Fishing Report

This past Tuesday I fished a full day trip with Tom and Trisha Wells of Sun City, TX.  The Wells are members of the Sun City Hunting & Fishing Club and were in attendance when I was invited to speak there both this past spring and in the spring of 2014.  One of the things I highlighted was how commonly overlooked the excellent November fishing is on Belton Lake.  Every year, as the water temperatures fall from the 80’s down to the low 60’s, the white bass and hybrid bite on Belton goes through the roof.  Thankfully, Tom and Trisha listened, and took me up on a day on the water.  They were handsomely rewarded, landing a total of 346 fish between 6:30am and 4:00pm.  And, truth be known, we “left ’em biting”.

Everything was feeding heavily today — big hybrid, small hybrid, big white bass, and small white bass.  The fishing simply doesn’t get any faster than it is on Belton right now!  Tom landed this nice hybrid striper on a bladebait in 14′ of water within an hour of sunrise.

 

Tricia, also using a bladebait in 14′ of water, landed this award-winning white bass just minutes after Tom’s hybrid, shown above, was caught.  This white bass weighed exactly 2.00 pounds and measured 15 3/8″, thus qualifying Trisha for a TPWD “Big Fish Award”, putting her on the path toward Elite Angler status.

Tom and Trisha met and married in college, became a Vietnam-era Air Force family (where Tom learned the trade of a radiologist), and recently retired from private practice in Homer, Alaska, settling in Sun City, TX, near grandkids (and kids) living in Buda, TX.  They love the Lord, their family, … and fishing!!  They even run their own 22′ center console, primarily on Lake Georgetown.

There is no other way to put it … we had a once-in-a-lifetime kind of day on the water, amassing the second greatest daily catch I’ve ever put a guided party onto.

The day actually got off to a bit of a slower start as near-calm winds and a bright sun right at sunrise put the fish in a bit of a funk.  But, the south wind soon kicked in, and we relocated to be in a segment of lake where the water was being moved by that wind, and the fish responded well.  The fish then cranked it up about 10 notches when grey cloud cover accompanied that southerly wind, and it was “Katy bar the door” from that point on.

We caught fish on Cicada blade baits, 3/8 oz. slabs, and Hazy Eye Shad tandem rigs for 6 hours straight in the morning, right up until 12:30p when the bite softened just a bit.  We came off the water, had a great lunch served up by Sol de Jalisco on FM2271 near Temple Lake Park, and then headed right back out and fished another 2.5 hours until 4pm, when Tom had to pull the rod from Trisha’s hand and head their Ford F-250 back south to Georgetown.

The approach was very similar at each area where we found fish on sonar.  As I approached a likely area at idle speed, I’d see a bottom-oriented school of fish, then we’d all work together to stop the boat on a dime and very quickly get baits in the water before we passed away from the school, or they continued swimming on, or both.  The critical thing was to hook a single fish and get it struggling on the line, thus captivating the attention of the remainder of the school, getting that school to stay put right under the boat.  Once that was accomplished, we “Spot Locked” on the fish and would catch fish after fish from that school.

Although there were ebbs and flows in the action, the action never stopped once it got started today, and the fish were still biting as we concluded our efforts at 4p!!

If you have any vacation time left this year, or are retired and are just sitting around the house, NOW IS THE TIME!   I don’t know how else to say this.  This isn’t wishful thinking or marketing hype, this is accurate, just-off-the-water reporting from the last 3 trips which saw 267 fish, 143 fish, and now 346 fish come over the gunwales.

Belton fishing is truly white hot right now, and, barring flooding or an extended, severe cold snap, looks like it will be this way for at least 2-3 weeks to come.

TALLY = 346 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30am

End Time:  4:00pm (with off-the-water lunch at mid-trip)

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp:  69F

Wind Speed & Direction: S9-12

Sky Conditions:  Light grey cloud cover moved in around 8:30am and stuck the remainder of the day.

Other: GT= 40

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

AM

**Area 1621 low light shallow action on bladebaits

**Area 1625 shallow fish revealed by light topwater/bird action – fish here much larger than average

**Area 1620/1622/1626  slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids; moved in short hops to keep up with packs of fish unwilling to move horizontally

PM

**Area 1623 slabbed/smoked/tandem rigged for whites/hybrids

**Area 1624 slabbed/smoked/tandem rigged for whites/hybrids

**Area 618  slabbed/smoked/tandem rigged for whites/hybrids

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Monday morning I fished with returning client Bob Schwartz and his son, Will, who traveled in the night before from his home in Austin so we could begin our trip right at first light around 6:30am.  Bob, a regular customer at Rick Smith’s Marine Outlet in Temple, was referred to me by Rick, which I greatly appreciate.

