WHO I FISHED WITH: 

This morning, Friday, 19 April, I conducted the 13th SKIFF trip of the 2024 season.

Joining me was the Landry family. Mrs. Nikki Landry brought her five kids – – Jhanna (16) Madison (13), Alayna (12), Brian (11), and Moslyn (8).

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew Landry is currently deployed to South Korea where he works in the signal intelligence field. CW2 Landry has been in the military for 18 years.

Nikki is the homefront parent currently parenting 5 kids, but, the family is in the process of adopting four additional teenagers now scheduled to arrive in the U.S. before CW2 Landry’s return, thus upping the “kid count” to nine.  Nikki was quick to give the Lord credit for the way He has moved and removed barriers and how He has been faithful in all of the adoptions she and Matt have been through.

ABOUT SKIFF:  SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009.  SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru.  S.K.I.F.F. provides kids of military members separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish.  SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member.  In mid-2019, SKIFF began providing trips to kids of bona fide disabled veterans.  I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round.  Call or text 254.368.7411.

My only open date prior to June is Wednesday, May 1st.

Here’s how the fishing went…

PHOTO CAPTION: Alayna landed our largest white bass of the morning.  It fell for a 5/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab in 32 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: Eldest daughter Jhanna landed our largest fish of the trip.  Her 2.25-pound freshwater drum also fell for a 5/8 oz., white Hazy Eye Slab from out of 37 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

A mild cold front blew in to Central Texas around 7 PM last night bringing some thunderstorms to Mills, Lampasas, and Burnett counties. The warm, muggy air was replaced by cooler, dryer air.  Yesterday‘s high temperatures were in the high 80s, whereas we were right at 60° this morning with a stiff north breeze at 13 and gray cloud cover.  It stayed in the 60s all day.

Before dropping a line at our first fishing area, I took the time to cover the fundamentals of properly gripping the rod and gripping the reel’s handle, I emphasized the importance of turning the handle smoothly and continuously as we used the slow smoking method, and I introduced the kids to the concept of following the beat of my onboard metronome so they would be sure to be retrieving at just the right speed. I also made sure everyone knew to open and close their bail by hand so as to avoid wind knots

I keep my kid-specific trips a bit shorter than those with adults participating. Usually 3.5 hours  sees most kids reach the end of their attention spans.

During our 3.5 hours, we encountered three groups of interested fish, and another four groups of disinterest fish.

The fish all fell for a slowly smoked, white, Bladed Hazy Eye Slab in 5/8 ounce.

Thanks to the cold front conditions, the fish were holding tightly to bottom and were noticeably more lethargic than under more ideal conditions. Even the fish in those schools which were interested did not stay interested for all that long.

When all was said and done, the kids had boated a total of 81 fish including 80 white bass and one freshwater drum.

WHO I FISHED WITH: 

This morning, Wednesday, April 17, I fished with returning guests, Dr. Jim Wood and his friend, also from the medical community, Sky Sparks.

Jim celebrated his 77th birthday today.

Sky makes his living as a medical scribe. The two men first got to know each other when Jim was practicing and specializing in wound care, and the two have remain friends since then.

Next available dates:  Wed., 24 April (AM), Wed., 01 May (AM)

Here is how the fishing went…

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

In a word, the fishing this morning was … tough. We had next to no wind all morning and a thin veil of fog for the first half of the morning.

I had hoped to get Jim and Sky on some pre-dawn fish blitzing spawning shad up in shallow water. Although we did find plenty of spawning shad, there was not much in the way of gamefish trailing them to feed upon them.

After we left the potential for catching shallow water fish behind around 7:20, I began looking for heavily schooled fish in deep water for us to work vertically for.

After finding a good school, I went to go about setting up on them and I encountered issues with my trolling motor deploying properly.  We wound up losing about an hour as my sweet wife hoisted my spare trolling motor into her vehicle and shuttled it out to us  at lakeside. With the new trolling motor installed, we set out once again to find fish. It was now 8:20 AM and the winds were still nearly calm.

We would go onto fish 5 areas with the fish behaving in nearly the exact same manner at each one of them.  Being heavily grouped and on the bottom, these fish would express interest in the slabs we dropped down to them just for a few minutes after we arrived, allowing a catch of just a handful of fish. After that, the fish would turn off and only halfheartedly follow lures, if at all.

We found that by remaining in an area awaiting the arrival of additional schools of fish to pass beneath the boat, we could catch another one or two or three fish before everything went quiet at each of these locations.

In this manner, we were able to put together a catch of 41 fish including 37 white bass and 4 freshwater drum.

I compared notes with two other regular Lake Belton anglers, and they reported identical behavior under these same, tough conditions.  Misery loves company!!

WHO I FISHED WITH: 

This morning, Monday, April 15, I hosted a father and son crew – – Jeff and Drew Cizek.

