NEW SMALLMOUTH BASS LAKE RECORD @ BELTON – 4.25 POUNDS, 20.125″

THE FOLLOWING APPEARED IN THE KILLEEN DAILY HERALD, 07 MAY 2017:

On Wednesday morning [03 May, 2017], Jonathan and Sarah Manning of Copperas Cove and their children, Emily and Jacob, took a guided fishing trip with me on Belton Lake based on the recommendation of Kirk Bateman, a friend of theirs from Eastside Baptist Church. This trip was an early gift to Sarah for Mothers’ Day.

Jacob with Fish

JACOB MANNING’S BELTON LAKE RECORD SMALLMOUTH BASS.

Emily Manning Catfish

EMILY MANNING’S 8.5 POUND FLATHEAD CATFISH.

We met at Rogers Park at 7 a.m. and, under a gloomy, gray sky, headed out primarily in pursuit of hybrid striped bass. This time of year large, lively threadfin shad captured with a cast net typically produce the best results.

As we stopped at our first fishing area in 31 feet of water, Emily was attempting to get her bait down to 25 feet when a 3-pound hybrid striper struck the bait before she could even get her rod in the rod holder. Within minutes, both of her parents also caught similar-sized hybrid stripers.

Unfortunately, this school of fish did not stay around long in this vicinity, forcing us to go looking for actively feeding fish elsewhere.

After trying another area with good fish-holding potential but only finding small blue catfish present there, we moved on to our third area.

Along a sloped, rocky bank in about 28 feet of water, I spotted actively feeding gamefish, using my Humminbird Solix 15 sonar unit in side-imaging mode. Feeding fish typically are found a few feet up off the bottom, and these fish were no exception.

We got all four rods baited and set with the baits a few feet up off bottom and began watching our rod tips for action. We did not have to wait long.

Suddenly, the audible bait clicker on Jacob’s reel sounded off indicating a large fish had taken his bait and was rapidly removing line from the spool of his reel. The rod was bowed down at 90 degrees into the water under the strain of the large fish.

With his dad reassuring him and coaching him, Jacob held on to the rod tightly and tried to retrieve line back onto the reel as the fish would allow. As I glanced at the reel’s line counter, I saw there was still 23 feet of line out. Jacob would gain 6 or 7 feet of line, then lose 3 or 4, and so it went for several moments until the fish changed course and rocketed toward the surface, leaping out of the water trying to shake the hook from its mouth.

Jacob remained calm and brought the fish to net. We all let out a collective “Whoa!” as the fish was a large one. The certified scale I keep on my boat for just such occasions indicated this outsized smallmouth bass weighed exactly 4.25 pounds. When laid upon the Chek-It Stik designed specifically for measuring fish, this specimen measured 20.125 inches.

Jacob’s fish was a quarter-pound heavier than the existing Belton Lake Junior Angler category smallmouth bass record captured by Shaylei Wrisk in June 2011. An application has been submitted to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to declare this fish as the new lake record for this category, based upon its weight.

Less than two minutes after we successfully released Jacob’s fish, his sister Emily’s rod bowed over deeply and she, too, was hooked into a large fish. As her fish emerged from the depths, we clearly saw it was a darkly-colored yellow catfish, also known as a flathead catfish. Emily’s fish weighed 8.50 pounds.

In all, the Manning family landed 41 fish in their four-hour excursion.

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