Fishing Report

WHO I FISHED WITH:

PHOTO CAPTION: This is a shot of the new MAL Dense with its nickel-plated lead body, shown above a white powder-coated MAL Dense.  These new versions are 0.88 ounces, sink very quickly when getting back to bottom is critical, and give a more subtle, less “showy” appearance than the white or chartreuse bodied MAL Dense versions do.  They, literally, just got posted on my online store today.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 07 May 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

TALLY: 331 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on May 6th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:15A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 8 feet high and rising, 27CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 72.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE6-12 all morning

Sky Condition: Mostly cloudy all morning with occasions breaks letting direct sun through

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 1% illumination.

GT = 165

WHO I FISHED WITH:

PHOTO CAPTION: As of 5PM, May 6, 2024, Lake Belton is over 5.85′ high, with additional flood water still pouring in.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 06 May 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

TALLY: 213 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on May 6th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 4.15 feet high and rising, 33 CFS flow (a 6+ foot rise in the past 24 hours!!)

Water Surface Temp: 70.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE7-8 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies all morning with light, occasional mist.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 4% illumination.

GT = 5

WHO I FISHED WITH:

PHOTO CAPTION:   I did not practice catch-and-release in this situation.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Friday, 03 May 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

As we wrapped up, Gardiner motioned for me to meet him at the cooler he had in the back of his vehicle.  He and his wife run a Wagyu beef operation near Iola, TX, and he was kind enough to bring me with some  burgers and nicely marbled ribeye and chuck eye roll!!

TALLY: 120 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on April 30th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 70F

Elevation: 6.62 feet low and rising, 33 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 70.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE8-9 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies all morning with light, occasional mist, followed by a light rain beginning as we departed.

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 28% illumination.

GT = 50

WHO I FISHED WITH:

This morning, Thursday, May 2, I fished with returning guest Ray Andrews, accompanied by his father, Raymond, and his brother-in-law, Will, both first-time guests.

Raymond and Will were invited down from West Texas to celebrate Raymond‘s retirement after 20 years in the trucking industry, which followed 30 years in the roofing business.

Today’s results were spectacular!

Here is how the fishing went…

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 02 May 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

We met up at 7:30 AM after hard rains passed through in the early morning hours, dropping roughly an inch of rain area wide. We sat on the boat ramp for about 30 minutes waiting for showers which had redeveloped briefly to come to an end. We launched and ran to our first fishing area with a light sprinkle still falling, then did not have another drop of rain fall on us for the following four hours through noon.

I was encouraged at finding fairly heavily schooled white bass on bottom in what looked like a feeding mode while the skies were still quite dark thanks to cloud cover at both high and low levels following the rain cells’ passage.

I Spot Locked on these fish and all three fellows got their first crack at using the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab in conjunction with LiveScope. They worked through all the normal learning curve issues and caught a few fish at this location before those fish lost interest fairly quickly.

As I cranked up to begin searching for a second group of fish to fish for, I spotted four laughing gulls off in the distance. I just kept an eye on them because they seemed reluctant to leave the area I’d spotted them in. Soon, one of them, then another, then all four begin to tighten their flight pattern over this particular area, then, another dozen birds join them, and before long it was “game on”. The entire flock was routinely diving and plucking shad off the surface.  Those shad were being driven there by white bass below them in about 30 feet of water.

From that time until we wrapped up at noon with the fish still biting, we were able to catch aggressive white bass continuously under birds in three distinct areas.

My crew landed their 100th fish at exactly 9:30, their 200th fish at 10:22, their 300th fish at 11:23, and finished up at noon with 363 fish grand total.

Ray, the only one of the three who had fished with me previously, had prior experience using an MAL Lure.  As soon as I saw how aggressive the fish were, I got him changed over to the MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail and then, as time allowed, I got Will transitioned over, as well. Raymond was just fine continuing to fish vertically with his slab which he was enjoying consistent success on, so, for the last 3/4 of the trip we fished two anglers with the MAL Heavy and Raymond between the two of them with the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.

Arranged this way, I was able to assess how these lures fished against one another, and I am certain that the MAL drew a greater percentage of better quality white bass, which stands to reason, as its profile is almost twice that of the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.  It also has a #4 treble vs. the smaller #5 treble on the slab, so, some small fish strike and cannot get their mouths around the hook.

We wrapped up this trip with 363 fish landed, including four freshwater drum, one short hybrid striper, and 358 white bass.

TALLY: 363 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

I saw abundant open water topwater action this morning for the first time.  There has been some here and there, but this morning, it was consistent, and widespread.  Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on April 30th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 8A

End Time: 12:00P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 5.74 feet low, 33 CFS flow (an 8.16″ rise overnight)

Water Surface Temp: 70.5F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NE9 at trip’s start in the wake of passing rain cells, then slowly shifting E, then ESE11-12

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies all morning following early morning heavy rains which cleared the area by 8A

Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 39% illumination.

