Fishing Report

This past Friday morning, March 31^st, I fished with Mr. Raymond Pagel and his wife, Anna.

Raymond kicked this off this morning with the first of 23 hybrid in the boat, landing this one just minutes after sunrise.

 

Anna figured out what was grabbing a number of our shad by the tail after this one decided to bite a bit closer to the head-end of the shad she was using for bait.

 

This fish went crazy, swimming far out away from the boat, then underneath it, tangling 3 of the 4 lines we had out before we cooled its jets in the net.

We targeted hybrid striped bass for the first 2.75 hours of our trip, and then worked over a deep school of white bass for the last portion of our trip.

Raymond is the owner of Pagel & Sons Jewelers near the Killeen Mall, and Anna is a pharmacist for HEB. We started our trip at 7:15. My plan was to fish deep, clear water while the winds were still manageable, as they were due to increase to around 17 mph by around 10 AM. During this effort in deep water, we put 29 fish in the boat. 23 of these fish were keeper hybrid, two were short hybrid, two were white bass, and two were blue catfish, one of which weighed 4.5 pounds.

The bite this morning was moderate but steady and the fish seemed to have a preference for medium-sized shad. The “jumbo” shad I used often got ignored, or wound up getting toyed with until they were killed, typically without resulting in a landed fish.

After the winds came up and produced a swell sufficient to start jerking our baits up and down, I decided to move us to more protected waters.

After a bit of searching, we found a nice school of white bass in 42 feet of water. These fish were bottom hugging and tightly congregated – – just right for vertical jigging.

Long story short, we sat over top of these fish for right at one hour and took our tally from 29 fish up to 94 fish. All of these white bass were in the one and two year class.

Because the Pagles are fairly well-traveled anglers, it was enjoyable to me to ask them about their experiences in some of the waters I have yet to fish, namely in Alaska, and hear of the techniques employed for different species in different environments.

Anna told me something towards the end of the trip that really resonated with me. Although she has done quite a bit of fishing, she said she still had trouble detecting when a fish was biting. Being able to practice feeling a fish bite and then setting the hook on it with the repetition she saw as we fished over these white bass, allowed her to really get practiced and confident in this situation.

TALLY = 94 FISH, all caught and released

WX Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 61F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6 at sunrise, shifting and increasing to S17 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Clear and bright

Water Level: 1.11 feet above full pool

GT = 45

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1380 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area – 1277 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area 1749 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area 152 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area 294 – hybrid on live shad in 40-45′

**Area 1362 – white bass on slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook

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

This past Thursday morning, March 30th, I fished with Mr. and Mrs. Gary Moore, Mr. Kirk Bateman, and their friend, Pat Moore (no relation). All are part of the same church in Copperas Cove, and all but Pat had fished with me at least once before.

 

Retired Command Sergeant Major Gary Moore put our largest of nearly 30 hybrid in the boat this morning just minutes after sunrise.

 

Mrs. Margaret Moore occupied the portside bow position and did quite well for herself

Mrs. Pat Moore got a call from her husband serving as a contractor in Iraq just seconds after landing this nice hybrid.  When she told him we’d caught 68 fish up to that point, he just couldn’t believe it.

 

Kirk Bateman worked the portside stern rodholder this morning for a good number of keeper hybrid.
We began the morning in open, unprotected water, and the winds that were forecast to be between 9 and 13 mph were easily 14 to 15 thus making it a bit uncomfortable on my crew. Although we did catch our target species – – hybrid striped bass – – at this first stop, the great number of white bass also mixed in made it no big deal to leave this area and search for better grounds. As we left this first, windy area, Gary let me know he’d prefer that the ladies keep their strings stretched versus hunting indefinitely for larger hybrid. With this preference communicated, I did not hesitate to stop when I saw a nice, bottom – hugging congregation of white bass.

As I moved into more protected water to try to keep our baits from being jerked up and down by wave action, I ran into white bass at four distinct areas. Each gave up at least a few fish as we used slabs fished vertically to tempt these heavily schooled fish.

At around 10:15, and with a mixed bag of 60 fish now boated, I offered that we might once again focus just on larger fish even if it meant a little bit more wait time in between bites. Everyone concurred, and I headed back to deeper, more open water in the search of hybrid unaccompanied by white bass.

Over our next 90 minutes on the water we were able to put 33 more fish in the boat, of which right at 27 were legal, 18+ inch long fish. It was not until the last 20 minutes that white bass began to show up in our catch.

