FROM ROOKIE TO AMATEUR IN 4 HOURS FLAT – 101 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, August 25th, I fished with Shane Stovall and his sons, 14-year-old Connor, and 10-year-old Cooper, all of Salado, TX.

Shane works as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) for a local hospital, and was referred to me by Clint Tippett, who makes his living as an anesthesiologist, and also brought his sons, Carson and Carter, out with me back in July.

The boys slowly but surely warmed up to white bass fishing after being sluggish early on.  Their dad and I kidded them about getting lazy and too used to sleeping in over their 5-month-long Spring Break, courtesy of COVID-19!

Perhaps this morning was a good “dry run” for when Salado schools go back in session next week!?

Over the course of the morning, Cooper’s confidence level rose and, after my father-and-sons crew boated their 4th “triple” (three fish caught simultaneously on the 3-armed umbrella rig), he exclaimed, “I think I’ve gone from rookie to amateur.”  He then double-checked that statement with his dad to make sure he’d indicated positive progress. 

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1: From left: Connor, Cooper, and Shane Stovall with a portion of their 101-fish catch on Lake Belton during the last week of their 5-month Spring Break. WHEN WE FISHED: 25 August, 2020, AM

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

HOW WE FISHED:   I’ve been doing more sonar training than fishing lately, given the unstable weather we’ve been experiencing.  Today was the “calm before the storm” in regards to weather in that the impacts of Hurricane Laura are due to be felt beginning tomorrow.

Although the winds were northeasterly today, this was not caused by frontal activity, and, as such, the fish fed well all morning, right up through around 10:50A. We began our day looking for low-light topwater action and found it.  We were able to both downrig around the outskirts of the action for singles and doubles on white bass taken on my 3-armed umbrella rigs, as well as stop over top of several schools of white bass to work MAL Lures through them vertically. We wound up with 31 fish during this low-light bite before the sun got high enough to kill this bite.

We moved on and found fish the remainder of the morning at each of the 3 additional location we searched, but all locations held primarily small fish.  After encountering our first batch of small fish (landing 5), we changed up and headed up shallow to fish for sunfish to give the boys some variety from what was fairly slow downrigging at that point.  I used this time to give the white bass some time to get into more of a feeding mode, hoping either wind, cloud cover, or both might develop. The boys did great at sunfishing for first-timers.  They wound up boating 40 sunfish, including a mix of bluegill, longears, redears, and greens. 

Around 9:30AM, we broke from that and once again pursued white bass.  By this time our fish count stood at 36 white bass and 40 sunfish.

We hit two more areas between 9:30 and 10:50AM, finding ample fish and bait at both.  At both areas small white bass were seen routinely corralling fish to the surface and feeding on them briefly before continuing the pursuit underwater and out of sight.  Also on the nearly calm surface we could see abundant shad feeding in pods right at the surface.

By the time the 4-hour mark rolled around, we’d landed 94 fish and were doing pretty good, albeit still on small fish.  I asked the boys, who by now were sweating through their clothes, if they wanted to press on to try for a 100 fish morning.  They never batted an eye and gave me the thumbs-up. In under 8 minutes we landed another 7 fish, putting our final tally at 101 fish for the morning.

TALLY: 101 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:  An abundance of shad feeding on the surface under near-calm conditions from 9AM on were noted this morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  6:40A

End Time: 10:55A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation:  2.57′ low, -0.05′ 24-hour change, 51 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  83.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: Light winds under 3mph from the ENE due to counter-clockwise rotation of the atmosphere impacted by Hurricane Laura

Sky Condition: Clear blue skies and low humidity

Moon Phase: First quarter with 47% illumination

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:

  

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1781 – initial contact with low-light topwater fish

**Area vic 903 – combination of downrigging and working MAL Lures vertically for low-light fish away from the crowd

**Area vic B0040C – downrigging in ~22′ for smallish fish — moved on

**Area B0034G – 40 sunfish

**Area vic 1097 – downrigging for small whites

**Area 475-477 – downrigging for small whites

 

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

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ALL ABOUT EATER CATFISH – 21 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Friday evening, May 1st, I welcomed returning guests Rick Powell and Ricardo Cisneros aboard.  During the Coronavirus shutdown, I took my wife, Rebecca, and a handful of friends out fishing specifically for blue catfish on Lake Belton.  Ricardo, who regularly follows my Facebook posts, saw this and hoped to duplicate the effort on occasions where he hoped to catch a few “eating-sized” catfish (12+ inches).

He requested I take he and his friend (and boss) Rick Powell out to show them what I’d learned.

No, I’m not starting to guide for catfish and don’t intend to do so in the future, but, as the fishery offers consistency and as the quality of these fish continue to improve on Lake Belton (due to zebra mussel consumption, I suspect), I will no doubt routinely mix in some catfishing in my multi-species trips. Additionally, my 100% C&R policy still pertains to this species.

 

PHOTO CAPTION: This is what the methods I’ve pieced together (with a good bit of help from Steve Webb) typically produce – smaller “eater-sized” blue catfish, two of which provide 4 fillets — just enough for a 1-person serving if kept and cleaned properly. Most fish are 12-15 inches, like this one held by Ricardo Cisneros.

WHEN WE FISHED:  01 May, 2020, PM

HOW WE FISHED: First, I search for blue catfish concentrations on sonar.  Next, I Spot-Lock and chum with range cubes, then get right down to fishing vertically with my “Catfish Plumb” bait holders tipped with fresh, dead shad or non-stink doughbait.  To enhance things, I’ve brought Garmin LiveScope to bear, which allows slightly suspended fish to be targeted.  Otherwise, the default bait position is just inches off bottom.

Concentration is a must, as the catfish typically take only one swipe at the bait, during which time a quick, hard hookset is a must.

In 3.5 hours’ time, some of which was set aside for Humminbird side-imaging explanation and Garmin LiveScope explanation, we put 22 blue cat over the side of the boat with just as many missed on the hookset.

 

TALLY: 22 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: As I searched for spawning shad, a definite, shallow-water and shad-oriented fishery is also ripe for picking, albeit short-lived with the action drying up about the time the direct sun peeks over the eastern horizon.

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   4:00P

End Time:  7:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 82F

Elevation:  0.77′  high, 0.06 foot 24-hour rise, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:  70F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S17 at trip’s start, tapering to S14 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: 30% high white haze on blue skies

GT =28

 

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area vic B0073C (fished it at start of trip and end of trip with 2 other non-productive stops in between)

 

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)

#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

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle

Happy Fathers’ Day — 46 Fish, Stillhouse, 21 June 2014

This morning I welcomed father and son team Mike and Patton Dean aboard from Round Rock, Texas.  Mike’s wife, Kate, set this trip up as a Fathers’ Day event for the two of them.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Patton and his dad, Mike, with the best white bass of the trip taken on a 3-armed umbrella rig with Pet Spoons attached.

 

Mike is a U.S. Army Medical Service Corps veteran and currently serves as an administrator at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.  Mike’s son Patton is a 9 year old third grade graduate, football player, basketball player, summer camp camper, and, now, fisherman!
The same near-calm, overcast conditions that plagued us yesterday persisted this morning, so, I came prepared to use 4 or 5 different techniques, know that with a 9 year old aboard, we’d have to keep it interesting by transitioning our tactics frequently.
We began our morning fishing live baits over hydrilla beds.  We got two nice pull-downs, but those fish got away before they saw the net.  As we reeled in one of the nearly-dead baits that a largemouth bass had just crippled, I tossed it over the side to replace it.  Several seconds later, a ~30″ long nose gar appeared and snatched that 5″ bait sideways and swam off with his hearty breakfast.
We next headed to open water and downrigged for white bass.  Along a break line in about 37 feet of water as we approached from deeper water going shallower with the balls set at about 32 feet, the bottom just came alive with white bass.  As the ball swept over the bottom-hugging school, numerous individual fish came up off the bottom and swam up to and along with the ball for a short time out of curiosity.  Once they broke off the chase, our baits came trailing behind (were were using one 3-arm umbrella rig on each ‘rigger) and we hooked up immediately.
Seeing that the area these fish were using was quite small, I tried hovering over top of them to use slabs with a smoking technique, but we only got one fish to respond, so, we returned to downrigging and that horizontal motion did the trick.  We wound up catching 13 white bass here before the bite shut down.
Next, it was off to do some sunfishing.  Both father and son excelled at that, quickly amassing a catch of 32 sunfish (bluegill, longear, and greens) on slip floats and Gulp! baits in just 2 stops up shallow.
As we wrapped up the sun fishing, we gave downrigging one more try to attempt to end on a “big” note.  We were able to fool one more white bass into striking a Pet Spoon on our umbrella rig.  By now it was after 11a, the sun was getting hot, Patton’s enthusiasm was waning (not aided by his early-morning wakeup call), and we decided to call it a day.

TALLY = 46 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

 

Start Time: 6:30am

End Time: 11:15am

Air Temp.: 77F @ trip’s start
Water Surface Temp.: 83.0F
Wind: SSE3-4
Skies: 100% bright grey cloud cover
Other Notes: GT5
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 863  – 13 white bass
**Area 1257 – 1 white bass
** Areas 1098/1256 – sunfish

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas