STABLE WEATHER, STABLE FISHING — 150 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, November 6, I fished with first time guests Dennis Graham, and his neighbor and friend, Vicky Clark.

Dennis is a U.S. Air Force veteran/retiree, and Vicky retired from the U.S. Postal Service where she enjoyed being a rural route letter carrier.

I first got to know Dennis when I presented a sonar seminar at Marine Outlet in Temple, TX, then reconnected more recently through the very well run Texas Fishing Forum, and specifically through the sub-forum dedicated to white bass, hybrid stripers, and striped bass.

Here’s how our morning went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Nov. 14, 15

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Vicky Clark and Dennis Graham caught and released 150 fish on 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs on Lake Belton this morning using the smoking tactic described in the link below.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Vicky just about held her own as far as the $1 bet on who could catch the most was concerned, but when it came to who caught the biggest, it was an open-and-shut case!

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Dennis closed the trip out in style.  We agreed we’d stay until we hit 150 fish.  With 148 in the boat, Dennis landed this double, with one white bass hooked on the treble and another on the stinger hook of the same slab!

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left to right are the 3/4 oz, 5/8 oz., and 3/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs.  These combine the fish-attracting spinning blade feature of the MAL Lure with the cool-water effectiveness of a slab.  All 150 fish were taken on these slabs today.

 

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Monday, 06 November 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

With the time change taking place over the weekend, we began right at 7 AM today and fished through around 11:30.

I found a few fish up shallow, in about 23 feet of water, just as the sun was rising, but these fish were less than enthusiastic, so we left them behind.

As I was getting the boat prepared to motor to our next area, I did a little glassing and found the season’s first active group of gulls feeding over top of gamefish pushing bait to the surface. I got pretty excited as we ran to them, but enthusiasm waned when I saw how fast these birds were moving.

As it turned out, there was a small, but very aggressive, school of hybrid chasing subsurface bait at very high speed, headed down wind. We simply could not stop and fish for these fish because they were moving so fast. Because it was fairly windy, and because Vicky expressed that she might need to brush up on her casting a bit before we did any casting, I left these fish behind and went to find more heavily congregated, and more sedentary, bottom-oriented, white bass.

This turned out to be a good choice both because we found plenty of fish to catch, and because that bird activity dissipated rather quickly. Still, it was good to see that bird activity begin.

After we found schooled fish on bottom, we stuck with fishing that pattern from that point until our wrap-up around 11:30. We put the entire trip together on just three stops. The second of these three yielded the lion’s share of our fish (111 of 150 fish).

We fished each of these three distinct groups of fish the same way. I Spot-Locked on top of them after finding them with down-imaging and/or side-imaging, we then dropped white, 5/8 ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs down to them, and smoked the slabs in a manner described in the video link below…

Smoking Tutorial

Although the fishing followed a bell-shaped curve with low energy at low light, a peak bite between 9 and 10AM, and then a slow decay from 10:00 to 11:30, the fish never quit biting during this entire run.

One bit of an improvement today was in the area of legal sized fish versus shorts. Although we did not catch any 14 or 15 inch jumbos, the number of two and three year old fish roughly matched the number of yearlings we landed.

I anticipate this fishing will stay solid right on through the next cold front’s arrival on Thursday (9 Nov.), then, because Thursday’s front is forecast to be mild, the fishing should continue to be just as sound thereafter. If history is any teacher, this wonderfully productive autumn bite will continue right on through about mid-December.

Our tally today was exactly 150 fish including 1 keeper hybrid striped bass, 1 short hybrid striper, 9 freshwater drum, and 139 white bass.

TALLY: 150 fish caught and released.

 

OBSERVATIONS:  The first helpful bird activity I’ve spotted thus far this fall occurred this morning.

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Elevation: 15.14 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 65.2F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: S8 at trip’s start, building to S13 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% light grey skies through mid-morning, then clearing and brightening to 80% white cloud cover on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 39% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas:

Area B0005C – 20 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area 446 – 111 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0155G – 19 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

 

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec

SCOUTING PAYS OFF BIG-TIME — 116 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This morning, Saturday, November 5, I  fished with first time guests Taylor Valentin, and her boyfriend, Andy Havranek.

Taylor is a speech pathologist working in the private sector, and Andy is a manager for a large telecommunications company.

As I often do whenever I have couples join me on the boat, I asked this couple how they first met, and the answer was through their common interest in playing the Elder Scrolls video game.

As a common thread through most trips which go well, both Taylor and Andy were very willing to listen to guidance and to be coached.

A special thanks to Taylor’s folks, Paco and Angie Valentin for setting this trip up for them.

Here is how our morning went…

—————————————————————————————————–

Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php

Next available dates are Nov. 14, 15

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Andy Havranek and Taylor Valentin with the largest fish of the morning, a just-legal hybrid striped bass.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  Our target species was white bass.  108 of the 116 fish landed were white bass; the vast majority of our catch came on the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Saturday, 04 November 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

A light, marine layer of fog stayed over the surface of the lake right up until 11 AM.

Yesterday’s ~5 hour scouting trip paid big dividends today as two of the five areas we fish (and the two which produced the most fish) were among the areas I identified during those morning scouting efforts.

Although this made for a slow start, it also kept fish biting well right up to about 11:15. Once the skies began to clear, they cleared rapidly, and the bite began to fall off sharply.

We fished a total of five areas this morning. Due to low light conditions, we downrigged briefly at the first area for a total of three white bass and one just-legal hybrid striper taken on a Pet Spoons fished behind three-armed umbrella rigs.