As we closed out our trip, everyone was able to enjoy a good mix of quality fish courtesy of the hybrid stripers, and a quantity of fish courtesy of the white bass that very willingly hit our vertically jigged slabs. My crew of four ended the day with 93 fish for their efforts.

TALLY = 93 FISH, all caught and released

WX Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW16+ at sunrise and for ~3 hours thereafter, then tapering off to WNW13

Sky Conditions: Clear and bright

Water Level: 1.22 feet above full pool

GT = 60

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 714/1288 early hybrid

**Area 1820 – whites by vertical jigging

**Area 211 – whites by vertical jigging

**Area 1914 – whites by vertical jigging

**Area 788 – whites by vertical jigging

**Area 930 late hybrid

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

This past Tuesday morning, March 28th, I fished with Mr. Ray Johnson of Harker Heights, and a friend of his from church, Mr. George Morley, of Lampasas.

Retired Lampasas ISD principal George Morley raised the bar for the 2017 hybrid season with the largest hybrid to come in the boat thus far.  This healthy fish measured 24.25 inches with mouth closed and tail pinched, and it weighed 6.25 pounds on a certified scale.

Less than 15 minutes before George put his biggest fish in the boat, Ray put a this really sweet hybrid in the net.  It taped 23.75 and weighed 6.00 pounds.  Although I’ve had other 23.75″ fish caught this season, that was the heaviest up to that point.

Ray is a retired US Navy captain who served as a flight surgeon and then retired into a pediatric practice. George is a retired teacher and principal from the Lampasas Independent School District.

We began our trip at 7:15. I was able to net ample quantities of bait prior to Ray and George’s arrival, and our intent was to use these live baits in pursuit of hybrid.

Because the day was overcast to the point of occasional drizzle, it remained fairly murky and dark for our first hour on the water. During this time, the winds were also quite light. Concerned that the hybrid might not be cranked up quite yet, I suggested we spend some time vertical jigging for white bass since the opportunity presented itself in that I found a huge school of whites right on bottom while on our way to the first area I intended to search with sonar. In under an hour’s time we put 32 white bass in the one, two, and three year class in the boat on slabs. It was now 8:05 and I felt we could find areas sufficiently windblown to get the hybrid stripers really turned on.

As it turned out, the first four areas I searched for hybrid, produced only white bass. This seems to be a common occurrence this season. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with catching a nice mess of white bass, the heavier equipment we were using for hybrid really dulled down their fight, and our intention was to put hybrid in the boat, so, in each instance we continued searching for hybrid stripers after putting just a handful of white bass in the boat.

At the fifth area we searched this morning, and in 42 feet of water, I saw what I suspected were hybrid hugging bottom fairly closely. We put down a pair of large live baits, and much to my disappointment, the first two fish we boated were white bass.  I was shaking my head at this point thinking we were not going to be able to get away from these smaller fish, but persisted here because the sonar clearly showed fish that I knew were not white bass. Persistence paid off, as the third and fourth baits we dropped here were both taken by hybrid. That started a chain reaction that resulted in a run of over 40 fish landed at this area, nearly every last one of which was a keeper hybrid of at least 18 inches in length.

In addition to the quantity of hybrid we found here, we also landed the two largest hybrid that have come over the gunnels so far this season. Ray landed a 23.75 inch hybrid which weighed exactly 6.00 pounds. About 12 minutes later, George put an even larger fish in the boat. This one measured 24.25 inches and weighed 6.25 pounds.

The bite started to soften around 10:45, and by 11:30 the sonar was blank and we had gone for quite a  spell without so much as a sniff on the baits. We called it a good day right there and then and headed back to the dock with 78 fish landed for our efforts today.

TALLY = 78 FISH, all caught and released

WX Snapshot:

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp: 68.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10-11

Sky Conditions: Overcast to the point of drizzle for the first hour, then just heavily overcast for the rest of the trip

Water Level: 1.33 feet above full pool

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 565/826 — 32 white bass on 3/8 oz. slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger Hooks attached fished with easing tactic — moved on in search of hybrid

**Area 211 – 4 white bass on live shad — moved on in search of hybrid

**Area 1912 – 4 white bass on live shad — moved on in search of hybrid

**Area 1915 – 1 crappie, then small bluecat tore up our baits —  moved on in search of hybrid

**Area 1012 – At our 5th stop of the AM, found bottom-oriented school of hybrid in 42-43′; caught 40 fish of which 90% were hybrid and of which 4 in 5 were legal 18+” fish.  Boated our largest hybrid of the season: 24.25″ & 6.25 lbs.

