That Cold Front Magic!! – 226 Fish for 2 Anglers (all CPR’ed)

CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, November 3, I ran a two-man trip on Lake Belton with returning guest David Giese of Salado joining me for his fourth time aboard over the last two years. David brought with him his former next-door neighbor and native of South Africa, Mr. Gerhard De Jager, originally from Pretoria.

Gerhard shared with me that: “Ek het my eerste vis in Texas gevang.” Translated from Afrikaans: “I caught my first fish in Texas.”

TODAY’S DATE: 03 November 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN MORNING DATES: 17, 24, 30 Nov., 2-4 Dec. 2026

PHOTO CAPTION: Gerhard De Jager of South Africa and his neighbor, David Giese, landed exactly 226 fish in four hours on the heels of this autumn’s third significant cold front.

PHOTO CAPTION: Garmin LiveScope appeared this way for hours this morning after the “perfect storm” of autumn weather put us on the water at sunrise, following the passage of the season’s third cold front.

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

I have been looking forward to this trip since meteorologists first began to forecast what would be our third significant cold front of this autumn season. Although the timing was up in the air late last week, it was clear that a significant cold front would push through Central Texas this week. As the weathermen sharpened their pencils, everyone seemed to agree that somewhere between 1 and 3 a.m. we would see the wet, lead edge of this cold front push through, leaving clearing, cooling, drying winds from the northwest in its wake.

That exact thing came to fruition, with a bonus 0.70 inches of rain dropped on us overnight.

In my opinion, there is no better weather scenario in the fall than the hours immediately following the passage of a cold front. As the wind velocity following the cold front continues to rise, the fish activity rises right along with it.

Indeed, we had our single most-productive trip of the fall thus far on a “fish caught per angler” basis. These two anglers landed 226 fish in exactly 4 hours.

What’s more, we moved only minimally to put this catch together, with one of the areas we fished yielding exactly 100 fish before we left them biting to find even more aggressive fish.

This entire morning we never needed to fish in over 34 feet of water. Every fish landed was landed on the MAL Dense with silver body and chartreuse tail used with the smoking tactic. The catch of 226 fish consisted of 14 short hybrid striped bass, 1 largemouth bass, and 211 white bass.

As is typical in the fall, there were a lot of small fish in this catch, but, by downsizing my gear using light spinning tackle, even smaller fish are fun, and larger white bass then require a bit of skill and patience to bring them across the gunwale.

RESULTS: 226 fish, all caught and released

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/

SEE THE “SMOKING TACTIC” TUTORIAL HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ

OBSERVATIONS:
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LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 27 Oct. 2026, approx. 7:00AM…

Taken on Lake Belton on 21 Oct. 2026, approx. 7:10AM…