Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 13 August 2009 – 46 Fish (PM Trip)






I was scheduled to fish a half-day evening trip today with a dad and his 11 year old boy, but, as a consequence for something he’d done, the young man lost his privilege to attend, so, I wound up fishing solo a bit unexpectedly this evening.

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time: 8:45pm

Air Temp: 94F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~85.5F

Wind: Winds were variable today, starting off from the S, then turning N as thunderheads developed with afternoon heating. As the storms passed the winds swung from NE through E, to SE by evening’s end.

I finished the morning trip at Stillhouse and hustled over to Belton (before knowing of the soon-to-be-adjusted plans) in order to scout out some fish for my young guest to catch.

I found bluegill easily taken on the fly near my launch site and put 5 in the boat and left them alone.

I then downrigged from Area 490-491 looking for whites and hybrid. I picked up 2 whites here, but really didn’t find the kind of quantities of bait I like to see, so left this area alone.

I then headed to Area 492 and found some easy bluegill fishing on the fly here, too. Put 5 in the boat and left them alone.

By now it was 3:15 and storms were beginning to pop up. I beached the boat and waited things out until around 4:30 when I got the call about the cancellation. By now the storms had passed and grey skies, and cooler NW winds prevailed.

I looked over the breakline in the vicinity of Area 488 and found the bottom blanketed with bait. The fact that bait was there was good, but the fact that it was not balled up indicated the bait was relaxed. I knew it’d be tough but went ahead and vertical jigged for over an hour here and every once in a while was able to perk up a fish, but the gamefish present were very sluggish. I caught 3 white bass, 2 largemouth, 1 crappie and 4 small blue cats here on blades and slabs.

I then moved to Area 489 and ran the downriggers over some bottom oriented fish here taking 3 whites and another blue cat before the fish thinned out; no bait was present here.

I then downrigged from Area 483 to Area 472 and encountered all small white bass here, boating 3 before moving on after spotting some surface action.

At a stretch of bank from Area 493 to Area 494 fair sized schools of 2-3 year old white bass were surface feeding on 1″+ shad. They readily took a Cork Rig with appropriate trailer and bladebaits as well. Fishing here was easy, and without any other boats nearby. I put 19 fish in the boat over the 25 minutes that these fish stayed active. By 7:35 they were done.

I wound up the evening fishing in a short stretch of water near Area 027. Around 7:45 the sun disappeared for good behind clouds to the west. Fishing stayed slow until actual, albeit obscured, sunset. Then, renewed surface action broke out and stayed minimally visible for about 15 minutes, with fish just popping here and there, not really feeding on the surface. I landed 5 fish via surface and sub-surface retrieves, and then, after dark, got 3 more fish with slow, steady retrieves along bottom, all with a bladebait.



TALLY = 46 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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