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

This past Saturday morning, March 25th, I fished with Steve Springer and three clients of his, all from the Martinka Brothers Farm operation in Bartlett, Texas.

 

Steve Springer spent some time on the water this morning with several of his clients from the Martinka Brothers Farms near Bartlett, TX.

 

Jacob Martinka with one of several hybrid of this class that took our lively, medium-sized shad late this morning.

After feeling his first hybrid pull like it did, Jordan Martinka was wishing his brother, Matt Martinka, could have made the trip, too.

Justin Young, one of the Martinka Brothers Farms part-time employees, and a full-time HVAC repairman put his fair share of white bass and hybrids in the boat this morning.
Steve sells agricultural supplies like seed and fertilizer, and the folks at Martinka Brothers farms are clients of his. Two of the five Martinka brothers, Jordan and Jacob, joined us this morning, as well as one of their employees, Justin Young.  The family raises grain crops and cattle on over 4,000 acres near Bartlett on a farm that has been in the family for 3 generations.

We got out on the water beginning right at 7:15 and I explained the two options we had before us today: hybrid fishing with live shad and slabbing for white bass. Thus far this season, white bass showing up in the live shad spread intended for hybrid has been a bit of an issue, so I made the fellows aware that we may need to move away from the white bass if we were going to specifically pursue hybrid.

At the very first location we tried, I spotted hybrid on sonar at 24 to 28 feet deep, but as we let our baits down to these fish, the more numerous white bass we saw on sonar at this area pulled right up off the bottom and attacked our baits. Instead of using up a bunch of shad and catching these white bass on the heavier rods intended for hybrid, we just tucked away the hybrid rods for a while and used lightweight spinning gear to enjoy the action these white bass offered. In under an hour’s time we put 52 white bass in the boat and I then presented the fellows with an option of leaving these still-biting fish behind to try again for hybrid.

A second location, this one a bit more windblown, produced the same as our first stop – – more white bass immediately attacking our live shad spread.

The third area we tried produced the same exact results – – more white bass attacking our shad.

Our fourth stop was a charm. With our tally now around 70 fish, we got live baits down to what appeared on sonar at 42 feet on bottom to be larger fish. When the first rod went down, the suspicions I had from looking at sonar were confirmed. We were officially on top of a nice school of hybrid. From this final location we put another 40 fish in the boat, of which 75% were hybrid stripers. Of those, about four of every five were of legal size.

By 11:15 the bite at this area was quickly waning. With both quality fish and a quantity of fish landed, the fellows were ready to call it a good morning and so we headed to the dock with exactly 110 fish landed for our efforts this morning.

 

TALLY = 116 FISH, all caught and released

WX Snapshot:

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 60F

Water Surface Temp: 66.1.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: Post-frontal, but still breezy conditions on the heels of a mild coldfront that passed thru around 11am yesterday; winds WNW14

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies and bright conditions all morning

Water Level: 0.78 feet above full pool

GT = 100

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1624 — 52 white bass on 3/8 oz. slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger Hooks attached fished with easing tactic — moved on in search of hybrid

**Area 618/1909 – 8 white bass on live shad — moved on in search of hybrid

**Area vic 1482 – 10 white bass on live shad — moved on in search of hybrid

**Area 1299 – At our 4th stop of the AM, found bottom-oriented school of hybrid in 42-43′; caught 40 fish of which 75% were hybrid and of which 4 in 5 were legal 18+” 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

This past Thursday morning, March 23rd, I fished with Mr. Jeff Stump of Lexington, TX, and his brother, Randy Stump, who is visiting from near Columbus, OH.

Jeff Stump with his best hybrid of the morning.

Randy Stump with one of several hybrid of this class that took our lively, medium-sized shad late this morning.

Jeff works in the semi-conductor industry in Austin, and Randy is retired from a career in the battery industry.  Randy flew down for a week-long visit which will include several additional fishing trips in Jeff’s Bass Tracker.

This morning the winds had the fish stirred up right at first light, although they really were not interested in our first offering, which included horizontally fished blade baits.  However, when we switched over to a vertical presentation, the fish just couldn’t get enough of it.  We “eased” with small, 3/8 oz. slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger Hooks affixed to them and just wore the white bass out as long as they stayed shallow (under 25 feet) and tightly grouped (as witnessed on sonar).  By 9:15a, we’d landed 90 fish and decided to devote the remainder of the trip to targeting hybrid striper with live bait.

