That’s a Good Call, Steve! — 34 Fish, Belton Lake Fishing Charter Report, 29 March 2013






This morning I fished with Mr. Steve N. of Temple, and his grandson (and veteran of many trips), Caleb. We shot for quality over quantity today and hit our mark, catching and releasing 26 legal hybrid striped bass (18+ inches).



Steve and Caleb kept the shad going down and the hybrid coming up this morning.



Steve holds one of our better fish of the morning — this one went 22.75 inches.





For a second day in a row our weather conditions were ideal — heavy grey skies with a southerly wind. We only had to make 2 stops today to find all the fish we needed to keep us busy. I came prepared to fish 6 rods, but only needed to put 4 out as the action was very steady for the majority of our morning.

Our first stop came at Area 1191. We fished on the deeper, 30′ side of a breakline and set our baits at 27 feet deep. Over about 50 minutes’ time we put 5 fish in the boat with a few more missed as we worked the bugs out on bait fishing, which was all new to Caleb. I felt with the great weather conditions we could be doing better, so, we moved on.

Our next and final stop came at Area 1190. Again, we fished the deeper, 34′ side of a breakline and set our baits at 29 feet deep. The fish came in waves and seemed to be patrolling steadily through the area. Although we detected schooled fish on sonar that were suspended primarily between 15-21 feet, we did best on the deeper lines, although I did adjust at least 1 rod upwards when we saw good reason on sonar to do so. We enjoyed a solid 2 hours of hybrid fishing at this location before the bite died around 11am.

For our efforts today, we boated 26 legal (18″ minimum) hybrid striped bass, 4 white bass, and 4 “short” hybrid. The fish showed no preference on bait size. I had everything from 2″ threadfin barely large enough to hook, all the way up to 8″ gizzards. It seemed the larger threadfin (3 to 3 1/8 inches) got hit faster, but the smaller shad resulted in more sure hookups. My jumbo gizzards were just a bit much for these still-cold hybrid. One 6 inch gizzard had 5 different fish hit it before one took it well enough to get hooked. One 8 inch gizzard never even drew a look.

Caleb was a real trooper and it is great to see how he’s progressed in his angling abilities over the years. Our last trip was in November when a screaming cold front put the hybrid into overdrive. He worked a slab rod for 3 hours straight in the cold wind and never whimpered a single time. As Steve and I compared notes on this trip, I told him I thought Caleb could handle the waiting that goes with the reward of fishing for larger hybrid stripers, and he agreed. To his credit, once Steve saw Caleb’s enthusiasm was beginning to wane, he made a good call to wind up the trip a bit earlier than we would have were it just he and I out fishing. That’s the way to make a fishing buddy for life by not wearing a kid out by insisting he or she grind it out to the bitter end when the fishing gets slow. I wished more folks would do like Steve did today.

As the live shad bite gets stronger on Belton, shad are still somewhat difficult to come by, but, that ought to change before too long. Should be a good April!!


TALLY = 34 fish, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 11:30p

Air Temp: 59F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: ~60F

Wind: Winds were SSE8-10.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey the entire trip.








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