Fishing Report | Holding The Line Guide Service

We’re Squinting Now! — 29 Fish, Belton Lake, 05 May 2015

May 5th, 2015May 5th, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished with Robert and Karen Spencer on Lake Belton in pursuit of hybrid striped bass. The two have been married for 36 years, and fishing has been a part of their marriage right from the start.

Although our target species was hybrid striped bass, this 2.75 pound Belton Lake smallmouth took the prize for the largest fish boated today.

Largemouth bass made up the majority of our catch today. Easily 60% of our 29 fish catch consisted of this member of the black bass family.

A stiff south east wind was up and blowing before sunrise and stayed consistent at about 14 mph for the duration of the trip. We got going at 8:15 AM and experienced slow fishing for the first 3+ hours. During this time we boated only five fish, including two hybrid striped bass, two white bass, and one smallmouth bass.

Early in the trip I commented to Karen about how dark the skies were with heavy clouds. There is a certain level of light which, when it develops, seems to turn the fish on. I’ve noticed that when it is completely cloudy, but still bright enough to have to squint without sunglasses, or to just need to put sunglasses on, that particular level of light seems to turn the fish on. Indeed, right around 11:45, when the clouds thinned enough and had occasional breaks in them and began to let sunlight through, our results begin to improve substantially.

I extended our trip, and we fished for an additional 2+ hours, over which time we put an additional 24 fish in the boat. These fish all came off of one area and included primarily largemouth bass, with a few smallmouth, hybrid stripers, and white bass mixed in. We were fishing with our baits set at 25 feet over a 32 foot bottom on a gentle slope.

Both Robert and Karen are shooting sport enthusiasts, and so I got to learn a little bit about their hobby as we fished together. I always like to ask people about their favorite past fishing experiences, and this couple did not have to put much thought into recalling their favorite two adventures. The first was an airboat trip for redfish on the Texas Gulf Coast, and the other was a beach fishing trip targeting bull sharks and blacktip sharks which, in addition to the sharks, landed this pair a 6’8″ tarpon as an unexpected bonus. It was interesting to me to learn that the sharks they landed were actually tagged for scientific research and then released.

When all was said and done today, we boated exactly 29 fish. This was a pretty tough day, as is common with strong easterly winds.

TALLY = 29 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15a

End Time: 2:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp: 71.9F on lower lake

Wind Speed & Direction: SE14 for the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 100% heavy cloud cover until 11:30, then brightening and reducing to 80% cloud cover

Other: GT=45

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 835

**Area 509

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

TAUNTING! — 14 Fish, Belton Lake, 02 May 2015

May 2nd, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished on Belton Lake with Phil Duff and his 10-year-old grandson, Bishop. Phil’s intent was for Bishop to do all the fishing as he just looked on.

Bishop was treated to this morning’s hybrid striper trip on Belton by his Grams and Grandad Duff.

Grams and Grandad Duff got Bishop a fishing trip gift certificate for Christmas and weather prevented us from redeeming that certificate over Spring Break, so, Bishop has been beyond patient in waiting for this postponement date to roll around.

One of the first things Bishop said following my safety talk and my introduction on how to use the gear was, “You have a lot of stuff on this boat that I’m not familiar with.” So, I invited him to ask all the questions he cared to so he could learn a few things as we waited on the fish.

We got off to a slow first hour fishing a main lake breakline until a call from a fellow fisherman came in letting me know of some willing fish he had found and inviting us to join him. Although the bite was certainly not white-hot, it was steady for about an hour from 8-9 am, allowing us to boat 10 fish and miss a few others.