Our first stop for hybrid didn’t go so well, as the white bass beat the hybrid to the baits and then just kept on coming.  Our second stop for hybrid proved a whole lot better.  We used large live baits at first, and suspended them way up off bottom to try to prevent immediate detection by white bass.  This seemed to work well, as we immediately got into hybrid and they stuck around suspended beneath the boat.  We found that medium sized (2.75″) shad got hit much more quickly and aggressively than larger baits.  The larger baits got approached more slowly, and often got mauled without resulting in a hookup.

By trip’s end, we’d managed 15 “legal” hybrid of 18″ or greater in addition to the boatload of white bass we released to fight another day.  By trip’s end, the Stump brothers walked away with a favorable impression of Lake Belton’s fishery.

TALLY = 116 FISH, all caught and released

WX Snapshot:

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:25a

End Time: 11:55a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp: 67.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE15 at sunrise, increasing to SSE21 by trip’s end with higher gusts; stronger winds came in the afternoon

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies and bright conditions all morning

Water Level: 0.67 feet above full pool

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 172/1573 and 1670/164 — 72 white bass on 3/8 oz. slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger Hooks attached fished with easing tactic

**Area 1667 – 18 white bass on 3/8 oz. slabs with Hazy Eye Stinger Hooks attached fished with easing tactic

**Area 1916 – live shad intended for hybrid but caught white bass only

**Area 1915 – live shad for hybrid striper — caught 15 legal fish in last 70 minutes on the water, along with several shorts and some 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

This past Tuesday morning, March 21st, I fished Belton Lake with Rick and Sharon Powell and their friend, Ricardo Cisneros.

 

Mrs. Sharon Powell took this hybrid striper on live bait from 28 feet of water over a deeper bottom.  Each area we fished gave up a few hybrid initially, but then white bass invaded and beat all other species to the bait.

Ricardo Cisneros took this 8.5 pound blue catfish on a large, lively threadfin shad before the white bass took over.

Prior to the trip I explained what I felt our options would be. This included fishing artificials for white bass and\or fishing with live shad primarily for hybrid striper, knowing that whenever live shad are used, other species are sure to be caught, as well. Rick’s only guidance to me was to make sure that Sharon caught fish.

Given the clear, bright conditions that developed right at sunrise, I thought our best shot at hybrid striper would come early. We fished a number of areas that initially marked up with hybrid on sonar, and, indeed, produced a few hybrid striper, but at each location, white bass would move in soon after a few fish were caught.

While there is certainly nothing wrong with catching white bass, doing it on heavier tackle intended for hybrid mutes their fight a good bit. So, in our third hour on the water and after the hybrid seem to have run their course for the morning, we changed over to deep vertical jigging with lightweight slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger Hooks to put a good number of white bass in the boat. While fishing in 40 to 42 feet of water, we took our tally from 20 fish taken in the first two hours up to 62 fish by the end of our third hour.

Given the ample quantity of large livebaits I had, I offered that we would spend the last part of our trip hanging large, live baits in a final attempt to put a few more hybrid in the boat.

Although Ricardo managed one more hybrid, everything else we caught, even on these large livebaits, were white bass. We closed out our trip this morning with 76 fish including our largest, an  8.5 pound blue cat, which came up and slammed one of Ricardo’s large threadfin shad between our first and second hour on the water

To me, fishing is always enjoyable, but it is so much more enjoyable when doing it with good people – – and that was certainly the case in fishing with the Powell’s and Ricardo today.   After the trip we enjoyed a nice lunch together at Sol de Jalisco right there in Morgan’s Point.

TALLY = 76 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time:  1:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp:  65.9F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE13 at sunrise, increasing to SSE19 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies and bright conditions all morning

Water Level:  0.66 feet above full pool

GT =  95

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

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

Thanks to the statewide public school Spring Break this week, my fishing calendar is completely full with 2 trips per day scheduled each day from Monday through Saturday.  Each day I aim to provide a quick snapshot of the action…

SATURDAY AM

 

Who: Mr. Paul Hanusa of Austin, and his son, 21-year-old Parker Hanusa, home on Spring Break from Rice University

What: Targeting white bass under birds with blades and slabs early, then hybrid striped bass using live shad

Where: Lake Belton, Area 1735/752 through Area 1860 for 93 white bass on blades and slabs thru 10AM, then 47 more fish on live shad from Area vic 930, of which 70% were legal hybrid striped bass).

When: 7:45a to 12:30p

Other:

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Water Surface Temp:  63.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE7-8

Sky Conditions: Morning began with 100% grey clouds, slowly clearing to 40% white cloud coverage on a fair sky.

