SKIFF Trip #2013-14 — 09 August 2013 on Stillhouse Hollow with Levi and Cole






This morning I was joined by Levi (age 13) and Cole (age 10) Hordnes of Ocalla, TX. They were accompanied by Caleb Nicholson of Moody as their chaperone.


Levi shows one of the white bass he caught on a “slab” spoon out of 29 feet of water.

Cole shows one of the white bass he caught on the downriggers set just above the thermocline.

Levi and Cole are separated by the miles from their father who is currently with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in South Carolina. The boys are homeschooled by their mom, Terri, and live on a bit of acreage outside Fort Hood where they raise dogs, cats, chickens, and sheep. They have a small, intermittent stream on their property which hosts mainly gar, but that has been dry more than wet in the recent past, so, they welcomed the opportunity to actually wet their lines today. The boys take every opportunity to fish and have both recently completed their hunter education courses at the TPWD Game Warden Academy in Star, TX.

Fishing was hindered a bit today by the lack of wind we experienced. The fish only turned on for about 40 minutes over the entire 4 hours we were out, and that was during a brief wind spike up to about 10mph which came and went.

We caught fish consistently, but, they just weren’t “on fire” as they can be with the right conditions.

We began downrigging around Area 040, threw for some surface feeders around Area 250, then downrigged and jigged around Area 070. Area 070, which contains a breakline in 28-33 feet of water, produced most of our fish, as that is where we were positioned when the winds finally picked up.

By the time 11am rolled around, we’d boated 55 fish, including 3 largemouth bass, 7 freshwater drum, and 45 white bass.

From time to time I ask the kids who come on these SKIFF trips if the trip wound up being like they thought it would be. Most anticipate lots of waiting for a bobber to go down as their experience (if any) has been as a shore-bound angler. Cole and Levi told me the trip was very different from what they expected, but “even funner”.

This SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip was made possible by the Austin Fly Fishers’ donations and fund-raising efforts, as well as through the assistance and support of an increasing network of caring people known collectively as “Friends of SKIFF”. Thank you, one and all.


TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 87.0F

Wind: Winds were SSW2 at sunrise, staying under 4-5 mph for all but a 40 minute spike around 9am.

Skies: Cloudless fair sky with increasing haze due to Saharan dust.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Pee Wee Wiggle Hoochies and Shock Collars?!? — 88 Fish, Central Texas Fishing Guide Report, 8 Aug.






This morning I welcomed returning guests John and Kelly M. and their son, Matthew.


The fishing tempo rose with the wind’s velocity today — a slow start on a gentle breeze with building action as the whitecaps began to form. Here, Matthew hoists one of the largemouth we boated today.

Fishing is about as predictable as it will get at any point in the year right now. A strong high pressure system is sitting firmly over top of this part of Texas deflecting any moisture and low pressure to the point that hardly any clouds are even forming. When conditions get like this the fishing is “cookie cutter” with one day very like the next until a weather wrinkle throws a curve ball.

This morning we enjoyed a reliable downrigger bite and, as often happens in the summer when shad populations peak and all fish are at peak metabolism, the fish showed a very definite preference for horizontal motion. Several times after passing over heavily schooled fish near bottom and picking up 2-3 fish on the 4 baits we had out, I put us in a hover over the fish and worked slabs and bladebaits through them. The results were never as strong as via downrigging, so, eventually, we just stuck with that. We caught fish today early at Area 250 (including just a touch of topwater just after sunrise), then mid-morning at Area 040, then wrapped up by downrigging in the midst of Area 1233/1246/1240.

I normally fish with a spread of 4 Pet Spoons, but, today I tried working a new bait into the spread just as an experiment. This was called the Pee Wee Wiggle Hoochie and resembles a small squid with a crankbait bill attached. Long story short, the Pee Wee Wiggle Hoochie didn’t cut the mustard on white bass (in fairness, it is intended as a Kokanee salmon bait), but, hey, it was really fun to say the name of it.

Now, you may be wondering about the shock collar. Well, John, who wasn’t feeling all that great today, rested up on the front deck for a spell at one point in the trip. While doing nothing but listening with his eyes closed, he noted that I had to repeat some of my instructions to Matthew several times, especially when it came to loosening his drag as one of the steps in setting out the downriggers. As he got to feeling better, John got more talkative and jokingly suggested that next trip we fit Matthew with a shock collar, then give him one set of instructions, and then a nice jolt each time I had to repeat those instructions. Well, that got a nice rise out of Matthew and let us all know John’s condition had improved enough to kid around.

Our trip definitely ended on a better note than it began on, given the improving, increasing wind conditions which served to cut the heat a bit as well as perk the fish up.

Our catch of 88 fish today consisted of 2 largemouth bass, and 86 white bass.


TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:40a

Air Temp: 80F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 87.2F

Wind: Winds were SSW4 at sunrise, tapering up to SSW12-13 by trip’s end.

Skies: Cloudless fair sky with increasing haze due to Saharan dust.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Lippin’ and Boga Grippin’ – 80 Fish, Central Texas White Bass Fishing Guide Report, 03 Aug. 2013






This morning I welcomed returning guests Charles C. and his kids, Madison (10) and Mason (8) aboard for some white bass action on Stillhouse Hollow.


