This morning I fished with returning guest Coleman R. and his fishing buddies, Craig and Will, all proud “Kangaroos” from Killeen High School in Killeen, TX.

The fishing was truly in overdrive this morning as pre-frontal warming and winds turned the bite on big-time. This was one of many times all 3 boys landed fish at the same time. From L to R: Will, Craig, and Coleman.

Many times this morning sonar showed the water column completely filled with fish as we worked our shad-imitating baits amongst the white bass and hybrid stripers foraging on shad. This screenshot off of my sonar unit shows literally hundred of fish on a heavy feed.

Coleman took Big Fish honors today with this hybrid striper weighing in at 4.00 pounds and measuring 20.00 inches.

The fishing was just phenomenal today! We’ve got a cold front on the way and the fish were cranked up to feed in advance of its arrival.

We got on the water about 15-20 minutes before sunrise, but, for the 3rd day in a row had no action until the sun rose and began to shine directly on the water. Due to a low cloud bank in the east, the sun actually shone a bit after it rose above the horizon, around 7:30. Literally the moment it directly appeared the first of the fish in our vicinity began to break the surface chasing bait and a few birds began to work over top of this bait.

From 7:30 until 10:15, we never went more than 3-4 minutes without boating a fish, and, often times had 2 or 3 fish being caught at the same time. We encountered all of our action today within an area bounded by Areas 1143/837/344/1144 (BA:70G).

The number of hybrid striped bass we caught today was remarkable. Of the 121 fish we boated, all were white bass and hybrid stripers (no crappie, no blue cat, no largemouth as is typical). More than 60% of our catch was made up of hybrid stripers, and not a single one of them was less than 16″, nor more than 20″.

The fishing was very straightforward. We observed for fish striking the surface and or bird activity, went to it, searched in that immediate vicinity for fish schooled in that vicinity, set the trolling motor to hover us in that spot, and fished until the fish moved on using slabs (both TNT180’s and KastMasters) to replicate the bait size which was around 2 1/8 inches based on what we observed the fish we caught regurgitating.

I normally toss a line in when things get slow in order to locate fish near the boat and to gauge what the fish are doing or preferring. I rarely touched a rod today as I was busy unhooking fish, keeping the boat maintained in the wind, and untangling the occasional knot or fouled line.

By 10:15 the bite was winding down and so we gave downrigging a try. We boated 2 sets of doubles (all white bass) on Pet Spoons fished on tandem rigs and then, with the winds increasing to over 20mph, decided to head for safety’s sake.

Congratulations to Will! He caught the first fish of his life today and earned a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish” certificate for it.

TALLY = 121 Fish, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 68F

Wind: SE at 9-11, ramping up suddenly to SSE20 with higher gusts by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were 25% clouded on an otherwise fair sky.

This morning I fished with returning guests Mike M. and his son-in-law, Keith, all thanks to Mrs. M who gave Mike a fishing gift certificate last Christmas.

Roughly 40% of our catch today consisted of hybrid striped bass. Today’s conditions were ideal — grey, warm, and breezy — just right!

Mike & Keith were a lot of fun to fish with. Poor Mike has some chronic hand problems, and reeling in his share of 72 fish didn’t bring any relief to that particular condition. It got to the point where he’d feel a fish hit and would make a noise that sounded like a excited “ooh” as he set the hook, but then that hand problem would immediately kick in and the noise changed over to a plaintive “ow”. Keith and I agreed that it kind of sounded like Mike was having a stroke, or at least significant intestinal issues. We joked that we weren’t sure if we should get the net or the defibrillator! Mike was not impressed.

For the second day in a row, the fishing didn’t start until sunrise. At sunrise white bass and hybrid striped bass began to push bait (primarily 2 1/8″ long shad) to the surface. This is not like summertime schooling action; it is much more subtle. Fish tend to be near the surface but not at the surface, and, they don’t stay there long. Sonar will typically show for every 1 or 2 fish you see on the surface, there will be 40 or 50 more down below.

This “open window” feeding time lasted for nearly 2 1/2 hours, aided by a good 7-9 mph breeze and grey cloud cover. During this time we either spotted surface action, drove to it, and slabbed, or slowly motored while watching sonar and stopped on top of significant schools. The best results today came on white & silver TNT180 slabs in 3/4 oz. fished “smoking style” for fish holding within 6 feet of bottom directly under the boat. When we knew fish were nearby but not showing on sonar, we cast both TNT180’s & large KastMasters out and worked them back horizontally. We occasionally cast to nearby fish breaking the surface, but only in quick reaction scenarios.

All of our action today came within the bounds of the roughly diamond-shaped area bounded by Areas 086/836/837/1142. This was quite similar to the terrain the fish used yesterday.

As 9:45 rolled around, the fishing was just about over. We poked around at a few areas hoping to find some still-active fish but came up with only 3 more small white bass on the downriggers. With the wind now well over 17 mph and the bite clearly done, we called it a day around 11:15.

We caught a total of 72 fish today including 2 largemouth bass, 13 legal hybrid, and a mix of 57 white bass & short hybrid.

