Fishing Report

This past Saturday evening, I fished  with Aaron, Daniel, and Alexandria Chambers, chaperoned by their mom, Melissa.

Shoemaker High School student Aaron Chambers landed the first fish of his life and many more after that on our SKIFF program trip to Lake Belton this past Saturday.

8-year-old Alexandria show off the first fish of her life with a little help from her mom, Melissa.

Alexandria’s twin brother, Daniel, stayed enthusiastic the entire trip and really came on strong in the last hour as we encountered solid surface-feeding white bass action.

Melissa and I had coordinated a previous date in August, but rain and illness in their family prevented that from happening.  Still, Melissa was able to keep the entire thing a surprise for the kids until the moment they drove through the Corps of Engineers gate to the park we met at on Lake Belton.

None of the three kids had ever fished before.  Aaron (age 14) was a good bit older than his 8-year-old twin siblings, so I enlisted his help in helping ensure their success while I made sure he caught his fair share of fish, too.  Aaron’s help was much appreciated as we encountered 17 mph winds following the passage of a cold front that sped through central Texas in the morning, shifting the winds to the north, darkening the skies, and dropping trace of rain.

We enjoyed three distinct “chapters” on this trip.  Chapter one consisted of downrigging for white bass that were somewhat lethargic under the bright, post-frontal skies.  We found a solid congregation of  white bass holding on a distinct breakline in 20-25 feet of water and worked them over with repeated passes using downriggers equipped with Pet Spoons.  Following a 4:15p start, we had over 2 dozen fish in the boat by 6pm, thanks to landing a number of doubles on the tandem rigs we were downrigging with.

We spent about 45 minutes fishing cut bait near bottom for blue catfish until each of the three kids was able to land several catfish on their own.  These catfish were small, as they have been all summer, but they were plentiful and very cooperative.  As we wrapped up the catfishing the tally stood at 32 fish boated by around 7pm.

The last chapter of the day was to be written up in shallower water.  Thanks to a few sparse, but well-positioned clouds, the decrease of light that normally accompanies sunset came a bit early tonight as the sun sank behind these clouds before sinking below the horizon.  This got the white bass going on their evening topwater feed a bit early.  We enjoyed over an hour of sight-casting to surface feeding white bass, and ended the trip with an additional 34 fish landed via this technique.

It is not at all uncommon to catch as many fish in the last hour of light as in the previous 3 hours preceding.

All three kids obviously caught the first fish of their lives on this trip and earned TPWD “First Fish Awards”.

If you are a military spouse and your spouse is away from home on military duty, your children can also participate in such a SKIFF trip, thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers.  Simply give me a call, text, or email (see below).

TALLY = 66 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time:  8:15p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 88F

Water Surface Temp:  84.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNW17, tapering down to NNW8

Sky Conditions: 10% cloud cover in the western sky.

Water Level: ~0.06 feet high.  Lake is at full pool with only evaporative losses and no water being released.

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1602/813/1746/811 shallow downrigging at first light

**Area 1805/1790/1800 deeper downrigging during 2nd hour of light

**Area 502 sunfishing

**Area 1805 bluecat on cutbait

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 Labor Day Monday, I fished a morning trip with Tyler and Caleb Williams, chaperoned by their mom, Liz Williams.

Twin brothers Caleb and Tyler Williams joined me this past Labor Day Monday for the first fishing trip of their lives.  The boys landed 63 fish, including hybrid striped bass, white bass, blue catfish, redear sunfish, bluegill sunfish, longear sunfish, and green sunfish.  Here, Tyler holds his largest fish of the trip, a 4 1/8 pound hybrid striper.

Caleb landed this 3.75 pound hybrid striped bass as we downrigged with balls set at 31 feet over a 45 foot bottom.

