FISH DOCTOR!! 82 Fish, Belton Lake, 26 March 2011






This evening I welcomed John G. of Temple and his two children, Jacob (10) and Abby (8), aboard. John is a resident training in the anesthesiology department at Scott and White to become a medical doctor and was referred by one of the doctors on staff there, Bill J., who has fished with me twice in the past (Thanks, Bill!).


Jacob and Abby hold the best four white bass we boated tonight in a 2 hour flurry of pre-frontal activity before the east wind ground everything to a halt.

After the heavy feed we experienced this morning, there came a lengthy mid-day pause in fish activity, accompanied by calm conditions and bright skies. The “saving grace” on this was that we were still in a pre-frontal state, and indeed, at around 7:50pm, the lead edge of the cold front reached Belton Lake with a wind shift and some pretty ominous clouds, some with electricity in them.

As we met at dockside at 4:00pm, we took our time and reviewed the various techniques that we’d be putting into practice, as well as a few items of safety.

I let the kids know that the first hour would likely be slow, and then slowly build toward that “magic time” before sunset when the fishing would get much better.

We began our trip by setting twin downriggers out staggered at 10 and 16 feet and consistently caught both white bass and small hybrid striped bass on Swimmin’ Images and Thin Fins. After we’d boated our 8th fish in the first 40 minutes or so, I spotted some bird activity at Area 752. We headed over there and eased up the final 50 yards or so with the trolling motor (which is important to do given shallow fish in calm conditions). We began using a smoking technique for these fish and managed a few, however, we were right on the ragged lead edge of the evening feed and the fish just weren’t quite turned on yet enough to keep two youngsters interested.

We returned to downrigging and boated 4 more fish, all solid white bass, right away at Area 753 in just two passes. This level of activity in addition to the posture of the fish as they showed on sonar (holding near bottom, but not on it) told me these were more active fish that were already in feeding mode. We pulled in the downriggers and returned to a smoking technique from a hover position and boated fish there for 2 hours straight. All fish came on 3/4 oz. TNT 180’s in white. Most fish were white bass on the smallish side, with keeper whites and juvenile hybrid mixed in — they made up for in quantity what they lacked in quality — and that was just perfect for kids their age and experience level.

John (dad) told me one of the reasons they gave me a try was due to their lack of success in fishing from the bank on both Belton and Stillhouse. He recalled times in the past when the kids would eagerly respond to the offer to go fishing, but, after a couple of unsuccessful bank fishing attempts, saw their enthusiasm waning, and so was hoping this trip would serve as a “booster” to keep the kids’ interest in the outdoors and give him some insight on what it takes to be successful on our local water bodies. By the time we left I think he was thinking harder about a boat! Bank fishing in this area is just a tough proposition no matter how you slice it.

At exactly 7:37p, the wind very suddenly shifted from south to northeast and the fish responded immediately and negatively. I told my guests that we’d seen the best of it, and, with the wind building, the skies darkening, and a really good evening of fishing already enjoyed, we decided to pack it up and head to the dock.

TALLY = 82 FISH, all caught and released


CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp: 84F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~68F

Wind: Winds were WNW4 for the first hour, then came SSE7 from around 5 to 7:30p and then shifted suddenly NE10 at around 7:30p.

Skies: Skies were fair with building clouds to the NE with the approaching cold front.








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