December fishing on open water
Dale Kovar
HJ GENERAL MANAGER
As we endure through the COVID-19 pandemic, as
of this writing, the fishing season appears to be able to
go forward. In recognition of the fishing opener coming
May 9, here’s a look at my most recent fishing outing in
December.
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First of all, our son Rhett is currently stationed in
Iraq with the Minnesota Army National Guard. Before
his deployment, he underwent several weeks of training
at bases in Texas and Oklahoma, and that’s where our
story begins.
Our last chance to visit before the deployment was
his four-day pass right after Thanksgiving weekend. An
avid fisherman, both summer and winter, Rhett found a
guide service online and suggested a fishing outing as
something we could do while there.
The guide was Bob Maindelle of Holding the Line
Guide Service. The outing proved to be the highlight of
our weekend.
In Texas, you can open water fish year around. The
approach changes seasonally, based on what is effec-
tive, but you still go.
Choices were a four-hour outing starting at sunrise,
or four hours leading up to sunset. Those are the times
that fish actually bite. A morning outing fit our plans.
Bob sent a very detailed list of what to wear, how
to prepare, and even an iphone map point of where to
meet.
Everything else was provided. Show up and hop
aboard.
It was 40 degrees, but dressed properly, still comfort-
able. After a run-through of basic safety measures, and
even a short prayer, we were off.
Where would we fish?
The starting point was to follow the birds. Wherever
seagulls are gathered and diving into the water is the
target area. This means there are game fish at the bot-
tom that are driving their prey to the surface. The in-
jured shad are then easy pickings for the seagulls. So
follow the birds.
A simple but brilliant, and effective, plan. Compared
to what technology can do, understanding nature is bet-
ter yet.
We stopped in the middle of the seagull activity, and
started catching fish immediately. We were fishing for
white bass and hybrid bass, with an occasional drum.
Some of them were quite small but the activity pace
was plenty to keep our interest.
For you hard-core fishermen, we used a stinger-hook
equipped 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slab in white color. Our
technique was dropping the line to the bottom and then
4
Senior
Yeah, this is a posed photo. We don’t all hold our fish the same way without some coaching.
a slow, steady lift. As an alternative, if sonar showed
the fish were higher in the water, we switched to a slow
reeling process which allowed covering just a little
more area with the bait. This simple change in method
resulted in instant success.
A couple times, someone even caught two fish at
once – one on the treble hook and one on the stinger.
When things slowed down, we followed the birds to
another location on the lake. Later in the morning, after
the birds had their fill, we were back to being reliant on
technology, and Bob found us one more spot to keep
us busy.
By the time our trip was over, our party had brought
in 223 fish, nearly one a minute for the entire time.
Connections May/June 2020
No, we weren’t over the limit – this was strictly
catch-and-release. Besides, we really didn’t have any
facilities to clean or cook fish anyway. Turns out we
even made the honors list as the third highest catch out
of Bob’s 179 guided trips for the year.
Besides the fishing success, Bob attends to every de-
tail including photos and even a blog summary of the
outing.
If you’re really interested, go to www.holdingtheline-
guideservice.com, click on Fishing Reports, and find
your way back to Dec. 2, 2019.
Senior Connections HJ.COM