White bass and short hybrid striped bass fell for slabs fished vertically this morning in 22-27 feet of water.  The fishing is as fast as it gets all year right now!

 

Although not making up a great percentage of the catch, keeper hybrid of 18″ or longer came along as icing on the cake this morning.  They were mixed right in with the rest of white bass and shorter hybrids we boated on slabs.

I had an opportunity to guide Bob on a trip this past summer when topwater action and downrigging was going strong, and then spent a few more hours on the water with him more recently helping him get his Lowrance sonar unit adjusted for fishing.  Bob operates his own very unique boat out of the marina in Morgan’s Point — a narrow, deeply V’ed panga which he shipped to the U.S. from Sri Lanka.  If you’ve ever watched footage of the Somali pirates doing their thing on Africa’s east coast, you’ll understand the style of boat Bob runs.

After a successful trip back in the summer, Bob and I agreed to put another trip on the books here in November when I felt confident that the traditionally excellent autumn fishing would be underway, thus giving Bob exposure to additional techniques.

We had grey skies and manageable winds from other than the north, so, conditions were favorable.

Long story short, we caught fish consistently from start to finish over a span of 4.75 hours, with the fish only letting up as the morning feed tapered to a close just after 11am.

There was a brief shallow feed from first light until the (obscured) sun rose over the horizon, then the fish shifted deeper, and the deeper bite turned on and stayed on.

The approach was the same in all areas we fished.  The edges of deep flats seemed to hold fish best.  When we found fish, we’d do all we could to immediately get a slab down in their presence (even while the boat was still moving!) to quickly hook the first fish from the school seen on sonar.  Once that fish was hooked, the rest of the school would really turn on and stay turned on as long as we kept pulling fish out of that school.  This was a situation where you didn’t want to pause to snack, pee, take pictures, etc. because as soon as you let up, the fish would relax, settle back to bottom, and drift off.

We caught a mix of white bass of all sizes, from as short as 7″, up to over 13″, with 1 in every 4 to 5 fish being a “legal” 10+ inch fish.  We also caught a lot of hybrid, although only 3 exceeded the “legal” minimum of 18″.

Every November the catch rate soars like this until multiple, severe cold fronts drive the water temperatures down into the 50’s thus causing the fishing to moderate thereafter.

Given that we have 69-70F water now and no severe cold fronts in the forecast, I anticipate we’ll see this excellent fishing window last beyond Thanksgiving.

If you are “thinking about it”, stop thinking and give me a call so we can strike while the iron is hot!!

TALLY = 143 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30am

End Time:  11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 54F

Water Surface Temp:  70F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE7-8

Sky Conditions:  Light grey cloud cover for the majority of the trip.

Other: GT= 90

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1621 low light shallow action on bladebaits

**Area 618 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids; moved in short hops to keep up with packs of fish unwilling to move horizontally

**Area 1620/1622 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids; moved in short hops to keep up with packs of fish unwilling to move horizontally

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This morning I conducted the single most productive trip of the 2015 season, guiding Barrett and Dave Covington of Belton, TX, to catch and release exactly 267 fish today.

 

Larger hybrid striped bass made up a low percentage of today’s catch of 267 fish, but were a welcome addition when they cooperated.

 

 

 

White bass made up the majority of our catch this morning, with roughly 1 in every 5 or 6 going the size of these fish Barrett and Dave Covington are displaying — right around 12.00 to 12.75 inches.

First, I’ve got to say I appreciate the input of two fishing buddies out on Belton, Rodney and James, who kept me updated on the water quality situation following this weekend’s second dousing of 6+ inches of rain, and who gave me favorable just-off-the-water reports yesterday.

Barrett and Dave are the sons of former Belton mayor Jim Covington and his wife, Terri.  They presented Barrett with a fishing gift certificate this past Christmas and so today was the day to cash it in.  Being a good brother, he invited Dave along, with both taking a day off from the family real estate business.