Both men are U.S. military veterans, with Jeff having retired after 31 years in the Navy, and Drew having served, among other things, as a US Army air traffic controller.

Jeff is now retired, and Drew sells vehicles at the Garlyn Shelton dealership in Temple and also works as a volunteer fireman on his “spare time“.

Here is how the fishing went…

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

Thanks to a full weekend of warmth, and an overnight air temperature of 70F (more than 4 degrees warmer than the water’s surface temperature), the threadfin shad spawn has reached the main lake and with it, some pre-dawn, shallow water fishing opportunities.

I planned to be on the water quite early this morning in advance of meeting the Cizeks in order to get a feel for how the shad netting situation might be for forthcoming spring hybrid trips.

I met up with the Cizeks at 7:10 AM , and they proceeded to catch fish for a full four hours. Our first hour and our last 30 minutes were the taper up and the taper down from the morning’s peak fishing in between.

During the taper up and taper down, we found fish fairly sluggish, glued to bottom, and willing only to chase halfheartedly.

During the peak, it was as if these white bass were an entirely different animal. They moved energetically, both horizontally and vertically, came as much as 12 to 14 feet off the bottom to chase a bait, and were more than willing to strike both Hazy Eye Slabs and MAL Originals vertically with a smoking tactic.  We found all of our fish during this peak in 28-32 feet of water along south-facing shorelines being impacted by the SE wind.

My two guests landed 14 fish during the taper up to the peak, then another 5 fish during the taper down, with a grand total of 110 fish caught over the course of the entire four hour morning, hence a catch of 91 fish during the 2.5 hour peak of activity.

Oddly enough, as ideal as the conditions were, and as aggressive as the fish were, I saw no open water bird activity, nor any topwater activity.

Of the 110 fish landed, 4 were freshwater drum, and the remaining 106 were all white bass.

WHO I FISHED WITH:

This morning, Friday, April 12, I conducted a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip for the Guerrero brothers — Isaac (13), Micah (9), and Matias (6). The boys’ grandfather, Gary Emory, coordinated the trip, and the boys’ mom, Kate, came along for moral support and crowd control.

Gary sold his roofing company and retired so as to be able to enjoy his grandkids, and Kate homeschools the boys, hence giving them the flexibility to enjoy adventures like this morning’s without competing with the rest of America to do so on Saturdays.

My next open dates are: 16 & 24 April, and 03 May (AMs)

Here is how the fishing went…

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

With warming water — and about three additional feet of it coming into the lake since Tuesday — fishing both yesterday and today was a whole lot easier than I thought it might be given all of the environmental change that has taken place in such a short period of time.

I was concerned because as my crew showed up at around 7:15, the winds were flat calm, but, just as we began heading out to our first spot after my pre-trip briefing, an 8 mph northwest wind began to blow, both moving and rippling the water enough to really fire the fish up.

This boosted the boys confidence early and allowed them to make rookie mistakes without those being too costly.

In under an hour’s time, the three boys had landed exactly 35 fish before the winds began to taper down in advance of a wind shift; the fish activity tapered down with it.

The weather forecast called for southerly winds to start and build to about 13 mph by 11 a.m., so, we pushed through the more difficult 30 or so minutes of calm until that wind shift finally did materialize.

During this time, as I often do when conditions get tough, I moved out to as deep water as I could find fish in (in this case, 42 feet), and allowed depth to serve as a buffer to the tough conditions we faced.

While on this same deep water spot, the south winds began making their way to us from the southeast.  As the ripple started, and the water began to move once again, the bite fired up greatly. We never moved off that area until 10:20 when all three boys had had enough. By this time, they had put exactly 111 fish in the boat.

At one point in time, Micah saw the Garmin LiveScope monitor he was watching come alive with a school of fish covering an area from the bottom up to 8 feet off of it, moving quickly from one side of the screen to the other.  Wanting everyone else to see what he was seeing, he just blurted out, “Whoa! Look at the TV!”.  His brothers knew exactly what he was talking about.

I found that we could extend the time over which the white bass would stay interested enough to bite by starting off with slabs and, once interest in the slabs began to wane, switching over to MAL Lures.

I had the boys work both of these vertically with a smoking tactic in rhythm with a metronome going 80 to 90 BPM, depending on how aggressive the fish appeared on Garmin LiveScope.

This catch of 111 fish included 110 white bass, and 1 just-short hybrid striper.

This morning, Thursday, April 11, I fished with father and son team, Adam and Gabriel Lee from Troy, Texas, just outside the city of Temple.

My next open dates are: 16 & 24 April, and 03 May (AMs)

PHOTO CAPTION:  On one of the hundreds of drops Gabriel made to the bottom this morning, his lure stopped dead on bottom before he could crank it up through the white bass.  That’s because this 5.25-pound blue catfish had grabbed it!

