downrigging | Fishing Report

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

AUNT SALLY, QUEEN OF THE HYBRID — 146 FISH @ BELTON

May 16th, 2020May 16th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday evening I fished with a crew of 4. Jim Downing was supposed to bring a crew out in pursuit of hybrid last Friday morning, but, the weather had other ideas.

After a few personnel changes to the lineup, I welcomed Jim, his Aunt Sally Hardeman, his nephew, Eric Martin, and Jim’s friend, Gary Hannemann aboard.

Although there are exceptions to every rule, Belton typically does not produce hybrid striped bass nearly as well, nor for as long of a time in the evenings as it does in the mornings. For this reason, I do not offer hybrid-specific trips at that time. Jim was okay with “converting” his trip to a multi-species trip, and so we met up at 4:15pm and put in a good 4 hours in pursuit primarily for white bass.

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jim Downing, Sally Hardeman, Eric Martin, and Gary Hannemann.

PHOTO CAPTION: The first fish taken from our first area fished this afternoon. It would be our largest of the trip as we primarily focused on white bass which tend to be active longer and more predictably in the afternoons.

WHEN WE FISHED: 14 May, 2020, PM

HOW WE FISHED: As I mentioned earlier, there are exceptions to every rule. As a rule, my 4-hour afternoon trips start slowly with the first 2 hours often involving lots of looking, and a little finding and catching, with the fishing taking off in the last 2 hours as the light level decreases. This afternoon, we looked over our first area in search of white bass, saw what I thought were hybrid on sonar, dropped down a bit of live bait I’d brought exactly in case this happened, and Jim landed a keeper hybrid in no time. This area went quiet thereafter, so we moved on, but …

Our next stop would lead us to 2.25 hours of non-stop catching in the early part of the afternoon. We found white bass stacked up about 4 fish high along the bottom in around 43 feet of water. Everyone was rigged up with a 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook attached. We hovered over the fish relying on Spot-Lock technology and just kept the fish coming over the side. Aunt Sally had a knack for drawing vicious strikes from both just-legal and just-short hybrid. 4 of her first 6 fish landed consisted of that species, and, as the day unfolded, she would wind up catching the majority of all of the hybrid we landed, thus earning her the title “Queen of the Hybrid” given by her manservant, Jim.

We used a smoking tactic the entire time spent on this area until finally the fish relented and we moved on to look for more fish.

Things went quiet from about 6:15 to 7:15. Then, about an hour before dark, we found another, smaller, but still active group of fish. Because hybrid often do perk up for a low-light feed just before dark, we decided to try using live shad at this area. We just about could not keep the white bass off of our baits no matter what size we used, nor how high up in the water column we placed them. We landed both white bass and a few blue catfish in this location consistently right up until they quit as last light turned to dark. We ended up with 146 fish landed, including 4 legal hybrid, all of which struck on the 3/4 oz. white slab.

TALLY: 146 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: 4th consecutive day of water flowing thru dam at ~1607 CFS

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15P

End Time: 8:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 82F

Elevation: 0.37′ high, 0.21′ drop, 1606 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 74.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Blue sky with ~20% white cloud cover

GT = 125

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area triangulated by B0037C/1012/2059 – 2.25 hours of solid white bass action

**Area vic B0078C – final hour of light produced well here, as it did on Tuesday

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

A PREACHER & A HACKER GET ON A BOAT … 74 FISH @ BELTON

May 14th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, May 14th, I fished with P.J. Condit and Reggie Walker. PJ serves as the pastor of Community Christian Church in Round Rock where Reggie and his family attend. Reggie is, literally, a professional computer hacker. He works for corporations by hacking into their systems in order to find and then fix weaknesses in those systems’ defenses.

We originally had this trip scheduled for late March when Gov. Abbott ordered all non-essential Texas businesses closed.

PHOTO CAPTION: Pastor P.J. Condit with a low-light hybrid striped bass we took during a short stint of bait fishing right off the bat this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: Reggie Walker and PJ with a few of the larger white bass we landed out of a large, deep school of suspended white bass.

