This morning I fished with brothers Matthew (age 16) and Andrew S.(age 12) of Pearland, TX. For many years now the boys have traveled with their parents to Belton Lake to spend the holiday in the same lake cottage near Arrowhead Point.
Matthew and Andrew were fast learners and good listeners when it came to fishing techique, and it paid off in spades today with 22 keeper hybrid boated by just the two of them in just a few hours’ time.
Chumming with Cheerios!! Keep reading for details!
The boys’ mom, Allison, contacted me over the 4th of July last year only to find me booked, so, this year she started about 8 weeks in advance and we were able to make it happen in a big way.
I picked the boys up and right off the bat we began searching for topwater, but found none (can I get an “Amen!” that we are long overdue for some good surface action???).
Undaunted, we continued our search with sonar and, with a bit of help from some friendly-neighborhood herons, found some solid hybrid striped bass fishing action almost immediately. I decided to go with 4 shad-baited downlines and before we could get our 4th rod in the water we had a fish on. The action was very steady for the first 2 hours during which time we put 28 fish in the boat including 3 white bass, 1 channel cat, 1 blue cat, and 23 hybrid striped bass, of which 19 were “keepers” going 18+ inches. 6 of these keepers yanked the certified scale I have onboard down to the 4.25 pound mark. The bigger the bait the faster it drew strikes, with gizzard shad outperforming threadfin by a long shot.
As we were fishing, a funny thing happened. I took one of our dead shad out of the bait tank and tore it up and tossed it over the side. Andrew asked why I did that. I told him the shad was dead, and that by throwing dead bait over the side, fish can become attracted to the area we’re fishing over. I explained this was called chumming. Well, Andrew had a big ZipLok bag full of Cheerios he was snacking on. He decided to toss a few Cheerios in the water, and, the instant his first handful hit the water, his rod bent double under the strain of a hybrid. Now that young man was convinced that his (still floating) Cheerios had something to do with his rod getting bit. From that point on, he ceased snacking and used his Cheerios as chum, convinced he was on to something!! Isn’t that just like a fisherman?
By around 8:30 the bait bite slowed as the fish pushed away from shore and began to scatter horizontally, still around the 25′ mark. We ran sonar and I saw enough density to lead me to believe downrigging would be a solid option, not to mention a change of pace for the boys. We rigged up with a modified Pet Spoon tandem rig and a big Rapala. We got hit almost instantly and stayed in fish for about 75 minutes boating another 7 fish including 2 more keeper hybrid, a short hybrid, and 4 white bass, including a double landed by Andrew.
Since the boys enjoy fishing and have access to kayaks at their rental place, I wrapped up our trip showing them a few techniques for smaller sunfish “close to home” so they could fish on their own just a short paddle’s distance away. We quickly boated 2 sunfish and 2 blacktail shiners — enough to get the boys to get the hang of it, and I then left it to them to pursue that from there.
By 10:45 mom and dad were waiting at lakeside for their boys to return, only to begin making plans for another trip this time next year.
Our tally was 39 fish today, with 22 of these being legal hybrid striper. I thought it no coincidence that this very solid catch came on the first day to include a westerly component to the wind in a very long while, despite the full moon.
TALLY = 39 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 6:15a
End Time: 10:45a
Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 83.4F
Wind: S6-7 early, then increasing to SSW9 by trip’s end.
Skies: Skies were fair and ~20% cloudy.