Busy Belton 5/17/23

Was last at Belton on 2/28/23 and caught 11. Wanted a change of scenery so went back today. First cast around 10:20. First stretch I fished I was disappointed to see big carp in shallow water everywhere. That gave me no confidence. Second stretch was the same. Gar are also spawning. I came close to pulling the plug right there and heading to Stillhouse but decided to take the challenge to figure something out. Fished a long stretch of what is usually a productive area and caught three hard pulling drum. Went on a long run to a different area. Caught a little smallmouth and a magnum bluegill on the drop shot then nothing more from that stretch. Went across the lake to an area where I'd caught some before. Caught one right away on a 4" senko and then another. Encouraging. Kept fishing along that area and came to a little notch in the bank that had a concentration of fish and caught several from a small area, all smallmouth, all on the senko. One big smallmouth hit the bait as soon as it landed and jumped about two feet out of the water and came unhooked. Fished a little farther and I was out of fish or they weren't biting. Went across the lake and caught two more from a bank with lots of trees. Went back across the lake to another stretch and found it loaded with fish. Best I can remember the clicker was on 16 when I got to that area. I threw the senko at first and then switched to the little soft jerk bait. They really wanted that and it was fast action for a while. All smallmouth except for the spawned out largemouth in the photo which was my biggest for the day. Clicked 28 on the day with last cast at 4:29. The count included three drum and two magnum bluegill. The majority of my fish were smallmouth. Was glad I stayed and lucked into some fish. The boat traffic on Belton was insane! There was no time today that I wasn't being rocked by wakes. When I loaded up there was only one other trailer left. Water was 77º-79º where I fished.