Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

Local Scout Discovers Merits of Fishing – 101 Fish @ Belton

August 21st, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

THE FOLLOWING STORY APPEARED IN THE KILLEEN DAILY HERALD, SUNDAY, AUG. 21, 2016:

Like many local anglers, Steve Niemeier, of Temple, had some reservations about fishing on Belton Lake given recent reports of flooding, closed facilities, turbid water and more. Niemeier sent me a text message on Aug.7 simply asking, “How’s the fishing?”

PHOTO CAPTION: Tevan Gilmore, left, and Caleb Fowler pose with their hybrid striped bass caught Friday at Belton Lake.

Knowing that Niemeier rarely arrives without at least one grandchild in tow, my reply assured him that both big numbers of fish and a variety of species were accessible at Belton Lake, and likely would continue to be into early October.

With that, he booked a trip Friday with his grandson, 11-year-old Caleb Fowler, and Caleb’s cousin, 13-year-old Tevan Gilmore, both students at Lake Belton Middle School.

As we corresponded in advance of the trip, Neimeier made a special request — that we help Caleb meet several of the requirements to get a fishing merit badge. These included catching a fish, identifying the fish we caught, learning to tie two fishing knots, using spinning gear and baitcasting gear, measuring a fish and cleaning and cooking a fish.

Our trip began at 6:30 a.m. I provided a safety briefing, pointing out where all safety gear is stowed, explaining what to do if someone fell overboard, and showing everyone where the boat’s two required noise-making devices were located.

After that, I introduced everyone to the spinning tackle and baitcasting tackle we would be using, making sure the handles were on the appropriate side of the reel for each angler. I then previewed how I expected the day would flow, based on the past several days’ results. I then prayed for our efforts and we throttled up and left the boat launch area behind.

We made a beeline to surface-feeding fish revealed by the fish-eating terns flying over the water just above them, scavenging the dead and crippled shad left there by the hungry fish below. We used a combination of casting and downrigging to catch our first 30 fish before our first hour on the water had gone by.

As opportunities presented themselves, we slowly whittled down the list of Caleb’s scouting requirements. By 8 a.m., both boys had used both spinning and casting gear, had landed and identified multiple species of fish including white bass and hybrid striped bass, and Caleb posed with a 17.75-inch hybrid striped bass which we measured properly — with mouth closed and tail lobes pinched together.

When the exciting topwater action died down and the terns headed back to roost, we quickly transitioned from targeting white bass and hybrid to targeting blue catfish and channel catfish. Using cut bait positioned near the bottom, we held the boat in place using the Spot Lock feature of my Ulterra trolling motor to avoid anchoring and disturbing that portion of bottom we were fishing over. We pitched chum into the water to attract catfish from all around us and then concentrated on our rod tips to watch and see when a catfish had grabbed one of our baits in its mouth.

Over the next two hours, Niemeier and the boys caught catfish after catfish, taking our tally for the morning up to 101 fish landed by 10:45 a.m. Occasionally, a catfish would swallow a hook so deeply that the hook had to be abandoned to give the fish a chance at surviving. This afforded Caleb an opportunity to learn to tie both an improved clinch knot and a Palomar knot.

With so many catfish coming over the side so quickly, we had our choice of size and species to choose from for Caleb to take home and clean. Although my guide service has an all catch-and-release policy, this seemed an appropriate time to make a small exception.

As we concluded our trip, Caleb pulled his rolling cooler filled with ice up the hill toward the parking lot weighted down with a freshwater drum, a channel catfish and two blue catfish for him to clean and eat as he continues to work toward earning his fishing merit badge.

LINK TO KDH STORY: http://kdhnews.com/sports/fishing/bob-maindelle-a-variety-of-fish-are-biting-right-now/article_70c641f0-6760-11e6-b7c0-a7fed3deb677.html

Back-to-School Fishing Trip — 117 Fish for Chris & Danny Howell

August 20th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Thursday afternoon, August 19, I fished with Mr. Chris Howell and his 12-year-old son, Danny, both of Round Rock, Texas.