With high pressure continuing to dominate the weather, fishing was pretty easy today. L to R, Madison, Charles, and Mason with a sampling of our catch.

Charles is one of eight men on one of the four shifts that make up the fire-fighting team at Houston’s Hobby Airport. He’s originally from this area and returns often to visit his parents and tries to sneak in a little fishing whenever chores are done at his folks’ place.

We had a fun, productive trip today. As often happens, the bite rose with the winds. We started the morning with light winds and a light bite, but, as the morning went on and winds increased, the bite got more consistent right up until the 10 o’clock hour when things began to tail off.

We started our day on a great note with Madison landing a double (two fish on one rod) within minutes of getting our lines out. The kids took turns landing fish over the next hour in this area (Area 1230/842/250) landing singles and doubles, taking our total to 26 fish by the time the bite went soft here.

Next, we hit Area 1246/1240/1233 and found even more abundant sonar returns down around 28-29 feet. We got the downriggers working and boated fish very consistently for about 30 minutes at which time we encountered our first of two run-ins with densely schooled fish suspended near the top of the lower 1/3 of the water column. This scenario just screams for the use of slabs fished through the fish from a hovering position. We “smoked” our slabs in and around these fish and caught fish consistently for another 40 minutes using TNT180 slabs.

Once this aggressive bite died down, we returned to downrigging and again consistently boated fish from among the many suspended but more scattered white bass still using this area. Before long, we encountered another bunch of deep, suspended fish that were tightly schooled. Once again we set up over top of them, but, this time only managed to pull a few from the school — a sure indicator that the bite was about to be over. We finished up the day doing a little more downrigging and closing out the day with a “double-double” in which both kids caught two fish at a time just seconds apart as our downrigged baits (Pet Spoons) worked their magic just above the thermocline.

At age 10, Madison tried her hand for the first time at lip-gripping the last 10 or so white bass we caught and removing the hook herself, then turning the fish over to Mason to release them using a Boga Grip tool (he’s not yet sold on touching fish any more than necessary).

By 10:30 the bite was done. We took a few photos and enjoyed the breeze as we headed back to the boat ramp.


Our catch of 80 fish today consisted of 1 largemouth bass, 1 drum, and 78 white bass.


TALLY = 80 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:35a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 87.0F

Wind: Winds were SSW8 at sunrise, tapering up to S11 by trip’s end.

Skies: Cloudless fair sky.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Cold Coffee … 68 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Report by Texas Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle






This morning I welcomed some first time clients aboard — Richard K. and his almost-7-year-old step-son, Ammen, in celebration of Ammen’s forthcoming birthday.

Richard and Ammen double-teamed the black bass…


…as well as the white bass.


The start of our trip today was really neat. Richard wanted Ammen to be surprised about his guided fishing trip by boat, so, Richard told him over the previous week that he would be taking him to a summer camp on this particular day. The “story” was that since they were running ahead of schedule, they’d swing by the lake and take a little walk to kill some time. During this walk, Richard would stumble upon me, strike up a conversation in which I would engage Ammen and then surprise him after learning his birthday was near by telling him that this was his lucky day and inviting him aboard for a fishing trip.

As it turned out, this really WAS Ammen’s lucky day, as he landed the largest fish of his fishing career thus far by boating a 2.75 pound largemouth on topwater!

Our day started off with a bit of downrigging around Area 040 to 1245. We picked up 6 fish here without much time or effort spent, but, the fish weren’t so thick or aggressive that I couldn’t bear to leave to investigate other options.

After about 20 minutes on station, we headed to the vicinity of Area 1230 and encountered some light topwater action which would become more aggressive and widespread over the 70 minutes to follow. We started off 3 abreast on the front casting deck with Richard holding his own and Ammen and I working together to keep Ammen supplied with fish. We caught a nice mix of white bass and largemouth on Cork Rigs but eventually, the novelty wore off for Ammen before the fish stopped feeding. So, I left Richard on the front deck with the boat e-anchored into the wind, and Ammen and I dropped down to the lower deck to give smoking a try. He and I tore up the white bass which were down in the lower 1/3 of the water column below all the topwater commotion. By 9:15 it was all over and we had to search elsewhere. This was the first substantial, lengthy topwater feed I’ve witnessed since back in early- to mid-June.

As we began our trip, Richard had cozied up to an insulated mug of coffee which I’m sure he was planning on leisurely sipping on as we waited on the fish. Only thing is that we don’t wait on fish! We aggressively pursue them!! 3 hours after launching and about 57 fish later, Richard finally got around to taking that first sip of his (now cold) coffee!!

We downrigged just a few fish over at Area 1231 and a few more at Area 070, but, neither area held much bait, so we kept looking.

By 10:15 we locked onto some semi-active fish with bait nearby and put a final 9 fish in the boat before calling it a good day right at 10:45.

Our catch of 68 fish consisted of 12 largemouth bass, and 56 white bass.


TALLY = 68 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 80F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.1F

Wind: Winds were SSW2-3 at sunrise, tapering up to SSW10-11 by trip’s end.

Skies: 40% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas