Conditions:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:55a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start, and 91 for the day’s high

Water Temp: 83.4

Wind: Light breeze from the SE at 2-5 pre-dawn, then increasing to 5-8 with heavy clouds building in.

Skies: Heavy layer of low murky grey clouds built in just after sunrise, to the point of pouring rain in the Killeen area by mid-afternoon. Very humid.

Fished a half day morning trip today from 6:45am to 10:55am. I fished only 3 areas and found solid fishing at 2 of them.

Prior to sunrise, I hit Area 73 beginning out over 19 feet of water and casting shoreward with a Carolina Rig. I worked the 12-22 foot depths over about a 60 yard run, and found no fish.

At sunrise, I headed to Area 241 anticipating surface action continuing in here as I experienced last week, due to the lack of significant weather changes since that time. No surface action was apparent (except by gar) upon arrival, so I searched the general vicinity with sonar for bait to wait it out a little. I found a fair concentration of bait in the gut of this area in 31-33 feet of water, and stopped to vertical jig. I managed a short largemouth, a longnose gar, several drum, and several 10.5″ whites here. I tallied 9 fish via this approach

Before long, a surface feed began to ramp up, starting over deeper water (25-30 feet) and slowly moving back into shallower water (12-18 feet) with some submerged timber present. As the morning progressed, heavier and heavier cloud cover built in and the atmosphere got more and more humid feeling. The fish activity waxed and waned but never stopped until about 9:45am. By then, I had landed a total of 45 fish by fishing topwater. Nearby bass anglers were throwing larger soft plastics (flukes, etc.) and were Carolina rigging with lizards, but they were not nearly as successful as the Cork Rig proved to be on topwater, and the fish they caught were not appreciably larger than those coming on topwater. Most largemouth went 11-14 inches; most white bass went about 9 inches.

After the topwater bite died, I stayed in this area another 45 minutes vertical jigging. I caught a 24 inch channel cat and 1 dink channel cat, a 16 inch largemouth and 2 dink largemouth, 6 drum, and 4 whites, all 12-13 inches. All of these fish took the slab on a basic jigging stroke, except the 2 blacks, which came on a smoking retrieve. By 10:25, all action had ended here. Vertical jigging tally was 15 fish.

I tried one last quick stop at Area 177. Sonar showed fish at 28-31 feet on the shoulder with a bit of bait present. I dropped a slab down and in 25 minutes managed 5 fish including 2 largemouth, 2 drum, and a nice 13 inch white bass. At this point weather looked a bit threatening and a light drizzle began to fall with heavier rain looking imminent coming in from the SSE.

TALLY = 74 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