Today I fished a SKIFF trip (a free trip for kids of deployed soldiers) with Nadia and Isabella Meyer of Belton. The girls’ mom is deployed, so dad got to come along on this trip and I really appreciated his willingness to assist and make the girls successful.
Little girl, big fish! Isabella shows off our biggest fish of the day.
Phil, Nadia, and Isabella accompanied me for my 2nd SKIFF trip of 2010.
Start Time: 7:15a
End Time: 12:10p
Air Temp: 52F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~57.4F.
Wind: Winds were S at 5-6 at sunrise, slowly building up to 17 and slowly turning through W to NW as it did.
Skies: Skies were fair all day.
The details of the girls’ trip is captured below in a copy of my letter to my sponsors in this effort, the Austin Fly Fishers, whose fundraising efforts allow these SKIFF trips to happen.
As the easy morning fishing drew to a close and we ended our SKIFF trip, I pressed on in an effort to pin down some additional fish/bait locations for upcoming trips on Belton.
I found a significant, albeit now sluggish concentration of fish at Area 181 in ~30 feet of water. Over 70 minutes’ time I boated 24 additional fish including a crappie, 2 largemouth, 8 juvenile hybrid, and 13 white bass, of which only 3 were legal size. These fish hit my slab when presented with and “easing” technique. Although most of these fish were smallish, all the variables were in place here to see continued success until our next big change in weather.
Dear Ron and the AFF,
SKIFF Trip 2010 #2 launched today on Belton Lake at 7:15am. Aboard were 9 year old Nadia Meyer and 6 year old Isabella Meyer. Both Mr. and Mrs. Meyer are Master Sergeants on active duty, and both have gone through multiple Iraqi deployments. Currently, Mrs. Meyer (Jovana) is serving at Camp Taji, Iraq, with the 4-227 Combat Aviation Brigade. She’ll return to the States in April or May. For today’s trip I was glad to have the help of Mr. Phil Meyer who serves with the 4th Infantry Division as an Air Traffic Controller. He attended as both a chaperone and a very interested student of the art of angling.
We began our trip with the standard safety briefing and then went over the basics on using spinning gear, and particularly using that gear for vertical jigging. We shoved off just as the sun was rising. Today’s weather was clear and mild, so the skies brightened quickly. We encountered our first success at the first area we searched with sonar, in the vicinity of Area 099, and between it and the shore. In 15-17 feet over a clean bottom, we found loosely schooled white bass holding tight to the bottom, and feeding on abundant threadfin shad approximately 1.25 inches in length (we knew this because we saw “cripples” at the surface and had fish regurgitate their breakfast a few times). The girls were both really sharp — once I explained and showed them something one time, they were able to do it correctly thereafter. So, they experienced early success due to great technique in keeping their lures correctly adjusted in relative to the bottom. In less than 40 minutes we boated 11 fish including 10 white bass and a drum.
I kept a constant eye out for any bird activity, and eventually spotted some solid action between Areas 132 and 607 (BA: 12T). At this particular area the water depth changes quickly from 8 to over 25 feet, and we found fish at all depths in this area. We jigged vertically for the deeper fish and fished “lift-drop” style for the shallower fish. It was via this lift-drop tactic that little Isabella hooked up with our big fish for the trip, a 2 1/8 pound largemouth bass, and brought it successfully to net unassisted. Nadia also landed a smaller, barely keeper-sized largemouth and a white bass this way, as well.
By 9:45 we’d seen the strongest action of the day come and go — pretty typical for clear weather. We fished about an hour longer and continued catching suspended white bass on flatlined Rip Shads in this same area. We also gave downrigging a try very briefly mainly to show Phil how this technique worked. We managed on final white bass on the ‘rigger right on Area 606. With the skies bright, the fish and birds settled, and a full afternoon of sports events ahead for the girls, Phil and I agreed that this would be a good time to end a great trip so they could head home for lunch and a nap.
Our tally was 37 fish, all caught and released, with Isabella’s lunker bass anchoring the haul.
Thank you for making this possible!
–Bob Maindelle