WHEN WE FISHED: 14 May, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was once again very tough for the first 2.25 hours this morning as this morning’s conditions mirrored yesterday’s same tough conditions during that time, with a murky, grey sky, a cool, damp feeling to the SE wind, and wind speed just shy of creating whitecaps.

As a little icing on the cake for their patience, I wanted to try to get a few hybrid during the low light period just as we began around 7AM. I found a few fish along a breakline, got set up over them, and wound up putting 1 blue cat and 2 white bass in the boat before our first hybrid came along. After we landed that one, the sonar screen went clear and the hybrid bite at that location was over.

We looked around at a number of areas through 9:15, catching only 1 more white bass and 1 small largemouth during that time.

Finally, around 9:20, I spotted a school of white bass feeding on the surface in open water over a 62′ bottom. I motored to the area, slowed way down, looked intensively with sonar, and found a 5-foot thick band of white bass holding between 35 and 40 feet over that deeper bottom.

These fish were suspended above a colored layer which clearly showed on sonar. I don’t know if it was a thermal break, settled silt, or something else, but it was visible and the fish would not venture below it.

I used the Minn Kota Ulterra’s Spot-Lock function to hold us over these fish, got baits down, put some chum down, got the thumper working, and we worked that school of fish for 2 hours and 20 minutes, landing 68 fish from out of it, all using my 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks attached, in combination with Garmin LiveScope.

Reggie already was very enthused about the Garmin LiveScope before I even turned it on, and asked if we might use it earlier in the morning as we bait fished. So, it was fortuitous that we were able to put the technology to use in a real-world application for such a lengthy period of time for someone who was so interested in it.

By 11:40, the fish had had enough and, try as I might to keep them congregated beneath us, they dissipated and our morning was over within minutes of when the fish quit yesterday. In all, we landed 74 fish including 1 hybrid striper, 1 largemouth, 3 blue catfish, and 69 white bass.

TALLY: 74 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Shad spawn still going strong. Netted ample bait at Area SHAD019

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 0.37′ high, 0.21′ drop, 1606 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 72.1F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12-14 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 100% grey skies through 9:15A, then slowly brightening and clearing

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Open water just upstream from Area 1941 over 62′

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

MIKE FARRIS M.I.A. WHILE FRIENDS CATCH ‘EM UP @ BELTON (79 FISH)

May 13th, 2020May 14th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, May 13th, I fished with the crew from Bates Nissan over in Killeen. The crew, that is, minus Mike Farris, who, according to his friends either slept in or was possibly abducted by aliens. The end result was no Mike at the end of the dock by 7AM when David said, “Go!”. And we went.

Regardless, our 4-man crew which was supposed to be a 5-man crew, fished 6 rods the entire trip, which is about as many as is practical while still avoiding tangled lines (although that does still happen from time to time).

That crew consisted of trip organizer David Vahrenkamp, a coworker of his from Bates Nissan — Clay O’Dell, as well as Clay’s brother, Robin O’Dell, and Robin’s adult son, Tyler O’Dell.

PHOTO CAPTION: Clay O’Dell with one of our 5-pound class hybrid taken on live and cut shad this morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: Robin O’Dell found this largemouth hanging deep with his line-sided cousins.

PHOTO CAPTION: David Vahrenkamp hoists one of his own fish and one of Tyler O’Dell’s fish as Tyler was busy immediately catching another fish just after landing one of these.

PHOTO CAPTION: Tyler O’Dell with one of our 3-pound class fish which went just a shade over 18″.

WHEN WE FISHED: 13 May, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Fishing was very tough for the first 2.25 hours this morning. I looked over a number of typically-productive haunts and found little more than sparse blue catfish widely spread at a few areas. We put baits down at 3 separate areas where I saw a few suspected hybrid holding and drew only white bass and blue cats, and not an overabundance of either of those.

Around 9:50 we found a school of mixed white bass and hybrid stripers and stayed on them for 2+ hours. We fished 4 livebait rods and 2 cutbait rods with all of them producing about the same.

By the time the fish quit, around 11:50A, we’d boated a total of 79 fish, of which 19 were legal hybrid striped bass, 6 were short hybrid, 4 were largemouth bass, 1 was a smallmouth bass, 3 were drum, with the remaining 46 being a roughly 1 to 6 mix of blue cat to white bass.

TALLY: 79 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Despite fishing baits high and using large baits, we still ran into a lot of action by white bass when hybrid stripers were our target species.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Elevation: 0.58′ high, 0.19′ drop, 1607 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 69.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 100% grey skies the entire trip

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 187

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

SPIDELL FATHER-AND-SON OUTING – 91 FISH @ BELTON

May 12th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Monday, May 11th, I fished both AM and PM. In the evening I was joined by retired Command Sergeant Major Terry Spidell and his son, Tyler, who is currently working his way toward licensure as a commercial airline pilot.

The Spidell’s have a shallow, 14′ skiff with basic sonar and a GPS-equipped Minn Kota trolling motor. In addition to catching fish, the pair also wanted to see how they might use their equipment more effectively by learning how I put similar equipment to use in pursuit of white bass.

PHOTO CAPTION: Why is it that you can’t get as excited about catching white bass during a hybrid trip as you can about catching hybrid during a white bass trip? Tyler Spidell with a nice Lake Belton hybrid striper.

PHOTO CAPTION: Tyler and his dad, Terry, with one of the 31 fish we landed in our final 25 minutes on the water.

PHOTO CAPTION: And some Belton Lake fatties as far as white bass go. All taken on a 3/4 oz., white Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook attached.

WHEN WE FISHED: 11 May, 2020, PM

HOW WE FISHED: We fished artificial baits (my 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks attached) vertically the entire trip in water from 12 to 48 feet, finding most of the fish and action between 35-47 feet. I started off with the fundamentals of using a “smoking” tactic, they offered pointers on hooking and landing techniques to help improve our “strike to land” ratio. Next, I layered in the use of LiveScope. Terry was blown away at the video-like quality of this Garmin technology, and Tyler, a self-confessed gadget nut, quickly grasped the concept of what was being shown and how to improve efficiency based on the data available.

We fished 5 areas with success and passed on 3 other areas where down-imaging, side-imaging, and colored sonar did not reveal evidence of aggressive fish behavior.

With about 25 minutes’ worth of light left to fish in, we motored into an area with our tally standing at exactly 60 fish. I had commented to the fellows at the beginning of our afternoon that afternoon trips typically start slowly and end well, which is just the opposite of morning trips.

In those 25 minutes, we boated more than a fish per minute, taking our final tally up to 91 fish. That equates to 34% of our catch made in the last 9% of our time on the water.

When all was said and done, the fellows had a blast and were encouraged that they would be able to do better going forward while fishing on their own.

TALLY: 91 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No laughing gull action observed this evening. Saw gizzard shad in great quantities feeding on the surface between vic 0147 and the shore, over 9-12 feet of water. We cast into them thinking initially that they were being driven to the surface by gamefish, but, on closer inspection we saw this was a feeding behavior by the shad.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:15P

End Time: 8:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Elevation: 0.93′ high, 0.00′ rise, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 72F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE12-13 at trip’s start, dying back to SSE9 in the last hour

Sky Conditions: 25% white cloud cover on a bright blue sky

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1743

**Area vic 150

**Area vic 0147

**Area vic 817

**Area vic B0078C

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

I’M (NOT) DREAMING OF A WHITE HYBRID TRIP — 84 FISH @ BELTON

May 12th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Monday, May 11th, I fished both AM and PM. In the morning I was joined by a crew honcho’d by Mr. Jack Oliver of Marble Falls, TX. Joining him were his brother, Jamie Oliver, and three friends, Hank, Mark, and Lance.

We were hunting hybrid on Belton.

PHOTO CAPTION: Lance boated our first keeper hybrid of the morning.