GT = 113

WHO I FISHED WITH:

This morning, Tuesday, April 30, I fished with returning guest David Lynn, accompanied by his friend and my first time guest, Dennis Tucker.

The plan was to pursue hybrid striped bass using live shad for the entirety of the trip.

Here’s how the fishing went…

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 30 April 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

This morning the air temperature was right at 68°F, we had a southeasterly wind and heavy, gray cloud cover with just the lightest touch of fog right around sunrise.

With these warm, windy conditions, shad netting was pretty straightforward this morning.

David and Dennis arrived a bit early and I finished up my shad netting duties early, so I met up with them at seven and we were headed to our first fishing area by 7:15. We had our first fish in the boat by 7:54.

The bite this morning was pretty much as it has been on live bait for the past two weeks with a mixed bag of white bass, hybrid striped bass, blue catfish, and freshwater drum in the mix

By the two hour mark this morning David and Dennis had put eight legal hybrid striped bass in the boat as well as additional just-short hybrid stripers.

In the final two hours of live bait fishing, they landed one additional legal fish and two additional short fish for a total this morning of nine legal hybrid striped bass.

The time was now 11:15 and I intended to fish until about 11:45. Seeing that the hybrid bite was dying down, and because Dennis had expressed an interest in using artificial for white bass, we put our final 30 minutes of effort into using Hazy Eye Slabs to target white bass, which were heavily schooled on bottom.

Up to this point we had 32 fish boated and quickly added an additional 22 fish to the count bringing our final tally to 54 fish for the morning.

TALLY: 54 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

Shad were thick once again at Area SHAD040 this morning.  Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on April 30th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:35A

End Time: 12:05P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 6.64 feet low, 33 CFS flow (a 2.74′ rise over the weekend!!)

Water Surface Temp: 67.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Flat calm all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies all morning with fog thru 10:30A

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 71% illumination.

GT = 75

WHO I FISHED WITH:

This morning, Monday, April 29, I fished with father and daughter team, Brad and Avery Massey.

Brad’s dad who lives out in California got this trip for Brad for his birthday.

Brad is a US Army retiree, and Avery is just getting into the real estate business here in Central Texas.

Here’s how the fishing went…

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 29 April 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

When I first met up with Brad and Avery, I tried to get a feel for their expectations and what they hoped to accomplish during the trip.

I discovered that Brad owns his own fishing boat and has gotten the hang of fishing for largemouth pretty well, but the tactics and locations for white bass and hybrid stripers have eluded him. Thus, he hoped to take away from this trip an approach to finding and catching white bass and hybrid striped bass.

I explained that although the two do use the same areas at times and do feed on the same baitfish at times, they are two fairly different animals.

We divided the trip up into two blocks. The first block of three hours we dedicated to hunting hybrid stripers using live bait on downlines. The final block of about 90 minutes, we dedicated to finding and catching white bass using the smoking tactic with slabs and the sawtooth method with MAL Lures.

Despite a lot of environmental change and unfavorable weather conditions, Brad and Avery wound up doing quite well. The lake rose more than 1.6 feet over the weekend and we had foggy and calm conditions to deal with.

In three hours time we put a total of eight legal hybrid in the boat as part of a 51 fish catch which included white bass, blue catfish, and freshwater drum, as well.

We wrapped up the trip with a total of 90 fish. The last 39 fish landed were all white bass. We found the white bass with side-imaging, Spot Locked on top of them, and worked them with Bladed Hazy Eye slabs using a smoking tactic until they lost interest.  We then came back and worked MAL Lures vertically until they lost interest, and then, on whichever side of the boat side-imaging indicated the greatest number of fish were on, we fished for them horizontally around the perimeter of the boat using the sawtooth method and MAL Lure (MAL Heavy with chartreuse tail).

We wound up the trip right at noon with exactly 90 fish landed.

I enjoyed Brad‘s parting comment which was, “I learned a lot, and it was all worth it to see Avery smile.”.

TALLY: 90 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

Shad were thick at Area SHAD040 this morning.  Here was the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on April 18th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:35A

End Time: 12:05P

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 6.64 feet low, 33 CFS flow (a 2.74′ rise over the weekend!!)

Water Surface Temp: 67.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: Flat calm all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies all morning with fog thru 10:30A

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 71% illumination.

GT = 75

WHO I FISHED WITH:

This morning, Thursday, April 25, I fished with the Oliver brothers – Joe, Jack, Jamie, and Jeff. The four have fished with me at least one time each year for most of the eighteen years I’ve been in business.

