WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, May 4, I fished with two of Wayne Winekauf’s grandkids — cousins Jude Masoner and Noah Thomas.

Wayne, originally from Iowa and now residing in Morgan’s Point, fished with me for the first time earlier this spring, while entertaining a friend of his who had come in for a visit from Iowa for a few days.

This morning’s trip was specifically for the boys, so, Wayne came in the role of helping me help the boys be successful, but didn’t fish.

Jude is 11 and Noah is 8, so my “Kids Fish, Too!“ package was a very good fit for these young men. These kid–specific packages last a maximum of 3.5 hours versus 4+ hours for adult trips, and they cost about $100 less than a comparable trip for adults.

Although the kids did a great job and their results showed it, one thing we never could get ironed out was their tendency to reel a fish up so far that the swivel on the leader hit the tip of the rod. At one point Wayne told them he’d take them to Walmart and let each one pick out a Matchbox car if they could avoid slamming the swivel into the rod tip any longer. Suffice it to say that Walmart is still well stocked with Matchboxes.

Here is how the fishing went…

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PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Jude Masoner, Wayne Winekauf, and Noah Thomas with a portion of the boys’ 80 fish catch taken on a combination of vertical tactics using MAL Lures and horizontal tactics using downrigged Pet Spoons.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Wednesday, 03 May 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

Weather conditions were much improved today fishing–wise, as we had light gray, but complete cloud cover and enough wind to ripple the surface prior to sunrise. That wind would continue all morning and be of a great help.

We fished three areas this morning using a smoking tactic in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope for which I rigged the boys up with light spinning rods terminated with MAL Heavy Lures with chartreuse tails. The boys landed 44 fish at our first stop, 6 fish at our second stop, and 10 fish at our third stop.

By 9:15 AM the boys had landed 60 fish, but the bite was beginning to wane. I could see it by gauging the swimming speed and reaction of the fish we found, as well as by observing multiple small flocks of Franklin’s gulls, which, at this time, were beginning to settle on the water, no longer scouting for, finding, nor eating shad.

After seeing how well a downrigging approach worked while the fish were uncooperative yesterday, and for variety sake, we retooled with twin downriggers each equipped with a three arm umbrella rig terminated with number 13 Pet Spoons. I fished a windward, underwater ledge which side-imaging revealed white bass were using.

We kept the downrigger balls ~3′ off bottom and our rigs about 20′ behind the ball.

In our final 90 minutes, the boys landed an additional 20 fish, including singles, doubles, and a pair of triples.

We wrapped up right at 11 AM with 80 fish landed, including 2 freshwater drum, 4 short hybrid striped bass, and 74 white bass.

Going back to my first sentence in this section, “Weather conditions were much improved today fishing–wise…”, consider this … this morning, with grey skies and wind, two inexperienced boys landed 80 fish in 3.5 hours, whereas yesterday, under calm, bright skies, and while fishing the same areas, two very experienced men struggled mightily to land 74 fish in over 5 hours. Weather matters!!

Here is a video I put together on the Smoking Tactic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

And, here is a video I put together on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

TALLY: 80 fish caught and released

Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/

OBSERVATIONS:

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:30A

End Time: 11A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 66F

Elevation: 13.78 feet low, 24 CFS flow, 0.02′ fall over the last 24 hours

Water Surface Temp: 67.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE7-9 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% moderate grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = 45

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area B0196C – 44 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0171G – 6 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area 0008 – 10 fish on smoked MAL Heavies

Area B0023C thru 1556 – 20 fish on downrigged Pet Spoons





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

As always. Solid post and fish. Good job.