Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle
Fished a half-day KIDS FISH, TOO! trip on Belton Lake today with Brandon and Austin K., two fine young boys from Killeen. Brandon (4th Grade) and Austin (1st Grade) are brothers; their dad is serving in Iraq for another 11 months, so we gave their mom some much deserved down time today.
We launched at 7:15am and wrapped up when cold feet got the best of little Austin around 12:15pm. The air temp at launch time was 42F (and only warmed to 47F) with a light rain falling the entire trip. The water surface temp was 52F.
As is typical of nasty winter days, both the bird and fish activity was pretty brief and low key at first light, but then re-occurred in very short spurts over the course of the day. At the first area we tried (south of Area 27) we found fish scattered and tight to bottom over a slow slope in 24 to 34 feet of water. Not being too sure of how the boys were going to tolerate the cold, I first took a downrigging approach at these fish I was seeing on sonar. These fish were very sluggish and wanted nothing to do with a fast moving lure. So, we dropped the slabs overboard and I watched the boys closely to make sure they were keeping them near bottom. We immediately had success as the boys got the hang of slabbing and kept the fish coming over the side slowly but surely for about 2 1/2 hours. By 9:45am we had boated 23 fish (including 4 short hybrids, 5 short whites, and 14 keeper whites). Things then quieted down.
We took a short trip back to the ramp to enjoy some snacks, hot chocolate, and the truck’s heater, and then headed back out on the water around 10:30am.
I had the boys hunker down behind the console as I covered water quickly looking for any manner of bird activity during a brief window of time where the light fog lifted.
We found a single flock of birds working over open water, and sonar revealed that several loosely associated schools of white bass suspended between 20-30 feet over a 40 bottom were pushing shad to the surface. This was a difficult situation, as the fish were not active enough for downrigging, and slabbing for suspended fish was a tad too technical for the boys. So, we tried downrigging into the wind to slow the boat to a crawl and managed a few fish this way. Then, we got a break when we found scattered fish oriented on the bottom in this same vicinity (Area 97). Again, down went the slabs and up came the fish. In all, we added 13 fish to our count following our break, including 1 keeper hybrid, and 12 keeper whites, all of which went 13-14 inches (somewhat of a rarity on Belton these days).
TOTAL CATCH = 36 FISH, all caught and released.
Bob Maindelle, Owner Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing