Hybrid Went Wild on Top, 18 March 2011 (PM), 62 Fish






I welcomed aboard by younger brother, Andy M., of Austin this evening, along with my sister-in-law, Amy, and my nephew and niece, Trent (15) and Molly (13); my wife, Rebecca, served as “mate”, passing the hemostats to unhook fish and working the net as needed – and did a bang-up job of both I might add. This was one of the last “big events” in their Spring Break schedule which included a visit to Port Aransas, bowling, rock climbing, a trip to an Austin zoo, and more.

From L to R … Trent, Amy, Andy, Unknown Hybrid, and Molly all finishing up Spring Break 2011


I’d fished enough trips this week to know that a traditional trip of 4 hours was going to involve some significant “slow” time in the mid-afternoon, so we decided to hold off until the sun got lower and the fish got more active so we could get the kids right on fish and keep them there.

We launched at 5:15p, checked out the Area 150 complex and saw some promising activity on bottom, but nothing came of it.

We moved on and, as I looked with my spotting scope, I found abundant surface action (BA: 60G) spread between Area 748 and 574, all within 150 yards of shore. The fishing was very simple — we all made long casts into the fish with 3/4 oz. TNT 180 slabs in white color, counted our slabs down to where the fish were (as seen on sonar) and began a peppy retrieve to imitate the large threadfin shad that these fish were feeding upon.

We caught white bass of all sizes and hybrid striped bass of all sizes, including 6 that were at or above the “legal” length of 18″.

Things got a bit crazy on occasions when we had triple hookups or when a fish decided it wanted to play kamikaze with the trolling motor propeller, but, everyone worked together, gave the person with the fish on the right-of-way, and it all worked outwell.

We were totally by ourselves for quite some time. When were were joined by others, we experienced a bit of courtesy that is all too rare on Belton Lake these days. Two older fellows in a Blue Wave center console actually cut their motor well before coming up on us as we fished for these fish. They lowered their trolling motor upwind, and trolled toward the action instead of doing what most folks do, which is to motor right into the action (which often cuts that action real short!). I shouted a thanks to them to try to positively reinforce good behavior!!

We caught fish after fish until things tapered off sharply right after sunset. With the fish action flagging and the closing time at Schoepf’s BBQ a little more than an hour away, our priorities quickly shifted!

We ended the day with a nice meal in Belton on the new limestone outdoor furniture they’ve put up at Schoepf’s — good food after good fishing enjoyed on good furniture — does it get any better this side of Heaven?

TALLY = 62 FISH


Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 5:15p

End Time: 7:50p

Starting Air Temp: 78F

Water Surface Temp: 61.4F

Wind: SSE7 the entire trip.

Skies: Fair.








Fishing with International Flair!! 89 Fish, Stillhouse, 18 March 2011






This morning’s trip had an international flair to it!! I welcomed aboard a 24 year old young man from Seoul, South Korea, by the name of Seong Jin Park (he goes by “Jin”). Jin is attending the University of Texas and has relatives in Killeen. Jin was accompanied by Dick C. of Killeen. Dick and his wife, Chun An, have opened their home to Jin on the weekends so he has someone familiar to associate with while he is away from his family and home. Jin had never gone fishing before today, but quickly made up for lost time!!

Jin shows off our biggest fish of the trip, and his first largemouth bass ever.


Once Dick got the hang of “bite detection”, there was no slowing him down; the fish on the left measured 14.50 inches.

Jin is learning English by immersion. His vocabulary is at more than survival level, but many of the terms I use on the boat are technical and/or fishing specific, so I found I need to speak and demonstrate so Jin could appreciate what he needed to do to be successful — we quickly found common ground as evidenced by his results.

We began our day where I left off last night, with some flatlining at Area 116. We quickly boated 3 white bass here on twin Rip Shads and then left when the action died as the skies brightened and the fish left the shallows.

We searched about and spotted some limited but useful gull activity right on top of Area 745. I headed us to the area of interest, ran sonar to confirm the presence of fish, buoyed the fish I found, and then we worked the fish with TNT 180 slabs (3/8 oz. in white) for over an hour, boating exactly 30 fish including white bass of all sizes and one largemouth going 17.5 inches and weighing 2.75 pounds. Eventually these fish lost interest and moved on as the skies continued to brighted, thus pushing the fish out of this 17-18 foot water.

We moved on to Area 100 in 21-26 feet of water and worked hard to pry 10 fish off the bottom here on slabs. The fish just weren’t packed in this area so we left right after the initial strong bite softened.

We spent the remainder of our trip in the vicinity of Areas 103/746. Fish were a bit deeper on this breakline, down at the 32-35 foot level versus the 25-27 foot level they’ve been at the last few times out, but they were there in strength and bit well. We landed exactly 46 fish off this area including white bass of all sizes up to 14.5 inches, and Jin lost a big largemouth that was ghosting the smaller whites looking for a big meal.

Jin is very electronically savvy; Dick reported to me that within minutes of receiving electronic copies of the digital photos I took of our trip, those photos had reached friends and family on the other side of the globe and much excited chatter was made of the young man’s catch.

TALLY = 89 FISH, all caught and released


Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:30p

Starting Air Temp: 62F

Water Surface Temp: 61.4F

Wind: S9 increasing to S13

Skies: 100% grey overcast at trip’s start, gradually clearing to 20% clouds by trip’s end.