Slabs for white bass

THERE’S A WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOIN’ ON! — 67 FISH @ LAKE BELTON

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: Yesterday morning, Tuesday, November 21, I fished with a lively boatload of boys as we faced some pretty crazy weather conditions.

Mr. Don Bousquet, owner of the Ragin’ Cajun boat storage business just uphill from Temple Lake Park on Lake Belton, put this trip together for cousins Cam Miller of Mandeville, Louisiana, and Hudson and Townes Slimp of Salado, TX. The boys were chaperoned by Mr. Guy Slimp, and Mr. Larry Miller who aided me, but did not fish.

Here is how the fishing went…
—————————————————————————————————–

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

Next available dates are Nov. 27 – 30

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Front, from left: Hudson and Townes Slimp and Cam Miller, with Larry Miller and Guy Slimp in the back.  The boys put together a 67 fish catch under the toughest wind conditions we could have and still be able to fish.

 

 

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

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED:  Tuesday (AM), 21 November 2023

HOW WE FISHED: 

A hard cold front moved through yesterday turning our winds northerly overnight and increasing wind velocity substantially. Whether or not the trip was going to make was up in the air right to the last minute because the wind forecast varied with each successive weather update.

We met up at 7:10 AM, and hit the most open areas first before the still increasing wind velocity forced us off of those exposed areas. Birds helped point the way to fish this morning. Indeed, there was more fish and bird activity present than we could get to, unfortunately.

After leaving open water to escape the increasing wind, I found water up in the tributaries to be significantly turbid thanks to heavy, overnight wave action. This further reduced our selection of fishing options.

We wound up finding and catching fish at four distinct areas. Each scenario was the same… we used white, 5/8 ounce, Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs to catch primarily bottom-oriented white bass using a smoking tactic as these fish chased those slabs up off the bottom, overtook them, and bit.

The assistance which Garmin LiveScope typically provides while executing rhe smoking tactic was diminished a bit this morning, due to heavy wave action and gusting winds pushing the boar both up and down, and back and forth, and preventing a nice, steady hover.  We got shaked, rattled, and rolled!!!

When all was said and done, the boys landed 67 fish including 1 hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, 2 largemouth bass, and 63 white bass. Just four of the white bass were short.

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

TALLY: 67 fish caught and released.

 

OBSERVATIONS:  The water temperature profile measured on 20 Nov., was:

0 feet, 65.9F
5 feet, 65.6F
10 feet, 65.6F
15 feet, 65.6F
20 feet, 65.6F
25 feet, 65.5F
30 feet, 65.5F
35 feet, 65.5F
40 feet, 65.5F
45 feet, 65.5F
50 feet, 65.5F
55 feet, 65.3F

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Elevation: 15.29 feet low, 47 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 64.7F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW15 at trip’s start, ramping up to NW22 with higher gusts by mid-morning

Sky Condition: Light grey and fully clouded

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 62% illumination.

GT = 105

Wx SNAPSHOT:    

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:  

Areas:

vic 0908 (3 hops) – 35 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

B0013C – 7 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

305 – 20 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

B0064G – 7 fish smoking Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs

 

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

AND THE BEST PART … HE TIPPED ME WITH SAUSAGE!!! — 77 FISH w/ DIRK MILLER

by Bob Maindelle

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Monday morning I had the pleasure of fishing with a true Central Texas native, Dirk Miller, owner of Miller’s Smokehouse on Central Ave. in Belton.  It was one of those win-win situations … I had a party which had to cancel last minute on Monday’s trip and so I posted a discounted trip on Facebook and, within the hour, Dirk let me know he’d like to go.  He was already planning to try to kayak fish at Fayette (which would have been tough after the winds exceed the forecast by quite a bit).

Dirk is an avid multi-species angler, so, we had a lot to talk about.  I really enjoyed our conversation about the trophy blue cat fishery over on Tawakoni.

At trip’s end, Dirk paid for the trip and then some, AND presented me with jalapeno and cheese stuffed summer sausage and a mess of beef-pork blend “snack sticks” (think Slim Jim, only way bigger and way better).  Now, bear in mind, this was above and beyond that upon which we had dined on during our numerous snack breaks on the water!  I texted my wife and told her to put our lunch plans on hold, as they had just changed for the better!!

We saved the best for last.  This big ol’ channel cat took Dirk’s slab, came to net, and we called it a great day right then and there and headed for the boat ramp.

 

Despite the incoming cold front, the white bass really thumped our slabs this morning and fell for a variety of retrieves.

 

Oh yeah!!!  I’ve received some good tips through the years.  This ranks right at the top.

 

WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  This was a multi-species trip focused on white bass.  We also landed numerous drum and one chunky channel cat.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow

WHEN WE FISHED:  Monday morning,  November 26, 2018

HOW WE FISHED:   We fished through the tail-end of a mild, dry cold front’s arrival this morning with winds 13-14 from the NNW the entire time, making for a wind-chill well below freezing.  However, the moving water got the fish feeding well, allowing us to land fish consistently for the entire 4+ hours we fished.  The fish were most aggressive in the first 90 minutes and actually chased a slab as we used a smoking tactic.  After the skies brightened and mid-morning rolled around, the bite slowed and we had to downshift to snap-jigging, but the fish thumped us steadily and kept it busy enough to ward off the chill.  We ended up with 77 fish including about a dozen drum, one channel cat, and the balance of white bass, mainly in the 1.5 and 2.5 year class.

OBSERVATIONS:   We had a strong start and a strong end, with a slow hour in the middle.  The fish really turned on in the last 90 minutes before the obscured sunrise; this action coincided with the appearance of many schools of small shad feeding on the surface all over the lake after the winds had been calm for about an hour.

 

TALLY: 77 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 34F

Water Surface Temp: 56.6

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW13-14

Sky Conditions: Full, grey cloud cover all afternoon

Water Level: 10.78 feet high and falling by about 0.18 feet daily w/ 1,182 cfs flow, increasing to ~1530cfs around noon

GT = 55

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:  

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area SH0070C – low light smoking

**Area SH0067C- 1701-SH0064C – snap-jigging

**Area  vic 713  – snap-jigging

**Area  SH0071C  – snap-jigging

 

 

Bob Maindelle, Belton Lake Fishing Guide

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