Caleb and Tyler are nine-year-old twin brothers who had never fished before. This morning’s weather was a continuation of the unstable weather we have had of late. This morning began with heavy grey cloud cover and a south-southeast wind blowing around 12 mph. The wind made any top water action that may have existed very difficult to see unless you were right on top of it, so, I began our morning with each boy manning one of my two downriggers. Each downrigger was equipped with a tandem rig rigged with two Pet Spoons. From our first line in the water around 6:45 until around 8:40 AM, we enjoyed consistent success on the downriggers, first up shallow with the ball set from 14 to 17 feet, then, as it brightened and the fish moved further offshore, we caught them with the ball set at 24 to 31 feet.

When it became clear to Liz and I that the novelty of downrigging had worn off (even though the fish were still cooperating), we headed up shallow and tryed our luck with rods baited with worms suspended under balsawood floats targeting sunfish. Our fish count stood at 38 fish prior to beginning our sunfishing adventure. After 50 minutes of effort with the boys taking turns on just one rod, we added another 14 fish to our tally which now stood at 52.

For our grand finale this morning, we fished near bottom with cutbait targeting blue catfish. I found abundant blue cat schooled in 32 feet of water. We used shad to tempt these fish and wound up with a grand total of 11 coming over the gunwale before mom and I agreed to call it a good morning at 10:30 with 63 fish landed for our efforts.

Both boys succeeded in catching the first fish of their lives today and then went on to appreciate a number of other fishing skills, as well.

TALLY = 63 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 75F

Water Surface Temp:  83.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE12

Sky Conditions: 70-100% cloud cover.

Water Level: ~0.88 feet high.  Lake is falling slowly at ~.11 feet per day

GT = 35

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1602/813/1746/811 shallow downrigging at first light

**Area 1805/1790/1800 deeper downrigging during 2nd hour of light

**Area 502 sunfishing

**Area 1805 bluecat on cutbait

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 evening I fished a multi-species trip with West Virginia National Guardsmen Scott Piper, Mac McAninch, Floyd Watts, and Phil Arnold. This same crew, minus Floyd, also came out with me this past Tuesday evening and had such a good time that they wanted to treat Floyd to a trip, too.

Fresh from the fight — West Virginia National Guardsman Floyd Watts hit Belton Lake, courtesy of a few fishermen in his unit, within hours of stepping off his plane back to U.S. soil from Iraq.

Floyd, literally, just got off a plane coming in from Iraq hours before stepping aboard my boat.  As we headed out in the 92F afternoon heat, he commented how “cool” it was versus the 120F+ heat he’d left behind, and said 90F was a typical temperature around midnight where he’d just come from.

This afternoon’s bite was a tough one, thanks to unstable weather and light winds. We employed a variety of tactics to put together a total bag of 45 fish.

We first connected with fish via downrigging over a small breakline dropping from 17 to 28 feet. We used Pet Spoons behind a pair of downriggers with the ball set between 14 and 17 feet to get bit. This area gave up 14 fish.

Next, we moved on to deeper water and found abundant, schooled fish, however they were locked down on bottom. We were able to convince a few to strike using a smoking tactic, but results were few and far between. When I switched over to the downrigger, the fish really never budged. Usually, in deep water, and when fish are tied to the bottom, active fish will come up out of the school and inspect the downrigger ball as it passes by overhead. We really never saw this happen until nearly 7:15 PM. We gave cat fishing a try in the meantime as we waited for the sun to get lower, hoping the whitebass would get more active as that happened. The catfish certainly cooperated, but as has been the case all summer, ran pretty small.

Once the sun got behind a thin layer of clouds in the western sky, a few fish responded immediately and began to strike on top water. We got to them as quickly as we can and threw soft plastics on jigheads, catching a few whites and a few largemouth.

As the next 45 minutes passed, the sun set below the western horizon, and during what is normally the best window for top water action, none took place this evening.

We finished out the night with a grand total of 45 fish and talked of the fellows returning for some of the awesome late November fishing after their aircraft returned from Iraq and these Guardsmen returned from their home state to pick them up.

Floyd took big fish honors with a 3.25 pound hybrid taken on a slab worked vertically.

TALLY = 45 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time:  8:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 92F

Water Surface Temp:  87F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE5

Sky Conditions: 20% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~2.80 feet high.  Lake is falling slowly at ~.11 feet per day

GT = 20

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 168/169 downrigging for whites on a breakline

**Area 1070/1802 smoking slabs for reluctant, deep, schooled whites and hybrid

**Area 1784/1781 pre-dusk downrigging in <25′

**Area 1762 brief topwater

**Area 020 fancasting for last-light bite

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, August 25th, I fished with Jerry Shirley, his wife Elizabeth, and his younger brother Zack, who was in visiting from North Carolina before starting high school again next week.

From left: Zack, Elizabeth and Jerry Shirley with a sampling of white bass taken on this morning’s multi-species trip on Lake Belton.

Jerry is a recently separated U.S. Army veteran, and Elizabeth is still on active duty and headed for a deployment to South Korea in early 2017.  I appreciate the service of all of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines that come on my boat and am glad to be able to offer a $30 discount to them on their fishing trips.

This morning we fished a multi-species trip on Lake Belton. This was the calmest, and the clearest day we’ve had since the cold front came in two Fridays ago, and since the low-pressure and rain moved out this past Tuesday.

As is typical on bright, cloudless days, most of the white bass and hybrid striper action was frontloaded in the first 70 minutes of the trip. During this time we found numerous, aggressive schools of white bass mixed with hybrid stripers herding shad to the surface and feeding upon them there thus making enough commotion to be visually detected from quite some distance away. Additionally, gray terns were feeding over top of many of these schools, making them even easier to locate.

I had Jerry positioned in the front of the boat sight-casting to the left and right as we approached these schools, and I had Zack and Elizabeth on either side of the boat in the stern each manning a downrigger set 20 feet back and 12 feet down equipped with Pet Spoons behind umbrella rigs.

The fish came easy right up until 8:10 when the sun rose sufficiently high and became bright to the point that it pushed the fish down off the surface.

At this time we pursued species number two, which consisted of throwing soft plastic grubs on quarter ounce jig heads to schooling largemouth bass up in shallow brush.  This lasted about 40 minutes and, as we were pulling away from these fish, we then spotted “popcorn” schools of white bass ambushing shad out in deep, open water.  We did a “run and gun” routine for a while, catching just one fish per person (maybe) as we arrived, cut the engine and made accurate casts.  The fish would the sound and we’d never see them again.

Around 9:15 we began pursuing species number three: blue catfish. We found abundant catfish hugging bottom in 28 to 32 feet of water chummed the area to get the fish active, and then fished cut shad to tempt them.

The catfishing is pretty relaxed, so, as you hold your rod and wait for a bite, it’s a good time to talk and tell stories.  When I learned that Jerry’s family was from North Carolina, I told them of my fishing trip to the Outer Banks a few years ago and how we enjoyed the Carolina pulled pork and thin BBQ sauce.  That’s when Jerry started confessing things — serious things, like high crimes and misdemeanor things … like smuggling a certain brand of Carolina BBQ sauce across multiple state lines so he doesn’t run out while he’s here in Texas.

By 11:05 we had boated exactly 103 fish.  With the already light wind getting even lighter, and the sun feeling hotter, we decided to call it a good morning and head in for lunch.

TALLY = 103 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  11:10a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp:  84.7F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE5-6

Sky Conditions: 20% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~3.07 feet high.  Lake is falling slowly

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1206-904: nomadic, fast moving schooling white bass under terns

**Area 1206 largemouth in and around brush

**Area 1801 chasing popcorn white bass

**Area 085-814 – blue cat and drum on cutbait

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 evening I fished a multi-species trip with West Virginia National Guardsmen Robert “Mac” McAninch, Scott Piper, and Phil Arnold.  These fellows were sent to Ft. Hood to help their aviation unit as that unit’s soldiers and equipment returned from a deployment to Iraq.

