What a Way to Start Your Fishing Career – 181 Fish

CLIENTS: This morning, Wednesday, November 4, I fished with returning guest, Jason Pessa and the youngest of his three sons, 17 year-old Shawn Pessa.

Jason first came out with me at the invitation of Jimmie McCormack. Both are U.S. Army veterans, with Jason having served in the Air Defense Artillery.

TODAY’S DATE: 04 November 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN MORNING DATES: 17, 24, 30 Nov., 3, 4 Dec. 2026

PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Shawn Pessa and his dad, U.S. Army veteran Jason Pessa, wore ’em out this morning working the MAL Dense vertically for as long as the NW winds continued blowing after the 3rd cold front of autumn 2026 blew in yesterday. Shawn landed the first fish of his life today, and many more after that. What a way to start your fishing career!!

SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

The excellent fall fishing continued today after we got a real boost thanks to the season’s third cold front, which blew in yesterday.

Overnight temperatures dropped into the mid 50s and, more importantly, the northwest winds, although greatly diminished versus yesterday, continued to blow at about 7-8 mph for about three of our four hours on the water this morning.

The fishing started off just OK before sunrise, then peaked between 8:30 AM and 10 AM as the wind developed.

By 10:10 AM, the fish had been feeding for about 3 1/2 hours and they normally begin to slack off around this time. This morning, the fishing died really hard around that time as the winds dropped below 3 mph.

I stayed out looking for fish until 11 AM because Jason was just having a really good time even after our catch rate dropped. We landed 171 fish in our first 3.5 hours, then just 10 more fish in the final hour.

Of the 181 fish landed, 2 were largemouth bass, 6 were short hybrid, and 173 were white bass.

All fish were landed on the MAL Dense Lure worked vertically with the smoking tactic, aided greatly by a splasher and Garmin LiveScope.

Although the fall is infamous for producing small, white bass, namely, because that year’s crop has finally grown out enough to consume adult shad, this morning was the first time I saw a significant improvement in the number of fish over 11 inches or so since this better fall fishing kicked in around 1 October.

RESULTS: 181 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: With NW winds still blowing after yesterday’s cold front passage, the fishing remained strong. There was a definite uptick in the ratio of quality fish for the first time since the fall bite began in early Oct.
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LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Lake Belton on 04 Nov. 2026, approx. 6:10AM…

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