Belton Fishing Guide Report – 19 August 2010 – 142 Fish – AM Trip






I enjoyed fishing a pretty intense trip with 3 fired-up young men from north Austin today — Reid, Zach, and Alex, all accompanied by Reid and Zach’s dad, Craig, who runs a veterinary practice near Mansfield Dam at Lake Travis. I use the word “intense” because of the excitement level of the boys from the time they learned of the trip earlier in the week, right up through the taking of the last photo on the dock today, and also because of the intensity level of the topwater feeding fish we found today which always serves to boost the adrenaline a bit.

Zach with one of his better fish taken on topwater today – a healthy hybrid.

Alex holds a hybrid taken on a Cicada bladebait just sub-surface.

Reid’s all smiles over his big blue cat that hit a downrigged spoon going about 3 mph.


I welcomed the boys at the courtesy dock and immediately put a closed-faced outfit in their hands and made sure they could use it safely and appropriately so that if we encountered topwater action, which I had a hunch we would, we could take full advantage of it. Based on the outcome of the practice lessons, I seated Zach on the front deck to my left, Alex on the front deck to my right, and little Reid on the back deck with his dad providing some one-on-one oversight. This setup worked really well — all the boys caught fish steadily and no one got hooked!!

As we waited for the 7:07am sunrise and the action that arrives with it, we arrayed ourselves in our battlestations and did some practice casts so everyone knew where they were supposed to cast once I got us close to the fish.

Right on time (right at sunrise) the fish began feeding on the surface from Area 027 to Area 133, heading generally from W. to E. in numerous distinct schools. I tried to keep us in the fray as best I could so all boys had a shot at active fish, and we enjoyed success “early and often” today. I started the boys off with Sassy Shads due to their single hook and propensity to stay tangle free, knowing that the upright-riding hook on those lures leave something to be desired. Once I saw the boys getting the hang of things, I switched them over to a more effective bladebait. Then, finally, when I saw the novelty of using a blade bait was wearing off, we switched over to topwater lures (Sammys and Spooks). We enjoyed an exceptionally long feed this morning which finally died at 9:40 — that’s 2 1/2+ solid hours of topwater!! During this melee, we boated 102 fish including white bass ranging from 10 to 13.5 inches, and short hybrid ranging from 12 to 17 inches.

When the topwater ended, I picked right up downrigging at the first breakline to the E. of where the fish finally sounded, along the 28-29 foot contour stretching just shoreward from Area 080 to Area 347. We put the balls down at 22-25 feet and used both a small white Pet and a White Willow. The White Willow did a bit better on the final 9 fish we boated today. This catch of 9 consisted of 2 short hybrid, 6 white bass, and 1 blue catfish (which was caught by Reid, who was very excited to land something that the big boys did not).

By 10:45 we’d had the boys on the water 4+ hours, the fishing was waning, and this particular area had given up all it was going to. Craig and I concurred this would be a good stopping point, so, we wrapped things up and headed back to the dock for some photos and farewells. In all the boys caught 111 fish (Craig and I never did cast a line).

I had an evening trip to prepare for, so, as Craig and the boys headed out, I went back out on the lake to search over some areas to see if I could find bait concentrations. I was fortunate in that I did locate some solid schools of shad from Area 181 to Area 493. I mentally noted this and was about to head out looking elsewhere when a small flock of terns showed up and started looking “fishy” right in my vicinity. I just cut the engine and watched them and sure enough, one dipped, then another, then the whole flock was feeding. By then the fish beneath the bait had caught up with that bait and now fish became visible on the surface. I was right in the middle of a feeding frenzy. Some of the shad I saw skipping out ahead of the gamefish were up to 4 inches in length, so, I baited up with a soft plastic and went to work. In about 25 minutes, I boated an additional 31 fish — a roughly 50/50 split of solid white bass and short hybrid up to 16 inches.

By now it was ~11:45 and I decided to hang it up to get some lunch and a nap before the evening trip began at 5:30pm.

TALLY = 142 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~88.8F

Wind: Winds were light from the S at around 5 until ~9:40 when they tapered up quickly to S10, then eased off and leveled out at S8 by trip’s end .

Skies: Skies were bright and clear the entire morning.








Belton Fishing Guide Report – 19 August 2010 – 38 Fish – PM Trip






On the heels of a very aggressive topwater bite this morning (142 fish boated), I headed back out this evening in search of more action for father and son team Doug and Elliot B. of Killeen. Doug works locally in the pawn industry, and Elliot is about to leave for his junior year at Texas A&M. This was a send-off trip of sorts for Elliot.

Doug with a 3.25 pound fish, and Elliot with our trip lunker, exactly twice the size weighing in at 6.50 pounds and 24 1/8 inches.

Doug with his best fish going 4.75 pounds. It fell for a modified Pet Spoon.

We met up at 5:30p, as my evening trips of late haven’t really seen much action heating up until around 6:30pm. I even pointed out to Doug and Elliot that things would likely start off slowly and build to a peak just before sunset.

We began out day with small baits out on the downriggers working a staggered ellipse over top of Area 473. There was ample bait here, as well as suspended and bottom-hugging schools of gamefish showing well on sonar in 25-26 feet, thus, we ran our balls just over their head with a White Willow on one setup and a white Pet on the other. Both rigs performed identically, allowing the boys to boat 7 fish each over the first hour of the trip. The catch included 1 largemouth, and a mix of 13 whites and short hybrid.

Around 6:30 the bite here got soft, so, we made a move. I took us to Area 084 hoping 1) that we could find suspended fish here, and that 2) if an evening topwater bite was to occur, we could see it from this location. Well, #1 worked out, but, the 12-14 mph SE wind kept #2 from happening. However, the fish we found here were quality fish. We boated 24 fish in this area taking a N-S circuit over Area 084. Of these, 10 were keeper hybrid, with the largest going 6.50 pounds on a certified scale. Additionally, we caught 2 barely short hybrid, and 12 white bass. The fishing got soft around 8:20, but, we landed our final fish right at 8:40. All of these fish were taken on larger P13’s in both white and silver.

To say the least, Doug and Elliot were a bit competitive. The two both asked regularly for an update off of my “clicker” (the device I used to keep a very accurate count of the number of fish we’ve boated). When all was said and done, both gents boated exactly 18 fish despite mixing and matching lures.

By 8:45 things were over and we were headed back to the dock.

TALLY = 38 FISH, all caught and released