TALLY = 72 Fish

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:25a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 64F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 68F

Wind: SSE at 7-9, ramping up to SSE17 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were 100% greyed over, but still bright, then entire trip.

This morning’s trip included 3 generations of fisherman: Grandpa Butch, his son-in-law, Aaron, and Butch’s grandsons, Ethan (12) and Owan (8).

Ethan kicked off the day with a double (two fish at the same time on one rod)!!

Owan gets by with a little (fish holding) help from his friend — Grandpa!!

As I arrived at lakeside well before sunrise this morning, I was glad to see a light breeze already blowing. Belton is notorious for giving up few fish in bright, calm conditions like we’ve encountered the past several days, so today looked much better than the past 2 or 3.

As we got on the water, there was not much of a low-light bite this morning. In fact, our first fish boated came after the sun had already risen.

Although some birds (gulls and terns) are now found at the lake, they were not feeding much, and, what fish they did feed over, we’d already found on our own. (Could it be they were following us for a change??) Anyway, just after sunrise, we could see the spray being blown up into the air by fish feeding lightly on topwater, so, we headed right to the action and got into fish for about 45 minutes. We found concentrations of fish with the downriggers and then hovered over top of the fish we’d found and slabbed for them. The best action came at between Areas 836 and 837. We boated 13 fish in very short order. Just when things were starting to heat up, a very thick blanket of fog moved over the lake, reduced the light to pre-dawn levels and killed the bite. We had little success over the next 90 minutes or so and until the fog completely cleared.

Although we picked up a fish here and there, we only encountered one other significant concentration of fish the rest of the morning, at Area 1141. Here, a breakline and an ample supply of shad held the fishes’ attention. We initially contacted the fish with the downriggers, pulled one fish in, then cleared the gear and got slabs in the water and went to work. We put another 12 fish in the boat here (a mix of white bass and short hybrids), and that was all she wrote for this day. By 11:15 all was done, the winds were picking up and we decided to call it a day.



TALLY = 30 Fish (1 largemouth, 4 legal hybrid, 4 short hybrid, 21 white bass)

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time: 12:00 noon

Air Temp: 58F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 68.5F

Wind: SSE at 6, steadily building to SSE16 by trip’s end

Skies: Skies were partly cloudy at~20% at sunrise and stayed that way until ~7:40, when a heavy bank of fog rolled in and obscured everything for ~1 hour; skies cleared back to 20% clouds on a fair sky thereafter.

This afternoon I was joined by brother and sister John and Mariah G. of Temple.

John and Mariah both qualifed for TPWD “First Fish Awards” today as they both caught the first fish of their lifetime on this trip!!

John and Mariah, age 22 and 20, live full time with their grandfather, John. John is single-handedly raising them and providing for their special needs, and so although this trip was a gift from him to his grandkids, it was also a bit of a well-earned respite for him.

Mariah, who loves Denny’s, reading science fiction, and working as a volunteer at a local animal shelter, was a fast learner. Once I showed her a technique one time, she picked it right up and helped keep both her line and John’s squared away.

John was our comedian. With his creative imagination he had Mariah and I aboard his pirate ship complete with parrots and mateys and the like. I discovered John’s favorite dish is the shrimp served at Long John Silver’s, and, in his spare time he likes to play air guitar and watch Power Rangers (the Samurai version!).

I had a morning trip that concluded just prior to noon today and “laid over” on the lake before setting out on this afternoon’s trip at 3:30pm. I invested the downtime in some scouting and that paid off big time, as I was able to pick the kids up at the dock and put them immediately on the fish I’d previously located in less than a 7 minute boat ride.

Neither John nor Mariah had ever fished before, so, when each “broke the ice” today with a double catch of white bass landed on a tandem rig, they each qualified for a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award”.

We encountered some turbulent weather today and the fish were not very inclined to feed well until it was nearly too dark to see, after the sun had set. So, we wound up downrigging the entire trip, finding all but 6 of our fish right on top of Area 1140. As with this morning’s trip, these fish were deep, being found within 5 feet of the bottom in 42 feet of water.

During a lull at Area 1140, we ventured elsewhere, picking up 2 very small white bass at Area 983, then returning to Area 1140 to find the fish interested once more. As dark set in, a post-sunset surge of white bass moved shoreward here in around 20 feet of water. We moved our downrigger balls up to 12-15 feet and caught our last 4 fish of the evening between Areas 211 and 192.

When all was said and done today the kids had put 37 fish over the side of the boat. As we returned to the dock the kids were very excited to show their grandpa some of their catch. We kept 7 of or larger white bass for show and tell and then let them go after the kids returned to the car to go home.

Thanks, John, for giving John and Mariah the chance to do this!

TALLY = 37 Fish

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 3:30p

End Time: 7:00p

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 70.5F

Wind: SSE at 5-8

Skies: Skies were partly cloudy, up to 70%, with thunderheads building to the N and S of us all afternoon and the distant rumble of thunder heard for the entire trip.

This morning, Nov. 3rd, I was joined by father and son team Brian and Trevor M. of Cedar Park.