The two are personable fellows who enjoyed keeping the sibling rivalry stirred up really good.  There were suspicions aboard that Barrett intentionally informed me the night before our trip that Dave required his spinning reel handles on the right hand side when he actually needed them on the left, all so as to slow Dave down in order for Barrett to get an early lead in the fish count standings.  That is still under investigation.

Once the fish started biting, they just didn’t stop for a solid 4+ hours today.  We found fish in 3 distinct locations this morning, each deeper than the next, with our first batch of fish showing up under light surface action in 22-24 feet, the second concentration of fish showing up in 26-28 feet of water, and the final concentration of fish showing up in 30-33 feet of water.

The Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 in holographic/black back did the trick for the lion’s share of the catching today.  I did experiment with the white 3/4 oz. version, but the smaller 3/8 oz. silver definitely outperformed it.

We had only 4 of all of these fish regurgitate their meals today in the boat, and this revealed swallowed shad of various sizes.  The size of the fish we caught varied, too, with about 1 in every 5 or 6 white bass going over the legal limit of 10″ (and typically right at 12.75″, the size of that 3-year-old year class of fish).  We only caught two decent hybrid in the mix all morning.

My detailed records from the past 23 years of fishing on Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow reveal that November and March are the two most productive months in terms of fish caught per trip.  Typically the 6 week span from the last week of March to the the first week of May is the most productive time for quality fish with lots of  large hybrid taking chunky, live shad during that time.

If you’ve been waiting for comfortable weather, excellent fishing, and an end to our drought conditions, now is the time to call and book a trip.  This is fast, simple, productive fishing, and it can end by the end of November, or extend into mid-December, depending on the frequency and severity of incoming cold fronts.

Phone lines are open and operators are standing by!!!!

TALLY = 267 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30am

End Time:  11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp:  72F

Wind Speed & Direction: S7-9

Sky Conditions:  Thin fog for a majority of the trip

Other: GT= 50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1618 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids after being tipped off by light pre-dawn surface action.

**Area 618 slabbed/smoked for whites/hybrids

**Area 1619 short-hopped 3-4 locations here to keep up with minimally interested fish as bite wound down

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This afternoon’s SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip exemplifies what SKIFF is all about, and it is what motivates me to work with others to perpetuate this program.  Please read on.

 

Carrolyn Lascano gave our local population of white bass and hybrid stripers a “reel” workout tonight!

 

Danny “Bubby” Lascano mixed in a little fishing with his shoreline saunter with Mrs. Rebecca, supplemented with plenty of snacks along the way.

Mrs. Kacie Lascano is the wife of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Danny Lascano.  Danny is  currently deployed and is working alongside the U.S. Air Force in the United Arab Emirates .  Kacie, therefore, has a Herculean task before her.  While her husband is away, she will single-handedly served as the parent, caretaker, guardian, and teacher for her two small children.  True, many military moms do this well.  However, Kacie’s situation is made infinitely more challenging by the fact that her youngest child, 5-year-old Danny (nicknamed “Bubby”), is profoundly autistic.

I am obviously not a physician, but, from just 4 hours on the water yesterday, I could see an unusually bright boy whose body won’t quite cooperate with all his mind is rapidly processing.  I also saw the resulting frustration in Bubby at that lack of synchronization.  One of the most startling results of all of this is Bubby’s lack of fear to the point where his sense of self-preservation is diminished.  Things like jumping into water of unknown depth or latching onto something sharp or pointy are just not things Bubby would balk at.  So, Kacie must be truly on-guard 100% of Bubby’s waking hours.  This is a tremendously tough, energy-intensive, and tiring job.  Bubby has come a long way with the help of his parents, teachers, therapists, and his big sister, Carrolyn (age 6), but there is still a long way to go.

So today, my wife, Rebecca, and I sought to provide Kacie with 4 hours of down time by way of treating Bubby and Carrolyn to a fishing trip on Belton Lake.  Kacie’s plan was to have dinner with a girlfriend of hers before that friend moves with the military away from Fort Hood.  To accommodate this, Rebecca picked the kids up just outside the gates of Ft. Hood and dropped them back off after the trip to give Kacie as much time as we could and still work within the kids’ school and bedtime schedules.

Normally, I conduct these trips solo, but with hooks, and water, and a prop turning 6,000 rpm, I enlisted my wife’s aid this evening, and I’m glad I did.  While Carrolyn stayed engaged in the fishing the entire time, Bubby got restless after our 4th bluegill came over the gunwale, and we had to invent some alternative options.  We decided that I would continue fishing on the boat with Carrolyn while Rebecca took to the land with Bubby.

