Fished a half-day morning trip this morning with Doug and Sandy B. of Killeen. As we discussed this couple’s expectations for the trip, Doug let me know he’d rather pursue a few quality fish versus going for quantity. With this in mind we rigged up for live shad fishing targeting hybrid striper on Belton Lake.

DOUG AND SANDY WITH DOUG’S BIG BIRTHDAY SURPRISE, 37 INCHES

SANDY INSISTED ON USING MY LARGEST LIVE BAITS AND IT PAID OFF FOR HER

A POST-SUNSET BUFFALO TAKEN ON A 3/8 oz. BLADEBAIT

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 1:00a

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~75-76F

Wind: Winds were SE at 11 at (obscured) sunrise. Around 9:00a, winds shifted ENE and a light rain fell with darkening skies. Not long after, the skies, though still cloudy, brightened a bit and the winds lessened and went back ESE at around 9 for the remainder of the trip.

Skies: Heavy clouds until 2p, then clearing to fair for the remainder of the day.

We looked in a number of areas today for fish and found little on sonar at Areas 024, 308, 346, 365, and 415

We enjoyed success at the stretch between Areas 133 and 080 , however these fish were scattered and suspended, so I used the downriggers with one fixed and one as a fish chaser. After boating 8 fish, all were white bass and sonar was not revealing any compelling clues that the remainder of the fish we were seeing were hybrid so we left (small) fish to find (larger) fish.

We found fish an boated one hybrid and a 15″ blue cat at Area 155, then drifted from there to Area 154 and beyond it, heading W. on the E. wind without result.

We then moved to Area 168/169 and got into the most consistent action of the day. We baited with jumbo gizzard shad (up to 13″). We missed a number of fish here as Doug tried to find the sweet spot on his hooksets, but, in the end boated 3 fish, including the catch of the day — a nice, healthy, hard-pulling 37″ flathead catfish that took a 9 inch long gizzard shad.

We finished up with a drift over Area 098 which yielded a white bass and a second hybrid after which we called it a day.

After dropping my guests off, I headed back out to catch shad for an upcoming trip on Saturday.

Found abundant gizzard shad at Area 435, netting 64 gizzards in 7 throws.

I then sampled a few areas with fresh shad, still looking for a good population of hybrid, but found none. I did catch several nice largemouth and a blue cat at Area 442, a blue cat and a drum at Area 138, and a large smallmouth buffalo up shallow to the W. of Area 437.

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