Water Level:  0.58 feet above full pool

GT =  60

Tally: 137 fish, all caught and released.

 

FRIDAY PM

 

Who:   Zoey Garcia and Jozy Ramirez, accompanied by their mom, Keike Talley

What:  A Ft. Hood SKIESUnlimited Program trip just for the two girls focusing on white bass by slabbing and downrigging

Where:  Stillhouse, Areas 805 (slabbing) and 1566-1055 complex (downrigging tandem rigged Pet Spoons)

When:  3:30p to 6:20p (the girls were ready for pizza before the 4 hour mark!)

Other:

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE10

Sky Conditions: Fair skies with 20% white cloud cover

Water Level:  0.54 feet above full pool

GT =  0

Tally: 50 fish, all caught and released.

DAY’S GRAND TALLY = 187 FISH, all caught and released

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WX SNAPSHOT:

 

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

Thanks to the statewide public school Spring Break this week, my fishing calendar is completely full with 2 trips per day scheduled each day from Monday through Saturday.  Each day I aim to provide a quick snapshot of the action…

FRIDAY AM

 

 

Who: Todd and Andrew Heifrin (age 16), and Jason, Maggie (age 13), and Andrew (age 6) Maine

What: Targeting hybrid striped bass using live shad on Lake Belton, as well as a bit of “slabbing” in the last hour, targeting white bass

Where: Lake Belton, Area 1912  (suspended hybrid with white bass beneath); Area 709 (hyper-aggressive white bass on slabs under birds).

When: 7:45a to 12:00p

Other:

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp:  63.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE13-15

Sky Conditions: Morning began with 100% grey clouds to the point of drizzle and then warmed and dried very slowly

Water Level:  0.60 feet above full pool

GT =  60

Tally: 187 fish, all caught and released.

 

FRIDAY PM

Who:  From left in group photo: Duncan Lancaster, Kaden Lehrmann (front), Mr. Ken McCoy, Kenneth McCoy, Grant Baggerly.

 

What: A 50/50 blend of slabbing for white bass (early afternoon) and live bait fishing for hybrid (last 2 hours up to sunset).

Where: Belton Lake, Area 1914 for 22 white bass, Area vic 902 for mixed bag of hybrid, white bass, and blue catfish

When:  3:30p to 7:30p

Other:

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE11

Sky Conditions: Fair skies with 20% white cloud cover

Water Level:  0.59 feet above full pool

GT =  50

Tally: 70 fish, all caught and released.

DAY’S GRAND TALLY = 159 FISH, all caught and released

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WX SNAPSHOT:

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

Thanks to the statewide public school Spring Break this week, my fishing calendar is completely full with 2 trips per day scheduled each day from Monday through Saturday.  Each day I aim to provide a quick snapshot of the action…

THURSDAY AM

 

Who: Gary and Mary King, and their adult son, Hunter King on Spring Break from UMHB

What: Targeting hybrid striped bass using live shad on Lake Belton, as well as a bit of “slabbing” in the last hour, targeting white bass

Where: Lake Belton, Area 1910 (suspended hybrid with white bass beneath); Area 1911 (suspended hybrid with white bass beneath); Area 1912  (suspended hybrid with white bass beneath); Area 1913 (deep white bass on slabs).

When: 7:45a to 12:15p

Other:

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp:  62.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE13-15

Sky Conditions: Morning began with 100% grey clouds to the point of drizzle and then warmed and dried very slowly

Water Level:  0.62 feet above full pool

GT =  0

Tally: 100 fish, all caught and released.

 

THURSDAY PM

Who:  Mr. Jason B. and his 8-year-old son.

What: White bass fishing primarily with a vertical approach using 3/8 oz. slabs equipped with Hazy Eye Stinger Hooks, with a bit of “last light” downrigging used primarily to demonstrate the equipment to Hagen

Where: Stillhouse, Area 074 (short spurt of white bass action from bottom-oriented congregation of fish); Area 1690/1698 (short spurt of white bass action from bottom-oriented congregation of fish); Area 784/529 (strong action by yearling fish up shallower in last hour of daylight on vertical slabs); Area 1048/798 (strong action on 2-year class fish up shallower in last hour of daylight with slabs & downrigged tandem Pet Spoons);

When:  3:30p to 7:30p

Other:

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp:  64.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE115

Sky Conditions: Fair skies with 40% white cloud cover

Water Level:  0.61 feet above full pool

GT =  20

Tally: 59 fish, all caught and released.

DAY’S GRAND TALLY = 159 FISH, all caught and released

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WX SNAPSHOT:

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