We left the protected cove we were in (which gave up a total of 8 sunfish and 1 largemouth bass), and headed to an area with flatter topography for Rebecca and Bubby to walk on.  The beaching operations went smoothly, and Bubby was immediately taken with throwing rocks (lots of rocks!!!) into the water.  Rebecca and I agreed to stay in sight of one another and in cell phone contact.

I have no doubt that the Lord transplanted just enough fish to the area all of this happened to take place in to give Carrolyn a wonderful time right up until dark.  No sooner did we drop Rebecca and Bubby off than the sonar lit up with fish where I did not really expect to find them.  We used downriggers at first and caught both white bass and hybrid striped bass on 3-armed umbrella rigs with Carrolyn doing all the button-pushing on the keypad of the Digi-Trolls to raise and lower the downrigger balls to keep our baits near the fish.  Eventually, more fish began to crowd into this area as the sun was about to set, and we simply set the i-Pilot on Spot Lock and sat over a boat-sized area and “wore ’em out” with slabs fished vertically.

We wound up catching 36 white bass and hybrids in all in this area, with our final few fish giving their positions away during a light topwater feed right before dark.  Back on shore, Bubby and Rebecca found lots of treasures, covered lots of ground, ate lots of snacks, but were ready to rejoin us when Carrolyn and I returned to shore to pick them back up.

When we got back to the launch site, we quickly transitioned from the boat to my wife’s car, got the kids car-seated, booster-seated, buckled up, and headed back to town while I stayed behind to do all the post-trip chores of draining and cleaning the boat up, re-organizing tackle, etc.

Thanks to the efforts of Dave Hill and Manuel Pena of the Austin Fly FIshers and their work with Cabela’s, as we said farewell to the kids, we were able to give each a tackle box with some basic tackle inside — a mermaid box for Carrolyn and a Spiderman box for Bubby.

Kacie’s plans for dinner with her friend went just right, and, by around 8pm she and the kids headed back through the gates of Fort Hood to prepare for bed and the last school day of the week.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service, thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals, organizations, and companies from all over the U.S. All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date. SKIFF is open to children in elementary and middle school, as well as youth in high school.

 

TALLY = 44 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F

Water Surface Temp: 76F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8-10

Sky Conditions: Fair skies with 20% cloud cover.

Note: Lake rose sharply due to heavy rains on 24 Oct., but is now being drawn down.  Elevation fell 0.69 feet today.  Elevation now stands at 597.30 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1200 panfish

**Area 1617 low light bite on smoked slabs

**Area 040 and to the shoreline – post sunset light topwater action

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Sunday evening I welcomed aboard Rachel and Aaron Cherry of Nolanville, TX.

After several days of high pressure and winds from the N and E, the winds turned more southerly and the fish responded in a big way.  My two novice anglers boated 111 fish in their 4 hour evening trip including white bass, hybrid striped bass, drum, blue catfish, and largemouth bass.

Rachel and Aaron’s faces may be familiar to you, as I took both kids out separately earlier this week (Aaron on Tuesday and Rachel on Thursday).  Because she homeschools, mom thought giving the kids a bit of a break from one another might be a good idea.  However, they both came back from their trips so enthusiastic and wanting to go again, that Mrs. Cherry called me on Saturday to arrange another trip for the two kids together on Sunday.  Rachel’s trip fell under the Ft. Hood SKIES program, and Aaron’s trip fell under the SKIFF program banner.  I smiled realizing that fish weren’t the only ones who got “hooked” on the kids’ trips last week.

After days of winds from the north and east, and some pretty tough morning trips wherein the fish just stayed kind of sluggish, this afternoon’s wind shift to the south was quite welcome.  We got on the water and essentially drove right to the fish.  They were right where I’d anticipated they would be given the direction of the wind.  White bass and hybrid stripers often orient on underwater features, and, specifically on the side of those features being most impacted by wind-driven waves.  This afternoon was no exception.

In our first hour on the water the kids boated exactly 64 fish — catching more than a fish per minute, literally.  These fish were tightly bunched together on the bottom and responded well to slabs fished vertically.