After the storms passed, the white bass went on an absolute feeding frenzy. I was not uncommon to see a white bass 12 inches long regurgitate 5 or 6 young-of-the-year threadfin shad like the two shown above in the mouth of this white bass.

Chris Howell and his 12-year-old son, Danny, scored 117 fish after braving the rain on Belton this evening.

These fellows were presented with a fishing gift certificate by Chris’s father-in-law, Charles Wood, of Temple, and today was the day they decided to cash it in before Danny must head back to school this coming Tuesday for his seventh grade year.

The rain that forced postponement of several trips Monday and Tuesday looked like it was going to give us a break today but, low and behold, just as I began launching the boat, more rain moved in from the southwest. When Chris and Danny pulled in we consulted and simply decided that the fishing was worth getting wet, and so we left the rain gear in our vehicles and headed out to catch some fish.

As we started off, I targeted catfish in deep open water on a windward facing breakline in about 32 feet of water. Once we held over this area using the Ulterra’s Spot Lock function and got chum down, the catfish began to respond. Eight catfish into the trip, we heard thunder drawing nearer and got off the lake until ‘all clear’.

Once the storms passed, and the weather began to improve, the fish went on an absolute feeding frenzy lasting from roughly 6 PM until dark at 8:40 PM. During this time we located fish either by searching for nervous water and or by sighting the white and gray terns feeding actively just above the water’s surface as they scavenged shad left dead or crippled by the white bass below them. Our bait of choice tonight was a chrome bladebait. The color, size, and profile did a great job of mimicking the pray these white bass were targeting.

We found such action occurring in two distinct locations with the first area going quiet around 7:45 PM and the second spot firing up around that same time and lasting until right at dark.

By the time all was said and done we had landed 117 fish including 8 catfish, 5 largemouth bass, and 104 white bass.

TALLY = 117 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:40p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Water Surface Temp: 84.7

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-9

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

Water Level: ~2.11 feet high. Lake rose 0.55 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

Fishing Still Solid After Heavy Rains — 50 Fish, Belton, 18 Aug.

August 18th, 2016August 19th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Thursday morning, August 18th, I fished the 12th SKIFF program trip of the 2016 season with Maurice W. Jr. and Kaitlyn A., accompanied by their mothers, Tionna W. and Charmain A.

Kaitlyn took big fish honors this trip with an 11th hour hybrid striper that struck her Pet Spoon. This was one of 3 fish (2 hybrid and 1 white bass) she landed at the same time on a 3-armed umbrella rig as we fished under terns which pointed the way to actively feeding fish in deep, open water.

Maurice keeps an eye on the competition as we headed up shallow and fished for sunfish at mid-morning for varitety’s sake. Maurice holds a bluegill sunfish while Kaitlyn holds a redear sunfish.

Kaitlyn’s dad, Kevin A. serves as a US Army armor officer and is currently deployed to Afghanistan. Maurice’s dad, Captain Maurice W. Sr., is also an armor officer assigned to the planning section of III Corps. III Corps serves as the headquarters of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve leading a regional campaign of coalition and international partners synchronizing military action against the Islamic State in Southwest Asia.

This was the first time I’ve been on the water in over a week thanks to near-constant rain since a cold front blew in last Friday afternoon. Despite having over 6 inches of rain, because the rain fell gently, the lake condition and elevation have really not changed much over the past week, with discharge at the dam roughly equaling rain input.

Heavy grey cloud cover persisted during our entire time on the water this morning. This eliminated the low-light top water bite that more frequently occurs with a sudden brightening of the sky at sunrise on less cloudy days. Our trip broke down into five distinct components.

