Belton

Guys, I have a bass tournament on Belton the 19th and 20th. I have never been there. My family is coming with me and I'd like to try and get my 7 year old on some Crappie after I get done pre-fishing each day. If any of you guys have been on it recently and have an idea of what the fish might be doing, up in the shallow brush, bridge pilings, etc..., I'm all ears.

Thanks for your time,
Barry

The lake is up almost 2' and still rising with more rain in the forecast. Crappie weren't up in the shallows to much a couple of days ago. Cedar Creek was picking up when the rain started and has some protected areas. Hopefully the muddy water will not mess it up as it was looking like a great spawn.

Thanks for the info donothin.

Your box is full.

It's good to go now Ken.

if youve never fished belton for bass, you might be pre fishing A LONG TIME!!!!!!
for crappie if you can get to the mouth of the creeks, specifically owl creek, and fish some brush there, and further back, also any shallow brush you find on the main lake. Belton can get stingy with massive and even moderate water fluctuations.
around the corner on the northeast side of the hwy 36 bridge there is a long point with a cove, maybe try there. forget the timber north of the bridge.
also if you get on the water before daybreak, look for shad spawning along the banks with timberlines and small coves, cast a slip cork rig a few feet from the bank. the crappie go feast on them when they are there. shortly after daybreak, the shad leave for deeper water. if u never saw shad spawning on a bankline, it looks like a downpour of rain on the surface, and sounds like shrimp flicking thier tails in a net.
shad spawn usually last 5 to 6 weeks on belton, so once you see where they are spawning its a good place to start in the morning .

Ken will have some good information for you Panhandle. A former bass fisherman, he has "seen the light" and is now an active crappie pursuer!!! He was monitoring the crappie pretty close before all the rain. This will shake them up and the creeks are a mess. Good luck!

theres a professional crappie fisherman, named Gary Klien who fishes belton almost every year for a benefit tourney, I met him a couple years back while crappie fishing. maybe see if he can give you some pointers on the bass. Gary is a very nice guy. most tourneys dont even have a 5 fish weigh on belton, 2 sometimes 3 fish win it. Garys first words to me were.. "man this lake sucks" for bass.
and for bass, he is right. Gary Klien is a top 20 bass fisherman in the nation, im sure he can help if you can reach him. Gary is a spinnerbait specialist, and when I ran into him, he was burning a spinnerbait thru timber . If I recall, 3 fish won it last year, that weighed around 5 pounds total, , or 5 fish that weighed around 3 pounds. so you get the picture.

Bass Champs just had a tournament on Belton March 5. Top team had 21.13. 10th place weighed in 14.21. Of the top 100 teams, 84 weighed in 5 bass limits.
Look here for results:
http://basschamps.com/results.cfm?tourna...6&junior=no

He has a fishin show now he was on Belton and wore that hinney out.Made me want to go back to bass fishin .Darrell

Looks like Belton may be a diamond in the rough for bass fishing.

Weighed a 10# out of there!!!! Recently!

whats really impressive is the 65 people who couldnt even weight ONE bass, and another several dozen who couldnt weigh 5. with 3 or four that went a pound and a half to 2 pounds. thats crappie weights . . If this is what constitues a magnificent fishery then maybe I have been out of the bass fishing circles too long.
65 anglers tied for 151st place... with nothing to weigh. WITH 2 ANGLERS TO A BOAT, THATS 130 ANGLERS WHO WERE SKUNKED!!! not trying to be negative fellas, but that doesnt seem like a great set of stats.

84 out of 215 teams weighed a five bass limit, and 65 of those who werent in that group didnt weigh ONE fish...
so abt 35 percent weighed 5 fish, and abt 35 percent weighed nothing, and abt 35 percent weighed less than 5, with fish averaging less than 2 pounds..
Sound kind of tough to me.

Typically those others who didn't weigh in, had fish but no chance to win and chose to release the fish without further stress sitting in a weigh in line.

panhandle your over your PM limit, clear your box and I will shoot you a Pm.

It was a great weigh in! And the winner did it without his trolling motor after 7:30am! Thanks for all of the friendly replies. Our Tournament Director just pulled the plug on the Belton venue due to rising water. It probably would have been fine, but no need in chancing it, when it's a 7 hour drive for us! Fishing cold water smallmouths now in New Mexico. I guess I better shift gears and figure out how to get the boy on some Walleyes.

Thanks again for the hospitality!
Barry

[quote=SheCrappieKilla]Typically those others who didn't weigh in, had fish but no chance to win and chose to release the fish without further stress sitting in a weigh in line.

yeah, im sure thats the reason. especially with 33 percent who are holding thier 2 or 3 one and a half pounders at the weigh in. why even try

Wrong. Avg fish weighed over 2 lbs. Here are the stats.

Total Entries: 215 Teams
Total Collected: $62,700
Total Payback (C&P): $66,100
Payback Percentage: 105%
Total Fish: 606
Total Weight: 1,373.69
Average Weight: 2.27
Number of limits: 83
Number of zero's: 65

AND if you look at a GOOD bass lake like Fork well

Total Entries: 262 Teams
Total Collected: $76,950
Total Payback (C&P): $72,080
Payback Percentage: 94%
Total Fish: 418
Total Weight: 575.95
Average Weight: 1.38
Number of limits: 56
Number of zero's: 157

That is 2015. 2016 stats weren't as good!

Check Ken's PM!

Actually bass champs gives a bonus to teams that release their fish without weighing them to promote the practice of holding bass in the live well for as little amount of time as possible. So there probably weren't as many zeros as the results showed.

Belton can be a fantastic bass lake under most conditions. I've weighed in several 5 fish limits over 25 pounds there the last few years, in fact I fished a tournament with my brother the day I got married, we weighed in early around 2:00 pm and had 27 lbs with 5 fish, won the tournament and made it to my wedding on time before 4:00 pm. That turned out to be a pretty good day :-)

It can be tough as well, but the same can be said for any lake. Belton is also one of the top smallmouth lakes in the state right now. Its not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, it just takes a different approach most days to do well. That's usually why you will see non-locals win major tournaments there the majority of the time.

Need to change this post to the Belton Bass report. Haven't read anything about crappie! Lol