavily schooled white bass so I could show these fellows how to use a smoking tactic with slabs. Unfortunately, the fish had other ideas. Most of the white bass we found were scattered and suspended. As I was studying sonar intently, Jeff noticed a school of white bass feeding nearby on the surface in open, deep water. We worked it so I stayed on the front deck working the trolling motor to keep us within casting distance, and all three fellows cast off of one side of the boat to avoid tangles and to avoid anyone getting hooked.

We quickly took our fish count up to 39 fish and no time as we caught a variety of sizes of both white bass `and largemouth bass. Between the time this schooling action ended and the time the sunset white bass bite began, we tried the smoking tactic on at least three other groups of fish, but they simply did not respond well as they were very transient and were not heavily grouped on the bottom to begin with, which is really a prerequisite for success using this tactic.

The last thing we did this evening was cast paddle tail grubs on quarter ounce jig heads to white bass feeding just subsurface as they pushed shad upwards and shorewards. Once again, just as was the case this past Saturday, we had these fish all to ourselves which is a bonus anytime fishing around the weekend on Belton in the warm months.

We closed out our trip with 95 fish landed.

TOTAL = 95 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

19MAY17PM

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time: 8:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 88F

Water Surface Temp: 72.9

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE15-16 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 50% cloud cover the entire trip

Water Level: 0.81 feet above full pool and falling; 45 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 55

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1269 – all hybrid on live shad

**Area 1940 – downrigger demo for suspended whites

**Area 1943 and out to the channel for surface feeding whites

**Area 1625 – aggressive low-light action on subsurface whites

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Happy Hybrid Birthday, Bro!! — 133 Fish with the Perez Family, 19 May ’17

May 21st, 2017 by Bob Maindelle

This past Friday morning, May 19^th, I fished with Mrs. Lori Perez and her two college-aged sons, Mario and Gabriel. The threesome hoped that Mr. Perez could have joined them as well, but duty called on Fort Hood and he was not able to join us.

Mrs. Lori Perez and her sons, Mario (L) and Gabriel (R), joined me on Belton this morning for a great time of hybrid fishing under windy, cloudy conditions.

Gabriel Perez with one of several fish that went between 21-22″.

Mario presented his brother with a fishing gift certificate for his birthday and today was “cash it in day”.
This trip was a birthday present from Mario to his brother and the plan was to pursue hybrid striped bass. The two young men are very avid fisherman and so, in addition to catching fish, they also had quite a number of questions about the approach I was taking, why we were fishing in the areas we fished, how sonar factored into the big picture, seasonal trends, etc.

From right at 7 AM when we got our first lines in the water and until 9:35 AM, we sat atop a single area and milked a single school of hybrid for a total of 26 fish. When the school played out, we moved just a few yards to the east, found another active group of fish, and sat atop them for about 45 minutes, putting another 20 fish in the boat.

When I felt we had taken all of the fish off of this area that it was going to produce, I began to move us to another area but observed heavily schooled white bass in 48 to 50 feet of water. This school was 2 to 3 feet thick and spread over a 20 to 25 yard area. Although we were gunning for hybrid, I let the boys know what I was observing so they could make an informed decision to either disregard these fish, or take advantage of the easy fishing that would result.

They gave me the thumbs-up expressing interest in slabbing for these white bass and, over the next 50 minutes, my three anglers put exactly 58 white bass and two hybrid striper in the boat using a smoking tactic with three-quarter ounce slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks.

With 30 or 45 minutes or so left to go, I offered that we had enough time to potentially get on top of another group of hybrid, or we could continue to enjoy catching white bass on appropriately sized spinning tackle.

Everyone opted for the change of pace of ending the trip by boating a few more hard pulling hybrid. I moved us to a completely different area, but one that was similar in slope and topography to the first area that had served us so well. In 41 feet of water, we suspended our baits at 34 to 35 feet, and had a strong finish, putting an unbroken string of 22 more hybrid striped bass in the boat. In addition, we put two blue cat and three white bass in the boat here as well.

When all was said and done the Perez family had landed 133 fish in about 4 1/2 hours’ time. The winds from the SE and grey cloud cover really put the fish in a feeding mood and kept them feeding for most of the morning.

