CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, 19 November, I fished with first-time guests Vince Abram and Nate Murphree. Vince moved back to the Central Texas area a bit more than a year ago and wanted to sample our local waters as he gears up to add fishing to his retirement to-do list, alongside gardening, cooking, golf, and grandparenting. Nate is a Central Texas native who went to school in Copperas Cove. He now works at Bates Nissan in Killeen and is dating Vince’s daughter.

Vince has previously fished a lot on the Texas coast. He told of a saying one of his fishing buddies had which went something like, “There’s a fine line between being a fisherman and just standing in a boat looking stupid.”. I had to chuckle at that one!

DATE: Tuesday, 19 November 2024 (AM)



NEXT OPEN DATES: 29 November, 2, 3, 4, 6 December (weekday AMs). Next Saturday opening: 14 December (AM)






PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Nate Murphree and Vince Abram teamed up to land 51 fish on a morning with about an hour and a half’s worth of wind over a 5-hour span. The fish they caught came mainly on MAL Originals worked vertically with Garmin LiveScope assisting.



WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

We faced tough ‘between the fronts’ conditions today, as one cold front moved through yesterday and another comes in tomorrow. I was hopeful that the westerly winds forecast would indeed materialize, as that would be sufficient to keep the fish perky today, but, it was only from about 10:00 to 11:30A that the winds actually blew well.

Not surprisingly, most of the fish we landed (37 of 51) came during this time.

Even in areas heavily saturated with shad, active gamefish were hard to come by.

When we finally found fish, they were on the top of a breakline in about 32′. At first even the fish on bottom responded well, but, soon after presenting baits and catching a few, those bottom-dwellers turned off. We then focused on passing, suspended fish by singling them out and presenting baits so as to intersect with these fishes’ direction of travel as seen on Garmin LiveScope.

All but a handful of the fish taken were taken on MAL Originals with chartreuse tails. The balance (~4 fish) were taken at one location when I saw a school of white bass on the starboard side-imaging. These were taken on 1 1/8 oz. White Tornados in white color.

After two consecutive trips with some aid by birds, there was no helpful bird activity this morning.

We ended the morning with exactly 51 fish, including 2 largemouth bass, 6 hybrid stripers, and 43 white bass.

Here is a tutorial on vertically smoking the MAL Lure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE

Here is a tutorial on horizontally “sawtoothing” with the MAL Lure or White Tornado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ



RESULTS: 51 fish, all caught and released



LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We primarily used MAL Originals (w/ chartreuse tails) vertically today. Find all MAL Lures and White Tornados here: https://whitebasstools.com/



OBSERVATIONS:

1) The long run of fantastic fall fishing which began in early September has now begun to be impacted by increased frontal activity. The fishing has now become cyclical, following the arrival and departure of cold fronts. The more wind, the better. Fishing will be poor with calm conditions.

2) Mornings are much more productive than evenings at this point in the fall.

3) When fishing slowed, chances of a hookup greatly increased when targeted fish were in groups with multiple other fish, thus creating a “competition bite” or a “greed bite”.



LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00 AM on Friday, 15 Nov….

0 feet 70.2F
5 feet 71.7F
10 feet 72.2F
15 feet 72.3F
20 feet 72.3F
25 feet 72.3F
30 feet 72.3F
35 feet 72.3F
40 feet 72.3F
45 feet 72.3F
50 feet 72.3F
55 feet 72.3F


WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 12:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 53F

Elevation: 2.52′ low and falling slowly with a 43 cfs flow

Water Surface Temp: 70.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: W6-7 then going slack until 10:30, then picking up W10-11 for about 75 minutes before going slack once again

Sky Condition: Cloudless, blue skies

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 82% illumination.

GT = 55



Wx SNAPSHOT:








AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

Area vic 1827 – 14 fish smoking MAL Originals

Area B0299G – 37 fish smoking MAL Originals (4 short hops)





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 Report

Solid post and fish. Good job as always.