PHOTO CAPTION: Mark took this long-bodied hybrid which looked more like a full-blooded striper than most hybrid do.

PHOTO CAPTION: The white bass seemed particularly fond of executing “hit and run” tactics on Hank this morning, but, he got the last laugh and landed our final legal fish of the morning right at noontime.

PHOTO CAPTION: As you might expect from a counselor, Jamie talked most of his fish into biting with calm, soothing words and tones.

PHOTO CAPTION: And, last, but not least, the host with the most — Jack Oliver who coordinated the the trip for this morning’s crew.

WHEN WE FISHED: 11 May, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: The first indicator that the stars were just not aligned quite right for us was the noticeably weak shad spawning activity. Both me and Mr. Bill P. have been right on top of the shad situation for quite a while now and, yesterday, both of us struggled to find the great quantities which make bait gathering a rather simple chore this time of year. We also had calm winds which picked up from the ESE under bright skies once they did begin.

Long story short, we hunted hybrid for 5.25 hours and never really got into them really well. We landed a total of 19 legal hybrid as well as 3 just-short ones, but they all came as pairs and triples outside of one short burst of action around 7:50 to 8:20.

Additionally, the white bass really made their presence known this morning, either already being located at, or quickly arriving at, every single one of the areas we fished this morning.

Fortunately, by extending the trip, we were able to end on a strong note with a nice run of hybrid action, but otherwise, it was more slow-going this morning.

We landed 84 fish in all, including 19 legal hybrid, 3 short hybrid, 1 drum, 4 blue catfish, 1 channel catfish, and 56 white bass, most of which were healthy 2-year class fish.

TALLY: 84 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Sparse shad at SHAD019

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 55F

Elevation: 0.93′ high, 0.00′ rise, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at trip’s start, going ESE11 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: 25% white cloud cover on a bright blue sky

GT = 305

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1555

**Area vic 1489

**Area vic 1079

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

A CHRISTMAS GIFT OF FISHING – 126 FISH @ BELTON LAKE

May 9th, 2020May 9th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, May 9th, I fished with Mr. Dan Nichols, who very capably helped me help my three young anglers do quite well as we worked Lake Belton for white bass. Joining us was Dan’s son, Preston Nichols, and two of Preston’s buddies — Jasper Arnold, and Taylor Krause. All three are 10 years of age, and all three reside in Liberty Hill, TX.

Dan shared that given a choice between getting Christmas gifts or going on a guided fishing trip, Preston chose fishing, and today’s trip was the fruit of that choice.

PHOTO CAPTION: My crew of 10-year-olds: from left: Taylor Krause, Jasper Arnold, and Preston Nichols.

PHOTO CAPTION: Triples like this one landed by Jasper while we downrigged on the outskirts of a massive school of threadfin shad were not uncommon. The boys landed multiple doubles and triples this morning.

WHEN WE FISHED: 09 May, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Even though this was not a hybrid striped bass trip and therefore did not require that I catch live bait, I still got out on the water early enough to observe where multiple shad spawning locations were so as to return when bait is required on hybrid-specific trips in the days and weeks to come.

One area, the area I took the boys to to begin our day, was as full of spawning shad as I believe I’ve ever seen on Lake Belton. Not only were the shad in the shallows “running the bank” from around 6:05 to beyond 7:15, the shad were nearly 3 feet thick all the way out to the 22 foot mark over an area about as long as a football field.

The bait was so abundant, we had difficulty convincing the gamefish which were present to pay attention to our lures. Eventually, I actually gave up briefly on using slabs and we re-rigged to fish with downriggers in order to quickly cover ground, and fish around the perimeter of this large mass of bait. This was the ticket, as we began to immediately pick up singles, doubles, and multiple triples on the 3-armed umbrella rigs we ran near bottom, each equipped with Pet Spoons.

When the bait moved on out to deeper water, the bite died and we settled into a more traditional approach going into deep water, searching out congregations of fish holding on or near bottom, and fishing them vertically with slabs used in a “smoking” tactic.

