Playing the Fronts — 65 Fish, Lake Belton Fishing Guide Report, 12 Nov. 2012






This morning I fished with returning guests Steve N. of Temple, his son-in-law, Ryan, and Ryan’s son, 7 year old Caleb — 3 generations of anglers.

As yet another cold front blew in, the white bass and hybrid striped bass cranked up at dawn today and stayed active until around 10am.


The fishing was strong yet again today! The high pressure behind yesterday’s cold front continued to build in today, thus keeping the NW winds strong and dry. This typically equates to good fishing with the water temperatures as high as they still are.

We got on the water 15 minutes before sunrise and boated our first fish about 20 minutes thereafter, at around 7:15. From 7:15 to 9:45 the fish fed hard and we caught fish consistently, but had to keep up with the fish to do so. This was a matter of being on the lookout for fish breaking the surface which was tough at times given the winds which were at 13-14 mph (BA: 70G).

When we saw fish breaking, we’d run to that vicinity, search with sonar, stop when sonar revealed fish, and worked slabs for them as long as the fish would stay put. Once they moved, we searched for more fish with sonar until the next visible cue got us closer.

The number of hybrid striped bass we caught today was once again remarkable. Of the 65 fish we boated, all were white bass and hybrid stripers, with hybrid making up a majority of our catch. Sixteen of our hybrid were legal fish.

We did all of our fishing with TNT180’s and KastMasters using a smoking technique. I experimented with an easing technique using the TNT180 once things slowed down and did well on that, too.



By 9:45a the bite was winding down and so we gave downrigging a try. We boated a set of double white bass on Pet Spoons fished on tandem rigs, then picked up a third white bass, and, realizing things were winding down, decided to call it a day and head back in to thaw out.

I was really impressed with young Caleb on this trip. He’s been coming out with his grandpa now for about 4 years and has really progressed to where he doesn’t just “do” a technique as he’s told, rather, he’s beginning to understand “why” a technique works, thus allowing him to “do” it even better. Truth be know, I think he outfished his grandpa on this go-round!!

As we ease into our cold weather period, “reading” or “playing” the fronts will become critical. The best fishing typically happens on the stiff winds and cloudy conditions immediately preceding a front (from SSE to WSW) and on the W to N winds blowing hard as the front comes in and as high pressure builds in after that front’s passage. The calmer, warmer, bright, pleasant days following a front’s passage tend to make for a difficult bite even though they make for more comfortable conditions to be outdoors in. Wet cold fronts, typically with a NE wind direction tend to sour a bite, as well.

TALLY = 65 Fish, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:00a

Air Temp: 41F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 66.5F

Wind: NNW13-15.

Skies: Skies were clear and bluebird bright.








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