Brian and Trevor with our best fish of the trip, a 19.25 inch hybrid that fell for a Pet Spoon fished down in 40+ feet of water.

The last time these fellows came out with me was back in June of 2011 on Stillhouse. Today, we gave Belton Lake a try as it typically fishes a bit more consistently during this portion of the autumn.

Our conditions were less than ideal today with a persistent morning fog that didn’t burn off until around 9:30, thus keeping the conditions murky and “low light”. I find, especially on Belton, that the sudden brightening of the skies just prior to sunrise is a real feeding trigger for white bass and hybrid, and on low light days the bite tends to ramp up very slowly with topwater action virtually unheard of on such days.

Regardless, we took the conditions in stride and methodically worked through them to put together a respectable catch by morning’s end.

We began our day downrigging over a “circuit” for suspended fish showing clearly on sonar 19-24 feet down between Areas 473 and 1079. We ran two sets of Pet Spoons on tandem rigs behind the down riggers and put 11 fish in the boat before this early bite died.

We then went hunting with sonar, this time finding abundant bait unusually deep — between 45 and 50 feet. Where shoals of bait were found, gamefish were also present, but still not “jazzed” and hitting all that well as long as the fog remained and the calm winds prevailed. We did best at Area 682, both combing it over with downriggers to confirm the presence of active fish, then working these active fish over with TNT180 slabs. We added 12 fish to our tally at this location, including 3 hybrid stripers, the best of which went 19.25 inches and weighed in at 3 3/16 pounds. It was interesting to note that all 3 of these hybrids hit immediately after the fog lifted and the direct sun began to shine on the water for the first time this day.

After we caught all that Area 682 would give up, we continued hunting with sonar and found one last concentration of fish at Area 294/1012. Given the way these fish presented on sonar (up off bottom by 18+ inches versus belly-to-the-bottom as we had encountered elsewhere), we skipped the downrigging and went right to slabbing for these fish. We used a “smoking” tactic to put a final 10 fish in the boat including 8 white bass, 1 largemouth and 1 hybrid striped bass. By the time these fish slacked off around 11:05, the fishing was over for the morning.

We finished up our trip with exactly 33 fish boated.

Once we arrived back at the dock, we worked on some Boy Scout fishing merit badge tasks for Trevor, including some knot tying and presentation of certain artificial and natural baits.

TALLY = 33 FISH, (4 hybrid stripers, 1 largemouth, 28 white bass)

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:20a

Air Temp: 68F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 70.5F

Wind: SSE at 2-5

Skies: Skies were fogged over until 9:30, then cleared to partly cloudy, 30%.

This morning I had the pleasure of fishing with retired Sergeant First Class Art A. of Killeen. Art is a Vietnam veteran who worked in Army Aviation his entire career.

Hybrid were in short supply today, but, Art stuck it out until connecting with a good one!

We had beautiful weather today — cool enough for a windshirt in the early morning, then warming up enough for just short-sleeves by trip’s end.

Today’s tactic was “downrig to find ’em, then slab for what ya’ found”.

We got into fish just as soon as it was light enough to see what was going on. Our first success came on downrigged Pet Spoons going parallel to the contour from Area 1097 through Area 1071, to Area 1023. Along this “circuit” we continuously picked up white bass in singles and doubles on the tandem rigs we were pulling. Upon seeing fish aggressive enough to come up off bottom to inspect the downrigger ball, I knew they were aggressive enough to strike at cast lures, so, at Area 1023, we e-anchored and began working these fish over. We used bladebaits in a “lift-drop” fashion and pulled fish every 2-3 casts for 25+ minutes, taking our tally up to 23 fish.

At that time, around 8:15, I spotted some larger fish (likely hybrid) throwing spray up in the air as they fed on the surface some distance away. We moved on over to try take advantage of the topwater action, but, by the time we got where they were, they had moved on.

So, back we headed towards Area 1023. As we went, I watched sonar closely and found a tightly bunched school of white bass on the slope at Area 1139. I buoyed these fish, and we circled back and caught fish continuously through 9:35. By the time we departed, we’d boated 51 fish. These were all taken via a “smoking” tactic, given how tightly bunched they were. Looking back at the morning in review, when these fish lost interest, the feeding window was beginning to close rapidly.

Next, we went searching with sonar and found a small bunch of fish on the breakline between Area 953 and 506. We boated 12 fish there and moved on. The fish were definitely getting tight lipped now.

Our final bit of action came at Area 844/506. This was all on downriggers as by now, we had to get our baits in front of a lot of inactive fish to comb out the few still willing to chase and eat. We managed to pick up 9 more fish in this area including a hybrid (which, regardless of size, were in noticeably short supply today). The hybrid we found were up high in the water column around 15-20 feet down, and the white bass were much lower down, from 40 feet on bottom, up to around 34 feet.

As the morning feed shut down, we ended our outing with a grand total of 72 fish, the most Art had ever boated on any trip of his life. He’s 65 years old. That’s a good day!

TALLY = 72 fish, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 64F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 69.5F

Wind: SSW at 6-9

Skies: Skies were fair.