Every fish we took in this manner was taken on a 3/4 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook. I make and sell these myself here: SLABS

The harder the ESE wind blew, the more fired up the white bass got. Our efforts were also definitely aided by a nice layer of grey clouds through 10:25.

We landed our 100th fish at exactly 10:05, then put another 26 fish in the boat in the next 25 minutes, then called it a day as soon as the bite let up, which coincided with the breaking of the direct sun through the clouds for the first time all morning.

TALLY: 126 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Crazy amounts of bait from Area 1606 and shoreward. Larger, better quality bait also seen at Area SHAD026.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 10:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Elevation: 0.93′ high, 0.13′ rise, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE10 at trip’s start, steadily tapering up to ESE15

Sky Conditions: Thin grey layer of cloud cover existed until ~10:25

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic 1606 downrigging parallel to shore and up to the 21′ contour

**Area vic B0005C

**Area vic B0150C (hundreds of suspended whites in lower 40% of water column feeding so hard they created a long-lasting bait slick); landed 72 fish here.

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

I’M FEELIN’ DANGEROUS — 133 FISH @ BELTON LAKE

May 8th, 2020May 8th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Thursday morning, May 7th, I fished with husband and wife team Jim and Linda Schultz of Salado. Both are U.S. Army veterans who chose this area to retire to. In their retirement, they purchased a pontoon boat and are slowly equipping it for fishing with sonar and a GPS-style trolling motor.

The pair has had some limited success catching Belton blue catfish, primarily on free-floating juglines, but success on rod and reel has been harder to come by.

In addition to catching fish, Jim was particularly interested in seeing and understanding how and why I used my own sonar/trolling motor combination in the various fishing scenarios we would encounter on the water today.

PHOTO CAPTION: As our fish count crept into the 20’s very early on in the trip, Linda said that was the most she’d ever caught at one time. She and Jim would go on to boat exactly 133 fish on this trip. Gotta love personal bests!

PHOTO CAPTION: Hybrid stripers have eluded Jim Schultz since he purchased his new pontoon boat, but, the chase ended today when this nice Lake Belton hybrid striper weighing right at 6.00 pounds took his 3/4 oz. Hazy Eye Slab as Jim fished it in and around an aggressive school of white bass.

WHEN WE FISHED: 07 May, 2020, PM

HOW WE FISHED: As I arrived about 30 minutes in advance of Jim and Linda, I noted abundant shad spawning activity in the area. Additionally, because of the calm conditions, it was clear that abundant gamefish (primarily white bass) were holding just offshore taking advantage of the easy meal these shad offered. After welcoming everyone aboard, going over the safety brief, setting up reel handles appropriately for everyone, and a prayer, we stayed right in the immediate vicinity and put just over 30 fish in the boat using a smoking tactic, all of which were white bass.

Since the white bass fishing requires a bit more reliance on the sonar and trolling motor combination, and because Jim pointed out that Linda enjoys vertical jigging, we intended this trip to be a multi-species trip focused on white bass, despite the fact that the hybrid bite is going strong. Additionally, of the two forms of fishing (white bass vs. hybrid), the white bass fishing would be more easily duplicated given the Schultz’s current equipment setup.

At one point in the trip, as our fish count rose into the 80’s and Jim began processing why we were doing what we were doing, he saw how the components on his own boat could be better used to help him have success. He said to Linda, “I’m feelin’ dangerous.” Linda and I looked at each other and just smiled.

We looked for fish in six distinct areas, finding abundant white bass in three of them. Our final location produced best, and also coincided with the time at which we experienced the highest wind velocity. Our first area gave up 32 fish, our second area gave up 22 fish, and the last area we fished gave up 79 fish, all for a grand total of 133 fish which included 1 hybrid striped bass, 2 freshwater drum, and 130 white bass in the 1 and 2 year class.

Every fish we took was taken on either a 3/8 oz. or 3/4 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook. I make and sell these myself here: SLABS

We used a “smoking tactic” for both bottom-oriented and suspended fish.