After this short run was over, we headed back out in search of fish once again, finding a few off the Leon River channel, and boating an additional 3 hybrid stripers and 1 blue catfish. The blue cats have both a distinctive way they bite and way they fight when hooked. Often times, when fishing is slow, the blue cat will “pester” a live shad just enough to kill it, but not fully swallow it, thus avoiding being hooked. When I observed that we had a blue cat messing around in our bait spread, I put on a dead chunk of bait to try to allow Bishop to catch it. I suppose the fish was too small to take the chunk fully in its mouth, as we got a number of pulldowns, but still couldn’t hook the fish. It was then that Bishop exclaimed, “He’s taunting me!”. He then set his mind on catching that fish before we departed. A few minutes later, after baiting up with a smaller chunk of bait, we finally caught that catfish fair and square right in the corner of his mouth.

Without prompting, as we wrapped up our trip, Bishop told his Grandad, “This was fun!”. And with that, we headed back to the boat ramp.

TALLY = 14 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp: 72F on lower lake

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable until 9:00am, then a southerly breeze began, building to 11-12 mph, then dying back to 7-8mph

Sky Conditions: Fair and 10% cloud cover

Other: GT=20

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1288

**Area 1344

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Flat Calm – 10 Fish, Belton Lake, 01 May 2015

May 1st, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished on Belton Lake with Mr. John Stephenson, Mr. Bob Bearden, Bob’s son, Terry Bearden, and Tucker Glaske.

From left: Tucker Glaske and John Stephenson with one of the hybrid striped bass we boated this morning.

WWII veteran and former prisoner of war Bob Bearden, age 92, hung with the young guns today and boated a few fish himself, including this Belton blue catfish.

John is a U.S. Army veteran who, among other things, served as a Bell County Commissioner several years ago. Bob Bearden is a 92-year old WWII veteran and former prisoner of war. Terry, who works in the off-shore oil industry, is one of Bob’s five children, and Tucker is an assistant director in the the Development Department at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, where he focuses on fund-raising.

We had a very tough trip this morning thanks to near-windless conditions and bright, cloudless skies, but, that is from my perspective, knowing that Belton is capable of producing much better, and knowing that we are in a season where high numbers of quality fish are very catchable. Tucker, for example, had an entirely different perspective. He’d been fishing perhaps only 4 other times in his life and had never caught as many fish during those trips as we did today.

Regardless of the mood of the fish, there was good company and good conversation throughout our time on the water.

Bob chided me about all the tactics and gadgets I employed trying to get stubborn fish to come bite our baits this morning, saying I was creating an unfair advantage, and hinting that I might have to give an account to the Lord about all of this taking advantage of His creatures one day. They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but, I’d have to disagree, since Bob’s son, Terry, was all for me using sonar, bait, an automatic trolling motor, acoustic attraction, line-counter reels, audible bait clickers and more to put every last fish we could in the boat that we possibly could!!

When we cranked up the outboard to head in, we’d boated 5 hybrid striped bass, 4 blue catfish, and 1 smallmouth bass.

TALLY = 10 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 65F

Water Surface Temp: 72F on lower lake

Wind Speed & Direction: Light and variable

Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 346

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Oh, for a Little Wind — 35 Fish, Belton, 30 April 2015

May 1st, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

This morning I fished on Belton Lake with Mr. Rick Klein, his son, Doug, and Rick’s friend, Randy Pritchett.

Rick took this, his largest fish of the day, in the closing minutes of the trip as the wind, which had gone slack, finally kicked in from the SE.

Randy Pritchett caught these hybrid back-to-back; one on the live bait rod he was tending to, and the other on a cut-bait rod we had setup next to it. As I took the first fish off and Randy was standing by, the second rod went down just seconds later.

Doug Klein took this nice crappie on a live shad fished at 27 feet over a 38 foot bottom.

In my “day-before-the-trip” note to Rick I stated, “If you are a man of faith, pray for some wind!”. The forecast for this day showed very low wind speeds and very low cloud coverage. Bright, calm conditions are always very tough on Belton. The fish we caught were caught mainly in the first half of the trip when a gentle west wind was blowing, and then again towards the end of the trip when an even lighter SE breeze kicked in after the breeze stopped altogether in the middle of the trip.

We caught a variety of fish on live shad today including hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, blue catfish, white bass, and crappie.

