Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a morning and an afternoon trip today. Reports for each are posted separately.

EVENING TRIP: Fished a half-day evening trip from 4:15pm to 7:45pm with Leonard N. of Killeen.

At launch time, the air temp had increased to 76F, the skies remained cloudy and the humidity level was high. The winds topped out at 22+ by around 2pm and leveled off around 16-18mph through sunset (obscured). We tried to fish in wind-protected areas and fortunately were able to fish such areas where abundant bird activity led the way to active fish.

We fished 3 areas over the duration of the trip and found fish at each area keeping the fishing consistent. The results were essentially the same at Areas 138, 136, and 137. These areas ranged in depth from 16 to 23 feet, with fairly clean bottoms. Shad schools were not thick by any means, but they were present and showed on sonar regularly

Fish were primarily bottom oriented, except when birds came into the picture – they indicated active fish, and sonar showed these active fish to be both on bottom and suspended.

We caught mainly white bass with a handful of small hybrids (largest was 16″), drum, sunfish, and largemouth bass thrown in. No crappie showed up in the catch.

One quirky observation we made: a number of the larger (13-14″) white bass we caught had an odd yellow tint to the normally white areas on their sides. Some of these “yellowed” individuals, also had reddened features at “joint” area where fins met the body, in external mouth crevices, nostrils, etc. These fish also had a slightly “glazed” or “cataract” appearance to their eyes. They obviously were healthy enough to hunt, and they fought normally … kind of strange.

I was hoping to see a little surface activity at sunset, but the sun was obscured by clouds at that time and so our chances of surface activity were killed.

TALLY = 77 FISH, all fish were 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