Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 12 March 2009 – 22 Fish






Fished a half-day afternoon trip today with Ryan S. of Temple. Ryan’s in his 1st year of residency (the toughest) at Scott and White, so vacation time is very limited. Despite the poor conditions Ryan really wanted to get on the water, so we persisted and did alright given a damp NE wind, and falling water temperatures on the heels of an early March cold front. I had planned to be on the water anyway to do a little scouting for birds and bait in advance of a trip later in the week. We agreed to do a “ride along” trip, where I did what I needed to do to scout, and we did a little fishing along the way.

RYAN S. HEFTS ONE OF 4 KEEPER HYBRID WE FOUND WORKING BAIT IN TODAY’S WET, COLD CONDITIONS


RYAN TURNED THE CAMERA ON ME DISPLAYING 2 HYBRIDS THAT FELL TO A BLADEBAIT

Start Time: 2:00p (with DST now in effect)


End Time: 7:45p


Air Temp: 41F the entire trip.


Water Surface Temp: ~57-58F

Wind: Winds were NE at 9-12 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were overcast the entire trip.

We started off with a little downrigging near Area 387 as Ryan had never seen or used this technique. We saw ample suspended gamefish, but little in the way of bait. We put 2 average whites in the boat using White Willow spoons in the first 25 minutes, and decided to move on and continue looking for birds and bait.

Our next stop came in the vicinity of Area 367. There were terns patrolling the area, but not really working over fish. Enough terns hit the water on occasion at this particular spot to make it worth a look. We slabbed here and managed 3 whites and a small black and then decided to move.

We headed to Areas 294, 354, 346, 347, 348, and 24 and found little action at any of these area.

We then looked over Area 376 and all the way to Area 365 and downrigged through hoping to find a congregation of fish to jig for, but that wasn’t in the cards. We pulled two white bass on the White Willow spoon and then headed for greener pastures.

We headed to Area 388 and found a good number of birds working here, both gulls and terns with a few herons on the shore. This was looking good. The birds weren’t diving, just hovering, so I studied sonar, saw fish consistently down at 17-20 feet over 45-50 feet and so changed over to a Swimmin’ Image crankbait behind dual ‘riggers. Before I could get the second rigger down, we had our first hybrid on the other one. No sooner had we netted that fish, than the birds began diving. We put on bladebaits and worked these lures in a countdown fashion and managed 3 more keeper hybrid and a jumbo white bass over the next 20 minutes. As is so typical of cold front activity, this was intense but very short lived. Sonar continued to show a whole lot of fish suspended and and around bait, but their jaws were clamped once they finished that brief feeding spree. We managed 2 more white bass in about 30 more minutes of downrigging and then moved on.

Our final stop came at Area 172. Fish were here, grouped tightly on bottom, but very reluctant to strike. In over an hour’s time, constantly seeing fish on sonar, tight to bottom, we could only get 9 in the boat. These fish would half-heartedly respond to a slow easing approach, following the bait a few feet as it was raised, but then would give up and slowly descend back to bottom. Our catch here included 7 whites, 1 short black, and 1 crappie. By now we’d run out of daylight with 22 fish to show for the effort. Really not a bad day given the conditions — cold, wet conditions with an easterly component to the wind are predictably the worst conditions on our area lakes.


TALLY = 22 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