WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, November 16th, I fished returning guest Coach Bob McQueen. Bob recently brought out three neighbors of his, had a good time fishing for white bass with them, and so decided to bring out another crew of three neighbors/friends today.

Joining Coach McQueen were Joe Maines, Donnie Carpenter, and Mitch Longley.

It seems like everyone around here, regardless of age, gender, level of interest in sports, or former high school affiliation, knows Bob McQueen and simply refers to him as Coach.

“Coach” led the Temple Wildcats football team to their first state championship during his 28 years of coaching, but, besides that, he is a godly fellow who demonstrates love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, and self-control — all the marks of someone who follows Christ. Those qualities draw others to him.

Our target species was white bass on Lake Belton.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: Coach Bob McQueen with a dandy Lake Belton smallmouth bass taken on an MAL Original from out of a school of white bass and hybrid striped bass feeding hard on threadfin shad.




PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Coach Bob McQueen and his long-time friend Joe Maines, a native of Florence, Texas, with our largest fish of the trip — a Lake Belton hybrid striped bass which fell for Joe’s MAL Original.




PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Mitch Longley, Coach Bob McQueen, Joe Maines, and Donnie Carpenter with a sampling of the white bass we took with a vertical “smoking” tactic using MAL Original Lures aided by Garmin LiveScope.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 16 November 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

At trip’s start, the air temperature was 41F and the winds continued out of the NW (5th day in a row) following the strong Veterans’ Day cold front.

A low deck of thick, grey clouds kept it from getting colder overnight, and also kept it from warming up to any great extent this morning.

Once again, we were blessed with gull activity early and late in this morning’s trip, requiring that I find fish solely with sonar only during the mid-morning at two locations.

Whether the fish were under birds or not, with ~64F water down to a depth of 50 feet, the white bass were turned on and quite willing to chase. The timeframe from 8:45 to 10:30 was the best of the best, with a taper up to that peak activity early on, and a taper down from that peak activity noticeably around 11AM.

Every single one of the 161 fish my crew landed today came on the MAL Original with white tail worked vertically with a “smoking” tactic. The only thing we altered was the retrieve speed based on the aggression level of the fish, as gauged by watching Garmin LiveScope.

Our 161 fish tally included 3 legal hybrid stripers, 6 short hybrid, 1 smallmouth bass, 1 largemouth bass, and exactly 150 white bass up to 13.50″.

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

TALLY: 161 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: 1) 3rd consecutive day of helpful bird activity. Birds active 7:30 – 8:30, then 10:15 – 11:25. 2) Temperature profile was as follows:

0 feet 63.7F
5 feet 64.1F
10 feet 64.3F
15 feet 64.4F
20 feet 64.4F
25 feet 64.4F
30 feet 64.4F
35 feet 64.4F
40 feet 64.4F
45 feet 64.3F
50 feet 64.1F
55 feet 63.8F



WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:25A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 41F

Elevation: 13.25 feet low, 0.05′ fall in last 24 hours, 40 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 63.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW-6-8 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning.

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 51% illumination.

GT = 35

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Areas vic 1390 (25 fish), 862 (15 fish), 952 (21 fish), B0173G (23 fish), vic 294 (16 fish), vic 787 (61 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

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Solid post and fish. Good job as always.