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.