Fished Saturday-April 2nd on Lake Belton.
Noticed Texas Tournament Zone (
www.ttz1.com ) had a big bass tournament on Belton too with 122 boats out of Temple Lake Park. Bryan Booker runs a great tournament series. Plus a lot of pleasure boaters and recreational anglers....
Launched at 7:30am at free Belton Lake Park next to Franks Marina. Water Temp in lower lake near dam was 58 degrees. I started looking for whites/hybrids out on flat in front of Temple Park. One aluminum boat out in 35 FOW/ Found some birds circling in the area with limited fish below. Moved to Girl scout camp around 9am with water temp at 60 degrees. Found magnum whites on bottom with nearly dead-sticking RSR Chart 1oz jigging spoons and fish responding to thumping. (By hand, not automatic) Found 29-31 feet of water best. Moved a lot around wind blown point and caught a few keepers. Ended up with 20 whites from 13" to 15". Some spawned out and other still fat. At noon, moved back to Temple park area and trolled with limited results catching a few whites and undersized hybrids. Quit at 2pm. Winds were out of South at 10-15 mph and changed to NW gusting to 15-20mph at 10am-2pm. Fishing was tough as never found any large schools of 14" Plus whites...A lot of small fish caught on jigging spoons and Mepps Spinner.
A lot boats on the water today- Saturday- April 2nd. Hope to get back on the water on Sunday am. Looking forward to locating some keeper hybrids, but last few months, they must be in a black hole somewhere. Did catch one at 17" on spoon, but the hybrids are M.I.A.
GF and I in our mid to late 50's, fishing out of a 2000 Tracker T-18 Aluminum Bass boat with old 3" Depth finder, original foot control trolling motor, and hand thumping on front deck with rubber mallet. I am multitasking, trying to stay vertical fishing. No GPS or Navionics to record position. No IPILOT or SpotLock TM. I use poor man buoys to mark fish..... Till I get too tired and resort to trolling with big engine.....LOL....
There seems to be a lot of disrespectful boaters out too, as they seem to think its cool to fly by within 20-30 feet of me jigging. Anyways, I always try to respect all boaters on the water and guess I expect the same in return......
Hope to get back out on Sunday-April 3rd....See you on the water!