WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, September 28th, I fished with returning guests Mike Hall and Keith Bailey of Heritage Home Services which focuses on roofing, patio covers, siding, windows and fencing in the north Austin, Pfluegerville, Round Rock area.

Today’s winds, although light, were the first winds to blow back out of the south after the dry cold front pushed through Sunday night. That typically spells good fishing. The air was a pleasant 59F this morning and the fish let loose on topwater for the 4th day in a row.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: 126 of our 141 fish came on “Cork Rigs” accurately thrown by Mike Hall, owner of Heritage Home Services, and Keith Bailey. Find the Cork Rig here: https://whitebasstools.com/






PHOTO CAPTION: The two major components of the Cork Rig — a popping cork and a shad-imitating fly selected to match the forage size.

Find the Cork Rig here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 28 September 2022

HOW WE FISHED:

Pretty easy summary today … the white bass went ballistic on topwater from 7:30 to 9:46AM. The primary forage was 1.75″ long threadfin shad, so, I rigged Mike and Keith up with Cork Rigs (for weight) with a streamer which matched the forage size. They enjoyed non-stop action.

I can't stress enough how important it is to match forage size when fish are on top. Too big and you'll get a lot of refusals.

Once the fish quit, the fishing got pretty anti-climactic. We found two other groups of fish. The first bunch was all very small white bass in 32′. Although they outdid themselves trying to make a meal of the MAL Dense Lures we were working with a sawtooth tactic, we left them after catching 6 short fish in a row.

We got into one additional loosely schooled bunch of fish in 34′ with downriggers set at 29′ using Pet Spoons on 3-armed umbrella rigs, and that was it. The fish turned off by ~11:15.


Our tally of 141 fish consisted 138 white bass and 3 largemouth bass.

TALLY: 141 fish caught and released



OBSERVATIONS: We have now had two 58-59F overnight temperatures. Here was the temperature profile down to 55′:

0 feet 82.3F
5 feet 82.3F
10 feet 82.3F
15 feet 82.3F
20 feet 82.3F
25 feet 82.3F
30 feet 81.9F
35 feet 81.5F
40 feet 78.8F
45 feet 70.7F
50 feet 66.6F
55 feet 64.5F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:00A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 59F

Elevation: 10.48 feet low, 0.12′ fall in last 24 hours, 450 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 82.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE2-9

Sky Condition: <5% white clouds on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent at 8% illumination.

GT = 50

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0116G to B0104G to 1357 – topwater action on cork rig from 7:30 to 9:46A

Area vic 1411 – small whites on MAL Dense using sawtooth method

Area vic 1393 – downrigging with Pet Spoons on umbrella rig





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

Yessir, cork and jig are deadly right now on some of the NoTX lakes as well.

As always. Solid post and fish. Good job.