A TPWD First Fish Award with her Grand-Daddy Bill – 75 Fish

CLIENTS: On Wednesday afternoon, October 14, I fished with Mr. Bill Ralph, and his daughter and granddaughter, Joanna and Annabelle Dunton. Annabelle is eight years old. Although she had been fishing once before she had never caught a fish. Bill is retired from the oil and gas industry, Joanna works at her church in Bryan, TX, and Annabelle is working her way through elementary school.

TODAY’S DATE: 14 October 2026 (PM)


NEXT OPEN MORNING DATES: 20, 22 Oct. 2026

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Joanna and Annabelle Dunton, and Annabelle’s maternal grandfather, Grand-Daddy Bill Ralph with a few of the white bass this crew landed on their 4-hour afternoon trip. As you can see, Annabelle was much more enthusiastic about these fish when they were held a rod’s length away!!

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

As a major cold front slowly works its way to Central Texas from West Texas, we had some pretty wacky weather this afternoon. Contrary to the forecast, this afternoon’s winds were lighter than the winds in the morning, we experienced a brief rain shower within a half hour after beginning the trip, and we then experienced everything from clear skies and calm winds with intense sun to a southeasterly breeze around 10 mph accompanied by gray cloud cover, and everything in between.

This certainly did not help the white bass fishing, but, the fish are so turned on right now, that even bad weather will not prevent at least a decent catch.

We were able to find at least a few fish everywhere we looked today. Sometimes they would fire right up, sometimes they took a little work to get fired up, and sometimes they did not fire up at all. By the time 4 hours had gone by, my three generation crew had landed 66 fish including 65 white bass and 1 freshwater drum. I could tell Annabelle had about reached her limit on white bass fishing, as she was starting to lose focus, her technique was beginning to slip, and she was snacking more than fishing. Seeing this, I suggested we end up the trip fishing up shallow for sunfish just for her, and I had prepared ahead of time for this, knowing she likely would not make it for a full four hours.

We headed up shallow, presented live bait under a small float to sunfish in visible cover and Annabelle landed nine sunfish, including bluegill, longears, and greens.

We wrapped up with exactly 75 fish landed and with Annabelle having done what it took to earn her TPWD First Fish Award.

RESULTS: 75 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:
-Last week’s cold front and associated rains brought water temperatures down significantly and have brought us to the cusp of fantastic fall fishing. I’ve found more fish on bottom in more places than at any time since the thermocline formed earlier this summer and the fish have been very aggressive.

-This was our third day since the 01-09 Oct. cooldown where we had clouds and wind from the SE. The fish continued to feed under these conditions.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 14 Oct. 2026, approx. 7:20AM…

Taken on Lake Belton on 07 Oct. 2026, approx. 2:30PM ..