First, we downrigged with Pet Spoons up shallow, then moved out to deeper water after seeing a few juvenile terns working over fish in deep open water. Downriggers continued to be productive for these fish, as well. Next, we moved up into shallow water and targeted sunfish. We then pursued catfish using cut bait near bottom. We wrapped up the trip back under birds using downriggers and put the kids on fish right up until we wrapped up at 10:45 so as to end on a positive note. It was during this last round under birds that Kaitlyn landed our largest fish of the trip, a 19.75” hybrid striper, which was part of a triple she caught on a 3-armed umbrella rig.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips like this one are provided free of charge thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers. Homefront parents separated from their military spouse due to that spouse’s duty may contact me at 254.368.7411 to arrange for a 4-hour trip, totally free of charge.

For their efforts today the kids wound up boating a grand total of 50 fish.

TALLY = 50 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp: 84.3

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE 8-10

Sky Conditions: 100% grey clouds and occasional light drizzle

Water Level: ~2.11 feet high. Lake rose 0.55 feet in the past 24 hours with a flow of ~1570 cfs at the dam

GT = 0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1574 – low light downrigging

**Area 1275-836 open water downrigging under terns

**Area 015 – shallow water white bass and freshwater drum on bladebaits

**Area 023 – low light topwater action following sunset in under 15′ of water

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

Father-Son Trip with Eron & Grayson Hedgecoth; 73 Fish @ Lake Belton

August 15th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Wednesday afternoon, August 10, I fished with Mr. Eron Hedgecoth and his 10-year-old son, Grayson, of Little River, Texas.

Grayson Hedgecoth and his dad, Eron, with our largest catfish of the trip, a 17 inch channel cat taken on fresh, dead shad in 32′ of water while the air temperature was 102F.

After the catfishing and before the white bass went crazy on top, we did some downrigging, resulting in this nice hybrid striped bass which fell for a Pet Spoon.
Eron is a signalman for the railroad and therefore travels quite a bit. We would both have preferred to fish in the cool of the morning, but neither of our schedules allowed for that to happen before Grayson heads back to school, so we chose this afternoon to make that special event happen.

In many ways my afternoon trips are conducted in reverse of my morning trips. By this I mean we set out looking for blue catfish in deeper open water first, awaiting a resurgence of activity in progressively shallower water by white bass and hybrid striper as sunset approaches.

We spent our first 70 minutes hovering over 32 feet of water with fresh, dead shad suspended just above the bottom targeting heavily schooled catfish. During that time we hooked and landed exactly 30 catfish, including 27 blues, and 3 channels, the biggest of which was approximately 17 inches long and about 2 1/2 pounds.

For variety’s sake, and given Grayson’s age, we next began to search for relatively inactive but heavily schooled white bass also in deep, open water, although we could have continued to catch catfish. Such fish this time of year tend to congregate on breaklines when they are inactive between morning and evening feeds, and today was no exception. On several gentle breaks we found heavily schooled fish (literally hundreds of them) and used the downriggers to present our baits to many inactive fish in hopes of getting the handful of more active fish among them interested in biting. This did the trick for multiple singles and two sets of doubles allowing us to put another 16 fish in the boat, including 15 white bass and one keeper hybrid striper.

As we downrigged, I noted that the fish were progressively moving shallower and appearing gradually higher in the water column. This was our signal to leave the downriggers behind, move up shallow, and begin working baits horizontally. For this work, I chose spinning gear equipped with blade baits. We worked our blade baits in 15 to 17 feet of water and picked up both white bass and freshwater drum at a moderate, but consistent pace right up through sunset. At sunset, when I did not see nor hear any top water action immediately near us, I began cruising and looking for the distinct appearance of nervous water indicating white bass and or hybrid striper pushing shad to the surface. Within minutes, we found exactly what we were looking for, got the boat situated a cast’s distance away from the fish to keep from spooking them, and began putting the fish after fish in the boat casting blade baits to them and immediately retrieving our lures to keep them high in the water column. We quickly put another 22 fish in the boat before the action died about 25 minutes after sunset. We ended our trip with exactly 73 fish landed for our efforts.

