WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, December 10th, I fished with returning guests Mike McLaughlin, his son-in-law, Keith Duncan, and Keith’s son, Alex, age 16. Joining me for the first time was Keith’s younger son, Tim, age 15.

Mike is an 80-year-old U.S. Navy veteran and retired state trooper, Keith works in the tech industry, and the boys are home-schooled and working their way through their high school studies with Alex also working at a retail furniture store.

Now, today is the 2nd Saturday in December, which means it is Army-Navy football day. As a proud West Point grad of the Class of 1991, I (reluctantly) held off in inviting divine preference in the game during my opening prayer, however, Mike still felt it necessary to take a cheap shot by goading (probably bribing) his grandsons into shouting “Go Navy, beat Army!” as they left the parking lot at the end of the trip. Anyway, back to fishing …

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: Three generations aboard this morning! From left: Mike McLaughlin, and Alex, Tim, and Keith Duncan with a mess of white bass, all taken on the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab (with stinger hook).

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 10 December 2022 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Thanks to a nice SE breeze which started right at sunrise, the fish started feeding right around 7:40 this morning — no delay due to calm conditions.

In addition to the fish getting going right off the bat, the birds (gulls) got going right along with them. This made it the 17th consecutive trip in which the birds assisted in finding fish for at least a portion of the trip.

Although helpful, the birds were hot on the trail of very active, very mobile fish which were pushing bait to the surface where those birds could get to that bait. Trying to keep up with, then park atop these fish is difficult, allowing for a few fish to be caught before those fish moved on chasing shad.

After seeing this pattern repeat itself, we actually left the birds to go find larger groups of fish holding tight to bottom. When we found what we were after, we found these fish more cooperative and holding in one area for much longer spans of time.

Once again, as will be the case at least until the water temperature drops to around 50F, we used only Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs (white, 5/8 oz.). We used a “smoking” tactic — reeling the lures up off the bottom thus drawing fish up off bottom which would overtake and then strike this lure.

The biggest key to fishing that Bladed Hazy Eye Slab in conjunction with LiveScope is to keep right on reeling without breaking cadence when being chased by a fish. The second key is delaying a hookset until the heft of the fish on the line is felt, thus resisting the urge to set the hook at the first indication of contact.

When all was said and done, we landed 151 fish including 3 just-legal hybrid stripers, 7 short hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, 6 largemouth bass, 12 short white bass, 1 blue catfish and 121 legal white bass.

TALLY: 151 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: 1) This was the 17th consecutive trip with helpful bird activity.



WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 13.04 feet low, 0.01′ fall in last 24 hours, 24 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 61.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: SE breeze all morning, starting at a ripple, and building to 9mph

Sky Condition: Fully greyed sky all morning

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 95% illumination.

GT = 40

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area 1381 – 13 fish

Area 1378 – 10 fish

Area 1142 – 11 fish

Area B0173G – 14 fish

Area 354 – 16 fish

Area B0054G – 8 fish

Area 1945/B0037C – 30 fish

Area 1325 – 16 fish

Area B0005C – 33 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

Nice post and fish. Good job.