This morning I welcomed international guest 16-year-old Daniyar Irgaliyev aboard my boat for some hybrid striped bass fishing on Belton Lake, accompanied by one of his sponsors, Michael Apodaca of Salado, Texas.  Daniyar (nicknamed “Dan”) is from Kazakhstan.

Dan with his largest hybrid of the 37 legal hybrid we boated today.

Dan and Michael hold 3 hybrid we caught in rapid succession at our last stop of the day.

 

Kazakhstan borders both Russia and China and has a population of about 17 million.  Dan initially came to the U.S. back in September 2013 as an exchange student at Salado High School and will be heading back to Kazakhstan this June. Dan enjoys robotics and speaks 3 languages — Kazakh, Russian, and English.

 

Michael is a veteran now working as a civilian with the Operational Test Command (OTC) on Fort Hood where new equipment is put to the test to ensure functionality, durability, etc. before being placed in the hands of our troops.  Michael and his wife, Jane, live in Salado.

 

Today’s fishing rose and fell with the winds, as it often does.  For the first 75 minutes of the trip while the winds were light and variable, we only caught 4 fish despite chumming heavily and seeing fish glued to bottom continuously.

 

Around 8:30a, a light but steady breeze began to push from out of the south and the feed began tentatively, then built to a peak between 9:00 and 10:15, then, as the winds slacked off around 10:30, the bite went soft.

 

We fished live shad on downlines by hovering over top of fish we’d found on sonar using the Spot-Lock feature on my trolling motor.  We caught 2 smallmouth bass, 4 blue catfish, 2 short hybrid, 6 white bass, and 37 legal hybrid striped bass exceeding 18 inches.