Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle
Fished a half-day morning trip today with Casey (dad) and 14 year old Ryan R. (son) of Cy-Fair, Texas. Ryan was quite an accomplished angler already having a bit of experience in the Junior Bassmaster organization. He was accustomed to fishing cover-laden lakes of east Texas, so Belton’s relative lack of cover and the fact that we pursued primarily white bass and hybrids gave him some welcome exposure to new techniques and species.
Conditions:
Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 12:20p
Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start, warming to 102F by mid afternoon
Water Temp: 85.5F to 86.5F
Wind: SE at 7 by sunrise, increasing to 12-14 by afternoon, and tapering back to 10 by sunset and thereafter.
Skies: Skies were clear and bright all day under the influence of building high pressure.
After getting acquainted at dockside, we set out keeping a close eye on the surface for early morning schooling activity, but that just wasn’t in the cards this day.
While waiting on the sunrise and the hope that it might bring topwater activity with it, we slabbed in 25-32 feet of water over a hard bottom in the vicinity of Area 155 and managed a mixed bag of 14 fish in about an hour’s time including white bass, hybrid stripers, 1 largemouth bass, and 1 drum. As the sun rose, this area quieted down.
We moved into Area 210 and noted sporadic individual gamefish topwater feeding without seeing any schooling activity. We blindcast with Spook Jr.’s while waiting on blowups, and then cast to the blowups when they occurred. We managed 2 largemouth on topwater here and moved along after about a half-hour.
We headed to Area 215 and spotted our first school of white bass on topwater as we motored there. These fish were smallish, and only stayed up briefly, but they gave us a clue to capitalize on. We remained in Area 215 for about 40 minutes casting to white bass and largemouth feeding on top and managed 4 more fish. As my guests worked the top, I kept a sharp eye on sonar. After a while a trend began to emerge wherein gamefish were suspending at 21-23 feet deep under or among thick schools of shad. The fish were also tending to move offshore a bit at a time.
Seeing this, we went with a downrigging approach and really began to put fish in the boat for over an hour straight. All but one fish (a hybrid) were average, healthy 13 inch white bass with occasional fish larger and smaller. We downrigged the contour of the shoreline just trying to keep bait and or gamefish on the sonar constantly and did very well at this. After many passes, the fish began to disperse.
Casey and Ryan had to join the rest of the family for a checkout of their accommodations in Salado, so around 11:45 we made one final stop at Area 155. This yielded 8 more fish (6 whites, 1 crappie, 1 hybrid) for us, all coming on a smoking approach through bottom-oriented, schooled fish. By 12:30 we were headed to the dock.
TALLY= 46 FISH, all caught and released.
Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing