I'm back... I guess I've been away for a while, so I'll try to get you caught up. I decided to try Lake Belton on Sunday. Its a good 60 miles from my house to the boat ramp, so I got up around 3:00am, and got on the road by about 3:45. I launched from Morgan's Point just as the Sun was peeking up over the horizon.

It was pretty darned cold, but I finally got around to buying one of those 'save phase' masks. I have to admit, it makes one look like some kind of evil alien, but it does keep your face warm.

Since I was unfamiliar with the lake, I decided to stay in the rivertine Northern half of the lake. Even at 5:30am, there were lots of fisherman on the water. It was shaping up to be a nice day, so I guess everyone wanted to get an early start.

Judging from the water temperature (about 58 degrees), and knowing that two weeks prior, the water temperature was around 64 degrees, I figured the spawn was still on. I pulled into the first creek I could find, and started out with a top-water chugger. After about 10 or so casts, nothing was happening, so I switched to a red plastic worm. The fishing report said that black bass were excellent on red worms, so I thought I would give it a try.

I had spooled on flouro-carbon line, which I had never tried before, and wanted to see if it was as 'sensitive' as the magazines claimed. I cast around some stumps in the back of the cove, and did get a couple of lite strikes. I couldn't get a hook set, so I switched to top water again, this time a white frog. On about the third cast, I got a solid strike, and hooked a 4 lb. largemouth. It put up a suprising fight before I landed him, then let him go. After a few more casts I got another solid strike, but this time the fish was much bigger. I estimate it was about 8 lbs. I managed to fight the fish up to the boat before he shook loose. I cursed myself out loud for not getting a good hook set! Unfortunately, this was to be the last strike of the day.

I tried several more coves and creeks without any luck. I headed up north toward cow creek, where I could see quite a few stumps in the water. By the time I got there, the wind had picked up to about 25 mph. My little 17 ft boat doesn't handle rough water, and I was a little paranoid about all of the trees whos tops were just below the water line, so I high-tailed it back out of there, and started working the coves on the way back to my launch point.

The fishing pressure was really high. There must have been at least 50 bass boats on the water, and there was someone in every cove. I finally found a beautiful little protected cove with two creeks feeding into it, and a few trees and stumps. My bass radar was going off big-time, so I stopped the motor, and used the trolling motor to quietly work my way toward the back of the cove. Just as I was about to make my first cast, some jack-ass came flying into the cove, and slammed his 20 year-old rusted out trolling motor into the water. The motor was screaching like Granny Clampet. He did a couple of donuts around the cove, fired up his big motor, and hauled ass back out. If I had a shot-gun, I would probably be in jail right now. Obviously, the fish were not biting after that.

I decided that I would call it quits early, and headed back to the ramp. I was off of the water by 11:00am. Pretty sad day, really. Oh well, some days are better than others.