From left: Scott Piper, Phil Arnold, and Robert “Mac” McAninch of the West Virginia National Guard.

The fishing has definitely not been as productive as when we had the low pressure and accompanying cloud cover we were blessed with for about 11 days following the cold front that pushed through on August 12th.  Unstable weather typically produces average to below average fishing.  Year-in and year-out my parties average 62 fish per trip; tonight we caught 73.

As we got on the water it was both breezy and bright.  We put about a dozen white bass in the boat in the first hour and lost several more as we fished under well-dispersed terns diving down on shad forced to the surface by loosely schooled white bass down below them.

When the tern action cooled off we did a bit of catfishing.  Scott really excelled at this after getting a feel for the necessary timing on the hookset right off the bat.  We put 22 cats in the boat before returning to the pursuit of white bass and hybrid.

By 6:30pm we began probing up a bit shallower in 20-25 feet of water with downriggers and over the next hour enjoyed our most productive stretch of the night, routinely hooking up with singles and doubles.

Once the sun hit the western horizon, we looked intently for surface-feeding fish but found none.  I did find heavy concentrations of white bass carpeting the bottom in water between 8-12 feet deep.  To close out the trip I Spot Locked us near such a school of fish and we fan-cast to them using blade baits.  We steadily picked up additional white bass in this way until they shut down right at about 8:30p.

TALLY = 73 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30p

End Time:  8:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 90F

Water Surface Temp:  84-85F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE5-6

Sky Conditions: 30% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~3.31 feet high.  Lake rose 0.30 feet in the past 24 hours with a flow of ~1570 cfs at the dam

GT = 30

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1206-904: nomadic, fast moving schooling white bass under terns

**Area  1802 catfish on cutbait

**Area 1746-1784 and 013-016 early evening mid-depth downrigging for bottom-oriented white bass

**Area 1654 – shallow casting for white bass in under 12 ‘ with bladebaits

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 I fished with U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 (CW3) Ray Behan, his wife, Gaby, his dad, Steve Behan, the Behan’s daughter, Virginia, and Ray’s niece and nephew, Tyler and Reese Volk.  Steve came in for a visit from Louisiana, and the Volk’s were visiting from Salem, Oregon.

From left: Gaby Behan, Reese Volk, Steve Behan, Virginia Behan, Tyler Volk, and Ray Behan, each with sampling of the 163 fish we caught on Belton this past Saturday as the white bass fed long and hard at the surface in pursuit of threadfin shad.

To say the fish cooperated today would be an understatement.  Not only was there surprisingly few boats out (the weatherman’s bark was worse than his bite), the grey skies, gentle winds, and low-pressure conditions we experienced in advance of an afternoon of rain was just a perfect combination to get Belton’s white bass population fired up enough to feed on the surface long and hard.

We caught white bass from 6:40a to 9:30a by downrigging with a pair of downriggers with baits set up high in the water column (just 9-12 feet down), while Ray carefully sight-cast from the front deck of the moving boat into schools of fish off to our left or right.  By 9:30 we’d boated exactly 80 white bass and 1 hybrid striper.

As the skies brightened a bit, the surface action died, so I quickly switched us over to fishing for catfish with cutbait.  We caught a mix of 33 blue catfish and a channel catfish in just 45 minutes.  The time was now around 10:15am.  I asked if everyone would like to ride out the remainder of our trip continuing to catch catfish, or if they’d like to roll the dice and take a chance on finding (or not finding) more white bass action.  By this time the skies had begun to darken a bit and a large weather complex sat just off to our SW over the Hill Country.

The family vote was for more white bass action, so, we simply rode from place to place being observant.  We spotted some well-spread, aggressive white bass action by around 10:30, and fished over these fish another 40 minutes until the changing wind and weather put them down for good.  In this final 40 minutes of fishing we boated another 49 fish, including 2 hybrid stripers and 47 white bass.]

