After fishing Lake Palestine and seeing crappie on brush piles and under bridges, I came back home to Lake Belton. See nothing under the bridges and don't see anyone out fishing for crappie. Is it really that bad or do I not know what I am doing?

It is tough right now! The draught took a huge toll on Belton. When most the locals lay off, something is wrong! If we keep water, Belton will come back! BTW, Belton bridges have never been a "hotspot".

Yep, its that bad! I agree with beltonbanger. The drought seems to have effected it a lot. I think if it will stay close to full for a few years it will bounce back. Hopefully the zebra mussels dont make an impact on the crappie but I have a feeling they will.

Hey bud, sorry to hear they aren't biting on Belton. Let me know when your ready to come back and we will hook up again. Really enjoyed having y'all last week.

I would be looking REALLY shallow right now./ After spawn, the bridges can be great once the fish come out of the creeks to recover. Once winter sets in they will go to deep water channel ledges, and scatter. Dont wait for the " locals" to post when they are biting, they will always post when they are NOT biting though. ha Theres a guy with a little flat boat with a small merc on it, that loves fishing the 36 bridge on belton, Tommy I believe his name is and he does very good during different times of the year. If you see a stick up in 3 ft of water or more, and can get to it, fish it. A long pole can be handy. a couple falls back we did really well on shallow brush, and caught some really good fish. They will go as shallow in the fall as they do in the spring. Some places we caught fish were so shallow, I had to use a 10 foot pole to reach the stick up, but caught some very aggressive crappie.
If they are there, you will know it. just like spawn, stick and move.

I fish Belton a lot and usually catch enough to make it fun , but it definitely is not what it was. Hope it bounces back. Good luck fishing

Yes I do too, especially now that im 15 minutes from Leona ramp... I had to fish a dead lake long enough (stillousy), had some good catches on Belton and good times. Its been tough on alot of lakes this past couple years.

One of the problems with fishing Belton now is that the lake was so low for several years{up to 14' low), weed grow became dense where waters edge once was. The fish that are there are scattered. You will be lucky to navigate shallow, let alone fish there. Tom Showers fishes almost exclusively during the spawn. You won't see much of him the rest of the year unless you are catfishing or duck hunting. Let's wait until Leanin Post has a full, on the lake report.

Yeah its pretty bad, caught a few left of Rogers park which was always good at one time, but now you will get a few here and there, hopefully next year will be better with the fishing pressure almost gone since the lake isn't giving up its bounty. Belton is pretty big and has a lot of coves so remember fish only be in 10-15% of the lake if you find them they will bite!lol