We got going right at sunrise (around 7:30 AM), and immediately spotted about 15 gulls actively working over fish. We found a heavily congregated mix of white bass and hybrid striper in about 34 feet of water.

As I encountered this past Saturday, there were so many smaller fish mixed in, using live bait proved to be a fruitless situation, as the smaller fish would attack and kill the bait without getting hooked. So, as long as I saw these fish on sonar, we stuck with using slabs and did very well using an “easing” tactic. After this first bit of action, I moved to one of our more successful locations from Saturday’s trip and ran sonar over it. We found abundant, aggressively feeding fish, that no birds had yet taken notice of.

The situation here was pretty much the same – a lot of smaller fish only too willing to tear up a perfectly good shad. So, we stuck with the slabs and landed a nice blend of short and keeper white bass, and short and keeper hybrid. After this location continued to give up mostly small fish for over an hour and 15 minutes, I suggested we move in hopes we could encounter some larger fish.

This turned out to be a good gamble, as we found a nice concentration of 18 to 22.5 inch hybrid stripers holding on a breakline. We put six keepers in the boat right off the bat, and then here came a bunch of small fish attracted by the commotion we created in landing these larger fish. As before, we simply converted over to slabs and kept right on catching a blend of short whites, keeper whites, short hybrid, and keeper hybrid.

Right at 11:20, the fish just seemed to give up. The sonar screen went blank and what had been a very steady and productive bite on the slab ceased.

Fred and Bill finished up their morning with exactly 115 fish boated. Fred caught the largest hybrid I’ve had come aboard yet this calendar year – – a 5.25 pound, 22.5 inch hybrid. This was a very healthy, thick fish, traditionally atypical for Belton. It is quite clear that last year’s flooding and the excellent shad spawn that resulted from it has allowed these fish to put on weight over the cool months.