Hazy Eye Slabs

SHORT CORPORATE AFTERNOON WITH CANVAS MEDICAL — 71 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Wednesday afternoon, October 25, I fished with a crew of four visiting Salado, Texas, for corporate training with a larger contingent of their co-workers.

The training was put together by a company called The Offsite Company which coordinates “destination” training sessions with fun events mixed in.

My four guest were all from different parts of the country, but all work for Canvas Medical which designs software to help physicians keep up with their patients.  They stayed at Shady Villa in Salado as their “home base” for this corporate event.

Although wine tasting and pottery making were also available as options, Juan Zapata, David Jantzen, Patrick van Nieuwenhuizen, and Kristen O’Neill opted to come out fishing with me.

Here is how the fishing went…

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

Next available dates are Nov. 2, 6, 14, 15

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Juan Zapata, David Jantzen (with 5.25 pound hybrid), Patrick van Nieuwenhuizen, and Kristen O’Neill.

 

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Dave, Pat, Juan, and Kristen with a mess o’ white bass taken on Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs.

PHOTO CAPTION: Pat took this largemouth out of 38′.  I’m beginning to see incidental largemouth numbers creep up as part of my bycatch as the thermocline breaks down and fish return in large numbers to the bottom.

 

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Thursday, 27 October 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

Although I realize the “pressure” I felt was mainly self-imposed, I did, nonetheless, feel pressure to get my crew on fish this afternoon a bit more intensely than normal.

I had a couple things working against me.  First, due to other events which The Offsite Co. had scheduled for all of the folks attending the training, I had to have everyone back to the boat ramp at 5pm.  Next, we were starting at 2p which is toward the end of the midday lull — I would normally fish folks from 3-7p this time of year.  Finally, this trip was shortened versus a normal 4-hour trip, again, due to scheduling, so, I had a net of about 2 hours and 40 minutes to “get ‘er done”.

This meant I needed to find large schools of fish, and pass on smaller schools or marginal-looking activity; and it meant that whenever the bite at a location began to wane, we needed to wind up and head elsewhere.

This is exactly the pattern I followed this afternoon.  In doing so, we wound up catching fish at four distinct location, and testing, but quickly leaving, three others.

My job was made a bit easier having fished a full 4+ hour trip in the morning, but, Lake Belton fishes very differently in the AM versus PM.  Regardless, the fish were still deep — holding on bottom just above the slowly sinking thermocline which is now around 42’.

I continued to have everyone use white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs for two reasons:  they are simple to use and they nearly identically match the forage size, shape, and color of the threadfin shad the white bass we’ve been catching have been regurgitating.

Although it nearly killed me to take the time away from an already short trip, I spent (actually, invested) a few minutes doing a thorough demonstration of the smoking tactic we’d be using with the slabs so that we could maximize our catch once we found fish and not lose out on a bunch of fish at the start of the trip as my folks were going through a learning curve.

Fortunately, everyone was motivated to learn and willing to listen to coaching when I saw flaws in their technique.

Kristin asked me just a few minutes into the trip what I thought a good catch would be.  I factored in the shortened trip duration, and the fact that stats bear out that PM trips normally produce about 70% of the catch as compared to AM on the same day on Lake Belton, and I gave her a number of 60 fish.

Fortunately, our final stop of the PM was our most productive (as we were now inside that PM feeding time), and, by the time all was said and done, the Canvas Medical crew landed 71 fish, including white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, and freshwater drum.

Kristin got “most improved”, Dave got “big fish”, Juan caught the most fish, and Pat landed the greatest variety.

TALLY: 71 fish caught and released.

 

OBSERVATIONS:  Water temperature profile measured 7:10AM, Monday, 23 Oct.  Although much slower to disappear this year thanks to prolonged heating, we’re finally seeing the thermocline disappear…

0 feet, 73.4F
5 feet, 73.3F
10 feet, 73.3F
15 feet, 73.3F
20 feet, 73.1F
25 feet, 72.8F
30 feet, 71.7F
35 feet, 71.6F
40 feet, 70.7F
45 feet, 69.0F
50 feet, 64.5F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 2:10P

End Time: 4:45P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Elevation: 19.37 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 73.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE14-17 all afternoon

Sky Condition: Grey skies with two brief episodes of drizzle

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 85% illumination.