TOTAL = 133 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

19MAY17

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:25a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp: 72.9

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE15-16 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Light grey 100% cloud cover the entire trip

Water Level: 0.81 feet above full pool and falling; 45 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1288 – 2.5 hours, 26 fish, 75% hybrid

**Area vic 1012 – .75 hours, 20 fish, 75% hybrid

**Area 1945 – 50 minutes, 58 whites, 2 hybrid

**Area 1743 – .75 hours, 22 hybrid, 2 blue cat, 3 white bass

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

What’s a “Horn Pout”? — 42 Fish, Belton, 16 May ’17

May 18th, 2017May 18th, 2017 by Bob Maindelle

This past Tuesday morning I fished a hybrid striped bass trip on Lake Belton with Mike Smith. Mike is now in his sixth year as an enlisted soldier in the US Army where he serves as an armored vehicle mechanic. Mike is originally from Dexter, Maine, the home of the now defunct Dexter shoe company.

Mike Smith of Dexter, Maine, with one of 18 keeper hybrid he landed today on his first ever hybrid striped bass fishing trip. He walked away quite impressed with all the power in these hybrid packages.

Bluecat often come as “bycatch” while fishing for hybrid, especially after you’ve been camped out on one area for a while. This blue must have nosed his way over from downwind into our chum.

I just love the state of Maine — my wife and I honeymooned there after my West Point roommate of several semesters, Jeff Libby, introduced me to the state when we stayed with his folks there on long weekends. Later, Rebecca and I would return for our 20th anniversary to the Portland/Willard Beach area. Anyway, it was neat to recount the similar fishing experiences Mike and I both had up that way — especially icefishing — and catching things you never hear of in Texas, like togue and horn pout (just Google them if your are curious).

Mike’s father-in-law, Roger Bowles, from the Waco area, presented Mike with a fishing gift certificate this past Christmas.

Our weather conditions were ideal through 9:15 AM – – gray and cloudy with a humid breeze from a southerly direction. This wind would later ramp up to over 17 mph such that it impacted boat control, but it was a great ally during the time it was manageable.

From the first bait we put down at around 6:55a, and until we pulled our lines up due to high winds and large swells around 9:15a, the hybrid striped bass bite was nonstop. During this time we put 31 fish in the boat including eight white bass, three blue catfish, two short hybrid, with the balance being legal hybrid ranging from 18 to 21 inches.

The fish were in such a strong feeding mood, that all baits we presented – – live, cut, fresh, and frozen, all attracted equal attention.

At 9:15a we decided to play it safe and move off of the exposed area we were fishing to go seek out white bass using artificial lures, in calmer waters.

Because the wind limited our access to a number of areas, our options for chasing white bass were reduced a bit. I was able to find two distinct groups of white bass holding between 42 and 46 feet, right on bottom. These fish all responded to a slab fished with a smoking technique.

In the closing moments of the trip, because he had expressed curiosity about them, I showed Mike how downriggers work using a tactic that I will begin to rely very heavily on in just 2 to 3 weeks. I demonstrated for Mike how to use a Pet Spoon-equipped tandem rig fish behind the ball of a Cannon Digi-troll 10TS.

It must have been beginner’s luck – – Mike came up with a double on the very first time he had ever touched or used a downrigger. A pair of small white bass was duped by the tandem-rigged Pet Spoons.

TOTAL = 42 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temp: 73.7

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12, increasing to SSE17

Sky Conditions: Light grey 100% cloud cover the entire trip

Water Level: 0.78 feet above full pool and falling; 0 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 150/1297 – 2 hour, 20 minute long hybrid bite

**Area vic 835 – slabbed for white bass holding right on east slope

**Area vic 152 – slabbed for white bass

**Area 1584 – demo’ed downriggers for a pair of white bass on a tandem rig

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Straightforward Fishing — 41 Fish, Belton, 15 May ’17

May 15th, 2017May 15th, 2017 by Bob Maindelle

This morning, Monday, May 15th, I fished with Greg Martinez, Greg’s son, “Mister” Martinez, and a co-worker of Mister’s, Homer Vergara. We put in a full 4 hours chasing hybrid striped bass using live shad on Lake Belton.

Greg Martinez landed our largest fish of the trip this morning with this 22.5″ hybrid which weighed in at 5.50 pounds.

From left: Greg Martinez and Homer Vergara. Most of our fish were right in the 19-20″ range, like this pair landed just seconds apart.

