WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Monday 17 Oct., I fished with a great crew of locals including Coach Bob McQueen of Temple football fame, Larry Bartek who retired (twice) from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Tony Fritz who retired from a lifetime of social work with the Veterans’ Admin., and Steve Theodore, the Chief Operating Officer of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

Coach McQueen was the “chief instigator” of this effort, consulting me on an ideal date to show his friends a good time, then coordinating all four men’s schedules.

Well, all his efforts paid off today when the fish started coming over the side of the boat soon after we got to our first location and didn’t stop coming over the side of the boat until we called it quits just after 11AM.

Here is how the fishing went …

______________




PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Coach Bob McQueen, Steve Theodore, Tony Fritz, and Larry Bartek, with a few of the 145 fish they landed as our season’s first major cold front worked its way into Central Texas.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 17 October 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

With four men aboard and fish responding very well to vertically smoking MAL Dense Lures under similar, frontal conditions last week, I arranged everyone on the boat very intentionally this morning.

I placed my two more experienced anglers on the aft portside, sharing one Garmin LiveScope screen, and the two less experienced anglers on the aft starboard side, sharing another Garmin LiveScope screen, thus, the two pairs had their backs to one another.

In this way, I “consolidated” the commotion of all four anglers in as small of an area as possible to give the fish one area to focus on.

Long story short, we caught fish steadily from start to finish. Fish continue to bunch together in large groups on bottom and continue to push into shallower water than they’d occupied all summer. Well-tuned side imaging is the key to finding these fish.

Once we used the i-Pilot Link system to position atop these fish, we then dropped the MAL Dense Lures (white body/chartreuse tail) down to them and worked ’em over good. I never saw a need to use any other presentation nor any other bait this morning.

For their efforts the men wound up boating 145 fish including 4 freshwater drum, 4 largemouth bass, 9 short hybrid striped bass, and 128 white bass.

TUTORIAL SMOKING VIDEO (Vertical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
TUTORIAL SAWTOOTH VIDEO (Horizontal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 145 fish caught and released

Find MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: This was the first trip I wore long pants and boots on since the spring. The temperature and rain forecasts were “all over the map”, so, I prepped for cold/wet weather although neither actually materialized. We picked up 0.4 to 0.6 inches of rain area-wide overnight.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 63F

Elevation: 12.67 feet low, 0.06′ fall in last 24 hours, 384 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 74.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW11 all morning

Sky Condition: Light grey cloud cover at 100% all morning

Moon Phase: Last quarter moon at 52% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas B0064G (65 fish), B0185C (18 fish), 2041 (38 fish), and B0014C (17 fish), B0014C/B0020C (7 fish)



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

Good read! Fish definitely moving super shallow

Yes, sir. What lake are you on? How shallow have you seen your fish go now that we've begun to cool down?

Lake Lavon…2-5 feet on wind blown flats