Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 09 Feb 2009 – 81 FISH






A great birthday trip with 3 great kids today!! I fished a half-day afternoon trip with three 10 year old young men from Troy, TX: Trevor S., Austin P., and Grayson P., all chaperoned by Trevor’s day, Ken S. We fished Belton and opted for the afternoon due to the turbulent weather forecast for this morning, and the favorable wind and sky conditions forecast for this afternoon. Here are the details:


TREVOR’S 5.5 POUND HYBRID WAS THE DAY’S BIG FISH

GRAYSON P. OF TROY, TX, WITH HIS LARGEST HYBRID

AUSTIN P. OF TROY, TX, WITH HIS LARGEST HYBRID

Start Time: 1:00p

End Time: 6:40p


Air Temp: Temps peaked at 74F in the afternoon.


Water Surface Temp: ~56-57F

Wind: Winds were moderate from the SSW at ~15 at 2-9 the entire trip.

Skies: Partly cloudy the entire trip.

As I waited for the crew to arrive, I spotted fair bird activity over Area 364 at 12:40p. The next 20 minutes seemed like an eternity wondering if those birds would stay up and working until everyone got onboard, settled in, etc. so we could head over and wet our lines. As it turned out, the birds did stay active and, within minutes we had 3 hybrids in the boat, one for each boy! We continued to downrig for these fish which were suspended at 19-40 feet deep over the breakline here. We fished about 50 minutes here and tallied 9 fish total, including hybrids, whites, and 1 small black bass.

Once the action died, we headed to Area 211 and looked things over with sonar. I found small clusters of white bass holding tight to the bottom here, thus calling for a slabbing approach. At this point the bird activity was nil and the wind was slackening, so I knew the bite would be light and tough, and it was. Regardless, the boys listened well and got the hang of appropriately adjusting the depth of their slabs, and, before long they were catching mostly smallish white bass on their own. We racked up 28 more fish here.

Once we wore a hole in the bottom at Area 211 and the fish slacked off, we resumed downrigging, this time over Area 365. There is a fairly steep breakline here and the fish were stacked from bottom up to 3 feet off of bottom and were beginning to perk up as the afternoon was wearing on. We hit fish after fish here on White Willow spoons, all right at the top of the breakline, and added 12 more fish to the tally before giving slabbing another try given how consolidated the fish were here. No sooner did we break out the slabs, than we spotted a flurry of bird activity at Area 368.

This area had a touch of timber and a slope from 21 to 34 feet. As we arrived, I saw suspended fish on sonar, and gave the boys a quick lesson in “smoking” for suspended fish. They caught on to the technique really quickly and managed to put a final 21 additional fish in the boat via a combination of smoking and slabbing, including the big fish of the day, a 5.5 pound hybrid caught by the birthday boy, Trevor. At 70 fish, the boys were playing out and Ken gave me the nod to head back to the dock.

After bidding the group farewell, I headed out to scout for shad and, on the way, encountered yet another helpful bunch of birds, this time between Areas 366 and 367. I motored near and then cut the motor and just observed for a while. I noted large, hybrid-sized boils on the nearly calm water and so tied on the largest shad imitator I had (a Storm Wild Eye about 5 inches long) in order to select for hybrid and avoid the white bass that appeared to be mixed in. For 50 minutes I fished this action for a total of 9 keeper hybrid and 2 whites (I still don’t know how those whites got that big, single hooked lure in their small mouth!). That ended the day with exactly 81 fish.

TALLY = 81 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