TALLY = 73 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:40p

End Time: 8:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 102F

Water Surface Temp: 89.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-12

Sky Conditions: 20% white clouds on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~2.20 feet high and falling ~ 0.7 feet per day with a reduced flow of ~2800 cfs

GT = 9

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1798/1799 – bluecat and channels on fresh, dead shad

**Area 302/1271 – downrigging for inactive whites and hybrid

**Area 015 – shallow water white bass and freshwater drum on bladebaits

**Area 023 – low light topwater action following sunset in under 15′ of water

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

SKIFF Trip #11 – William and Aidan Hooper, 60 Fish @ Belton Lake

August 14th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Tuesday morning, August 9th, I fished with William and Aidan Cooper of Killeen on the 11th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip of the 2016 season.

Although we were able to find and catch fish throughout our 4-hour time on the water this morning, the first 90 minutes provided proportionally more and larger fish than the balance of the morning. William took both of these hybrid by sight-casting to schools of active fish forcing shad to the surface under low-light conditions.

Aidan landed this nice Belton Lake hybrid striped bass of his own, as well as numerous white bass after quickly learning how to cast and retrieve using spinning gear.

William and Aidan are the sons of US Army Staff Sergeant Cory Hale and his wife, Chastsie Hale. SSG Hale is a field artillerymen currently deployed to South Korea.

Mrs. Hale saw to it that the boys arrived punctually this morning, as I shared with her the day before that the best fishing was typically taking place in the first 75 minutes of our time on the water. Today turned out to be no exception. The fishing has been exceptionally stable and consistent as I expected it will be as long as we have stable, high-pressure weather controlling our conditions. Around 6:40 AM, we spied the first “early risers” consisting of white bass and hybrid striper beginning to push threadfin shad to the surface and feed upon them there. Within the next 20 minutes there was a full-on feed taking place over an oblong area about 300 yards long and perhaps 50 yards wide. Although several other boats were in this vicinity, everyone kept their space and was considerate of the others – – one of the things I really enjoy about fishing on the weekdays versus the weekends.

After 90 minutes of nonstop action, the fish began to settle down and push down further in the water column. We quickly switched over to downrigging gear and continued to catch fish consistently for another 30 minutes. By about the two hour mark (around 8:30 AM), the white bass and hybrid striped bass feed had about wrapped up in this area.

We moved on searching for bottom-hugging fish that might respond to vertical tactics. As we searched, I noticed one particular area of the lake that had white bass consistently coming up in “popcorn” schools which appeared briefly and then sounded. Such popcorn schools are pretty tough unless all anglers can cast long and accurately. We took two fish from out of this scenario and then decided to move on to something completely different.

I took the boys up shallow and showed them briefly how to use poles without reels attached to angle for sunfish up in the brush-filled shallow water. We put three panfish in the boat pretty quickly, and then decided to move on to fishing for blue catfish in deep, open water.

The last 40 minutes of the trip we spent fishing with fresh, dead shad for blue catfish and the boys did very well. Both were fast learners. I showed them just one time how to differentiate between the fish approaching the bait initially, and the fish committing to take the bait fully in its mouth. Once they understood the difference and began setting the hook at the proper time, they batted about two out of every three fish on their ‘bite to catch’ ratio.

We wrapped up the trip right around 10:30 AM with exactly 60 fish landed this morning. Since William is already driving and his mother had to work today, he shuttled his brother home and the two had plans for lunch and a nap before William’s football practice at Shoemaker high school where he plays as a cornerback this season.

TALLY = 60 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Water Surface Temp: 85.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: S9-12

Sky Conditions: 20% white clouds on a fair sky. Unobscurred sunrise at 7:12.

