This evening’s trip was the eighth S.K.I.F.F. trip I’ve run for 2011.
S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) exists to take the children of deployed or deceased soldiers on fishing trips at no charge to the soldiers’ families. Below is my report to the membership of the Austin Fly Fishers and other SKIFF supporters …
24 April 2011
Dear Austin Fly Fishers and Friends of SKIFF,
This evening’s trip was literally a postponement of a postponement on account of weather, and we still didn’t get the weather we’d hoped for after waiting for over 2 weeks for a good window. Nonetheless, I welcomed aboard the Narciza brothers, Nathaniel (8th grade) and Shawn (6th grade). With each boy packing a single bottle of water and a tightly wrapped Subway 6 inch sub with extra onions and pickles, they were loaded for bear!! The boys’ dad, Staff Sergeant Michael Morales, is deployed with the 2-82 Field Artillery, supporting the 1st Cavalry Division. The boys’ mom, Cheryll, opted to stay on shore with her 2 year old daughter.
Shawn Narciza, age 12, with his largest white bass of the evening and a bonus crappie.
Nathaniel Narciza, age 14, with a 2008 year class white bass he landed on a Sandblaster.
After pushing their 9 April trip back (26 mph winds) and after pushing their 23 April trip back (22 mph winds), as we launched, we were still hounded by winds at 18-19 mph and from the SSE instead of S, but decided to make a go of it instead of letting the boys down again, and because the winds were to taper to 11 mph by 7pm (which didn’t even come close to happening).
Well, we took lemons and made some lemonade, albeit not by the 5 gallon jugful!! A few areas I’d hoped to fish were just inaccessible due to the heavy waves, and when we did find fish, they were less than enthusiastic about hopping on our slabs.
It’s funny how the presence of the easterly component to the wind impacts fish activity. We found white bass stacked up down on bottom in 24 feet of water. Normally, with favorable winds (S, SW, or W) as you drop a slab down amongst them, they’ll just pounce on it, and schoolmates will followed a hooked fish toward the surface thus exciting the rest of the school, and the activity level will stay high for as much as 45 minutes or more. Under conditions like we had tonight, there were many fish there as verified by sonar, but, when that slab reached bottom, it went unnoticed and had to be finessed to get a response. A hooked fish may or may not create interest from the rest of the school, and, if it does, it is only short lived.
Anyway, the boys boated 15 fish (all white bass) in about an hour’s time using both TNT 180 slabs and Sandblasters over a fairly sluggish school of fish we found at Area 767. After these fish turned inactive, we searched a number of areas where I could maintain boat control, but we found no congregations of fish showing on these areas.
We changed up our approach and headed over to Area 116 and put out twin flatlines, one with a Wiggle Wart, the other with a Reef Runner Rip Shad, and, over about a 40 minute span boated 3 more fish, including 2 white bass and a crappie, by trolling in 8-14 feet of water.
Prior to this evening’s trip, the boys had dabbled in West Coast saltwater fishing from shore with their grandpa, near San Diego. Shawn had never even been aboard a boat before, so, the whole experience was a very enjoyable one for them and for me.
I explained to the boys about how SKIFF works and how you all donate funds and raise funds to allow this program to function. Nathaniel thoughtfully commented, “Wow, that’s really nice.”
Take care,
–Bob Maindelle
TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 4:30p
End Time: 8:15p
Air Temp: 84F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~72.8F
Wind: Winds were SSE18-20.
Skies: Skies were completely overcast but bright.