SKIFF Trip # 15 for the 2010 Season – 08 Nov. 2010 – 15 Fish






S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) exists to take the children of deployed and deceased soldiers on professionally guided fishing trips at no charge to the family. These trips are provided through my guide service, Holding the Line Guide Service, with funds generated by the Austin Fly Fishers, and with the support of businesses and individuals from all over the U.S.

Here is my report for today’s trip…

Jaylen G. with a hybrid striped bass taken on a TNT 180 slab.

Kelsey C. with the 2nd fish she’d ever caught!

Sarah C. with a hybrid that looks almost as big as she is.


Dear Friends of S.K.I.F.F.,


I had a wonderful after-school trip today with three kids from the Killeen/Fort Hood area. The oldest was 6th Grader Jaylen Guilloux, son of Sergeant First Class Fritzgerald Verella, an Army aviator stationed in Afghanistan with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Next was 4th Grader Kelsey Cates and 2nd Grader Sarah Cates, both daughters of Staff Sergeant Ken Cates currently stationed in Iraq serving with the 1st Cavalry Division.


Things were just a little “different” today. This is the first post-Daylight Saving Time trip I’ve run, so, sunset was around 5:45pm. Jaylen’s mom, Liz, kindly provided taxi service for all 3 kids since she knows Kelsey and Sarah’s mom, Melissa. As we got launched, put lifejackets on, went through the safety rules, etc. and got ready to shove away from the courtesy dock, I saw the girls both looked almost to the point of tears. I calmly asked them what was wrong and big sister Kelsey spoke up first and said, “I’ve never been on a boat before and I’m scared.” Sarah added a “Me, too.” to that. That really took me by surprise, so, I cut the engine and let us drift on the wind a bit and explained in detail how things worked on the boat, how it was made to keep us safe, and that once we got to where the fish were and started to catch them, their worries would go away. I promised that I’d go slow and that the girls could give me a thumbs-down sign if I needed to go even slower. Well, that seemed to alleviate their fears and we were off.

As we headed to the first area I wanted to try, God smiled on us. I just grinned from ear to ear … as we eased into Area 687 I could see on the fair chop created by a 13+ mph S. wind, spray being thrown in the air by hybrid stripers and white bass aggressively pursuing shad that were just shy of 4 inches long. I had seen large bait like this over the weekend and had a matching slab already tied on to each child’s rod. We got into a “hover” over a school of fish holding down at ~30 feet. I then provided instruction on how to work the slabs so as to imitate a shad and fool the fish into biting. I have 3 pededstal seats mounted abreast on the front deck of my boat and had Jaylen leaning on the seat to my left, Kelsey leaning on the seat to my right, and Sarah sitting Indian-style on the deck in front of me (did you know it’s not called “Indian-style” anymore — it’s “criss-cross applesauce”?!). Finally, everybody got the hang of things and we worked our slabs through these fish that were kind enough allow us to get our act together and then continue biting. The kids followed instructions to a “T” and we had 2 fish boated per child in about 40 minutes time, including Kelsey’s first fish ever (a 14.75 inch largemouth bass), a keeper hybrid, and several white bass and short hybrid. This action was strong, but also short-lived, and after boating our seventh fish, these fish were done with the aggressive feeding. We continued to work the area with downriggers to try to strain out a few still-active fish and, rigged with out-sized 5 inch baits, managed 3 more hybrid stripers, 2 of which were legal, and 2 more white bass before this shoal of fish shut down. (BA: 15 HG)

We headed to Area 214 and found very reluctant fish in 35+ feet on bottom. These fish, too, were very reluctant, and probably had just finished a feed as well. I knew it’d be tough for the kids to catch these, so we moved on.

We gave one other area, Area 084, a try right before, during and following sunset. I spotted fish with sonar on a 25 to 30 foot breakline, and, working this over with the downriggers on several passes, we hooked and landed 1 short hybrid and 2 more solid white bass. The kids enjoyed this kind of fishing because “Mr. Bob” did all the work while they dined on Lunchables and carrot sticks dipped in Ranch dressing only to be occasionally distracted by a rod flailing wildly in its holder indicating yet another fish had been fooled by a well-presented Pet Spoon.

As darkness moved in, we moved on back to the boat ramp and tried easing the throttle up to full tilt as the girls gave the thumbs-up sign that their trepidation about the whole boating experience had fallen by the wayside.

When all was said and done, each of the kids landed 5 fish tonight, including a fish over 2 pounds for each child. What we missed out on in quantity, we made up for in quality.

Each child went home with an Austin Fly Fisher tacklebox with a handful of crappie jigs inside. Jaylen got the very last SKIFF t-shirt I had on hand.

Kelsey earned a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award” certificate on this trip and is expecting its arrival by mail from Joedy Gray (TPWD Angler Recognition Program Leader) late this week or early next.

Thanks to each of you for all you’ve done, seen and unseen, to make days on the water like this one possible for military kids like these.


Sincerely,

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

Note:

Water surface temp. = 67.8 F

Winds: S13