Water Level: ~2.20 feet high and falling ~ 0.7 feet per day with a reduced flow of ~2800 cfs

GT = 0

Wx Snapshot:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1657 – low light topwater sightcasting for white bass & hybrid stripers

**Area 1657-1655-812 – downrigging after topwater fish sounded due to increasing light

**Area 1795-1796 – popcorn schooling by white bass

**Area 1797 – panfish on slipfloats

**Area 1070- bluecat with fresh, dead shad

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

Learned a Lot — 64 Fish, Belton, 08 August

August 12th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Monday morning, August 8th, I fished with Mr. Randy Williamson, his wife, Holly, and their friend, Phillip Fagan, all from out in Coryell County, TX, near Topsey.

Despite decades of his own experience on Belton Lake (since it was constructed in the 1950’s), Randy told me he really learned a lot today, in particular about how to be prepared to change tactics for different species and varying conditions “on the fly”.

As a guide, I find some trips with some parties more enjoyable than others. This was the kind of trip I most enjoy — having folks aboard that did not require constant instruction because of their prior experience, and who enjoyed the trip regardless of what manner of fish we caught because they enjoyed being outdoors and each others company.

Randy and Holly’s experiences through the years reminded me of my own with my wife, Rebecca. It seemed each time they traveled to a vacation destination, they mixed in a bit of fishing, and had good stories and good memories from having done so.

We experienced a good variety of fishing this morning, beginning with some downrigging at first light for white bass and hybrid stripers which began to push bait toward the surface. This got more organized and aggressive and, for a short time, resulted in some topwater feeding which we were able to capitalize on by sight casting.

After this peak activity faded, we reverted to the downriggers to get a few more fish as they tapered off their feed, then, a slowdown from 8:00 to 9:00 am ensued.

We did a bit of bait fishing with fresh, dead shad for blue cat to bide our time, then I searched, generally unsuccessfully, in several areas for white bass and hybrid action. During this time the light breeze we’d enjoyed slowed to nearly calm and made our already tough job even more difficult.

Evenutally, I found a few more loosely schooled hybrid stripers in about 29 feet of water on a gradual slope and we hung live shad just up off bottom for these fish. We landed 4 hybrid over the next 4 minutes and lost as many just due to everyone’s lack of familiarity with the use of circle hooks. As has been the case for the past several weeks, no matter where I’ve put baits down for hybrid, smallish blue cat moved in quite quickly and became a nuisance as they stalked and killed our live shad routinely before the hybrid would make of their minds to feed.

We ended up the trip with a total of 64 fish boated, the majority of which came in the first 70 minutes during that initial, strong, low-light feeding time. It was both complimentary and encouraging to have Randy tell me at the end that, after having fished Belton Lake since it was constructed in the 1950’s, he learned a lot while fishing it this morning with me.

TALLY = 64 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Water Surface Temp: 85.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: S9-12

Sky Conditions: 20% white clouds on a fair sky. Unobscurred sunrise at 7:12.

Water Level: ~2.90 feet high and falling ~ 0.7 feet per day with a flow of ~5,200 cfs

GT = 50

Wx Snapshot:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1654 – low light downrigging and topwater sightcasting for white bass & hybrid stripers

**Area 1271/1069 – post-sunrise topwater and downrigging after the topwater died

**Area 1655/1070- bluecat with fresh, dead shad

**Area 1019 – hybrid on live shad in final hour from 10-11am

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

10th SKIFF Trip of the 2016 Season for the Pena Family

August 11th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Saturday morning, August 6, I fished at Belton Lake with Mrs. Blanca Pena and her two sons, 11-year-old Osmar, and 9-year-old, Bryan. This trip was a Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) fishing trip, provided courtesy of the Austin Fly Fishers. This was the 10th SKIFF trip of the 2016 season.

From left: Osmar, Blanca, and Bryan Pena with a pair of white bass we caught using downriggers equipped with Pet Spoons on this, the 10th SKIFF trip of the 2016 season.

