Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a half day afternoon trip with Bob S. and John S. of Killeen , and Jeff M. of San Antonio

Conditions:

Start Time: 2:00p

End Time: 7:10p

Air Temp: 59F at day’s start, warming to 82F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 71F

Wind: Winds were light all day, never exceeding 8 mph. Winds were southerly until around 3:30pm, then went light and variable through sunset.

Skies: Skies were partly cloudy but bright all day.

The fish were surprisingly willing to bite today given the bright skies and very light winds. We fished the expanse between Areas 300/301 and Area 86. Today the fish were primarily found holding suspended out from the face of the breakline. We first worked over the area with sonar on and downriggers down fishing with White Willows. We immediately got into fish and although the action rose and fell with the wind speed, it never stopped until around 5:15pm. From time to time such concentrations of fish were visible beneath the boat as we downrigged that we stopped and fished both vertically and/or horizontally with slabs and typically put 3-6 fish in the boat in short order before the school drifted off. By the time the action shut down here, we had boated 47 fish.

Following this, we checked several deep areas without results save one small channel cat caught at Area 297 on a slab.

We ended the trip at the breakline at Area 302. As I was searching this area with sonar, the screen lit up with fish at 35 feet. We circled back, got slabs down on these fish and came up with 3 hybrids and 1 white immediately. We got 3 more fish slabbing, and then the fish turned off a bit as the light began to fail. We hooked up the downriggers one last time and ended up the trip with 2 more whites and final hybrid.

The ratio of hybrids to white bass today was higher than in any recent trip. We put 18 legal hybrid in the boat today, equaling over 30% of the catch.

TALLY = 59 FISH, all caught and released except 1 hybrid we couldn’t revive

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