Central Texas White bass fishing

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, February 24th, I conducted the 9th SKIFF trip of the 2024 season.

I welcomed aboard 13 year old Milan Narimanov and his sister, 9 year old Roxana Narimanov. The children’s mom, Tetyana Zeyda coordinated the trip for them, but declined to join them over her concern about motion sickness.

The children’s father, US Army Staff Sergeant Ramai Narimanov, has served for 12 years as a Russian language interpreter. He is currently in the midst of a months-long deployment to Southwest Asia.

ABOUT SKIFF: SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009. SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru. S.K.I.F.F. provides children of military personnel separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish. SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member. In mid-2019, SKIFF began providing trips to kids of bona fide disabled veterans. I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.

Next available dates are 27-29 Feb. (AMs)

Here is how the fishing went…

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Milan and Roxana Narimanov proudly display a portion of their 74-fish late-February catch taken on white, 5/8-oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs.

PHOTO CAPTION: This nice freshwater drum struck Milan Narimanov’s slab right on bottom in around 42 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: With fingerless gloves and rosy cheeks Miss Roxana Narimanov battled this largemouth bass into the boat early on in the trip with an air temp. around 43F.

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 24 Feb. 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Although both kids had been on a boat previously, neither had ever gone fishing before. Sometimes, that is not a bad thing, as instead of having to undo bad habits, i can jump right into teaching good ones.

I explained the importance of a smooth, steady retrieve, and demonstrated how to grip the spinning reels handle lightly so the kids kept their rod tip nearly motionless as they retrieved their baits.

We would fish five areas this morning with the fishing getting increasingly better add each one as the skies grew brighter and the wind, although light, became steady and continuously rippled the surface.

We relied on one lure and one tactic this morning. The white, 5 eighth ounce bladed hazy eye slab worked with a slow smoking tactic drew strikes all morning from fish which were both bottom oriented, especially in the 1st 70 minutes, and from fish which were suspended, including fish from as much as 35 to 42 feet deep over a deeper bottom.

As has been the case all week, fish eating birds, namely ring build goals, were helpful in getting to the general locations fish were using in the first 90 minutes or so. Well tuned side imaging then helped find the spot on the spot. After the birds dissipated, fish had to be found solely with sonar.

In 3.5 hours’ time, my young rookies landed exactly 74 fish, including 71 white bass, two large mouth bass, and one freshwater drum.

Here is a tutorial on the snap-jigging method … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtrnAQ_T94&t=55s

Here is a tutorial on the slow-smoking tactic we used… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPopSLUYoQ

TALLY: 74 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Although the cold front which came in on Thursday afternoon was mild, it did cause bright, cold, low wind conditions, and definitely hindered the bite in the first hour or so of this morning’s trip.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 43F

Elevation: 16.81 feet low, 1 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 54.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW 3-7 all morning

Sky Condition: Cloudless, pale blue skies

Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.

GT = N/A

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Vic 100 (4 fish), vic 338 (13 fish), vic 1536 (20 fish), vic 074 (13 fish)

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 #austinsubaru

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, August 3rd, I fished with a crew of four first-time guests. Mr. Bart Dutton coordinated this trip some six weeks ago and brought along his son, Sean Dutton, his stepson, Trevor Holterhaus, and his neighbor, Mike Polcyn. Bart escaped the rules, regulations, taxes, politics and high cost of living near San Diego, CA, and moved his trucking business to Texas. Now, doing the same work he was doing on the West Coast, he’s enable to enjoy the fruits of his labors instead of forking his earnings over to the government just hoping to scrape by. Sean just followed in his father’s footsteps and arrived here last week. Trevor is headed to 8th grade in the Killeen Independent School District, and Mike is an active duty U.S. Army Warrant Officer.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: From left: Mike Polcyn, Sean Dutton, Trevor Holterhaus, and Bart Dutton. This crew of first-timers cashed in on a pre-frontal weather scenario to the tune of 121 fish in 3.5 hours.

WHEN WE FISHED: 03 August, 2020, AM

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

HOW WE FISHED: Today’s real story was the weather. We had a very mild cold front move in today with a barely perceptible wind shift from south, through west, to the northwest. This was like a slower, milder version of the same sort of weather that moved through last Friday. There was a strong topwater feed this morning under low-light conditions, then, after the fish left the surface as the sun’s direct rays shone on it, the fish almost immediately began feeding more sporadically in open water for just seconds at a time. This can be frustrating, as it is rare to sight these fish, then be able to get to them in time to cast, however, seeing multiple schools pop up repeatedly in a defined area reveals their position and makes them vulnerable to downrigging. We took advantage of the aggressive low-light bite, which yielded 79 fish in 65 minutes, most of which came on the MAL Lures in both white and chartreuse, with a few taken on downriggers before the action began, and again after it was tapering off. As this action ended, we moved on to an area where, at any given time, one or two schools of topwater feeding whites could be seen churning the surface in a stretch of about 1/8 of a mile. We took a steady feed of singles, doubles, and a few triples from out of this area with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with silver/white #12 Pet Spoons and silver/yellow #13 Pet Spoons. Only one time did we run into a scenario where we could Spot-Lock atop fish and work MAL Lures vertically for them. Under the pre-frontal conditions we were experiencing, I felt we could do better, so, we left fish to find fish which we could fish vertically for. Our tally now stood at 104 fish. In our final 40 minutes on the water (bearing in mind we wrapped up about 30 minutes early when my crew had enough of the Texas heat), we found just what I was hoping to find. As the sonar screen lit up with fish from mid-depth to bottom in about 34 feet of water, both downriggers went off simultaneously. Once we cleared those fish, I went back over that mass of fish, hovered over them with the Ulterra, and we worked MAL Lures through them to put a final 14 fish in the boat before Bart voted we call it a day.

TALLY: 121 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: We enjoyed yet another pre-frontal scenario, albeit quite mild, complete with a S to W to NW wind shift and solid fishing to match.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 1.56′ low, 0.05′ 24-hour change, 51 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 84.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: See NOAA graphic; winds followed forecast exactly today.

Moon Phase: Full moon today

GT = 5

Wx SNAPSHOT: Once again, a pre-frontal weather scenario — exciting!!!