After a safety briefing and a quick introduction to the fishing equipment we be using this morning, we cleared the no wake zone by 6:30 AM and headed to the fishing grounds. As the skies began to brighten just prior to sunrise, some very light top water feeding began to take place as white bass pushed shad to the surface. This was nothing in comparison to yesterday’s long and strong top water feed, in fact, it was so light that we did not even cast to, or focus on, these fish. Instead, we ran downriggers in the vicinity of the schooling action hoping to find more numerous fish beneath the few that were aggressive enough to hit on top. What action did develop was over within an hour, and by 7:45 we were searching new areas for fish.

Thanks to a number of newly opened boat ramps on Belton Lake, quite a few boats were out, and I could see that no one was pulling fish in the area we were fishing, thus making it pretty easy to cut ties and run to another area to search for fish. So as not to lose the boys’ interest, I decided we would head up shallow a bit earlier than usual and begin fishing for sunfish in the near-shore flooded brush. We made two such stops and picked up bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, blacktail shiners, and juvenile smallmouth bass with ease using baited hooks beneath slip floats.

When the novelty of sun fishing wore off, I once again devoted some time to looking for white bass and/ or hybrid striper to either downrig or jig for, but found nothing of interest. I really didn’t stick with this search very long, as I knew the boys would get fidgety pretty quickly. By now, it was about 9:15 AM, and I decided to give a look for blue catfish in deep open water.

Blue catfish have proven very, very reliable and consistent this summer in some of the traditional haunts where white bass and hybrid are typically found, but have been absent from this summer thanks to the flooding. The tactic remained the same this morning: I searched for catfish on sonar, used the Spot Lock function on the Ulterra trolling motor to hover over top of them, put chum out to get the fish interested, and then sent our baited hooks down for nearly instantaneous results.

Over our final 40 minutes on the water each of the boys caught about a half dozen blue cat. I was pretty impressed with how quickly Osmar got the hang of setting the hook after detecting a steady pull downward by the catfish.

We closed out our trip by taking photos of the boys with our best pair of white bass, our best pair of sunfish, and our best pair of blue cats. Our grand total for the morning was 42 fish caught and released.

TALLY = 42 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Water Surface Temp: 85.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: S9-12

Sky Conditions: 20% white clouds on a fair sky. Unobscurred sunrise at 7:12.

Water Level: ~5.30 feet high and falling ~ 0.7 feet per day with a flow of ~5,200 cfs

GT = 0

Wx Snapshot:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 147-1654 – low light downrigging for white bass

**Area 166 &499 sunfish

**Area 1655/085- bluecat in last hour

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

Top Shelf Topwater at Belton Lake! — 100 Fish with the Herzer Party

August 9th, 2016August 9th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Friday morning, August 5, I fished with Mr. Mark Herzer of Austin, his 14-year-old son, Zach, and two of Zach’s friends, DJ and Justin Herring, all in celebration of Zach’s 14th birthday which rolled around on 22 July.

From left: Zach Herzer, DJ Herring, Mark Herzer, and Justin Herring. After a white bass-fueled 64-fish topwater blitz lasting 70 minutes, we changed gears and closed out our trip today fishing for catfish, putting another 32 fish in boat with that approach.

Although all four fellows had fished a good bit before, the catching had not typically kept pace, so we set out to turn the tide on their so-so luck of the past.

We idled out of the no wake zone at exactly 6:30a, and had our first fish on the line by 6:40a. We were fortunate to experience the singlemost intense top water feed by white bass that I have witnessed so far this season on Lake Belton. The fish stayed on the surface and aggressively chasing shad for a full 70 minutes. During this time my four anglers were able to boat exactly 64 fish.

As I have noted in my field notes in years past, often when the fish feed so aggressively for so long, the action dies hard thereafter, whereas the action often slowly tapers to a pause under less aggressive low light feeding conditions. We definitely experienced a downturn in success from roughly 8 to 9 AM. I had come prepared to finish out our trip targeting blue catfish in open water, but given the slowdown we experienced, Mark and I agree we should go with the catfish plan a bit earlier.

