TEACHING TEACHERS — 72 FISH @ BELTON (AM)

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning, 03 October, I fished with Leander elementary school teachers and fishing buddies Charles Wilkerson and Dan Sullivan.

Charles and Dan went in together on a small fishing boat and fish when their schedules allow, primarily on Lake Georgetown. Like many anglers, they’ve enjoyed success when fishing is easy (topwater white bass on summer mornings), but struggle thereafter.

They came aboard today not just to catch fish, but to learn more about how to catch fish. Aside from their interest in seeing sonar put to use in a real-world scenario, they were also specifically interested in my approach to sunfishing, so, we saved some time to demonstrate that at trip’s end.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: From left: Charles Wilkerson and Dan Sullivan with a few of the white bass we took under typical Central Texas early autumn conditions this morning.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 03 October 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

We enjoyed manageable 10 mph SE winds this morning, but the skies lacked cloud cover. Hence, the early, low light bite was average and fairly short. We found schools of white bass congregated on a gentle slope from 29-35 feet deep and downrigged parallel to the slope to put 14 fish in the boat by around 8AM when the rising, brightening sun killed that bite.

The remainder of our efforts at fishing for white bass, which extended until around 10:30, involved slowly combing over 35-45 foot water with sonar, finding fish, hovering atop them with Spot-Lock, and then fishing for them vertically using MAL Lures in conjunction with Garmin LiveScope.

We added 53 fish to our downrigger tally using the MAL Lures before the morning feed tapered to nothing right around 10:30. Our total now stood at 67 fish.

We changed up our tactics and location at this point and moved up shallow to target sunfish. I introduced the men to the tactics I use during the summer months involving light floats, small hooks, small weights, long poles, and small baits. We put another 5 fish in the boat (all bluegill) in a matter of minutes, then called it a good morning, but not before the fellows each bought a pair of MAL Lures “for the road”.

TALLY: 72 fish caught and released (5 bluegill, 67 white bass)

OBSERVATIONS: Traffic was light thanks to the opener for archery deer season this morning, and a cool, 52F start to the morning.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45A

End Time: 11:00A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 52F

Elevation: 0.1′ high with a 0.05’ 24-hour drop and 51 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 73.7F

Wind Speed & Direction: 10-11 mph SE breeze all morning

Sky Condition: 0% cloud cover, bright sun

Moon Phase: Full moon +3 today

GT = 62