Homer and Mister work together as real estate agents for a brokerage in Temple, TX, and Greg retired from Wilsonart International, which has its headquarters and manufacturing operations in Temple, as well.

Netting shad once again proved challenging, with few caught before first light, and no spawning activity witnessed this morning.

We fished 4 areas this morning, finding hybrid striper at the first and third areas we tried, only white bass at the second stop, and nothing at our brief, final stop.

Fishing was pretty straightforward this morning. We found fish on sonar, got baits hanging just above them and let the live shad attract strikes. The fish showed no preference on bait size, but definitely preferred live shad over cut baits this morning.

We tried to proactively avoid catching white bass on our heavier tackle intended for hybrid by keeping our baits well above bottom. This was fairly effective as only about 25% of our catch consisted of white bass this morning, despite the presence of these white bass at each of the first three stops we made. All of our fish came from 39-43 feet of water.

TOTAL = 41 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

15MAY17

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:05a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp: 75.9

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11, increasing and shifting to SSE13

Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless

Water Level: 0.76 feet above full pool and falling; 45 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 150/1297 – 2 hour long hybrid bite

**Area 1269 – encountered white bass and moved

**Area vic 344 – 30 minute hybrid bite

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

A 131 Fish Doubleheader — Belton, 13 May ’17 (AM & PM)

May 14th, 2017May 14th, 2017 by Bob Maindelle

This past Saturday, May 13, I fished a doubleheader with Jim Rogers and his nephew, Lucas Tavill, who is currently stationed at Fort Hood as a newly minted West Point second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps. Jim traveled in through DFW from the San Diego area where he works for a private banking institution.

Second lieutenant Lucas Tavill was treated to a full day of fishing on Lake Belton by his uncle, Jim Rogers, of San Diego. The pair landed 131 fish, including hybrid striped bass, white bass, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and blue catfish using a variety of tactics. We fished live bait, downriggers, slabs, and subsurface baits.

MORNING BITE
Given our bright, low wind-speed forecast, I planned to immediately head for deep water this morning in pursuit of hybrid striped bass using live shad. Live bait and deep water are often a hedge against the ill effects of postfrontal weather.

Although we were the first to arrive at the area I chose as our first stop, it didn’t take long for company to join us once our rod started bending. However, thanks to the fact that we had already pulled fish in, the fact that we were using a thumper, and the fact that we were chumming, we continued to catch fish while the other boats, several of which came inconsiderately close to us, just got to watch the fishing show we put on. As often happens in such situations, it didn’t take long for our uninvited guests to move on.
We wound up fishing three very similar deep water areas this morning all in roughly 42 feet of water. The first and the last area we hit had some slope which attracted the fish holding there, and the second area we hit we stopped at only because of an abundance of nomadic fish roaming over this fairly flat area. We were able to pull in a few fish here, but after they moved on, they were gone for good. We spent about 2.5 hours at our first area, about 30 minutes at the second area, and about an hour at our last area.

The morning’s final tally was 46 fish, about 75% of which were keeper hybrid, with our largest going right at 4.25 pounds. The balance consisted of white bass, three short hybrid, one blue cat, and a single smallmouth bass.

By 11:40 we were seated in the air conditioning of the Sol de Jalisco making plans to link back up in the afternoon.

EVENING BITE

The afternoon portion of the trip began at 4:15 PM; our plan was to jig for white bass, then target hybrid in the last hour of light.

I searched a number of deep water areas looking for fish that could be worked over with the slab, found little, but noticed some very consistent suspended fish holding down around 24 to 28 feet over a 40 to 50 foot bottom out from a large point. Since Jim was was interested in how downriggers work, I saw this as an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. We set out two tandem rigs, each equipped with two Pet Spoons on the twin downriggers. Our results were immediate – – three sets of doubles followed by more singles and doubles thereafter, and one bonus hybrid to put icing on the white bass cake.

As this bite waned, we begin looking once again with sonar for deep, bottom hugging white bass that we could jig for. This time, we were a bit more successful. We got into a nice bunch of fish holding right on bottom and 42 feet of water. Both Jim and Lucas were able to work the kinks out of the smoking tactic that we were using which set them up nicely for the next several areas we would visit which produced even more fish. We made three or four “short hops” just a few yards apart in order to stay in contact with this second group of bottom hugging white bass we found. As we took our tally through the 70s, and into the 80s, things went a bit quiet despite good numbers of fish still showing on sonar.

