Fished a half-day evening trip this afternoon on Belton with Belton H.S. football coach Seth S., his younger sister, Sarah, and his youngest brother, Nathan. These were good people, and obviously from a tight knit family. I immediately picked up on the fact that they wanted the best for each other on this trip and didn’t get all competitive like so many folks do. It was really nice to have them on board.
SARAH WITH HER 11th HOUR 7.5 POUND, 25 INCH HYBRID TAKEN ON A 7 INCH GIZZARD SHAD
NATHAN WITH A POT-BELLIED LARGEMOUTH TAKEN ON A 6 INCH GIZZARD SHAD
COACH S. WITH THE FIRST FISH OF THE DAY, A DOWNRIGGERED WHITE BASS TOPPING 1.25 POUNDS
Start Time: 3:40p
End Time: 9:00p
Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~76F
Wind: Winds were variable from the NE to ESE for the entirety of the trip.
Skies: Skies were leaden grey the entire trip, after a brief period of sunshine and sun showers from noon to around 2p. Distant thunder could be heard constantly from the W., up toward the extreme end of Cowhouse Creek.
When Seth and I first discussed this trip, we tried to figure out a way to fish the morning given his family’s travel plans, etc., but it just wasn’t in the cards. Belton has been tough for me in the evenings as of late, plus, the turbulent weather, E. component to the wind, and Memorial Day traffic made for some very difficult conditions. We did managed to put everyone on fish, and a few quality fish at that.
Our first limited bit of success came off of Area 445. We saw consistent, but scattered fish showing on sonar and ran twin riggers through these fish to gauge their activity level. We missed our first to strikes, but Seth hit paydirt on the third and brought in a nice 1.25+ pound white bass which is a very nice white bass for Belton Lake. Additional trolling passes yielded nothing.
We moved to Area 446 and continued to run downriggers, this time catching 3 short hybrid and an additional white bass, all on the White Willow. Sarah missed a keeper hybrid here as well. Once this area played out, we struggled for a while just to find fish, much less fish in a feeding mood.
We did a bit of slabbing around Area 447 without result, we looked over Area 098 and didn’t see a single fish, and we looked over the Area 346 complex and saw just a few scattered, bottom oriented fish, which we tried slabbing for, but without result. We also ran sonar over Area 133, and from 307 to 188, all without graphing fish.
We finally anchored up at Area 168 and landed 2 nice largemouth here and missed two others that jumped at boatside and threw the hook. We stayed here for about an hour plus, until around 7:00p.
Once this area settled down, we headed just E. of Area 192 on the taper from 25′ up to 15′ for one last shot as some fish. We no sooner got baits in the water down around 22′, then we got the best fish of the trip, Sarah’s hybrid shown above. As she was fighting it, Nathan got the second best fish of the trip, also shown above. As they were fighting this fish the graph was lit up with other fish, but as soon as we got reorganized and baits down, it was over for good here.
We made one last stop at Area 442 and got a 2.75 pound largemouth off the high spot and then called it a day.
TALLY = 10 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