Today we made an intentional attempt at targeting hybrid striped bass using live shad.

My next open date is Wed., 29 May (AM).

Here’s how the fishing went…

PHOTO CAPTION:  From left: Jamie and Jeff Oliver with a multi-species double landed simultaneously.  Both fish were taken on live threadfin shad.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 25 April 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

We had a damp, cloudy morning all morning with east-southeast winds at 10 to 12 mph and light rain for the middle two hours of this four hour trip.

Although we found fish at all but the last two areas we fished, these areas seemed to have all but legal hybrid stripers.

We landed an unusually high number of freshwater drum this morning (perhaps half of our overall catch), as well as blue catfish, two largemouth bass, one smallmouth bass, a mess of white bass (all legal), two short hybrid, and two legal hybrid stripers. Both of these legal hybrid came from the same area on a fairly well-sloped bottom in about 36 feet of water. One of the two short hybrid we landed also came from this same area.

I’m still kinda shaking my head about the freshwater drum.  I’ve never landed that many as a bycatch on any fishing trip in 33 years fishing Belton and Stillhouse.

Although I am still reserving judgment on how the hybrid fishery may or may not have come back’, I certainly anticipated a better catch of legal hybrid stripers given the time of year and the conditions we had today.

Our final tally was 48 fish

TALLY: 48 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

With 2+ days of southerly winds and increasing warmth and humidity, I rather easily netted shad at Area vic SHAD039.  Here is the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on April 18th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:20A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Elevation: 9.07 feet low, 33 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 67.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE9-12 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% grey skies all morning with light rain from 8:30 to 10:30A

Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 98% illumination.

GT = 50

WHO I FISHED WITH: 

This morning, Tuesday, April 23, I fished with returning guests, Pastor PJ Condit and Pastor Scott Smith.

PJ serves the Community Christian Church in Round Rock, and Scott serves at Crestview Christian Church in Copperas Cove.

This plan came together in under 24 hours’ time as my client originally scheduled for this morning was stuck in Costa Rica and unable to make it in for this trip he had booked more than a year in advance.

Here is how the fishing went…

PHOTO CAPTION: The full moon shone intensely this morning over the bow as it set in the southwestern sky. 

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday, 23 April 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

I try not to make a habit of having to gather bait just prior to my clients’ arrival. For this reason, I keep a large live bait tank back in my garage and, if anything, just top off prior to my clients’ arrival.

This was not the case this morning , so I wound up throwing the cast net for spawning shad which, around 6:50 AM, began to show up in shallow water to spawn. The plan was to give hybrid striped bass fishing a try, assess where we were after two hours, then decided at that point whether we would press on after hybrid, or swap over to fishing for white bass with artificials.

Things started like gangbusters. Two of our first three fish were legal hybrid, but, we would not see any additional legal hybrid over the remainder of our four hour trip. A lot of white bass are now filtering back into deeper water after doing whatever they did for this year’s spawn given the low water conditions.

So, we often ran into situations where we got baits down and then were instantly inundated with white bass beneath the boat, which then made short work the shad we sent down, regardless of size.

We decided we would keep checking areas and, if any of the first five fish landed were hybrid, we would continue fishing there, otherwise, we would move on until we encountered additional hybrid.

At the two hour mark, PJ and Scott, who have caught hundreds of white bass with me in the past, decided they would like to continue trying for the larger hybrid, so we stuck with fishing with live shad for the remainder of the trip.

By 11:40 AM, Scott and PJ had put together a catch of 75 fish. Those included 2 legal hybrid striper, 1 short hybrid, 2 blue catfish, 6 freshwater drum, and 64 white bass.

After seeing what I observed this morning, I felt any of those locations where the white bass immediately began to form under the boat could have easily produced fish using slabs, as well.

TALLY: 75 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

Thanks to the return of southerly winds overnight, the threadfin shad spawn continued this morning.  Netted shad at Area SHAD039.  Here is the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on April 18th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:40A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 58F

Elevation: 9.11 feet low, 33 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.3F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SE9 before dawn through 8:30, then shifting and increasing to SSW12-14 thereafter.

Sky Condition: Pale blue skies with 40-70% white/grey cloud mix

Moon Phase: Full moon at 100% illumination.

GT = 0

WHO I FISHED WITH: 

This morning, Monday, April 22, I fished with a crew of first time, guests all members of the Sun City, Rod and Gun Club. Mr. Pat Patterson (who did not participate today) organized the trip for Ivan Stubbs, Brett Mainz, David Semich, and Nick Carnes.

All of these men had prior fishing experience, but had no prior experience with Garmin LiveScope.