I appreciated Doug’s comment that he learned a lot on today’s trip as I answered his questions about gear, methods, fish behavior, and more.

TALLY = 35 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:30a

End Time: 1:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Water Surface Temp: 71F on lower lake; 72-73F in upper Leon River

Wind Speed & Direction: W5, dying and shifting to SE3-4

Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless

Other: GT=45

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 346/976

**Area 1554

**Area 1344

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

On Assignment — 19 Fish, Belton Lake, 28 April 2015

April 28th, 2015April 28th, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

On this unusually cold late April morning I was joined by an all-lady crew consisting of Bonnie Mobley, Sandy Blevins, and Elizabeth McLane.

Sandy Blevins took the prize for most and biggest today.

Bonnie Mobley holds a hybrid striped bass that took a large, 5″ gizzard shad fished around 22′ over a 35′ bottom.

Elizabeth McLane jumped out with an early 2-fish lead with faith that the right side of the boat was the “right” side to fish on.

These three ladies are friends from Sunday School at their church, First Baptist Church of Belton. They were all very pleasant to be with, were dressed adequately for the cold, damp weather, and were fast learners. I commented during the trip how I always enjoy having groups of ladies out because they tend to listen so much better than men when it comes to using circle hooks, and, as a result, put more fish in the boat. As evidence of this, over the course of this morning’s trip, we had exactly 21 “pull downs”. A “pull down” is where a fish takes a bait aggressively enough to pull the rod tip towards and/or into the water and moves off far enough to cause the bait clicker to make the audible noise it is designed to make. These ladies boated 19 of these 21 opportunities; that’s an unusually high 90%+.

A damp cold front is always tough to contend with, and today was no exception. I anticipated the cold front conditions, but the dampness was not in the forecast to the extent that we experienced it this morning. Shad were tough to find and net, and the fishing was a bit soft, as well. The wind velocity made getting on and staying on some of the open water areas I’ve been fishing a bit tough, but, we caught fish at 3 of the 4 areas at which we stopped and put baits down. I noticed that we would arrive at an area, get bait and chum going, catch a few fish, and just as soon as the fish fired up, they would cool back down again, allowing just 5-7 fish per stop. We never really got a good feeding frenzy going beneath the boat.

Although Elizabeth jumped out in front with an early 2-fish lead, Sandy’s rod got the most attention today, and she wound up catching the largest fish of the trip.

Elizabeth told a great story about a businessman she once knew who was also a successful Belton Lake fisherman. He named his boat “Assignment” and then trained his receptionist to tell those who called during business hours while he was away fishing that he was “on Assignment.”

I just doesn’t seem right to wear long underwear and gloves in Texas on April 28th!

TALLY = 19 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15a

End Time: 12:40p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 56F

Water Surface Temp: 71F on lower lake; 72-73F in upper Leon River

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW14-16

Sky Conditions: Heavy grey skies with occasional light rain and constant light drizzle

Other: GT=40

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 835

**Area 1383

**Area 1482

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Persistence Paid Off – 54 Fish, Belton, 25 April 2015

April 26th, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

On Saturday, 25 April, I was joined by Lance Huhn of Killeen, and his sons, Robert Broadhead, Dylan Huhn, and Jason Huhn.

Dylan holds our best fish of the trip — a 3.75 pound striper that took a jumbo threadfin shad.

From left: Robert and Lance landed this double when the action got hot and heavy as the westerly wind increased.

Jason wasn’t quite sure about sticking his thumb in this fish’s mouth to pose for a photo — dad to the rescue!

Lance is a retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer originally from east Texas, Robert is a senior at Shoemaker High School in Killeen, and Dylan and Jason are both students at Maxdale Elementary School.

We enjoyed solid fishing at both ends of our trip, with a bit of a dry spell in the middle.

Our first 90 minutes on the water produced well for us as we fished live shad down around 24-26 feet over a ~38 foot bottom. During this time the winds were calm to light from the west, but the light level was low, given the early hour. Once the sun climbed higher, the fishing got tougher and tougher as the surface of the lake went glassy calm.

