Eight Feet High and Fallin’ — 114 Fish, Lake Belton, 14 April ’17

This past Friday morning I fished with a four-man crew on Lake Belton, consisting of MJ Linder and his father, Gene, as well as MJ’s friend, Claude Ross, and Claude’s father, Paul.  MJ and Claude first became friends through the Belton Church of Christ.

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From left — Paul Ross accompanied his son, Claude Ross, for a father-and-son Easter weekend fishing trip on Lake Belton.

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From left — MJ Linder organized this father-and-son Easter weekend fishing trip on Lake Belton for his dad, Paul, and the Rosses.

The high and muddy water conditions at Belton further deteriorated since my last trip on Wednesday. From Thursday night into Friday morning, the Corps of Engineers began running as much as 3600+ ft.³ per second of water through the dam. This allowed much of the muddy water that had been pooled up in the Cowhouse Creek arm to flow down into the main lake basin and on top of a majority of the areas where hybrid fishing had been most consistent. This left the Leon River arm as the only viable alternative with fairly clear water.

The problem in the Leon River arm has been consistent all spring – – that is the abundance of white bass holding on the same features that hybrid stripers are using. This creates a situation where, when using livebait and heavier tackle appropriate for hybrid, a lot of the catch consists of white bass for which the angler is then overgunned.

Nonetheless, we took lemons and made lemonade putting together a 114 fish day in which everyone caught hybrid stripers.

At times when it was clear that nothing but white bass were beneath the boat, we used light spinning gear equipped with slabs and stinger hooks to target the smaller fish on more sporty tackle, and at times when both white bass and hybrid appeared on sonar, we kept our baits up high in the water column which tends to reduce the number of grabs coming from white bass.

Most all of our fish came off of just one area which we visited twice, although we passed on a number of other areas at which sonar revealed only white bass to be holding.

Because MJ regularly fishes Belton on his own, I asked towards the end of our trip if he had picked up on any tips that would enhance his own success.  Without giving it much thought, he rattled off three or four items which he’d observed and felt he could put into practice.

TALLY = 114 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 12:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 68.6-69.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE8-9 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: Grey overcast the entire trip with occasional cloud breaks

Water Level: 7.86 feet above full pool and falling; 3600+ cfs release

GT = 110

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1676 – mix of white bass and hybrid stripers on live shad; white bass on slabs when they showed up in force as revealed by sonar

**Area vic 1882 – mix of hybrid stripers and white bass on live shad

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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