This bite slowed a bit from 5:00p to 6:00, and then bounced back from 6:00p to 6:30p when we found some cooperative schools of suspended fish at the second location we searched.  Suspended fish call for downrigging, and the 3-armed umbrella rigs we used to present small baits which imitated the shad these fish were feeding on did the trick. We added 14 more fish to our tally via the downriggers.

By 6:30, we were within a half-hour of sunset, so I moved us a third and final time to position ourselves where I felt our best shot at a shallow, low-light bite would come.  As we idled in, I saw a lot of fish and bait, with most all of the action on or near bottom with a few “early bloomers” already beginning to move upwards in the water column for the last feed of the day.  We once again hovered and used slabs fished vertically to capitalize on what we’d discovered, then “mopped up” with the downriggers once the sun set and the fish began to wind down.  The kids added another 33 fish to the count as these fish also fed very aggressively.

Rachel and Aaron teamed up to boat a grand total of 111 fish of five different species this evening.  For the second evening in a row (and under excellent conditions tonight with a moon just past waxing past new) no topwater action occurred as the sun set.  I suspect this year’s topwater bite is over for keeps.

TALLY = 111 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 84F

Water Surface Temp: 78F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE10-12

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies with very dry conditions

Note: Lake has dropped 0.05 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 592.68 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1615 aggressive smoking

**Area 1610-1616 downrigging

**Area 1019 aggressive smoking pre-sunset

**Area 823 downrigging for last-light fish post-sunset

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Saturday morning I welcomed aboard Mohamed and Ethan Barry, accompanied by their mom, Ty.  This trip was booked through the Fort Hood SKIES program.

Mohamed Barry landed the largest fish of our trip, this plump 13″ white bass that fell for a Pet Spoon up shallow before the sun got up high in the sky.

Our first fish of the trip was landed by Ethan Barry, just prior to sunrise.

The very first thing that struck me as Ty and her kids made their way down from the parking lot to the floating courtesy dock where my boat was tied up, was how extremely skittish Ty was about the water.  She had a white-knuckled death-grip on the handrail of the ramp going from the shore to the floating dock, and was very, very nervous about just standing on the slightly moving dock itself.  Making the transition from the dock into my boat took all the courage she could muster, and, once she got in the boat, she sat on the floor as she felt more secure there than being up higher on the seats intended for passengers.  Slowly, she got more confident and moved up into a seat, but never to the point of being wild about the whole idea.  This lack of ease with the water and the fact that the boys had some lawn maintenance chores to tend to, led Ty to request that we only fish for 2 hours instead of the normally scheduled 4 hours.

So now the pressure was on.  I had to get some fish in the boat in just half the time I normally have to accomplish that task.

The boys were a bit cautious about the water, too, but that faded quickly once we got down to the business of fishing.  We began this morning right where I left off last night, up shallow in 15-20 feet of water, looking for white bass and hybrid striped bass there in pursuit of shad.  Despite the nearly dead calm conditions, and the very cool overnight temperatures, there were indeed some fish up shallow, and we managed to bag 5 white bass before the sun climbed up high enough to kill that shallow water bite.  Both boys landed the first fish of their lives right there and then.

Little Ethan’s excited laughter over being connected to a live fish on the end of his line was infectious.  He kind of laughed, and kind of giggled, but it was a nervous kind of thing as it was all so new to him.  When that fish, a 9.25″ white bass, came over the gunwale, he screamed excitedly and got me laughing so hard it made me realize how much I take for granted doing this for a living, and how used to it I’ve become.

Well, after that low-light shallow bite ended, and with about an hour to go, we headed up shallow and focused on panfish for the remainder of our time.  When beginners come out with me that do not have regular access to a boat, I always try to incorporate some panfishing in if the conditions allow, as it is a tactic that can be used from the shoreline with success.

The boys landed 14 bluegill sunfish and a small largemouth bass using slipfloats and live bait.  By 9:00am Ty’s “water-meter” had timed out and she was ready to return to terra firma .  We took some photos of their catch and headed back across the now-glassy surface to the boat ramp to send them all packing back to Killeen.

In their short trip the boys still managed to catch 20 fish and they had a blast doing it.
SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

TALLY = 20 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 9:00a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 78F

Wind Speed & Direction: ENE2-3

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies with very dry conditions

Note: Lake has dropped 0.05 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 592.68 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1069-302 downrigging

**Area 1200 panfishing

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Saturday morning I fished with Mrs. Nancy Bowles and her grandson, Bryce Limbacher, in celebration of his 13th birthday which took place back in August.