We moved from spot to spot, and I observed that a great number of bass boats were also moving about at this time, too. It seemed that everyone was on fish early, then, no matter where you were fishing or what you were fishing for, things got tough tor everyone around the same time, sending everyone searching for more success.

Around 11:15, enough of a west wind developed and sustained to allow for occasional white caps to form. The fish responded within 20 minutes and went on a solid feed. We were at the right place at the right time when a large school of hungry hybrids felt the urge to feed. We took our tally from 19 fish up to 54 fish in about a 75 minute window

We finished up with a mixed-bag catch of 54 fish including (mainly) hybrid striped bass, with a sprinkling of white bass, blue catfish, crappie, and largemouth bass.

TALLY = 54 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp: 69-70F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE9-16 during the early morning rain event, then going slack under bright conditions after the storm’s passage, with a S. wind picking up around 11:30a

Sky Conditions: Rainy skies, clearing to 40% clouds on a fair blue sky.

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1341 for the early, low light bite

**Area 1557 after the late-developing wind began

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Breaking in the New Kid — 31 Fish, 24 April 2015

April 26th, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

This past Friday morning, April 24th, I awoke early to a steady rain on a southeast wind. My crew for this day was a pretty hardy bunch without much flex in their schedule, so, with no thunder or lightning accompanying the rain, we pressed on with our plans and got out on Lake Belton for a morning of hybrid striped bass fishing, beginning around 7:45am.

Corey Oliver and his son, Cullen, with one of the hybrid we boated during a steady rain over Belton Lake this morning.

Joe Oliver coordinated this trip and included his father, affectionately called “Pa”, as well as his son, Corey, now working for Nike in Oregon, and Corey’s not-quite-5-year-old son, Cullen.

Joe has been on a wide enough variety of trips with me through the years to know I would have some misgivings about taking a child that young on a live-bait fishing trip, but, Cullen did far better than I expected he would, and I let both his dad and grandfather know that.

The aim today was to give Joe and Corey some overdue father-and-son time, and go get Cullen a bit of exposure to the outdoors, to being on a boat, and to doing a little fishing.

Our best action today came during the steady rain in the first 90 minutes of our trip, and then again just after skies cleared and before the winds went totally slack. At one point in time during the rainfall, the winds ramped up to 17-18 mph and our results definitely dropped off (likely due to the unnatural movement of our baits thanks to the boat bouncing heavily in the swells) from that time and until we found some more fish at a new location under clearing skies with a gentle westerly breeze (which would die after just 15-20 minutes).

When all was said and done, we boated exactly 31 fish, including a 50/50 mix of hybrid stripers and blue catfish, with 2 white bass thrown in for good measure.

For whatever reason, Cullen was just fascinated with the mouths of the fish we caught, requesting a look inside each one. Sure, he enjoyed reeling the fish in, aided by his father or grandfather, but, once that fish was in the boat, he asked, without fail, “What’s in his mouth?”.

Now, I am not at liberty to disclose all of the details at this point in time, but, suffice it to say that Cullen was totally amazed when one of the smaller blue catfish we reeled in had a year 2000 nickel in its mouth as I gently used a pair of curved-tip forceps to part its lips and give Cullen a peek.

After enduring a ~75 minute spell of bright, calm weather in the aftermath of the rain, we were invited over to share in some fishing success a friend of mind had gotten in to just as the south wind began to blow and strengthen. We headed over, boated 2 fish and, no doubt could have stayed for more, but, to their credit, dad and grandpa saw that Cullen had reached the end of his attention span and we agreed it was a good time to call it quits, fish or no fish, so as to keep this a positive first fishing experience for this young man.

TALLY = 31 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 12:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Water Surface Temp: 69-70F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE9-16 during the early morning rain event, then going slack under bright conditions after the storm’s passage, with a S. wind picking up around 11:30a

Sky Conditions: Rainy skies, clearing to 40% clouds on a fair blue sky.