Throughout the trip, Reese kept exclaiming, “This is SO exciting!” as she watched schools of white bass force young of the year shad to the surface and church the water white with their aggressive pursuit of these small baitfish.  I would have to agree with her!

TALLY = 163 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time:  11:10a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  84.7

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE5-6

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds  with rain beginning to fall on our way back in to the dock at the end of the trip.

Water Level: ~3.01 feet high.  Lake rose 0.30 feet in the past 24 hours with a flow of ~1570 cfs at the dam

GT = 130

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1142 to 1141: nomadic, fast moving schooling white bass under terns

**Area  814-085 catfish on cutbait

**Area vic 307: nomadic, fast moving schooling white bass under terns

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 Friday afternoon, August 19th, I fished the 13th SKIFF program trip of the year with Mrs. Tina Eaton and her 2 children, Cheyenne and Charlie, as well as the 2 children of U.S Army Specialist Ryan Mahin Sr. and his wife, Felicia.

We caught sunfish galore under grey, cool skies using bobbers, small hooks and worms.  From left: Layla Mahin, Charlie Eaton, Cheyenne Eaton, and Ryan Mahin Jr.

And the white bass cooperated, too.  From left: Ryan, Charlie, Layla, and Cheyenne.

As we began our trip we were blessed to have grey terns simply materialize out over open water with hungry white bass pushing young of the year shad to the surface beneath these birds. Given the ages of the kids, and the fact that there were four of them, I decided to go with 2 downrigger rods and fish just subsurface for these aggressively feeding fish with the balls set about 9 feet down.

As you might expect in the early afternoon, this action didn’t last long, but it did last long enough for each of the kids to catch two sets of doubles on the two–  and three– armed umbrella rigs I was trailing behind the downrigger balls. Not only did this allow the kids to enjoy early success and keep their interest going, it also allowed Cheyenne and Charlie to land the first fish of their lives

After the terns lifted off the water and the whites settled down, we moved up into shallow water and introduced all four kids to sunfishing using a simple float, split shot, hook, and worm. We used just one rod and had the kids go in a four-way rotation to avoid tangles.

After the sunfishing and its novelty tapered off, the time was around 7 PM, which meant the white bass should have just about been ready to begin their final evening feed.  I made my best estimate on where the fish should turn up, and this turned out to be a good estimate. We found fish beginning to congregate and rise off the bottom and move slowly shallower beginning in about 20 feet of water. We set our downrigger balls between 12 and 15 feet and began to catch fish on each pass through the area I had selected.

After each kid got to take two or three rounds on the downriggers, the fish  finally broke the surface and allowed for sight casting from that point up until they quit right at around 8:30. Our grand total for tonight’s effort tallied exactly 70 fish … but that wasn’t all!

The Mahin kids were in for a huge surprise… as we approached the courtesy dock, their dad was standing on the dock to greet them after arriving home from a lengthy National Training Center (NTC) rotation in Fort Irwin, California. The kids were not expecting him until later in the weekend.

Thanks, Mrs. Eaton, for your hands-on help on this trip.  I wouldn’t have gone near as smoothly without you!!

The Austin Fly Fishers make these trip possible with their generous donations, fundraising efforts, and partnerships with groups like the Sun City Hunting and Fishing Club, the Sun City Women Helping Other (WHO) organization, the McBride Foundation, and others.  To schedule a trip for your child while your military spouse is away, just call 254.368.7411.  With the school year now underway, SKIFF is offering after school and Saturday trips.

TALLY = 70 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:450p

End Time:  8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 83F

Water Surface Temp:  84.7

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE7-8

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds  with rain between 4:40p and 5:40p

Water Level: ~2.71 feet high.  Lake rose 0.35 feet in the past 24 hours with a flow of ~1570 cfs at the dam

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1604/1137 catfish on cutbait

**Area 501/689 schooling white bass under terns

**Area 009/1772 schooling white bass under terns

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