HE ELECTED … TO GO FISHING, 104 FISH @ BELTON

WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Tuesday evening, Election Day 2020, I fished with Killeen Police Department’s Sergeant Shawn Dejournette.

Shawn is a husband, father, U.S. Army veteran, Christ follower, and beekeeper originally from Missouri and although he had fished before and owned a bass boat at one point in time, he’d never fished as we did today.

Shawn was eager to learn and willingly coached, and his results reflected that.

PHOTO CAPTION #1: The photo is a bit grainy because we worked right up until the fish absolutely quit at dark in our efforts to put 100 fish in the boat this evening, which we did by right around 6PM, well after the sun had set.

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (PM), 03 November 2020

HOW WE FISHED:

Shawn and I got going at 1:30PM. To his credit, he had done his homework and watched my MAL Lure tactic video before arriving, so he was already familiar with the “tutorial” I provided him in preparation for using the MAL Lure as our primary tool to catch white bass.

This afternoon’s bite was definitely not as intense as either the morning bite or the afternoon bite on those afternoon trips I’d fished as recently as last Saturday.

As you can see from the list of areas we had to stop at to put together our catch, it far exceeded the typical 3-4 stops it normally takes to make a solid trip.

The fishing was the same at each location right up until the sun dipped below the western horizon. Up until sunset we “parked” atop strong congregations of white bass and fished the MAL Lure vertically with a moderately-paced “smoking” style retrieve. After sunset, as the depths dimmed, those fish remaining active shifted briefly toward the surface and began feeding in the top 7 feet of the water column. As we watched the nearly calm surface, we could see them form individual boils of water and/or shad skipping away from them. About one in three casts resulted in a hookup over a ~25 minute span to help up land our final 17 fish, and eclipse the 100 fish mark.

TALLY: 104 fish caught and released

OBSERVATIONS: This afternoon’s bite was a bit tougher than expected, especially given a mild warming trend and southerly breeze. The fish weren’t locked down, but just a bit lackadaisical.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30P

End Time: 6:00P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation: 0.50′ low with a 0.02’ 24-hour drop and 0 CFS flow thru the dam

Water Surface Temp: 66.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE breeze blowing ~12 at trip’s start, slowly tapering to light and variable by sunset

Sky Condition: <5% white cloud cover on a blue sky

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous at 93% illumination

GT = 55

Wx SNAPSHOT: