Fished a half-day morning trip with Marty and Kyle W. of Killeen and their family friend, Ray, on leave from the USAF stationed in Japan.
Marty and Kyle have fished with me previously and decided to try a little something different this go ’round in the way of pursuing hybrid stripers.
Hybrid can get a little tough in the summer, but we boated 4 today, as well as a good take of white bass with a few largemouth and crappie thrown in for good measure.
RAY WITH A SPOON-CAUGHT BELTON LAKE HYBRID
3 OF 50 CAUGHT TODAY – TYPICAL HIGH PRESSURE WEATHER CONDITIONS MEAN STEADY, RELIABLE RESULTS
Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 1:15p
Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~86-87F
Wind: Winds were from the SSW at 8-9 the entire trip.
Skies: Skies were clear and blue the entire trip under the influence of a strong high pressure cap.
After meeting at the courtesy dock and exchanging pleasantries, we did a little practice casting on the off chance that we’d encounter some topwater action in the chop. We then headed out and looked over Area 348 to 302 for topwater, but found none.
We then headed to Area 155 and looked it over with sonar and found a few fish hanging right on the fault. We picked up a single largemouth and a small white on subsequent passes and noted a bit of bait in the area. Continued downrigging didn’t yield much, so we gave live bait a try as some of the sonar signals appeared to be hybrid. We had 2 teases on the bait, but nothing in the boat.
Next we headed to Area 473 and downrigged from there to 472 for nearly 2 hours boating mainly white bass very consistently on Images. The action started strong at Area 473 and tapered off while Area 472 then picked up and went quiet a little more quickly. Two times during our visit here we picked up 2 white bass on the same lure at the same time!
After these fish had all but shut down we headed to the expanse of water bounded by Areas 474, 475, and 477. We found ample bait here, but few interested gamefish, and only managed a white bass and 2 crappie after multiple passes.
We then gave livebait another try at Area 168 and had 2 takes resulting in one fair largemouth boated.
We checked Area 155 again with live bait, but found no bait and few gamefish here.
We wrapped up our trip right over top of Area 181 and found some shallow, active whites there willing to take a lift-dropped bladebait. We worked these fish over boating 5 on the blade, and then continued working them for another 45 minutes with the downriggers until we caught our 50th fish of the day. By then it was after 1:00p and the fellows were ready for lunch.
TALLY = 50 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