Belton Fishing Guide Report – 22 August 2010 – 146 Fish – AM Trip






I fished this morning with two of our newest Texans — Mark G. and his eldest son, 19 year old Wes. Mark, his wife, and 3 sons recently relocated to Harker Heights from Boise, Idaho, so Mark could serve as the Minister of Music at Memorial Baptist Church in Killeen. We linked up at 6:00am and drove to the lake together as I desired to on the water as the sun was rising (around 7:10 today) as that has been when topwater action has been kicking off on Belton lately. We got launched, brushed up on the fishing gear and casting, got down how we’d be arrayed in the boat when the fish came to the surface, and then headed out to look for them.


Our preacher encouraged us to meet people in person this week, not just call, text, or Facebook them, so, Mark and I met up face-to-face and went toe-to-toe with some of Belton’s best. Here Mark shows off his 2-for-1 — two white bass boated at the same time on one lure!!

Wes holds a personal best — the largest fish he’s ever caught.

This is what my right index finger looked like after unhooking 146 fish, most of which were hooked on lures with treble hooks!

I got a bit concerned when, by 7:15 nothing had happened — no bait seen swimming, no fish feeding, no birds flying — just nothing. We had a full moon very intensely shining all night last night through a cloudless sky to the point that it cast a definite shadow and I’ve noted before that this seems to hinder daytime fishing. But, all was well when by 7:25 or so we spotted a large school of mixed white bass and short hybrid stripers out in open water directly over Area 212. Long story short, we stayed on top of these fish for 2 hours and 20 minutes as they moved nearly a mile across open water from E. to W., eventually sounding at a place in open water found well off the tip of Area 358.

As we started fishing, I put Spooks on for all of us, mainly to ensure some immediate hookups for Mark and Wes. Eventually, my fingers got so chewed up from dealing with 6 treble hook points while unhooking each fish, that I switched us over to single hooked soft plastics and we did just as well, if not better, on these as I was able to unhook fish that much quicker and get the boys back on top of the fish. By this time, their casting distance was increasing and they were getting more polished at playing and landing the fish, so, our efficiency improved for that reason, too.

When all was said and done, we’d boated exactly 146 fish as counted on my “clicker”. A few of our trip highlights included: 1) Wes catching the largest fish of his life, 2) Mark catching more fish on this trip than he had in all other trips in his life, combined, and 3) Mark catching a 2-for-1 — two white bass striking the same lure and being successfully boated at the same time.

The action subsided by 9:45. I told Mark and Wes that anything that happened from this point forward was going to be anticlimactic compared to the long, aggressive feed we’d just witnessed, so, before the wind died and the sun began to roast us, we headed back to the dock a bunch of happy campers!

TALLY = 146 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 9:40a

Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.8F

Wind: Winds were light from the SE at around 5 until ~9:00 when they tapered off to SE2 to light and variable .

Skies: Skies were bright and clear the entire morning.








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