Bait, Bass, and “Boomsticks”, 23 Fish, Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report, 02 Aug. 2012






This morning I fished with father and son team John and Matthew M. of Temple out on their 6th trip with me.

Young Matthew chose Belton over Stillhouse today just for a shot at some hybrid, and his “calculated risk” paid off.


Matthew’s “downriggered” double!!

Under a clear sky and a beaming full moon we launched out just prior to sunrise and began the hunt for fish. We initially kept our eyes peeled for topwater action, but found none.

We then went in pursuit of hybrid striped bass using live shad on downlines. We found a few fish at Area 1107, put 3 in the boat and then things got pretty quiet. I spotted some distant topwater action, so, we hurriedly packed up our baitfishing operation and headed to the fray, but, the fray was over by the time the cavalry arrived and so we returned to Area 1107 only to put one more white bass and 2 blue cat in the boat.

Off we went again searching unsuccessfully at several areas before finding scattered, suspended fish with a bit of bait holding nearby in the vicinity of Area 844/846. We made a few passes here with the downriggers deployed after our first pass resulted in a nice “double” for Matthew when a pair of just-legal hybrid hit his tandem-rigged Pet Spoons. Subsequent passes gave up a few white bass and we had to go looking again.

As we moved from spot to spot, John would kid Matthew that he needed to eat more chips or take a bite out of his sandwich so the fish would begin biting. This referred to a time on Stillhouse when we were flatline trolling and Matthew got a hit just as he stuck a truckload of chips in his mouth. Well, Matthew informed dad and I that he was eating light today. When we asked him why, he said he was saving room for a “Boomstick”. Of course, you have to ask, “What’s a Boomstick?” It seems Matthew and his folks had plans later in the day to head to Ranger Stadium up in Arlington to see Texas stomp the Los Angeles Angels. To fuel his growing teenage body, Matthew planned on ingesting a “Boomstick” (SEE PHOTO BELOW!) which is essentially a hotdog with all the fixin’s which is roughly the length of, and nearly the diameter of, a baseball bat!!


Ladies and Gentlemen, “The Boomstick”!!!

So, Matthew all but refused to eat during our trip (and the fish pretty much mimicked him). We wound up sticking with the downrigging regimen from this point forward as we managed to find only scattered, suspended fish with at most 3-4 fish schooled together. We enjoyed limited success at Areas 475/474 and again at Area 1106/477. We caught an unusual number of blue cat on our downriggers (running around 3mph!) along with some white bass and one “throw back” hybrid in these two areas.

We ended the day with 23 fish and really had to scrub hard to get those. Fortunately, the Rangers had a better day than Bob the Fishing Guide, beating the Angels handsomely 15 to 9!! Rumor has it that Matthew ordered a Pepto Bismol shake from the DQ in Hillsboro on the ride home.

TALLY = 23 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 12:45p

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.3F

Wind: S8-10.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.