WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, December 6th, I fished with first-time guests Rusty Nicholls and his friends Bill and Sandy Sager.

Rusty is a retired nurse, and Bill and Sandy, though retired, are still involved in ministry. Bill was both a military chaplain and then served in a local church, as well.

Although everyone certainly wanted to catch fish, Rusty was keen on learning the approach I am taking to finding and catching winter white bass.

My next weekday opening is on 12 Dec. My next weekend opening is Sat., 31 Dec. (New Year’s Eve)

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Rusty Nicholls and Sandy and Bill Sager with a sampling of the white bass which fell for their Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs this morning on Lake Belton.





PHOTO CAPTION: If we’d have been in a bass tournament, we’d have fared pretty well today. Our by-catch included 8 “keeper” largemouth like this chunky one. All these gamefish eat shad, and the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab is just a dead-on imitation of a threadfin.



WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 06 December 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Since Rusty booked the trip and expressed his interest in learning upfront, I tried to give detailed explanations of how and why we were doing what we were doing this morning, especially when it came to the use of sonar and the trolling motor.

Although fairly light and limited in duration today, the birds (both gulls and a few terns) worked in such a manner as to aid me in finding fish for the 15th consecutive trip.

This kind of “ho-hum” bird action is typical when we are in a weather lull between fronts.

We enjoyed bird action right at the start of the trip, around 7:30 to 8:00 and then then popped up again for another 40 minutes or so beginning around 8:40.

As will likely continue to be the case until the water temperature drops below 50F or so (if it even does so), we used Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hooks (white, 5/8 oz.) all morning using a “slow-smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

The biggest key to this is to keep right on reeling without breaking cadence when

When all was said and done, we landed 103 fish including 3 short hybrid striped bass, 3 freshwater drum, 8 largemouth bass, and 89 white bass, of which 8 were “short” white bass.

TALLY: 103 fish caught and released

Find Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with Stinger Hook here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS: 1) This was the 15th consecutive trip with helpful bird activity.



WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 12.99 feet low, 0.00 change in last 24 hours, 41 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 59.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6 at sunrise, increasing to SSE10 by trip’s end

Sky Condition: 60% white cloud cover on blue sky until 9A, then gully greyed sky thereafter.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 97% illumination.

GT = 30

Wx SNAPSHOT:








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 181 – 5 fish

Area B0196C – 16 fish

Area 086 – 14 fish

Area 098 – 14 fish

Area 1152 – 9 fish

Area vic 1483 – 30 fish

Area B0063G – 15 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

Saw you in the last area fished. Good job Bob, I couldn't get bit to save my life.

As always. Nice post and fish. Good job.