It was just then that Jim hooked a nice hybrid on his slab. As I observed sonar as he reeled that fish in, I saw a number of similarly sized fish ghosting along with his hooked fish. This told me there were more hybrid down there then white bass. This understood, we quickly transitioned away from slabs and white bass and got re-rigged with four live bait rods out all hung with large threadfin shad.

We took our count up to and beyond 100 fish, including a mix of white bass and hybrid striper with a nice 4.5 pound largemouth thrown in for good measure, as we stayed in this vicinity and worked the fish over with bait as sunset approached.

With our tally now at 105 fish on the day, I suggested that we could close out our trip with yet more variety by casting to subsurface fish feeding on shad. We moved and found next to no pressure at this final area we would fish, despite being out on a pleasant Saturday evening. The fish showed up as I hoped, and I got Jim and Lucas both casting paddletale grubs with jigheads to the boils which the largemouth, smallmouth, and white bass created when they rose to the surface to sip shad.

In the final 30 minutes we spent on the water, we put another 26 fish in the boat to bring our grand total on the day to 131 fish.

TOTAL = 131 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

13MAY17#2

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start/End Times: 6:45a – 11:15a, then 4:15p – 8:35p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F AM, 81F PM

Water Surface Temp: 73.7F AM / 78.6 PM

Wind Speed & Direction: NW12 at trip’s start, increasing to NW16

Sky Conditions: Clear, post-frontal skies with NW breeze at <8mph all day, occasionally dropping to just 2-3mph

Water Level: 0.76 feet above full pool and falling; 45 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 105

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

PM BITE

**Area 150 – 75% hybrid, 25% white bass; 27 fish total

**Area 1944 – nomadic roamers – 5 hybrid

**Area 835- 75% hybrid, 25% white bass; 14 fish total

PM BITE

**Area 1909-1940 downrigging

**Area vic 295 – whites on slabs

**Area vic 387-1362 – slabs for whites, then bait for hybrid

**Area 1828 and to shore – low light subsurface work for mixed bags surface feeders

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Kneer Family Adventure — Belton, 68 Fish, 12 May ’17

May 14th, 2017May 14th, 2017 by Bob Maindelle

This past Friday morning I fished with Mr. Doug Kneer, his son Tyler, and his daughter Breanna. Only the two kids fished while Doug took it all in trying to glean some lessons for their future bank fishing expeditions.

Tyler Kneer with one of many cooperative hybrid he landed this morning as a cool, dry front moved in and stirred the fish into a feeding mood.

Breanna Kneer got the hang of using circle hooks very quickly and missed very few opportunities this morning.
The shad situation was sort of odd this morning in that I caught only a handful (literally six shad) before first light in about an hour’s worth of effort, yet, just yards away after sunrise, spawning shad loaded the bank thus allowing me to catch what I needed for the trip.

Because the hybrid striped bass bite has been reliable, I thought I would put the kids on hybrid first and for as long as the hybrid would bite, then chase white bass using slabs in whatever time remained.

As it turned out, we had a 2.75 hour long bite on the hybrid which produced 27 legal hybrid and two shorts as well as six white bass. Right around 10 AM, the fish shut down at the second of two areas we successfully fished for hybrid at, using live bait.

From roughly 10:15 to 11:10 AM, we used three-quarter ounce slabs retrofitted with Hazy Eye Stinger hooks to score on white bass in exactly 42 feet of water. These fish were in classic deepwater array – – heavily schooled together and tightly hugging bottom.

In this closing chapter of our trip, we took our tally up to 68 fish, catching mainly three-year class white bass.

As was the case two Thursday mornings ago, the incoming, dry cold front really spurred on the fish behavior this morning.

TOTAL = 68 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Water Surface Temp: 72.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW12 at trip’s start, increasing to NW16

Sky Conditions: Clear cold front skies

Water Level: 0.76 feet above full pool and falling; 20 cfs release at Belton Dam

GT = 5

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1012 – strong hybrid bite

**Area 1295 – moderate hybrid bite

**Area 1941 – white bass by smoking

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

A Whole College of Hybrid — 73 Fish, Belton, 11 May ’17

May 14th, 2017May 14th, 2017 by Bob Maindelle

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:

11MAY17

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)