Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 27 August 2009 – 77 Fish






Fished a half-day morning trip on Belton today with friends Rodney T. and Roy P. The fish had a “delayed start” today with the best of the action coming at 9:45 through about 11:30 am.

1 of 9 Belton Lake hybrid taken at midday today. 4.25 pounds.


Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 1:05pm

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.6F

Wind: Winds were light and variable the entire trip at about 5-7 mph.

Well evidently Rodney and Roy don’t show up late for anything. We were to meet at 6:30am. As is my custom, I arrived 30 minutes earlier to get launched, check equipment, warm up engine, and do all of this at a leisurely pace. As I pull in at 6:00a, old Rodney’s waiting there and no sooner did I get the trailer wheels in the water than Roy pulls in. I guess we were all anxious to get our string stretched.

We began the day fishing a stretch of bottom from Area 487 to Area 488. The first fish came at 6:52 and we had put 12 more in the boat by 7:50 — all white bass pretty average in size. We all had our eyes open for topwater and terns, but saw little.

We headed to Area 474 again watching for topwater as we went. We graphed some fish and some bait. Roy commented he’d like to try to slab for those fish, so we gave it a try, but found nothing responding. We again rigged up with the downriggers and tried a few passes coming up with 2 smallish white bass.

Headed to Area 478 — nothing. Headed to Area 491 — showed little on sonar and caught only one white.

Looked at Area 511 — nothing.

Downrigged Area 344-489 and came up with 3 whites right off the bat, then it went quiet.

By now it was around 9:30am which is about the time the “popcorn” white bass have been showing and doing their thing. I intended to head to Area 508, but, on the way, Rodney spotted some fish on top at Area 509 up to Area 502. We got to these fish and found not just fish on the surface, but fish from top to bottom with a good amount of bait mixed in. This was looking good! Roy and I chose to go with bladebaits and Rodney went with a double bucktail rig. In all, we landed 16 fish here in no time, including 3 hybrid, most either off bottom or suspended. Around this time, ~10am, the wind went slack very abruptly, it really heated up quickly due to the stillness, and at this same time the action slacked a bit. Sweat starting coming out of every pore in my body, and Roy was really feeling the heat, so we headed back to the ramp and he and Rodney called it a day. It was good swapping stories and fish tales with them today!! Roy had never really been exposed to downriggers or using bladebaits and really seemed to enjoy picking upon the new tactics. Rodney remained enthused about using the flasher feature on sonar to watch both fish and lure movements. It’s very enjoyable when guests take such an interest.

I had no plans for the remainder of this Thursday, so I headed back to Area 509 to see if I could scrape up a few more fish. I made a mental note of some topwater action happening at Area 512 as I passed by. When I arrived, I saw fish really bottom hugging right on Area 509, so I vertical jigged them with a blade and came up with 29 more fish just sitting right there hovering with the trolling motor over an area not 20 feet in diameter. Around 10:45 these fish slacked off.

Next, I headed back to Area 512 where I’d seen fish enroute to Area 509. As I motored in, sonar revealed fish very regularly appearing at 31 feet, with some scattered bait. I got twin riggers down and over the next hour boated 11 fish, 9 of which were hybrids all going right at 4 to 4.25 pounds.

Once this played out I investigated a bit more topwater happening between Area 169 and 483. This was primarly lone largemouth popping shad in fairly shallow water. I got 1 black and 1 white here on the Cork Rig and called it a day with a tally of 77 fish landed.




TALLY = 77 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








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