16 OCTOBER 2008






Belton Lake Fishing Report by Belton Lake Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle

Fished a full day trip today with father Bill H. of Belfalls and son David H. of Temple.

Conditions:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time: 7:20p

Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start, warming to only 68F by mid afternoon

Water Temp: 74-75F

Wind: NNW at 15+ by sunrise, increasing to 18 by midmorning, and tapering back to 10 by sunset and thereafter.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey all day with a very light sprinkle falling pre-dawn. There was dampness in the air all day. The sun was visible only during the last few minutes of sunset.

Although we managed 82 fish today, these numbers don’t tell the whole story. We fished hard all day spending a lot of time searching with sonar often not finding anything, or, finding fish but finding them very sluggish or totally inactive even to a live shad presentation. Most of our fish came in 2 short spurts of activity on this day where cold air poured in with damp skies following yesterday’s front passage.

Areas where we enjoyed success included:

Area 147 – we caught a single white bass here by downrigging prior to (obscured) sunrise and saw strong sonar returns here at the high side of the breakline, but caught nothing further either downrigging or slabbing.

Area 151 – we caught a single jumbo crappie and a single blue cat here in 40 to 50 feet. We saw strong sonar returns as well as abundant shad here, but didn’t enjoy the success that we anticipated.

Area 169 – we caught a single white bass here via downrigging, but saw little on sonar to keep up in the area

North of Area 188 – in the deep basin here we saw abundant shad and suspended gamefish relating to them in the 31-37 foot range over the 42+ foot bottom. After downrigging unsuccessfully, we took a couple drifts through this area with live shad and picked up a single white and another jumbo crappie.

Area 294 – around 11am, we ran sonar here and saw promising returns tight to bottom, but a lack of bait. We put our live shad and drifted them near bottom and almost immediately picked up 3 white bass and a short hybrid. I buoyed this area, continued drifting, and then returned to the buoy afterwards. On the drift, we picked up 2 more whites, then returned to the buoy and enjoyed about 90 minutes of solid activity using smoked slabs picking up 61 more fish including white bass of all sizes, and 3 more short hybrids. When action died around 12:30p, it died hard and stayed very sluggish until near sunset.

The only area that produced in the afternoon was in and around Area 171. We picked up a few hybrid and whites on live shad fished in conjunction with sonar over the course of the afternoon, and then found lively action post-sunset in shallower water throwing blade baits. All told, we pulled 16 fish off of this area over the span of the afternoon.


TALLY = 82 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