Fishing for a Hunting Alternative – 161 Fish

CLIENTS: This afternoon, Friday, November 6, I fished with a group of five first-time guests on what would be my second trip this day. Joining me were brothers Frank and Roy Rogers, Roy‘s Devin, Frank‘s daughter, Adrianna, and Frank and Roy‘s nephew, Eric Garcia.

This group normally gets together this time of year to hunt deer, but that wasn’t an all-inclusive event, so, Frank decided to try fall fishing so the entire family could get in on the action.

TODAY’S DATE: 06 November 2026 (PM)


NEXT OPEN MORNING DATES: 17, 24, 30 Nov., 3, 4 Dec. 2026

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Brothers Roy & Frank Rogers, their nephew, Eric Garcia, and cousins Devin Rogers (Roy’s son) and Adrianna Rogers (Frank’s daughter). This crew caught 161 fish on a four-hour afternoon trip.

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The weather heavily influenced the fishing this afternoon. A cold front, the second one which hit Central Texas this week, came in during the overnight hours early this morning. The best fishing associated with an incoming cold front normally occurs right after the wind shift from west to northwest and as those winds are increasing in velocity. We missed out on that this morning, as the winds had already peaked, but, fortunately, they stayed high and blowing. This afternoon, we were not so lucky. The winds were blowing NW 13 at the start of our trip, but steadily taper down to just 3 to 4 mph from the NW by the trip’s end. The fishing corresponded to the winds in that as the winds were strong, so was the bite, but the bite faded as the winds decreased.

By comparison two anglers this morning landed 158 fish, while five anglers this afternoon landed nearly the same number – – 161 fish.

Despite the slow down in the bite from morning to evening, we still enjoyed steady fishing, and lots of action. That action came as everyone used the MAL Dense Lure with silver body and chartreuse tail fished vertically using the smoking tactic.

As I do with most first time guests, I sent everyone a link to my tutorial video on this technique to try to flatten everyone’s learning curve to the greatest extent possible before they stepped board.

Once everyone was aboard, I actually had everyone do a few practice runs until I felt confident they had gotten the hang of getting the MAL Lure‘s spinner spinning very close to the bottom with a minimum amount of effort.

As good as this lure is, it will not catch fish if the blade is not spinning.

We ended up with exactly 161 fish landed, including 3 short hybrid striped bass, 3 largemouth bass, and 155 white bass.

RESULTS: 161 fish, all caught and released

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

SEE THE “SMOKING TACTIC” TUTORIAL HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

OBSERVATIONS: We enjoyed a second cold front in the space of 4 days this week and, as they typically do, this bolstered the fishing even more. By the time the sun rose the winds had plateaued, but were still blowing, and as long as that NW wind is blowing, I just know those fish will be biting. Fish are beginning to coalesce into larger schools and are using the bottom almost exclusively now.

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