As we put down our first catfish bait, our fish count stood at 66 white bass, and 2 hybrid striped bass (after we picked up a few fish downrigging following the topwater action). I told the boys if they really worked at it, we could catch enough catfish to make this a 100 fish day. That would require 32 fish and all four of them contributing to the effort. I did a thorough demonstration on how to distinguish between a fish just approaching and grabbing a bait initially versus taking it fully in its mouth and moving off with it. It is during the latter behavior that the hook must be set. Everyone went through a bit of a learning curve, but soon everybody was setting the hook on the biting catfish at the appropriate time, and our fish count steadily climbed through the 80’s into the 90’s and, by 10:15 AM, our 100th fish of the day came aboard. Of these catfish, 31 were blue cat and one, the largest of all of them, was a channel catfish.

I could tell the boys were really excited and enthused about their success. Each of them personally thanked me for the trip without prompting by Mr. Herzer. As we parted ways, I recommended Schoepf’s barbecue in Belton to the entire crew. A special thanks to my sister-in-law, Amy Maindelle, for helping make today’s connection.

TALLY = 100 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Water Surface Temp: 85.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: S9-12

Sky Conditions: 20% white clouds on a fair sky. Unobscurred sunrise at 7:12.

Water Level: ~6.01 feet high and falling ~ 0.7 feet per day with a flow of ~5,200 cfs

GT = 95

Wx Snapshot:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 019 around to 025 – strong topwater action by (all) white bass

**Area 1069 – moderate success on downriggers

**Area 1070 (to SSE in 32′) – bluecat in last hour

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

Belton Lake Remains Consistent — 85 Fish with the Neason’s

August 8th, 2016August 8th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

This past Thursday morning, August 4th, I fished a multi-species trip with Mr. James Neason, his wife, Denice, and their two grandchildren, Jaxon (age 12) and Sami Selmans (age 9), all of the Cedar Park, TX, area.

Grandpa James and Jaxon with a nice pair of keeper hybrid.

“Gommy” Denice with a nice hybrid of her own.

And Sami reluctantly posing with the largest of the blue cat she reeled in at the close of our trip.

We started off the morning looking closely for top water action sufficiently strong to stop and cast to, but found none. So, I used sonar to search in water less than 30 feet deep for lowlight feeding activity beneath the surface. We found ample quantities of white bass and hybrid striped bass schooled heavily between 18 and 25 feet deep, often appearing in elongated horizontal schools. We downrigged for these fish using two- and three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons selected to match the forage size. This action tapered off by about the two hour mark.

We changed locations and hit an area about 24 feet deep after finding white bass holding tight to the bottom, just 1 to 2 foot off of it. We worked chrome slabs for these fish until we were rudely interrupted by fish breaking the surface just behind us. Figuring a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, we drifted back into these top water feeders and cast to them with the same slabs we’d been working vertically. The majority of these fish were school-sized largemouth bass, all in very good shape, and very plump. After the kids’ interest level began to decline around 9:40, we made one last move to target blue catfish.

We headed to an area that has produced blue catfish very consistently for over two weeks now. We put the boat in a hover, put chum down over the side, baited up with shad, got lines down, and started setting hooks hard on blue catfish which were heavily congregated from the bottom and up to 6 feet off of it in about 32 feet of water. Over the next 50 minutes, we put over 20 blue cat in the boat and then wrapped up our morning right at 10:35.

TALLY = 85 fish, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp: 85.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: S9-12

Sky Conditions: 10% white clouds on a fair sky. Unobscurred sunrise at 7:10.

