11 | January | 2017 | Fishing Report

This past Wednesday morning, January 11th, I fished Lake Belton with Mr. Sam Simon and Mr. Sam Berry. We were in pursuit of white bass.

From left: Sam Berry and Sam Simon worked up a catch of 146 fish, primarily consisting of white bass, under very windy conditions on Lake Belton this morning. The 3/8 oz. or 3/4 oz. white Redneck Fish’n Jigs Slab equipped with a Hazy Eye Stinger did the trick for every last one of these fish we found in 26-37 feet of water.

Sam S. is retired military with a love for vintage automobiles. Sam B. is an auto restoration expert with a business in Belton who takes care of all of Sam S.’s vehicles.

Ironically, this trip was scheduled for yesterday and I postponed it specifically because yesterday’s morning winds velocities were beyond what I felt comfortable fishing in. As it turned out, yesterday’s winds were actually manageable, and this morning’s winds turned out to cause us a bit of a headache … more on that later.

With winds blowing over 16 mph prior to sunrise, and due to increase, I had to be careful in choosing an area that we could both fish successfully at, and return from should the winds get very strong.

I looked over three typically productive areas for this time of year, and found nothing. The fourth area I searched over with sonar held a lot of fish.

We spent a full two hours fishing this general vicinity after spending about an hour eliminating unproductive water before we got here. At the first place I Spot Locked on top of, we boated exactly 50 fish including white bass in the one, two, and three year classes. When the catching got a little weak, I moved us perhaps 10 boat lengths into slightly shallower water and we landed another 75 fish from this vicinity.

Three hours into our four hour trip, we had landed 125 fish. Although the fish were still biting, they were definitely slowing down in this area, and since this second area we had stopped at was producing primarily small fish, I suggested we spend the remainder of our time looking over other areas in hopes of finding a few larger fish.

We looked at two more areas, and found fish at both of them, although the size distribution was not any greater than at the area we had left. By the time all was said and done we had boated exactly 146 fish. Both Sams were amazed at how many fish were primarily hooked on the Hazy Eye stinger hook. Sam had read my blog and caught my article this past Sunday in the Killeen Daily Herald where I shared the efficacy of the Hazy Eye stinger hook with my readers, but just did not believe it until he saw it for himself.

Now here is where the headache came in. When we came out of the tributary we were fishing in, and got a glimpse of the main lake, it was clear that the crossing was going to be dicey, if even possible. We made some headway directly into the waves which was the only direction I was even comfortable going in given how much spray we would take on going at any angle. After progressing just a short distance, I decided to turn us around and make alternate, safer arrangements. We made an unscheduled stop at Temple Lake Park taking advantage of the protection from the wind there. I tied my boat up, called a good friend, Rodney Tyroch, and he shuttled me over to the boat ramp where I had parked. I returned with my tow vehicle to Temple Lake Park and made arrangements to get my two clients safely home from there.

Yes, this was a hassle, but it was the only prudent alternative.
Thank you Sam and Sam for your patience with the wind, and thank you, Rodney, for helping me out.

TALLY = 146 FISH, all caught and released

Wx SNAPSHOT:

11JAN17