Fished a half-day “Kids Fish, Too!” evening trip this evening with Jeff, Andrew, and Matthew W. of Salado. Jeff owns “Salado Creek Outfitters” in Salado and brought his two younger sons (and world-class kayak washers) out for a little Spring Break excursion.

THE WARREN BOYS SACKED ‘EM UP! 6 KEEPER HYBRIDS ON AN EVENING SUBSURFACE BLITZ

Start Time:4:00p


End Time: 7:40p


Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start, and cooling towards sunset.


Water Surface Temp: ~60-62F

Wind: Winds were SE at up to 9mph the during the daylight hours, then tapered off around sunset.

Skies: Skies were fair.

The late morning feed that we’ve been experiencing at Stillhouse must have taken place here on Belton, too, as we really struggled to find active fish. This, coupled with an easterly component to the wind spelled tough condition going into this trip. We found plenty of fish, but they were extremely lethargic. We covered a lot of water downrigging at both Areas 205 to 365 and at Area 172 and just scrounged up a few small white bass at both areas. When we stopped to jig or toss bladebaits, the fish refused to respond. We then got back over them with a downrigger and strained out a white now and then. By 6:30 we’d only managed 6 white bass.

As the sun began to get low in the sky, we headed to an area (Area 136) where, due to topography, the sun’s direct rays leave the water well before sunset. In this area we found fairly active gulls and terns, albeit well spread. As we cut the engine and trolled into the center of mass of the bird activity and let slabs down, I immediately got hit and knew things would be perking up. The birds continued to work and the fishing continued to improve. Over the next 70 minutes we enjoyed some quality fishing, although the numbers never did show up on this trip.

Jeff, Andrew and Matthew were each able to connect with some solid 5-6 pound hybrids, and we managed a few white bass here as well. All the fish were taken on 3/8 oz. TNT 180s fished with a smoking retrieve. 12 fish in all came out of this area. Every fish we caught was a suspended fish.

By 7:40 the fish and birds were done. With a bit of natural light remaining we took some good photos of our day that started slow but ended well.

TALLY = 18 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

Fished a half-day morning trip this morning with Jeff and Paul W. of Salado. Jeff owns “Salado Creek Outfitters” in Salado and brought his oldest son, Paul, out for a little Spring Break excursion.

JEFF WITH A NICE CHANNEL CAT TAKEN OUT OF A SCHOOL OF WHITE BASS ON A SLAB

PAUL WITH A LARGEMOUTH TAKEN OUT OF THE SAME SCHOOL OF WHITES

Start Time:7:45a


End Time: 1:40p


Air Temp: 58F at trip’s start, warming to the low eighties by the afternoon peak.


Water Surface Temp: ~59-60F

Wind: Winds were flat calm until around 11am, then a S breeze began and puffed on an off from 3-10mph for the duration of the trip.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

We started off in the morning calm downrigging to get a feel for what was going on. We contacted fish consistently in and around Areas 55 to 108 to 143. These were all white bass, and all just over 11.5 inches. We put 8 fish in the boat and then saw a solid school of active fish on bottom and so buoy up over them and fished them with TNT 180 slabs in 3/8 oz. We landed an additional 14 white bass both slabbing and smoking for them before the action dried up here for good. We resumed downrigging and picked up 2 more whites before heading for better water.

We did a little flatline trolling hoping to contact some shallow schooled fish that we could cast to, but found little. We popped a mixed bag of whites and small largemouth on trolled cranks in the vicinity of Area 888 out towards Area 290. By the time this had played out we had boated 29 fish altogether.

By now the surface was still nearly flat calm and the sun was getting high, so we set out to look for a deep bite.

We saw a few gulls and terns acting fishy here and there, but nothing really telling. We searched for 20+ minutes just closely looking at both sonar and birds. Finally, a bit of the right kind of bird activity happened in the vicinity of Area 402. We headed to it, dropped slabs to check for fish, and immediately came up with whites. I dropped a buoy to maintain contact with these fish, and we then stayed on these fish for nearly 2 hours catch fish with both a jigging and smoking retrieve. We landed whites, some fairly pale largemouth, and even a bonus channel cat. By the time the action had just about died to nothing, we put an additional 101 fish in the boat for a grand total of 130 fish.



This was to be the last solid action of the week. This late, mid-day feed led to a weak, late feed in the evening, and then calm winds changing to easterly winds over the next 2 days really put a damper on the fishing from this point forward.

TALLY = 130 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