WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday, 27 June 2022, I fished with first-time guest Jim Perciavalle who drove in from just north of Georgetown, TX.

Jim, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, operates Veterans Advocates Group LLC, which aids veterans and their families with their disability claims before the Veterans’ Administration.

Through the planning phase of this trip, our headcount varied from 2 to 3, but, as it turned out, Jim joined me solo this morning.

Here is how the fishing went …

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My next openings will be on August 1st & 2nd. 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: Jim Perciavalle with a pair of white bass taken on MAL Dense Lures worked over an area we first identified via downrigging. If the fish were active enough to chase and overtake our downrigged baits, they would typically also be tempted as we worked lures through them vertically.






PHOTO CAPTION: Despite fishing made tougher by a wrinkle in the weather, this made the fourth consecutive trip during which we landed at least one “triple”, catching one fish on each of the three Pet Spoons on the 3-armed umbrella rig as we searched for fish using the downrigger.



WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday (AM), 27 June 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Our nice run of “cookie cutter” weather days came to a crashing halt last night as the wind shifted to the north with the arrival of a mild, summer cold front. Even though it has been hot, the weather has been consistent, as has the fishing (not great, mind you, but at least consistent). This cold front “wrinkled” that consistency and the fishing took a bit of a dip this morning.

In ~5 hours on the water, we spotted perhaps a half-dozen schools of white bass doing their “popcorn” routine, where they blitz bait on the surface for just seconds, and then disappear for good.

Finding collections of fish was definitely tougher today, and, even when we found them, two of three were disinterested. Those schools that were interested just didn’t “stick” very long beneath us.

We used the downrigger as a search tool today. Each time we found fish with it, we’d circle back to where the fish came from and, when they were still present, we fished for them, knowing at least a few of them were active enough to chase and strike.

We “exploited” the downrigger catch by fishing MAL Dense Lures vertically with the help of Garmin LiveScope, using a smoking tactic. Only three or four times over the course of the morning did a large enough school of fish show on side-imaging out to our port or starboard as we sat on Spot-Lock to make it worth tossing out horizontally and using a sawtooth tactic.

Our 35-fish catch included 33 white bass and 2 short hybrid striper.

TALLY: 35 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: Temperature profile down to 60 feet; note the greatest change from 30-35′:

0 feet 86.2F
5 feet 86.4F
10 feet 86.4F
15 feet 86.4F
20 feet 86.4F
25 feet 86.2F
30 feet 81.9F
35 feet 77.0F
40 feet 74.7F
45 feet 69.6F
50 feet 64.3F
55 feet 62.3F
60 feet 60.6F



WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:30A

End Time: 11:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Elevation: 5.47 feet low, 0.01′ rise in last 24 hours, 50 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 86.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW7 at sunrise, increasing to NW13 by trip’s end

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

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 2% illumination (new moon in 2 days).

GT = 225

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0084G – vertical with MAL Dense

Area B0202G – vertical with MAL Dense

Areas 1974 to 1411 – downrigged to find; vertical to catch



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

As always. Nice post and fish. Good job.