Water Level: ~6.73 feet high and falling ~ 0.7 feet per day with a flow of ~5,200 cfs

GT = 20

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1655 – early morning downrigging

**Area 1355/966 – downrigging following low-light bite; over deeper water

**Area 1793/1663 – smoking slabs for bottom-huggers in 24′

**Area 1787/1770 – topwater action over 17′ up to shoreline

**Area 1070 – bluecatfish on fresh, dead shad

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

Daddy-Daughter Trip for Bob & April Williamson

August 8th, 2016 by Bob Maindelle

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE KILLEEN DAILY HERALD, SUNDAY, 07 AUGUST 2016…

A resident of Killeen for over 20 years, Robert Williamson first came to Killeen while on active duty as a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army in 1995. Shortly thereafter, Williamson transitioned into civilian life, putting his college degree to work for him and gaining a position as an educator in the Killeen Independent School District, where he remains employed to this day.

Williamson and his wife, Yong, saw both of their older daughters, Bobbie and Mary, graduate from Ellison High School and move on to careers of their own. Bobbie now works as a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Baylor Scott & White Hospital, and Mary is a school teacher in Bryan.

One daughter, 6-year-old April, a student at Memorial Christian Academy in Killeen, remains at home.

On Wednesday morning, I got to fish with Williamson and April on a “daddy-daughter” trip before the business of the new school year begins. We chose Belton Lake as our destination as it has produced both quality fish and quantities of fish all summer.

Fishing trips with children as young as April require some planning if the trip is to be a success, leaving children with a favorable impression of this wholesome pastime. Williamson and I discussed in detail how I suggested we break this trip down into multiple, short segments in order to keep April’s attention for the full four-hour span. Fortunately, the fish cooperated fully, and we were able to do just as we had planned.

A few minutes prior to sunrise, I positioned us in an area where I felt topwater action was likely to occur based on my observations over the past two weeks. As we shut down the outboard, refrained from speaking and just looked and listened, we observed “nervous water” about 120 yards from us. This nervous water is caused when the wakes of feeding fish move contrary to the direction of the wind, thus making a distinct stippled appearance on the surface.

As we arrived in the vicinity of the disturbance, we observed both white bass and hybrid striped bass pinning shad against the surface and gorging themselves on the hapless forage fish. This initiated what turned out to be a 90-minute long topwater feed during which Williamson and I cast into the fray and then let April retrieve the lures we had cast directly through the fish.

The second segment of our trip began as the intensity of the topwater feed began to fade and the fish began to push down deeper in the water column, but still remained active. We used twin Cannon Digi-Troll downriggers with 12-pound balls, each rigged with a three-armed umbrella rig equipped with Luhr Jensen Pet Spoons selected to match the forage size.

We lowered our downrigger balls to between 13 and 20 feet as sonar signatures of the schooled fish beneath us dictated. We regularly took singles and doubles (two fish at a time on one rod) and fished this way for about 70 minutes.

As we entered our third hour, I took us up shallow and introduced April to fishing for sunfish using slip floats and live bait. We hit two brushy areas that serve as ambush points for the sunfish, and caught juvenile largemouth, juvenile smallmouth, bluegill sunfish, longear sunfish and green sunfish.

The final segment of our trip involved chumming for, and attracting, blue catfish to the lake bottom beneath our boat out in open water, and fishing for them with the same thing we used as a chum — fresh, dead shad. We got the boat set up in a hover using a GPS-equipped Ulterra trolling motor to avoid disturbing the bottom by anchoring. We then placed our chum bag over the side, and got some loose chum sprinkled about. Immediately, the blue catfish started hitting and did not stop as long as we put fresh baits down in front of them.

By 10:30 a.m., the wind had begun to settle, the sun was getting hot, and April was about to reach her limit on this grand adventure. We decided to call it a day right there, with a grand total of 87 fish boated by this bright and energetic little girl.

Bob Maindelle’s Trip Notes:

Area 1791 – Topwater at first light

Area 012-015 – Topwater in 8:00 o’clock hour

Area 015-1657 – downrigging where topwater last occurred

Area 492 & 493 – sunfishing

Area 1070/812 – bluecatfish on fresh, dead shad