I fished a weather-shortened afternoon trip with father and son Paul and Ty S. of Belton this afternoon.

Ty with a shad-caught hybrid that took the bait just as the rumble of thunder could be heard to the west.

We’d had a very productive morning trip, boating 42 fish, and then, as I scouted around in advance of this evening’s trip, I boated an additional 25 fish, all from right around Area 678.

Paul and Ty were able to shake loose a bit early, so we got out on the water around 2:45p. We no sooner got set up to vertical jig at Area 678, then the fellows pulled up a pair of twin blue catfish on their slabs. We continued to fish here until things slowed down and then turned to downrigging from here over to Area 472 and back, accounting for 13 fish in all before we left this area behind as the winds went calm “before the storm”.

We now headed out a bit deeper to Area 346. Given the slack wind conditions (typically spelling tough fishing on Belton) I put out 3 downlines with live shad for Ty as Paul continued working a slab. In short order, we boated a keeper white, a fair hybrid, and another blue cat on the shad with nothing coming on the slabs. About this time, the rumbling of thunder we’d heard to the W and SW became a bit more distinct, so, I thought it best we head back toward the boat ramp. I’d planned on staying in the vicinity and fishing, but, things began deteriorating quickly. We tied the boat up to the courtesy dock and I handed Ty a bream pole with which he quickly subdued two green sunfish, and then it happened … big, cold drops of rain began to fall and the wind began to stir from the NW. We headed to our vehicles and spent the next 90 minutes hoping against hope that the skies would clear so we could get on the sunset bite we’d been anticipating, but, it was not to be.

We played in safe and settled for the 18 fish we’d boated before the weather turned sour and decided we’d try it again before too long.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS

Start Time: 2:40p

End Time: 5:30p

Air Temp: 84F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~76.4F

Wind: See narrative.

Skies: Skies clouded quickly from W to E with an approaching storm cell.