A One Man Show — Belton Lake Hybrid Fishing — 35 Fish, 28 June 2012






This morning I fished Craig M., Temple High School’s head baseball coach and a special needs teacher. I nicknamed him the “fish vacuum” during a June 2008 trip on Stillhouse. Today’s showing proved the moniker was appropriate.


Craig with our largest fish of the morning, a 4.125 pound hybrid, and a nearly identical schoolmate that hit just seconds after his buddy did.


On a day that should have been tougher than it was, Craig single-handedly landed 31 hybrid striped bass and threw in 3 blue cat and a chunky channel cat for good measure.

Our weather has been tough lately with nearly dead calm mornings putting a halt to all topwater action for about a week now. Today was forecast to have a SW breeze beginning around sunrise. That breeze never materialized until much later, so, after looking briefly for some easy topwater, we began to grind it out reading sonar for hybrid.

Craig’s intent was to focus just on hybrid. I was upfront letting him know that summertime hybrid fishing can involve long waits between brief spurts of action, but that the action will yield quality fish. He was just fine with that, so, after the hybrid we went.

I chose to go with live shad today even though they are getting tougher and tougher to catch, just as a hedge against the calm weather.

In summary, we boated fish with consistency at Areas 1104, 1105, and 1106. At each area the fish were suspended at around 25 to 28 feet over as much as 52 feet, making depth adjustment absolutely critical.

On a number of occasions we had 2 and 3 (one time all 4!) rods get pulled down at the same time. That’s exciting stuff when a hungry wolfpack of hybrids comes and crashes into your bait spread!!

Given the high water temperatures, we handled all of our fish minimally and returned them to the water quickly. I’ve got all rods outfitted with circle hooks which, 80 to 90% of the time will hook the fish in the corner of the mouth, or through the upper lip to facilitate a quick release. For those hooked more deeply, I keep a pair of diagonal cutting pliers handy and, without tugging or causing any undue trauma, cut the line or hook and leave it in place and release those fish as promptly as possible.

Along the way we got to talk Wildcat baseball, 7-on-7 football, food, hounds, life on a barge, and all about Craig and Susan’s baby boy who is on the way!!

This was a very enjoyable trip with a very capable fisherman.


TALLY = 35 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 12:10p

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.7F

Wind: SE2-5 early, then light and variable.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.