TALLY: 133 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Light topwater action at sunrise and sunset now observed 2 consecutive days produced by white bass and short hybrid driving shad to the surface.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F

Elevation: 0.83′ high, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE2 at trip’s start, steadily tapering up to ESE16, gusting 18

Sky Conditions: Clear skies

GT = 25

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic B0194C

**Area 1269

**Area vic 1152/B0078C

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)

#BeltonLakeFishingGuide #stripers #stripedbassfishing #rockfish #sandbass #freshwaterfishing #fishing

#bass #bassfishing #whitebass #panfish #crappie #fishingonaboat #fishingtackle #fishinglife #fishingsport

#fishingaddict #fishingpicoftheday #fishingtime #fishinggear #fishingday

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow #BeltonFishingGuide #LakeBeltonFishingGuide

NORTH WIND NEGATED BY RISING METABOLISM – 46 FISH @ BELTON

May 6th, 2020May 6th, 2020 by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, May 6th, I welcomed aboard Derrick Fontenot, his girfriend, Veronica Merritt, and their friend, Tony Siefner, whom Derrick works with. All three are veterans — Derrick and Veronica served in the U.S. Army, and Tony served in the U.S. Navy.

The trio came out with me once prior for hybrid striped bass back in early June of 2019, and Derrick has done a one-on-one sonar training with me for his Lowrance equipment.

PHOTO CAPTION: Tony Siefner started the day off right with this 6.75 pound Lake Belton hybrid. This is the largest hybrid I’ve had a client land in the 2020 season-to-date.

PHOTO CAPTION: This long-bodied hybrid landed by Veronica Merritt weighed in at 5.75 pounds.

PHOTO CAPTION: In addition to this 5.25 pound hybrid, Derrick Fontenot also managed a 5.00 pound blue catfish this morning.

WHEN WE FISHED: 06 May, 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED: Because my crew had an above-average result on their last outing for hybrid back in 2019 (95 fish, of which 44 were legal hybrid), the very first thing I mentioned this morning was how I anticipated the post-frontal conditions we experienced (north wind, bright, cloudless skies, and lower temperatures) would negatively impact the fishing. Fortunately, the water temperature is in the high 60’s and has been trending warmer, so fish metabolism is high. This induces fish to feed, but they just don’t binge aggressively under such conditions.

We hedged our bet this morning using smaller baits and cutbait for fish that were more tentative.

We continued fishing these baits on a tightline suspended up off bottom using what is essentially a Carolina rig terminated with a Kahle hook.

In all, we landed 46 fish, of which 15 were legal hybrid stripers. Were this not a catch-and-release trip, we’d have wrapped up by 9:30 with a 5-fish limit per angler.

As always, we released 100% of our catch and continued fishing until right at 11:30, with our final fish coming at 10:45. I’m of the opinion that folks are not paying me for a meat haul, only to go back to the dock when a certain number of a certain kind of fish are caught, but, rather, they are paying me for an outdoor experience, and I feel I owe them every bit of the time they are compensating me for.

10:30 seems to be the time these fish start wrapping up their feed and settling down until evening, as the fish have demonstrated in each of the hybrid-specific trips I’ve conducted now, and as they confirmed again this morning.

When all was said and done, in addition to the 15 keeper hybrid, we landed 2 short hybrid, 1 freshwater drum, 3 blue catfish, and 25 white bass in the 1, 2, and 3-year class.

TALLY: 46 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: No shad at SHAD014. Shad were moving off-shore in 8′ of water at Area 011. I netted sparse shad at Area SHAD026

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 57F

Elevation: 0.93′ high, 0.05 foot 24-hour rise, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70F

Wind Speed & Direction: N8 at sunrise, shifting to NE10 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Clear skies with 80% high, thin, white clouds building in from the E. beginning around 10A

GT = 120

Wx SNAPSHOT:

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Shad @ Area SHAD026

**Area vic LOST ROD 2

**Area vic 682

**Area 1945/1552

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)

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