 

Bryce Limbacher and his grandma, Nancy Bowles, celebrated his 13th birthday together on the water this morning, boating exactly 50 fish between the two of them.

 

 

Just seconds before snapping this photo, sonar revealed the single largest school of fish we’d encountered all morning.  Bryce’s rod went off first, then Nancy’s followed.  I went up on the bow to snap a shot of them both hooked up at the same time.  Bryce wound up landing a triple, and Nancy landed a double.

Nancy, who spent much of her life up north in Maryland, is no fan of the heat, so, she desired to schedule this trip with her grandson after the heat of the summer had passed.  She definitely got her wish, as this morning was one of the cooler mornings we’ve had thus far this autumn, with a low of 64F and a stiff NNE breeze making it feel a bit cooler than that.  Bryce is a pretty thin kid – a cross-country runner and tuba player – with low body fat and so he stayed chilly until that sun got up and burning real good, and, of course a steady feed of double-stuffed Oreos helped keep the calorie count high to ward off hypothermia.  Nancy is a pretty well-traveled angler whose done everything from chase stripers on Buchanan, to sportfishing in the Atlantic, to flyfishing out West.  Next week she and a friend head to the Florida keys to chase redfish, snook, and more in the still-warm waters there.

The seasons are definitely beginning to change, and signs of this change have been apparent this past week.  The several mild cold fronts that have swept down have brought the season’s first migratory birds.  Today alone we observed osprey, cormorants, teal, coots, pelicans, and monarch butterflies, all riding south on the north winds.  The fishery is beginning to change, too.  The morning topwater action has all but discontinued, and the evening bite has softened considerably.  Turnover will occur soon, scrambling things for a bit, then ushering in some great deepwater vertical fishing.

This morning we had to work for all of the fish we caught, putting together a catch of 41 white bass which came off of 3 distinct areas over the first 3.5 hours of our time on the water.  The first bite was a low-light bite in the shallowest water we’d find white bass in this morning — between 20-25′.  Next we moved into the 30-40′ range and found weak action at the first area we tried, and moderate action at the second deepwater area we tried.  Despite seeing 3 schools of bottom-oriented white bass tightly congregated, we could not convince them to perk up and chase.  We had 4 hooked fish from such scenarios, but all pulled off the hook before being landed.  As I observed sonar as 3 of these 4 fish were being reeled in, I noted that few or no schoolmates were chasing these hooked fish — a sign of disinterest.  All of the white bass we landed today came on Pet Spoons fished on a 3-armed umbrella rig.

Bryce really enjoyed the downrigging tactic, as he had envisioned simply sitting and watching a bobber with bait suspended below it before meeting me this morning, but found the downrigging much more engaging, as it involved rigging, routine depth adjustments, constant monitoring for strikes, and, most importantly, it worked!  Even so, I did want to expose him to the effectiveness of fishing with a slipfloat and live bait.  We set aside the last 30 minutes of the trip to focus on this method.  For this panfishing, we headed up into shallow cover, where rocks and wood meet, and went to work.  Bryce got the hang of things quickly once he understood how to set the hook once the float disappeared.  He was having so much fun working over the bluegill that Nan decided to join in and catch a few of her own.  The pair put 8 sunfish and one smallmouth bass in the boat, putting our tally at exactly 50 fish.

With the double-stuffed Oreos completely burned off by Bryce’s high metabolism by this time, we agreed it was a good time to call it a good morning and head up to a Corps of Engineers picnic table for a lunch spread that was waiting back in Nan’s car.

TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:15am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp:  79F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE12

Sky Conditions:  Fair and cloudless

Other: GT= 30

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1069/302/147 downrigging for low-light bite up shallow

**Area 1613 saw 3 large schools to smoke for, but none caught; 2 fish on ‘riggers

**Area 1614 and vicinity; moderate action on downriggers

**Area 492 panfish

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Friday afternoon I had the pleasure of fishing with the Bravo family of Fort Hood on Lake Belton.  This trip was booked through the Fort Hood SKIES program.

Angelina not only landed the first fish of her life tonight, she also landed the largest fish of the trip — this 2.25 pound smallmouth bass.

Andre landed this “triple” — three fish on the same rod at the same time!

The Bravo family, from left, Ricardo, Karen, Angelina, and Andre.

