WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, June 23rd, I welcomed aboard Dwight (Boom-Pa) Stone, his wife, Connie (YaYa) Stone, and their 8-year-old granddaughter, Jemma Rogers.

This was a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip — a trip intended just for kids, which is less expensive and shorter in duration than my adult trips. Boom-Pa was basically my first mate for the morning, and YaYa tended to snacks and photography, while I watched sonar, took fish off the hook, and steered the boat.

Here is how the fishing went …

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My next openings will be on July 22nd and August 1st. 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: Dwight “Boom-Pa” Stone, Jemma Rogers, and Connie “YaYa” Stone. The Stone’s enjoyed having their granddaughter do a sleepover for an early wakeup for this morning’s very successful fishing adventure. Jemma landed 72 fish in all.






PHOTO CAPTION: 8-year-old Jemma kicked things off with a “triple” — three fish landed at the same time on a downrigged 3-arm umbrella rig!



WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 23 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

With an unchanging run of “cookie cutter” weather days, the fishing has become pretty predictable with the fish doing about the same things, at the same times, and in the same places day by day, with the big variable being wind. Wind blows, fish bite; wind quits, fish quit … it’s as simple as that on these deep, clear, Hill Country, limestone-bottomed lakes.

When Jemma first arrived she was quite sheepish, barely wanting to speak, and reluctant about boarding the boat. We went over my safety talk, prepped the gear for her right-handedness, prayed for safety and success, and then got lines in the water.

Don’t you know, that girl sprung to life when a “triple” took her downrigging rod and ripped her line out of the release clip. When she saw that yellow Eagle Claw downrigger rod dancing in the rod holder she started to squeal and laugh and yelled for her Boom-Pa to help. Landing three fish at the same time on one rod is a great way to start the day, and it helped bridge a gap for Jemma.

We downrigged for as long as she stayed interested. She stayed interested as long as we were catching fish. We caught fish as long as the wind blew. By around 8AM, the nice 6-7mph southerly breeze quit, and so did the fish. By this time, we’d already amassed a catch of 36 fish, all on the downriggers using both downriggers, each equipped with a 3-armed umbrella rig, each rig equipped with three Luhr-Jensen Pet Spoons.

We left the white bass fishing behind and headed up shallow to target sunfish using a “bream pole”, slip float, and bait. Jemma quickly got the hang of setting the hook as the sunfish pulled the float under, so, she hooked and landed a lot of fish, and hooked most of them in the lip (versus inside the mouth). By the time the novelty of the sunfishing wore off, she’d landed 27 sunfish — a mix of redear, longear, green, and bluegill sunfish.

It was now just after 9A, and a light ripple had returned to the water, this time from the SW. It didn’t last long, but, it was long enough to give us one final shot at the whites. We headed out to a more steeply sloped area, downrigged it, and came up with a final 9 additional white bass to bring Jemma’s morning tally to 72 fish landed all by herself.

In my estimation, using tactics with the MAL Lures, given Jemma’s limited prior experience and small frame, would not have resulted in a better catch than the catch we made today, so, we kept it simple and stuck with what was working.

Our 72-fish catch included 42 white bass, 27 sunfish, and 3 short hybrid striper.



TALLY: 72 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: The white bass activity rose and fell with the wind today; the USACE bumped up the flow through the dam from 38CFS to 50CFS — still pretty insignificant.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 10A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Elevation: 5.31 feet low, 0.04’ fall in last 24 hours, 50 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 83.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: S5-7 until 8, then calm until 9, then SSW4-5 from 9A to 9:50A, then calm again.

Sky Condition: 0-5% coverage with wispy, white clouds on a blue sky.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 27% illumination.

GT = 10

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0193C – downrigging

Area B0155C thru 834 – downrigging

Areas 502 and 492 – sunfish

Area B0039G thru 1937 – downrigging



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

Awesome post.