GT = 75

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas B0242G (11 fish), B0150C (14 fish), 2nd hop at B0150C (6 fish), B2063 (40 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

THE FISH WENT TO T.O.W.N. –55 FISH @ BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH:  This past Saturday afternoon I fished with Beverly Travis of Belton and Alex Castillo of Austin on Lake Belton following a tough morning of fishing on Stillhouse.  Beverly tried to get her and her grandkids out with me last year, but foul weather prevented.  After visiting my booth at the Central Texas Boat and Outdoor Show the week before, we made plans to try again today.

I offered the option of more, but smaller fish at Belton, or fewer, but larger, white bass at Stillhouse.  Beverly, who coordinated the trip, opted for greater action at Lake Belton.

This time, Beverly brought Alex Castillo.  The two ladies met through a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department program called Texas Outdoors-Woman Network (T.O.W.N.).  The mission of T.O.W.N. is to provide all women the opportunity to experience outdoor activities in a safe, non-threatening, and supportive environment.  The program was started by several graduates of TPWD’s Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW) workshop.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:   From left: Beverly Travis, a Christian counselor from Belton, and Alex Castillo, who works in the environmental field in Austin, teamed up through TPWD’s Texas Outdoors-Woman Network (T.O.W.N.) to split a half-day white bass fishing trip on Lake Belton, landing 55 fish on a tough day of fishing.

WHEN WE FISHED:  Saturday, 01 February 2020, PM

HOW WE FISHED: I was prepared for a tough afternoon today.  As I rolled into the launch area, long-time Belton multi-species angler Mike P. was on his way out after having fished a long morning and into the afternoon for just 24 fish as he chased white bass, resulting in just 2 legal fish in his catch.  I had similar difficulties not finding fish, but getting them to bite, over at Stillhouse, landing just 20 fish between 7:15 and noon.

Before we left the launch area I provided a thorough explanation on the very slow, methodical tactic of “easing” we would rely on to catch our fish this afternoon, emphasizing how important very slow movement was, and demonstrating it for Bev and Alex.

The ladies got the hang of the tactic very quickly.  As was the case on Stillhouse this morning, finding fish was not all that challenging, but getting them to bite was another story.  Routinely, when I found fish on an area, there were several dozen fish in the schools I Spot-Locked atop of.  Such a school would typically yield 2-4 fish fairly soon after we began jigging, and then the fish, though still present, would shut down.  Seeing this trend develop, we adjusted our approach and moved very readily to new “batches” of fish soon after a given school would shut down.

We did well, given the conditions, boating a total of 55 fish, including 3 drum and 52 white bass.  One interesting note was the intensity of this evening’s low-light bite.  As we used the trolling motor to ease into our final area of the trip, I saw fish suspended in the water column from halfway to bottom, all the way to the bottom.  This was the first time I’d seen fish more than a foot off bottom all day (Belton or Stillhouse).  As we fished for these fish and began catching them, the fish suddenly turned on well.  We took our tally from 36 fish to a final count of 55 fish (hence, 19 fish caught) in the last 20 minutes of the trip.

We relied on the very reliable white, 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slab, with stinger hook attached.  Roughly 80% of the fish caught today (Belton and Stillhouse) came on the stinger hook, as has been my experience for several years now when the water temperatures reach near annual lows.

TALLY: 55 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   Experienced a hard low-light feed at and just following sunset tonight, following a day of tough fishing. 19 fish in 20 minutes from fish all throughout the lower half of the water column.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:    2:00P

End Time:  6:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  66F

Elevation: 3.00 low, -0.02′ 24-hour change, 17 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   53.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW7-0

Sky Conditions: Clear, cloud-free, blue skies

GT = 30

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:   

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  B0113C to 1671 to 565 : 3 short hops early, then one final stop near sunset

**Area 1845 to 1619: 3 short hops early, then 2 short hops later on second visit 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)

 

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle