WINTER’S GRIP IS TIGHTENING — 96 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, Dec. 15th, I fished with a pair of fathers and sons.  Mr. Greg Jones and his son, Michael, and Greg’s brother-in-law, Toby, and his son, Tyler.  Greg works for the Aire Serv segment of Neighborly, getting franchisees set up to do business, and Toby works for UBS, a large financial firm.  Both sons are in college.

In addition to the fishing, Greg was curious to see the Minn Kota i-Pilot Link/Humminbird sonar system work to find and position on fish.  He has such a setup on his Blue Wave center console fishing boat, but has yet to use it to its fullest extent.   We gave that system quite a workout this morning.

 

PHOTO CAPTION #1:  From left: Michael, Toby, Tyler, and Greg  — despite the damp and cold and the stubborn fish, everyone really enjoyed fishing with the Garmin LiveScope to see and catch fish that would simply have gone undetected without that technology.

 

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 15 December 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Bottom line:  we had to work for every fish we caught today.  Between unstable weather, a cold front’s passage yesterday, and steadily falling water temperatures, the fish were just really not in a feeding mood for a majority of our time on the water.

Yes, we landed 96 fish, but, this was not a simple matter of heading out, hitting a couple areas or parking under some birds for a few hours and going home warm, fat, and happy.  Rather, all four fellows (occasionally joined by me, as well) worked small, 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hooks slowly off bottom for 6.5 hours to coerce fish into biting.  Only occasionally did we get fish to fire up long enough to rise up off bottom and take MAL Lures.

Thick, grey cloud cover, which was forecast to thin in the last portion of our planned 4 hours on the water, did just the opposite.  Light mist and fog actually developed.  Then, the southerly winds which were forecast, actually blew from just east of north for the second hour of our trip.  Fog and mist stayed with us all morning and never allowed for brightening skies

We had to move nearly continuously as we found fish in distinct, small clusters, worked them for all they were worth, and then, as soon as the fish turned off, we had to move once again, as there was no re-energizing them.  The fish were certainly not moving about sufficiently for us to sit in one spot and expect to see fresh fish move in from outside the area.

Of the areas we found active fish at, perhaps one in four would have fish sufficiently “fired up” after we worked them up with slabs to chase and strike MAL Lures.  It was interesting that once these fish passed this “willing to chase” threshold, the MAL caught better than the slabs.  I also noted that once the fish quit chasing, neither the slab or the MAL would tempt them.

See the MAL Lure, Hazy Eye Slabs, and Stinger Hooks here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 96 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS:   There was no helpful bird activity this morning, in fact, I only spotted 12-15 birds even patrolling today.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:  7:45A

End Time: 2:30P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 39F

Elevation:  1.04 low with a 0.03’ 24-hour drop and 34 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 56.8F

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm for first hour, then a NNE breeze at 4 with light mist, followed by a steady SSE breeze at 3-5 the remainder of the trip

Sky Condition: Heavy grey skies with mist and fog for the entire trip

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon, 1 day past new moon at 1% illumination

GT = 128

Wx SNAPSHOT:

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  B0152JWC   (2 short hops), Area 327, Area 0409 to B0011C (3 short hops), Area 1000, Area B0028C, Area B0173C to B0192C (4 short hops), Area 150/1325.

Area B0173C to B0192C produced the most fish, and these fish were the most active we found all morning.

 

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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