Post-Frontal Fishing – 121 Fish @ Belton

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Friday morning, October 30th, I fished with father and son team Kelly and Aaron Baggett.

Dr. Aaron Baggett, is an assistant professor on the faculty at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, and his father, Kelly Baggett, is a retired school district superintendent from the Lubbock area.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: From left: Aaron and Kelly Baggett with a few of the 121 fish we landed at the tail-end of the north wind this past Friday, following the most recent cold front’s passage.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 30 October 2020, AM

HOW WE FISHED:

I observed that the fairly quick, horizontal presentation of downrigging was all but ignored this morning. In the low-light period prior to sunrise which had been producing about 20 fish for me very consistently up through around 8AM, we only landed 4 fish this morning. However, as we downrigged and my eyes were glued to my sonar screens, I noted that most of the fish I saw were suspended at 24-28 feet over a deeper bottom, and were not holding near bottom as was the case prior to this cooldown.

This led me to look up shallower where the 24-28 foot horizontal band of water intersected with the bottom, and, I found fish there. I found white bass, hybrid striped bass, and largemouth bass. It was interesting to note that the largemouth bass we caught were very handsomely colored, meaning they had been in shallow water very recently (as the coloration of largemouth which linger in deep water for long whiles begins to fade making them look very pale).

We caught 30 additional fish in that 28-foot water and then found fish deeper than that after the brilliant sun continued brightening the sky.

As is often the case, the fishing peaked as the wind peaked this morning, between 8:30AM and 10:40AM. During this time we fished two more locations. The first produced another 17 fish which were mostly small fish. While these fish were still biting, we chose to move to see if we could find larger fish – with my clients’ blessing, of course. Some folks prefer the action the smaller fish provide, and so I always give the option to remain on small fish.

Because it happened so suddenly, I actually noted the exact time at which the winds went calm Friday morning – 10:43AM – as we fished our third and final area of the morning.

From that point on, the fishing began to taper to nothing, and, by 11:30AM, the fish finally shut down. This final stop produced more than half of our fish – exactly 70.

In all, we managed to catch 121 fish, the vast majority of which were white bass in the 0-, 1-, and 2-year classes.

See the MAL Lure here: https://whitebasstools.com/

See tutorial video on how to work the MAL Lure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE&t=239s

TALLY: 121 FISH

OBSERVATIONS: Water surface temperature fell 4.4F due to the recent extended cold snap from Mon. to present. Temperature profile from the 5 to 65 feet deep was homogenous, at 67.8F; the surface was 67.2.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:10A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation: 0.43′ low with a 0.05′ 24-hour rise and 0 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 67.2F

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW9 until dying suddenly at 10:43A

Sky Condition: Clear skies

Moon Phase: A waxing gibbous moon at 99% illum.

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT: