WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, 25 May 2022, I fished with long-time client Dr. Jim Wood, and newly elected Justice of the Peace Larry Wilkey (Bell Co., Precinct 3, Place 2).

The two got to know one another through Dr. Wood’s long-time role as a Temple Police Department volunteer reserve officer prior to Larry’s retirement from TPD.

Here is how the fishing went …

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My next openings will be on July 12th – 14th. Weekday mornings are always best. Saturdays are available for on-the-water sonar training sessions (only) until after Labor Day when I’ll again offer Saturday morning fishing trips (until mid-March 2023).




PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Dr. Jim Wood and Justice of the Peace Larry Wilkey with a few of the mature white bass we had to work for this morning, following the passage of a major late-spring cold front.




PHOTO CAPTION: With the shad spawn now nearly completely over, I’ve changed my baits over to the MAL Dense with white tail (versus the chartreuse tail I’ve used during the spawn). As the spawn winds down, the colors of the mature threadfin shad grow more muted and stay that way until early April the following year. It’s a small detail, but, “matching the hatch” is a fishing fundamental.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday (AM), 25 May 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Bottom line: we had a tough morning. We experienced a major weather change overnight with the entire atmosphere of Texas dropping about 20 degrees in just 3-4 hours. With this cool down came ~2 inches of rain area-wide, and a stiff north-west wind in the front’s wake.

That wind was the big story for us. As I studied the forecasts (multiple versions) last night, most had the wind velocity pegged at 14-16mph from the NNW. This makes for a bumpy ride from Point A to Point B, but it is fishable. We had those predicted conditions for about our first 75 minutes, then it really got rough. So rough, that, for both comfort’s sake and safety’s sake, I decided to pull us off of our fish and search waters I’d not been fishing lately in order to avoid such high winds (which were all of 17-19 mph with higher gusts at this point).

We scratched up a few fish here and a few fish there — most were suspended fish which were on the move and which were drawn by the commotion we created, but, we did not find large congregations of bottom-oriented fish which it takes to produce a steady take of fish for a prolonged period of time.

Unfortunately, this high-wind scenario persisted through about 10AM, which, over the past several weeks now has been the time that the morning bite has begun tapering off. We just couldn’t get to where I knew the fish were during the key time of morning.

Regardless, around 10A, the winds scaled back a bit, and I ran us right back out into more open water in order to try to make up for some lost time.

The fish were far from enthusiastic, but, we did find heavy concentrations of them in three areas, allowing us to nearly double our catch of 41 fish at 10AM to a final tally of 72 fish by 12:10P, as I extended the trip a bit.

The smoking tactic put all of our fish in the boat, but, we had to be careful about reeling too quickly upwards once we got the MAL Dense Lures’ blades spinning, so as not to outrun the more lethargic fish we were encountering.

A complete description of the vertical “smoking:” method is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Our 72 fish catch included exactly 70 white bass and 2 largemouth bass.

The entire family of MAL Lures is found here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 72 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: We had a morning low of 63F this morning thanks to a powerful, rain-producing cold front which moved through overnight dumping ~2″ of rain area wide. Belton immediately rose 0.2 feet and continues to rise from its recent low of 4.37 feet below normal.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 12:10P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 4.17 feet low, 0.2’ rise in last 24 hours, 32 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 76.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW14 at trip’s start, peaking at NW17-19 with higher gusts from 8-10A, then settling back to NW14-16 through noon.

Sky Condition: Grey skies for ~75 minutes, then clearing to bright skies with 0 cloud cover

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 23% illumination.

GT = 115

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0075C, 1552, 083/958, 0150, and B0068G/1209



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

Nice post and fish, as always. Good job.