This morning I fished with 13 year old Jake Pingley and his 7 year old sister, Layla, on Stillhouse Hollow. This was a “SKIFF” (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip — the 8th one of 2013.

Jake and Layla boated white bass from start to finish today using horizontal and vertical tactics, as well as some controlled-depth trolling.

Layla’s first fish of the day was actually two! As we downrigged waiting for the skies to brighten, this pair of white bass bit her tandem rigged Pet Spoons at the same time.

Jake and Layla are the children of Air Force Captain Joe Pingley and his wife, Angie. Captain Pingley is deployed to Saudi Arabia where he serves with a TACP (Tactical Air Control Party) tracking and coordinating everything flying in the airspace of concern to the U.S. in that region of the world.

Angie learned of SKIFF while at a business networking session. Mr. Marty Wall, who has supported SKIFF with videography for several years now, told Angie about the free fishing opportunities for deployed soldiers’ kids.

We had a great trip this morning, catching fish, literally, from start to finish. Jake and Layla had a bit of previous experience, but neither had fished from a boat before. As we began the day, we started off downrigging and scored on both drum and white bass using Pet Spoons rigged in tandem (Area 484/660). As we brought our 7th fish of the morning aboard, topwater action erupted about 100 yards to our west.

As we eased into the action, both largemouth bass and white bass were forcing 2.75 inch long shad to the surface. We rigged up with bladebaits matching the size and color of the prey, and proceeded to “wear ’em out” for the next 90 minutes solid using horizontal lift-drop technique (Area 1234).

After this action died down, we again downrigged (back at Area 484/660), and then we finished up the day in deeper 35′ water “smoking” our TNT180 slabs (chartreuse/silver halo) through big schools of congregated white bass (Area 1233).

Jake was really focused on the fishing and asked a lot of really good questions concerning why we were doing what we were doing. Layla, on the other hand, as all about variety. She fished a little, snacked a little, did a little aquatic insect identification, then fished a little more, and so on. Both kids really had a good time. Jake commented that his family has learned they’re to be stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington next, so he was glad he learned so much about fishing today so he could carry that with him to the lakes and streams of Washington which he has evidently already begun to investigate.

The members of the Austin Fly Fishers (and others) raise the funds and donate time and money to make these trips available at no charge to the families receiving them. Thank you all!!

TALLY = 76 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.2F

Wind: Winds were NNE5-7 at sunrise, slowly shifting to NE, but maintaining speed.

Skies: Clear.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished with 15 year old Matthew M. of Temple, and his 13 year old cousin, Bennie, both accompanied by their grandfather.

Bennie boated the trip’s big fish today. This 3.5 pound largemouth slurped up his bladebait near bottom in 23′ of water.

Matthew and Bennie worked bladebaits and the downriggers today to take some very nice white bass with a few largemouth, sunfish, and drum thrown in for good measure.

We experienced a wrinkle in our fishing today in that we had winds already from a westerly component before sunrise, then shifting to north of west by mid-morning. The fish still fed and we caught plenty, but they were tentative. We experienced next to no topwater bite, and what topwater action there was was fast and sporadic.

I really wanted to get the boys on some sight-fishing opportunities to allow them to cast to boiling fish with topwater baits so as to see the strike, but that just didn’t work out today.

We got into the fish well for the first time after 7:30a in the vicinity of Area 458/205. White bass were pushing shad to the surface and the commotion is what caught my eye and brought us to that area. As we shut down the motor and crept in, I assessed things and thought a sub-surface approach would be best given the situation. So, we rigged up with bladebaits and fished them via a count-down style and with a lift-drop tactic and scored well both ways. We put in about 1 1/2 hours in this area casting and netted 39 fish for the effort.

After this, we stayed in this general area and continued to downrig tandem-rigged Pet Spoons for 6 more fish before pulling the plug and looking elsewhere. It was at this time that the windshift occurred, and with it, a short interruption in our fishing success.

We headed over to Area 1232, found fish well congregated at around 30 feet over a 35-38 foot bottom. We ran slabs through these fish but they simply weren’t interested in a vertical presentation. After picking up just one drum out of what was clearly a lot of white bass, we gave the downriggers another go and worked over this exact spot again horizontally and scored multiple times. In the next 45 minutes we continued boating singles and doubles and even double-doubles (two rods each with 2 fish on the tandem rigs equaling 4 fish brought in at a time). We took our tally from 46 fish up to 65 fish.

As we began this morning, Matthew, who has fished with me on a number of occasions, requested that we leave some time for fishing for sunfish in the shallows. He had enjoyed doing this on previous trips and wanted to show Bennie the method. So, with the white bass still hitting the downriggers well, we left these fish biting to target some sunfish and then wrap up for the morning.

At this point our count stood at 65 fish boated. It was here that a bit of competitive spirit kicked in. On a recent trip out with his cousin Kelsie, Matthew and she boated 68 fish. Well, Bennie wanted to beat that total. So, as we quietly approached Area 200, the boys were on a mission to boat at least 4 sunfish. As we eyed the situation, got our float depths adjusted and lines in the water, it was clear the sunfish here were eager. The “68” mark was soon eclipsed and the bite died down only after the 9th sunfish was brought aboard, making our grand total 74 fish on the day. In Kelsie’s defense, we had to spend nearly 5 hours on the water to accomplish this 74 fish feat, so, the comparison to her (4 hour) trip’s result is not exactly “apples-to-apples”.

TALLY = 74 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:25a

End Time: 10:05a

Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F

Wind: Winds were SW4 slowly increasing to WSW8, then changing abruptly to WNW8 around 9:45.

Skies: Fair and cloudless.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas