Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 31 Dec. 2009 – 117 FISH






I fished Belton today from before sunup until after the impact of the mild coldfront that hit this afternoon impacted the fish negatively (~4:45p).

Today was a classic illustration of how significantly the weather impacts the behavior and location of white bass.

From sunrise to 9:09am I fished Area 574 and caught a total of 8 fish, two of which were short largemouth, and one of which was a short hybrid (the only hybrid caught all day today). During this time the skies were bright and clear and the winds were calm. More fish were in this area, but they were just shut down. As I hooked the several white bass that I did catch here, I could see 10 to 15 other fish just barely rise up off bottom to give chase, but then they’d just drift back to bottom and stay there.

From 9:09 to 11:15am, the skies began to cloud over, but the winds were still calm. In the vicinity of Area 575 (BA: 8T), I jigged (3/8 oz. TNT 180) for about 2 hours and brought in an additional 26 fish, all decent, keeper white bass.

From 11:15 to 3:05pm we enjoyed both grey cloud cover and a light W. breeze. During this time the fish activity increased dramatically. In the vicinity triangulated by Areas 575, 576, and 577 (BA: 30T), I continued jigging and occasionally tossed a blade (Reefrunner Cicada), and put an additional 54 fish (53 whites and a ~2 lbs. blue cat).

At exactly 3:05p, the winds very suddenly increased to ~17mph and changed directions to NW. Over the next 15 minutes the fish went on an absolute feeding binge and then very quickly shut off. I landed 18 fish in this very short time span, all off bottom at Area 578 (BA: 13T). I noted that all suspended fish I saw at this time refused to strike or give chase to my slab.

Once the fish shut down here, I moved to deeper water to see if the “insulating factor” of deepwater would work in our favor. I hit Area 579 and fished in 32 to 37 feet finding fish both on bottom and suspended. I landed 11 fish over the next 60 minutes, about 2/3 came off bottom and 1/3 came from suspended groups of 3-4 fish each. Only about 1 in 4 of the groups of suspended fish would respond to my retrieve.

TALLY = 117 Fish, all caught and released








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