This past Thursday, June 23, I fished Lake Belton with Tom (T-Byrd) and Tracie Byrd from near Weir, Texas.
Tom and Tracie with our first legal hybrid of the day taken on a downrigged Pet Spoon before sunrise.
Tracie with our largest fish of the trip, tilting the scales just past the 6 pound mark. This fish was taken on a cutbait suspended at 21 feet over a deeper bottom.
Tom is a retired US Air Force pilot now living with his wife on 50+ acres raising horses and training them for dressage. Our original trip date was scheduled for earlier in the spring, in conjunction with Tracie’s birthday, but foul weather, including lightning, forced a postponement.
Tom told a great “war story” about dropping a 2,000 pound bomb from his F-16 and failing to account for the suddenly lightened load on one side of the plane which caused the plane to roll violently to the “heavy” side to which the other 2,000 pound bomb was still attached! Obviously, he lived to tell about it.
Fishing has been amazingly consistent given the crazy lake conditions which include high floodwaters and a great amount of throughflow coming out of Lake Proctor, into Belton, only to be quickly discharged from Belton into the Leon River below the dam.
We spent our first 40 minutes on the water trolling Pet Spoons behind downriggers on both 3-armed umbrella rigs and tandem rigs. This allowed us to put our first seven fish in the boat, including five white bass, one short hybrid, and one keeper hybrid. The catch rate while we were downrigging was just so-so.
Soon after the sun rose, and while it was still low in the sky, I began to see hybrid striped bass fill in at mid-depth between 18 and 23 feet over a 32 foot bottom. We transitioned at this time from down rigging to using live and cut baits from a fixed position. We kept our baits consistently at 21 feet down this morning, and caught fish for a solid 2+ hours, during which time we could only keep one rod per person in the water.
By 9:15 the action was slowing substantially, and by 9:35 we had boated our last fish. We pulled the plug about 10 minutes later with exactly 47 fish landed. Of these, over 30 were solid keeper hybrid, with three exceeding the 5 pounds mark, and one exceeding the 6 pound mark.
Even though Tom and Tracie had fished before, they were willing to be coached, especially in regards to the use of circle hooks. This greatly contributed to their success, as they did not go through the steep learning curve that less coachable people typically must.
TALLY = 47 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:15a
End Time: 9:50a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Water Surface Temp: 83.1F
Wind Speed & Direction: S8 at trip’s start, shifting to SSW12 by trip’s end.
Sky Conditions: Variable clouds from 30-40% on a fair sky all morning.
Water Level: ~23 feet above full pool with a release of 5,744 cfs ongoing. Lake is now rising again due to even heavier flows out of Lake Proctor upstream from Belton.
GT = 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1762-1641 – downrigging for smaller fish early
**Area 1767 – live shad fished for suspended fish for 2.5+ hours
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle