Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 26 Feb. 2009 – 157 Fish






Fished a half-day guided trip with a client in the morning, and then remained on the water for the remainder of the day to fish some areas I haven’t frequented lately to see if fish have begun using these area. This is the last day of 3 day warming trend prior to a cold front’s arrival due in tomorrow.


FIRST FISH OF THE YEAR TAKEN ON THE FLY AT BELTON TODAY – 10 WHITES UP TO 13.25″ and 1.25 LBS.


Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 6:55p


Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start. Temps peaked at 83F around 3:00 in the afternoon.


Water Surface Temp: ~56.6 to 57.6F

Wind: Winds were from the S at 12 at first light, building to around 20mph with higher gusts by noon, and then gradually tapering off in the afternoon to around 12 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were grey and overcast until around 11:15p, then cleared to fair skies for the remainder of the day.

We began the day at 6:15a to allow a little time for my client to get accustomed to the fly gear we were going to attempt to use if the conditions allowed. This time of year I use a shooting head and running line to target suspended fish and bottom huggers down to about 18′ deep or so. The gentleman I had aboard was quite experienced with fly tackle and had done a majority of his fishing in saltwater, and so he caught on quite quickly, so, then it was off to find the fish by around 6:40.

We first encountered fish under birds (gulls and terns) at Area 138. Despite the fair amount of bird activity, the birds were doing more looking than feeding, nonetheless, they lead the way to some solid morning action. Most of the fish we caught were on or just off the bottom in 15-22 feet. We smoked large blade baits vertically to entice the fish to chase. We boated 4 keeper hybrids in the first hour, along with 2 black bass, and 12 white bass. The bird activity ebbed and flowed, and finally ended around 9:30am.

As it ebbed and flowed we short-hopped a few yards one way or another to stay under the most active birds and wound up with a total of 34 fish by the time the birds rested, all taken on slabs (3/8 and 3/4 TNT 180’s). The last dozen fish came out away from the Area 138 feature and to the north of it in ~31 feet of water.

My client had to be off the water by around 11a, so, we decided to target some deepwater fish with downriggers in order to expose him to that method before he left. We focused on Areas 211 and 376 and picked up 4 small white bass at the first area and 4 larger whites at the second. The quantity of fish showing on sonar on or near bottom at Area 211 looked sufficient to slab for, so we dropped slabs down and finished up the morning trip with 6 fish off the slab including 5 average whites and a juvenile hybrid. These fish were very particular about the retrieve they responded to. Basically a slow easing technique is all that we could get them to respond to. We had to leave those fish biting in order to get back to the dock on time. We never did encounter conditions appropriate for fly gear, but, my client caught his first white bass, his first hybrid, and enjoyed his first outing on Belton Lake very much.

After dropping my client off, I returned to fish, and found active fish under some light bird activity at Area 369 (catching 3 suspended short hybrid via a slow smoking retrieve) and at Area 377.

At Area 377, there was a very large aggregation of fish from 12 feet deep down to bottom in 25-28 feet, these fish were in a neutral mode and thus were not moving much and were easy to stay on top of, but difficult to get to bite. I used a slow smoking technique to put 3 whites in the boat, then, due to a brief lull in the wind, decided to give the flyrod a try. I boated 10 whites in about 45 casts, all with the shooting head and running line. The fish I picked up were those nearly motionless suspenders at 15-18 feet. Once the wind picked back up, I changed over to a 1/2 oz. blade bait and worked for bottom huggers, taking the tally from 61 fish up to exactly 100 fish before I broke for lunch at around 2:00p. Of these fish, one was a keeper hybrid, and the majority of the rest were keeper whites.

From 2:00p until around 4:30p there was a definite decline in the fish and bird activity. I caught nothing during this time.

At 4:30, some birds began to get jittery and I again located fish, this time at Area 163. These fish showed as a mass on bottom in 23′. As I jigged for them, they aggressively struck a 3/4oz. slab used with a standard jigging technique. I boated 23 fish here, but, every single fish was undersized, some as short as 6 inches. I moved to nearby Area 382 and found a large school of white bass in the lower 1/2 of the water column over 34′ of water. I jigged and smoked for these fish and quickly caught 28 whites, all keepers with some going to 13″. At just minutes before sun set these fish quit.

I returned to Area 138 to see if the birds that worked in the morning would work there in the evening, and they did. I finished the day off with 2 more legal hybrids and 4 chunky whites exceeding 13″ and going about 1.25 pounds — very nice white bass for Belton. All of these fish came on a horizontally worked blade bait.


TALLY = 157 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








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