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1554 during the rain

**Area 1555 immediately after the rain

**Area 1556 once the wind began from the S. after a period of calm

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Something Decent — 19 Fish, 23 April 2015 (PM)

April 26th, 2015April 26th, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

On the evening of April 23rd I fished with Mr. Dean Renkes from the Dallas area and U.S. Army Specialist Andrew Zills, now stationed at Fort Hood.

Andrew Zills displays our largest fish of the trip, a 4.25 pound hybrid that hammered his shad bait as the sun, obscured by cloud cover, was about to set.

Dean worked through the circle hook learning curve quite quickly, landing several nice hybrid stripers, as well. Both men managed this “double” right at sunset.

Andrew’s wife, Megan, is the nanny for Dean’s grandchild. Dean has been impressed with both Megan and Andrew and simply wanted to do something decent for this young couple.

Dean, himself a Vietnam-era U.S. Army veteran, now works as a financial advisor.

I was upfront with Dean, letting him know that afternoon trips can be very tough, but, given both his limited schedule and Andrew’s, we went ahead and put this date on the calendar.

We met up at 4:15pm, planning to fish until dark. Not 15 minutes into the trip we had to run for cover from some passing thunder and lightning being produced by a small storm cell moving west to east and generally to the south of us. Once that turbulent weather passed, winds went calm, posing yet another challenge to the fishing.

We kind of pecked at the fish most of the trip, boating 12 fish over our first 3 hours, but, towards sunset, while fishing near a gentle breakline in ~28 feet of water, a nice school of hybrid stripers moved through for a bit of dinner and we were able to put 7 nice keeper-sized hybrid in the boat right in the final minutes of like so as to end on a strong note.

Thank you both for your service to our nation!

TALLY = 19 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15p

End Time: 8:40p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 85F

Water Surface Temp: 70-70.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE6-7

Sky Conditions: Rainy skies with thunder and lightning during the first hour, with a turbulent atmosphere following the storm passage

Other: GT=115

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 672

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

SUSTAINING!! – 102 Fish, Belton Lake, 23 April 2015

April 26th, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

This morning I targeted hybrid striped bass on Belton Lake with a crew of four. Ken Wilkins of Tex-Mix Concrete hosted the owner of Landreth Construction, Paul Landreth, and two of his employees, Ray Austin, and Brad Haas.

From left: Ken Wilkins, Paul Landreth, Brad Haas, and Ray Austin pose for a group shot with a sampling of the hybrid striper we caught on Belton today.

Above: Paul Landreth with a Lake Belton hybrid taken on live shad.

Above: Brad Haas holds one of the better hybrid stripers he boated today on circle hooks.

Above: Ray Austin, who guides for catfish on Choke Canyon and other San Antonio-area lakes, left the whiskered fish alone today for some deepwater hybrid.

Above: Ken Wilkins saved his best for last, and came up with this nice 7.25 pound blue cat just as we were about to wrap up for the day.

Bait gathering before the trip was made a bit easier by spawning threadfin shad which require fewer throws of the cast net for more and larger baits than are typically encountered when “blind throwing” otherwise.

We began the trip at 8:15am and were fortunate enough to find fish at the first area we searched. With live baits in the water and a steady feed of chum, we were able to boat 45 fish at this first area. The fishing there stayed solid until around 10:20 AM and then weakened as the south-southeast wind weakened.

I then moved us to a more wind exposed area, failed to find fish at the first area we checked, and then really got into them well in our last hour on the water at the second wind exposed area we checked. With our bait set at about 27 feet over a 35 foot bottom, we experience the best run of quality fish I’ve seen come over the side of the boat so far this season. We added 57 fish to our count at this area, and roughly half of these were 18+ inch hybrid striped bass.

