WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Saturday, January 7th, I fished with Chuck, Carol, and Carsyn Emerson of Holland, Texas.

I very much appreciate Mrs. Lisa Niemeier (Carsyn’s teacher from a few years back) referring the Emerson’s my way.

Carol contacted me about a week ago after the holidays were dying down and expressed an interest in doing some fishing with her husband and daughter. This morning, we made that happen.

My next weekday openings are on 12 Jan. and then 13 Feb. My next weekend opening is Sat., 18 February 2023.

Here is how the fishing went …

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PHOTO CAPTION: The Emersons — from left: Chuck, Carol, and Carsyn with a few of the 68 fish they landed on a foggy, calm morning on Lake Belton.






PHOTO CAPTION: This was Carsyn’s first fish of the morning — a freshwater drum (nicknamed gasper goo). Look how thick that fog is!!

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday, 07 January 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

The big story this morning was fog. As far as fishing goes, fog is just a downer. In 17 years of guiding, I’ve never had a single trip I could “write home about” under foggy conditions. Fog seems to get the bite off to a slow start and just depresses the fish activity as long at it persists, and this morning was no exception.

I arrived well ahead of the Emersons and got launched and prepped with only cloudy skies at first light, but as we approached our originally scheduled meeting time of 7:40, fog began to develop very quickly, and then a light drizzle started. We actually delayed our start 20 minutes to avoid the heaviest of this precipitation.

Once we got going, everyone picked up pretty quickly on the “slow-smoking” tactic. At first, like most kids, Carsyn struggled to turn her spinning reel’s handle smoothly and continuously, thus creating a “choppy” retrieve which is just not natural or attractive to fish. But, after we got to our second area, she worked out those kinks and wound up catching more than her fair share of fish by the time we wrapped up.

We used the white, 3/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks 100% of the time and used only a slow smoking tactic in conjunction with both Garmin LiveScope and a thumper.

As soon as the fog thinned a bit, around 9:15A or so, I began to find large, bottom-oriented schools of fish, but, despite the great number of fish in these schools, there was no frenzied activity. In fact, very few hooked fish were followed upwards by schoolmates — a sign of very disinterested fish.

By the time 11:30 rolled around, we’d landed 60 fish, but I could see things were slowing way down. I suggested we give it another half hour, or stop at 70 fish, whichever came first. Well, by noon we’d worked our way up to 68 and I was very glad to hear Carsyn want an “extension” to keep on trying for 70 fish. We went until 12:15, but she just couldn’t quite budge the needle any more.

So, everyone reeled in, we took some nice family photos, and the talk quickly turned to Whataburger!

Our tally of 68 fish consisted of 3 freshwater drum, 4 largemouth bass, and 61 white bass.

TALLY: 68 fish caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS: A persistent fog and calm winds took its toll on the fishery this morning, keeping the fish pretty sluggish all morning.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 8A

End Time: 12:15P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F

Elevation: 13.57 feet low, 0.03′ fall in last 24 hours, 24 CFS flow.

Water Surface Temp: 54.7F on the surface

Wind Speed & Direction: Calm winds all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies with lake level fog all morning; fog was heavy through 9:30A

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 100

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0196C – 6 fish

Area 1489 – 35 fish

Area B0075C – 13 fish

Area B0171G (2 hops) – 9 fish

Area B0173G – 5 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

Solid post and fish. Good job as always.