After that brief bout of downrigging, we switched over to smoking with slabs and never looked back. At the remaining four areas we fished, it was pretty much a cookie-cutter scenario. I found abundant, bottom-oriented, heavily congregated fish in 25 to 32 feet of water, hovered atop them using Spot-Lock, dropped white, 5/8-ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs down to them and cranked these slabs upwards using a smoking tactic.

Here is a link to a video I created on how to execute this technique: Smoking Slabs

The fish would pursue, strike, get hooked, and the rest was history. We put a total of 116 fish in the boat. Four came on downriggers, two came on MAL Lures when I found a large group of fish holding on bottom, but out away from the boat as seen on side-imaging, and the balance of 110 fish came on the 5/8-ounce, white Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs.

Of the 116 fish landed, 1 was a hybrid striper, 7 were freshwater drum, and 108 were white bass.

TALLY: 116 fish caught and released.

 

OBSERVATIONS:  1) Far fewer gulls spotted today than yesterday; I suspect those I spotted were just passing through.  2) Water temperature profile measured 7:40AM, Friday, 03 November.  At long last, the thermocline has disappeared…

0 feet, 64.9F
5 feet, 66.1F
10 feet, 66.4F
15 feet, 66.4F
20 feet, 66.4F
25 feet, 66.4F
30 feet, 66.4F
35 feet, 66.4F
40 feet, 66.4F
45 feet, 66.4F
50 feet, 66.3F
55 feet, 66.3F
60 feet, 65.6F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 12:00P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Elevation: 15.16feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 64.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6 at trip’s start, building to SSE12 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies and light, marine layer fog through 11A, then clearing rapidly to 50% white clouds on blue sky

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 49% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas:

vic B0173G – 4 fish downrigging

B0149C – 29 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0171G (3 short hops) – 11 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

Area B0009C (2 short hops) – 67 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs; 2 on MAL Heavies

Area B0157G/472 – 3 fish fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

 

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec

WINDY, WITH A CHANCE OF WIND AND MORE WIND – 115 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH:  Yesterday morning, Wednesday, November 17th, I fished with returning guest John Gossard of Morgan’s Point Resort, TX.

John and his wife moved to this area in August of 2020 and he’s been out with me three times now this year, with our first two trips conducted on Stillhouse over the summer months.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________

My next three openings will be on 15, 16, and 22 December.  Weekday mornings are always best.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Although we caught white bass from multiple year classes at each area we fished this morning, the first area we hit under low light and with bird activity produced the greatest ratio of 13+ inch fish.  John Gossard holds two such fish he took on the MAL Heavy Lure worked horizontally in 22-24 feet of water.  Yes, his hat reads, “humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa“, the name of Hawaii’s state fish, the reef triggerfish.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 17 November 2021

HOW WE FISHED:

We had a little too much of a good thing today.  The south wind which was so welcome on Monday and Tuesday as it blew manageably today gusted over 20 all morning, with straight-line winds at 14-17 the entire time, limiting the areas we could practically fish.

Today’s fish activity closely mimicked yesterday’s as far as location and activity level.  The fish did the same things in the same places and at the same times as they did yesterday, thus allowing us to skip searching in unproductive water and drive from one group of biting fish to the next.

We fished five areas today.  The fishing was pretty much “cookie cutter” at the last 4, with the action coming entirely on vertical presentations using the MAL Heavy Lure (white blade, chartreuse tail).  The first area, under low light and birds, fished a bit differently in that we had a lot of mobile fish just under the surface driving bait into the wind, thus allowing (actually, requiring) a horizontal presentation (sawtooth-style).

I observed that the fish seemed much more likely to rise far up in the water column after we created commotion by Spot-Locking and catching fish this morning that over the past two trips.  I suspect this was because the high winds significantly reduced the amount of light penetrating the surface due to heavy wave action.

Once again we took 3 largemouth bass in over 25 feet of water as a bycatch; we also continued to see the hybrid  striped bass stocked in 2020 make up 5-8% of the total catch.  I’m really hopeful that 2023 will be a great year for that fishery.

When all was said and done, we landed 115 fish, including 3 largemouth bass, 5 juvenile hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 106 white bass.

MAL Lure fishing tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViVz6D91brM

Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Lures found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 115 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 1) As is typical for this time of year, the largemouth bass bycatch has begun to take place.  We took 3 largemouth today (second consecutive day). 2) Next front is due in in the early morning hours of Thursday, 18 Nov.; the initial wind shift is due ~9P tonight.

Here is the pre-frontal water temperature profile down to 60 feet:

0 feet 68.6
5 feet 68.6
10 feet 68.6
15 feet 68.6
20 feet 68.6
25 feet 68.6
30 feet 68.5
35 feet 68.2
40 feet 68.1
45 feet 68.1
50 feet 68.1
55 feet 67.4
60 feet 67.9

 

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  68F

Elevation: 1.64 feet low, 0.02 fall, 42CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE9 at trip’s start increasing steadily to SSE13 by the 3 hour mark, then quickly going SSE17 in our final hour

Sky Condition: Fully clouded grey skies with enough light filtering thru to making it “squinting bright”

Moon Phase: First quarter moon at 93% illumination.

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1188 to B0100G to 1789 – 23 fish with multiple short hops under low-light conditions and with bird assistance; MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail worked horizontally

**Area 1075 – 14 fish; all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

**Area vic B0103G – 21 fish;  all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

**Area 376  – 7 fish;  all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

**Area 1815  – 35 fish;  all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

**Area B0066G – 15 fish; ;  all on MAL Heavy w/ white blade, chartreuse tail fished vertically

 

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text) Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide #BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing #bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport #fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday #Fitec #mepps