It seems like there is some little funny thing that happens on most every trip, and today that little thing was the word “sustain”. Before each fishing trip begins, I try to thoroughly explain the importance of going slowly and methodically once a fish grabs ahold of a bait while using circle hooks. Today my word choice was “do not turn the handle until the rod tip is being pulled down in a sustained manner.” For whatever reason, that really stuck in the fellows’ minds, and they chided one another the entire trip by using the word “sustained” in a number of applications (both appropriate and inappropriate!). Regardless, the point was driven home about being methodical with the circle hooks, and this crew kept their learning curve very flat as a result of being disciplined about how they handled the rod once a fish had grabbed the bait. Hey, whatever works!.

For our efforts today we boated a total of 102 fish including white bass, blue catfish, and hybrid striped bass. Today’s results far exceeded any other trip’s results so far this season in regards to the ratio of keeper hybrids to the over all catch.

TALLY = 102 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15a

End Time: 12:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp: 69-70F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE10 for first 2.5 hours, then decreasing to SSE7-8

Sky Conditions: Grey but bright enough for sunglasses

Other: GT=100

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Shad at Area 185 and 186

**Area 1552

**Area 1553

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Good Technique — 60 Fish, Belton, 21 April 2015

April 21st, 2015 by Bob Maindelle

This morning, 21 April, I had the pleasure of fishing with Mr. Carroll Hall of Austin.

Above: Federation of Fly Fishers Certified Casting Instructor Carroll Hall of Austin left the fly gear behind today as we sought out deepwater hybrid stripers in 28-37 feet of water using live shad as bait.

Above: Spotted bass, readily identified by the parallel rows of olive-colored scales on their belly and an oval tooth patch on their tongue, are a bit of a rarity on Belton. This one fell for a live shad set down around 24′ below the boat.

I first got to know Carroll about six years ago through his participation in the Austin Fly Fishers flyfishing club. Carroll is Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) Certified Casting Instructor who provides both individual and group instruction to those wishing to learn the art of flycasting. Although we’ve met together, eaten together, and even went through one of Carroll’s flycasting session together, we’d never fished together until today.

A southerly wind returned to Texas today after much murky weather dampened the fishing a bit in the latter part of last week. The first hour was slow as the wind was very light and variable, but, once the SSE wind began and then increased to around 13mph, it was game-on.

Netting shad was made a bit tougher today by the overnight lows which dipped to 49-53F area wide, but, with the help of a friend, I was able to collect ~180 baits sufficiently large for bait, and send him home with an ample supply of shad too small for bait, but just right for chum.

Carroll and I fished from 8:15a to around 1:00p, and the fishing seemed to improve throughout this time, right up to a grand finale in the last 45 minutes in which we could only keep 2 rods baited given how quickly the aggressive hybrid holding below us were hitting.

Two trends emerged which helped up improve our results. First, at one of the shallower areas we fished (~28 feet deep) we kept getting good strikes but they resulted in torn off baits with little time to get over to the rod to tend to the strike. I discovered that raising the baits an additional foot off the bottom forced these fish to move further with the bait in their mouths, and our strike-to-land ratio went up substantially as a result. We also noted that the hybrid stripers demonstrated a definite preference for smaller baits. Of the dozen or so 4+ inch gizzard shad I put down, only one was struck all day, and it did not produce a landed fish. The small threadfin (some as small as 1 7/8″) got slurped up as soon as they reached bottom.

Carroll had never fished with circle hooks before and was pleased to see how good of a job they do when it comes to catch-and-release. The learning curve can be a bit steep when using these hooks. For Carroll, when I explained the importance of bringing the line tight only when the rod was under strain due to a fish’s movement away from the boat, that seemed to really click for him and his strike-to-land ratio dramatically improved thereafter. We agreed that good technique is everything in both flycasting and circle hook fishing!

We boated exactly 60 fish today, including 51 hybrid striped bass, 6 white bass, 2 blue catfish, and 1 spotted bass (which is a bit of a rarity on Belton).

TALLY = 60 FISH, all caught and released

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:15p

End Time: 1:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Water Surface Temp: 69F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9 increasing to and leveling off at SSE13

Sky Conditions: Clear and bright.

Other: GT=50

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1549

**Area 150

**Area 1550

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com