WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Tuesday, July 11th, I fished with first time guests Rob Pasichnyk, and his friend, Ralph Owen.

Both men have lived in this area for many years, and first got acquainted when Ralph was working as a contractor renovating a facility in where Rob was employed.

With both men having previous saltwater fishing experience and being capable casters, I chose to take them to Lake Belton, hoping they could put those casting skills to work on fish feeding on top water.

Here’s how the fishing went…

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Next available dates are July 31 & August 2 (AM)




PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ralph Owen and Rob Pasichnyk pulled out the full summer arsenal to capture a total of 104 fish this morning: sight-casting, smoking, sawtoothing, and downrigging.

WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 10 July 2023 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

By the time our four hours had come and gone, Rob and Ralph employed every summertime trick in the book to put their 104 fish catch together. We sight-cast to fish on top, we downrigged for suspended fish, we used MAL Lures with a smoking retrieve for heavily congregated, suspended fish, and we cast horizontally using MAL Lures with a sawtooth tactic to catch fish which were spread horizontally on and near the bottom.

I was a bit concerned about this morning’s wind velocity as it was blowing hard around 4:15 AM when I woke up to prep for the trip. As forecast by NOAA, however, the wind speed cut back significantly to just 8 or 9 mph and stayed there for the first two hours or so after sunrise.

We caught our first 37 fish this morning in under an hour as large schools of white bass forced young of the year shad to the surface and fed on them in a number of locations. The “nervous water“ they produced when feeding like this was the giveaway to their locations.

Given that these fish were feeding on such small bait, I equipped both Rob and Ralph with long, light action, St. Croix Panfish Series rods, coupled with large arbor reels and light braid to be able to maximize casting distance on standalone MAL Mini Lures.

When the top water died at this location, we moved to yet another area where topwater action was still going on. We fished these fish in much the same way, except that when they left the surface, we retooled with MAL Heavy Lures and continued picking up fish using a sawtooth method.

Once this top water action dried up for good, we switched back-and-forth between downrigging to find fish, and then taking advantage of what we’d found by either smoking or sawtoothing MAL Heavy Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

As we wrapped up at 10:15, it was still quite comfortable out thanks to some high, gray cloud cover which had moved into the area right after the topwater action died, and thanks to a now 10 to 12 mph breeze blowing from the SSW.

Of the 104 fish caught today, four were short hybrid stripers, one was an 18-inch, 3-pound hybrid striper, two were freshwater drum, and the balance were white bass with the five largest approaching the 14 inch mark.

TALLY: 104 fish caught and released.

See a tutorial on the smoking tactic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

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

OBSERVATIONS: Topwater action ended at 8:10AM.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 6:15A

End Time: 10:20A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Elevation: 14.1 feet low, 56 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW6-12 all morning

Sky Condition: Thin, grey cloud cover made the latter half of the trip bearable

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 35% illumination.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 814 – 37 fish via sightcasting with MAL Minis

Area vic 483 – 23 fish via sightcasting Minis, then sawtoothing MAL Heavies once the fish left the surface

Area vic 1738 – downrigging leading to smoking

Area 1608 thru B0030G – downrigging leading to smoking/sawtoothing



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.