Next available date: 28 May (AM)

Here is how the fishing went…

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Monday, 22 April 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

I had some concerns about today’s winds, as the strong northerly winds we had over the weekend were to cease then shift out of the east then southeast by the end of the morning. Sometimes, as the wind shifts, it goes completely slack. Other times, it simply reduces velocity as it changes directions. This morning, we had a bit of a mix of the two, but, long story short, we did not have slack winds for more than about 20-30 minutes.

The northwest winds were still blowing when we hit our first area, then I used most of the time that the slack winds existed to travel to another area, and by that time, the winds were blowing just south of east, and we enjoyed increasing winds for the remainder of the trip.

Thanks to the blowing winds, we were able to catch fish from start to finish today. The last two hours were definitely more productive than the first two hours.

We fished five locations this morning and fished each of them in an identical manner.

We used a slow smoking tactic with white, 5/8-ounce Hazy Eye Slabs to fish for fish which were either bottom-hugging or suspended just slightly off bottom.  The goal was to get these fish to pursue these lures upwards, overtake them, and strike.

As the winds increased, the propensity for these fish to chase harder, venture further from bottom, and swim horizontally at a faster pace, all increased noticeably.

We ended the morning right at 11:30 with 122 fish landed, including 2 blue catfish, 1 channel catfish, 5 freshwater drum, and the balance of 114 white bass.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab at the Liberty Mart on Adams Ave. uphill from Temple Lake Park, or here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 122 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

Thanks to the chilling factor of the weekend’s north winds, I observed no threadfin shad spawning activity this morning. Here is the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on April 18th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 45F

Elevation: 9.10 feet low, 33 CFS flow (up 0.27 feet thanks to Saturday night’s rain)

Water Surface Temp: 68.1F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: NNW5 for ~40 min., then slack, then starting NE4 and rising while shift slowly through ESE up to 12-13.

Sky Condition: Cloudless, pale blue skies.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at  98% illumination.

GT = 80

WHO I FISHED WITH: 

This morning, Thursday, April 18, I fished with a five man crew in what would be my first intentional effort to catch hybrid striped bass in several years.

I welcomed aboard returning guests Joey Sapien, Danny Marriott, and Tim Long, as well as first time guests Craig Hunter, and Harris Young.

Next available date: Tuesday, 28 May (AM)

Here’s how the fishing went…

PHOTO CAPTION: A few of the 42 legal hybrid went as much at 5.25 pounds.  Here, Texas’ top game warden, retired Colonel Craig Hunter, hoists one of the beefy white bass/striped bass crosses.

PHOTO CAPTION: Although longer and leaner than Craig’s fish, this Lake Belton hybrid also went 5.25 pounds.  Large, healthy shad did the trick.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 18 April 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED: 

Thanks to gray skies and breezy conditions from before sunrise through to the end of our trip at 11:30, there was both a strong shad spawn and a strong morning bite.

We split the trip into two 2-hour blocks with the first half dedicated to fishing live shad for hybrid striped bass, and the second half dedicated to chasing higher numbers of smaller white bass using a vertical approach with slabs.

In our first two hours we landed 59 fish including 2 blue catfish, 1 yellow, catfish, 1 channel catfish, 7 white bass, 2 freshwater drum, 4 short hybrid, and the balance of 42 legal hybrid with the largest right at 5.25 pounds. The timeframe from 7:30 through 8:40 was the best, with a slow taper to nil by 9:30.

In the final two hours from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM, we put an additional 143 fish in the boat including 4 more freshwater drum with the remaining 139 fish consisting solely of white bass.

Fishing vertically with three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs using a smoking tactic turned out very well with five anglers as their baits constantly racing upward and fluttering back downward did a great job of imitating a school of shad directly beneath the boat and created constant commotion.

I helped keep everyone’s retrieve at just the right speed by way of the use of an onboard metronome, and we churned the water to imitate the sound of schooling fish using a splasher .

Three of the five had never used LiveScope before, and everyone found it very engaging and entertaining to be able to see fish response to their presentations.

We ended the morning right at 11:30 AM with exactly 202 fish landed.

Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab at the Liberty Mart on Adams Ave. uphill from Temple Lake Park, or here: https://whitebasstools.com/

TALLY: 202 fish caught and released 

OBSERVATIONS:

Light shad spawning activity has reached the main basin. Here is the water temperature profile for Lake Belton, measured before sunrise on April 18th …

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:15A

End Time: 11:30A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 73F

Elevation: 9.37 feet low, 33 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 68.9F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE9-11 all morning

Sky Condition: 100% thin grey clouds for 3 hours, with slow clearing to 80% white cloud cover thereafter.

Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 75% illumination.

GT = 240