Accompanying me today were Ricardo Bravo, his wife, Karen Bravo, and their children, 14-year-old Andre and 9-year-old Angelina.

As Angelina had never landed a fish before, “first fish honors” went to her.  Fortunately, the fish cooperated for the duration of this afternoon’s trip and there was scarcely a lull in the action.  Within minutes of pushing away from the courtesy dock, Angelina was fast to the first fish of her lifetime (a small white bass).  The kids took turns on the pair of downrigger rods I have set up for summer-time “above the thermocline” fishing. and, by 6:00pm, they’d landed 40 fish taken from two distinct areas.  Most of the catch consisted of small white bass, but we had largmouth, smallmouth, and a white crappie show up in the catch, as well

For variety’s sake, we spent a few minutes up shallow using slipfloats and live bait for panfish from 6:00 to 6:30pm.  The kids each put 4 more fish in the boat this way, including green sunfish, bluegill sunfish, and another largemouth bass.

Due to a low bank of clouds in the west, the sun would be obscured tonight prior to normal sunset, so, we positioned ourselves to enjoy a low-light bite by 6:30pm.  No sooner did we arrive, than I began to see fish from 12 feet deep down to 25 feet deep over quite an expansive area.  We set up downriggers with the balls staggered at different depths and caught fish steadily right up until dark.  We boated a final 25 more fish here in the last 45 minutes of the trip.  I had an opportunity to observe several other boats that were focusing on the very scant topwater action present, and very few fish were being taken with that approach.  As often happens on a N, NNE, NE, or ENE wind, the vigor was taken out of the final, low-light feed, and that extra energy and lack of caution the fish display when feeding on the surface seemed to subside under such high pressure conditions.

Mr. and Mrs. Bravo both commented a number of times about how peaceful and relaxing just coming along for the ride was for them.

When all was said and done, the kids had boated exactly 73 fish between them, and Angelina had earned a TPWD First Fish Award.
SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

TALLY = 73 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 88F

Water Surface Temp: 78-79F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE3-4

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies with very dry conditions

Note: Lake has dropped 0.05 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 592.68 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 50

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1609-1291 downrigging

**Area 1613 downrigging leading to smoking

**Area 1200 panfishing

**Area 1602 – 027 low-light downrigging bite

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This past Tuesday afternoon I met up with 14-year-old Aaron Cherry of Nolanville, TX, for a fishing trip on Lake Belton booked through the Fort Hood SKIES program.

Aaron did well at all the tactics we employed today including downrigging, vertical jigging, fan-casting bladebaits, and sight-casting to topwater fish.

After several of the fish we caught and released regurgitated shad they had previously eaten, we made sure our lure size matched what they were feeding on.  Shad are a small, oil, energy-rich baitfish that make up the majority of the diet of most of the species of predator fish in Belton Lake.

Right around 3:45pm, Aaron and his mom, Charlotte, arrived at the launch area we’d selected on Belton Lake.

After a bit of paperwork and a safety talk, Aaron and I headed out in search of fish.  We started off using downriggers, but very quickly switched over to vertical jigging based on the great number of heavily concentrated fish we discovered holding near bottom.

We started jigging with 3/8 oz. slabs, but, upon discovering the fish were feeding on larger baitfish (based on what we saw them regurgitate), we increased our lure size to 3/4 oz. models.

We picked up just shy of half of our total catch in our first hour on the water as the stiffest breeze of the entire 4-hour trip blew from the NNE during that time.  When that breeze subsided, and until the sun began to set, the fishing slowed down.

As has been the case over most of the summer on afternoon trips, we experienced a bit of a lull from 5-6p, but then around 6p, and right up until dark, action steadily increased as fish got more active and moved both shallower and up higher in the water column.

As light topwater action began to break out on the surface after the sun set, I was impressed with how quickly Aaron took to accurately casting to surface-feeding fish with just some basic instruction I’d provided him with earlier in the trip as we practiced fan-casting with blade baits out in deeper water. For his efforts tonight, Aaron landed 70 fish.
SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

 

TALLY = 70 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 90F

Water Surface Temp: 80.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE7-8

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies with very dry conditions

Note: Lake has dropped 0.05 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 592.68 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area (vicinity) 677/472 for 34 fish when downrigging led to smoking

**Area 1073 downrigging

**Area 1186 3 short hops gradually shallower to keep up with fish ramping up for twilight bite

**Area 018 last light topwater action

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com