With winds sufficiently high to ripple and move the water blowing prior to sunrise and high-pressure still building in, the situation was right for a good day on the water following several days of much more turbulent weather.

This morning‘s report is quite simple… Father and son caught white bass for four hours straight from but three locations using white, Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs when we first arrived at each area, then, once the fish began to turn off to the slabs, they used MAL Originals vertically with a smoking tactic to continue catching those fish which had begun to refuse a slab.

The locations these fish came from were all identical and that they were in 34 to 36 feet of water and on underwater slopes which faced into the direction of the northwest wind.

Despite the presence of many flocks of laughing gulls, I spotted no fish-related bird activity this morning .

As we wrapped up at 11:20 AM, Adam and Gabriel had landed exactly 166 fish, including 164 white bass, 1 hybrid striped bass, and a 5.25 pound blue catfish.

My next open dates are: 16 & 24 April, and 03 May (AMs)

After rounds of training rain storms yesterday which dropped over 5 inches of rain right on top of both Belton and Stillhouse, both reservoirs are now rapidly rising.

Belton rose over 2 feet in under 24 hours.  Despite this, the water was not as badly discolored as I thought it might be.

We got going around 7:20A. My plan was to fish any open areas I felt would hold fish early on, as the winds were forecast to be manageable (under 15 mph) through around 11 AM. After that, I was planning to seek the protection of the Leon River arm if need be, as the wind was blowing straight down the Cowhouse Creek arm.

That plan lasted all of about an hour when the northwest winds ramped up easily to 20 mph with higher gusts by 8:20.

My crew managed to land a handful of fish in open water before the winds picked up, and, if nothing else, got the hang of the Hazy Eye Slab using a smoking tactic during this first stop.

With the wind forcing a change of plans, we headed into more sheltered water and, to my surprise, we found fish rather easily, albeit at glued to the bottom in 32 to 36 feet of water.

These fish demonstrated the typical bottom-hugging behavior with a reluctance to chase and strike shortly after the novelty of our baits appearing among them wore off, as they often do when environmental conditions are not favorable.

Despite this reluctance, my crew of three was still able to catch fish consistently, mainly because the sheer numbers of fish we found created a bit of competition, and because the nearly ideal water temperature has fish active and occasionally suspended and patrolling for food.

We fished at four different areas after leaving open water, finding nearly identical scenarios at each.

Right at the four hour mark, the fish we were on had about given up and I was planning to make one more move before calling it a good morning.

Before moving, I checked weather radar and it clearly revealed an organized cell of thunderstorms from Gatesville up to the Granbury area all moving north. It appeared we were in the clear for quite some while to come.

Well, I’ll bet I had not moved the boat 100 yards before a light sprinkle materialized out of nowhere. That turned into rain, rain turned into a downpour, and the downpour included marble-sized hail. I had to turn the face of each of my sonar units toward the floor of the boat to keep them from getting pelted by the hail.

I surveyed the crew and we all agreed we were happy with the 51 fish they had landed, thus, we would make a run to the boat ramp as soon as the rain relented.

We finished up the morning with exactly 51 fish landed, including 4 drum and 47 white bass.

100% of our catch came using the slow-smoking tactic with the 5/8 oz. white, Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.

My next open dates are: 12 & 16 April, and 03 May (AMs)

PHOTO CAPTION: Here is the bait 100% of the men’s 133 fish catch came on this morning … the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.  The stinger on the front means very few missed strikes whether the bait is rising or falling, and the spinning willowleaf blade adds flash, vibration, and shine which slabs generally lack.

PHOTO CAPTION:  This small metronome helps me help my clients control the speed of their retrieve.  When conditions are tough, white bass can be very choosy about the speed at which a lure is moving.

My next open dates are: 12 & 16 April, and 03 May (AMs)

This morning, Wednesday, April 3, I fished with first time guest  Joseph Lewis from the small town of Rogers, Texas, just outside of the city of Temple.

Joseph is a US Navy submarine service veteran, who currently works entirely from home in the tech industry. He spoke proudly and often about his 16 and 18-year-old daughters.

Joseph’s goal was not so much to catch fish as to understand an approach to finding and catching them in the spring months. Joseph has his own Kenner center-console with trolling motor and Humminbird electronics and desired to be able to put them to better use in pursuit of white bass.

Here is how the fishing went…

My next open dates are: 12 & 16 April, and 03 May (AMs)

This morning, Monday, April 1, I fished with first-time guests, Byron Hudson, and his eight-year-old son, Cyrus.

Byron and Cyrus drove in from Austin, but keep their own boat at one of the Lake Belton marinas. Thus, Byron had previous Lake Belton fishing experience, but not a lot of success. So, in addition to catching fish, I tried to help Byron understand the approach we were taking, and also tried to answer all of his questions, most of which appropriately centered around fish location.

My next open dates are: 12 & 16 April, and 03 May (AMs)

Here’s how the fishing went…