Whoa!! Too Close!! — SKIFF Trip #24 for 2013, Stillhouse Lake, 53 Fish






This morning I fished with Phillip and Myron Crossley on this, the 24th SKIFF Program fishing trip of 2013.



Phillip’s smile really tells it all! We had fun catching fish today.


Myron, a frequent snacker, took a little less intense approach to his fishing than brother Phillip.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service (examples: field time, gunnery, NTC, deployment, etc). These trips are funded by the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.!

Phillip and Myron’s parents are both on active duty. Their dad, Staff Sergeant Roderick Crossley is assigned to the 581st Medical Battalion, and their mom, Sergeant First Class Isilee Crossley, is assigned to III Corps. Isilee contacted me to arrange for the trip after being assigned to go to the Army’s Senior Leader Course (SLC) which took her away from Fort Hood.

Pre-frontal south winds blowing around 13mph in advance of an approaching cold front due in later tonight got the fish biting early and kept them biting right up until it was time to meet back at the boatramp. The fishing was best in the first hour and 20 minutes of our trip during which time the boys boated 24 fish, including 3 triples (a fish caught on each of the three lures attached to the umbrella rig we were downrigging with). This umbrella rig (or Alabama rig) outfitted with Pet Spoons has been a very consistent producer this year.

While it was still quite murky out, following the obscured sunrise, we were treated to the sight of a pair of wild bald eagles fishing together over open water near us. Myron used the spotting scope I keep on board for just such occasions and tried to zero in on the birds. While he didn’t quite locate the birds, he did locate the western shoreline and, given the 24x magnification, quickly took the device away from his eye and exclaimed, “Whoa! Too close!” He thought we were about to shipwreck!!

After the downrigging approach failed to yield anymore fish at the first area we tried, we moved out to deeper water and used sonar to locate tightly schooled fish holding near bottom. We then hovered over these fish and used ‘blasters and TNT180 slabs vertically to tempt these fish. Although it took about 30 minutes of searching, once we found fish, we caught them steadily for the final 2 hours of our trip.

The boys wanted to give a “shout out” to their Uncle Joe in Savannah, GA. Evidently he got them into fishing and he did a pretty good job of teaching them. Phillip was a very good caster and needed next to no instruction on that, and Myron had all the basics down and listened well to the pointers I gave him and more than held his own.

To those of you who have contributed to SKIFF, thank you for doing so. This gives kids a chance to do something they often have never done or rarely get to do, it gives parents (who, for a time are essentially single parents) a little down time, and it lets the parents who are separated from their families know that people in their community appreciate the sacrifices they make because the wear the uniform. For these reasons SKIFF enjoys a good reputation in the local Fort Hood community. Thank you for making that possible.


TALLY = 53 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time: 11:20a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 81.6F

Wind: Winds were SSE13.

Skies: Totally greyed over.

Areas Fished:

** 1221/1241 downrigging for first 80 minutes

** 866 & 1252 smoking ‘blasters and TNT180s for last 120 minutes

**

**

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








An Army Mom’s Sincere Thanks — 53 Fish — SKIFF Trip #23 for 2013, Sept. 27th






This evening I was joined for a “S.K.I.F.F.” fishing trip by Aiden Guyer (age 5), Aaron Casper (age 14), and special guest Manuel Pena from the Austin Fly Fishers (age withheld!).



Aiden caught the first fish of his life tonight!!


Aaron, who has fished with me before and who I trust, did a great job as a mentor to Aiden.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service (examples: field time, gunnery, NTC, deployment, etc). These trips are funded by the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.!

Aiden is the son of Chief Warrant Officer (CW3) Keegan Guyer and his wife, Danielle. Aiden is nearly 6 years old and is a Kindergartener at Haynes Elementary School in Killeen, TX. CW3 Guyer has been deployed twice to Iraq and is currently deployed to Afghanistan. He is part of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, but is attached to the Third Armored Corps (III Corps). Mrs. Guyer heard of the SKIFF program through her neighbor, Mrs. Marquez, whose son recently participated in a SKIFF outing.

Aaron is the son of the late Major Mike Casper and Mrs. Susie Casper. Mike, a former Army Kiowa helicopter pilot passed away while on active duty. Aaron attends Memorial Christian Academy in Killeen, TX, and served as a wonderful mentor to Aiden today. I specifically asked him to come along to give me an extra set of eyes and ears to help make sure Aiden had a successful, safe trip.

With pre-frontal south winds blowing and thick, grey cloud cover in place, the fish were very active this afternoon on Stillhouse. We started off shooting for “instant gratification” (typically necessary to keep younger kids’ attention) by downrigging, and we scored well, boating singles, doubles, and 2 triples over the course of our time on station. As we downrigged, we happened into some heavily schooled fish at or near bottom and it was apparent to me that we could score on these fish by setting up over top of them and working lures through them vertically. We used TNT180s and ‘blasters to capitalize on these fish and more than doubled our downrigging tally of 14 at the time, taking our tally up to 29 before moving on.

At this point, we did a snack break, snapped a few photos, then geared up to go sunfishing to keep the variety and engaging activities coming Aiden’s way.

We fished two hydrilla beds for sunfish and did well at each, boating an additional 20 sunfish — both bluegills and longears — on a slipfloat rig with Gulp! bait.

By now our count stood at 49 fish, so, I asked Aiden if he was up for heading out after the big ones again (meaning downrigging for white bass) so we could get to the 50 fish mark. He gave us the thumbs-up and off we went. We actually landed 4 more fish — all white bass — and finished out our day with 53 fish.

Aaron and Manual did a great job of helping Aiden as I handled the boat and kept my nose buried in the sonar.

For all you who support SKIFF, I want to pass on Mrs. Guyer’s sincere thanks for allowing her son this opportunity. She chose to attend this trip with him, as he’s only 5 and she wasn’t sure how he’d do without her. She found the trip very peaceful and relaxing, and said this was only the second “date” she and Aiden had to themselves without Aiden’s 2 year old brother coming along, since her husband left for Afghanistan. She took a bunch of photos and even a few video clips to remember the trip by.


TALLY = 53 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 3:50p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp: 88F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 81.1F

Wind: Winds were SSE11-13.

Skies: Totally greyed over with occasional light rain.

Areas Fished:

**1246/1240 downrigging & smoking with blasters and TNT180’s for first 2 hours

**Sunfishing at 1098 & 1256 for 1 hour

**Downrigging at 453/668/671 UTC

**

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Fishing with Holding the Line Guide Service — 44 Fish — 26 Sep. 2013






This morning I fished Stillhouse Hollow with Jerry Worley, owner of Worley Insurance Agency of Harker Heights.

Fast, accurate casts were required to hookup with today’s largemouth feeding topside. The bass on the left went 16″ and the fish on the right went 19.5″.


When the largemouth were done on top, the white bass kicked in down deep.


It was a very pleasant day to be on the water with air temps right at 70F or so as we launched. Our first hour we went to several areas looking for mainly topwater action and found little, and thus dispensed with the downrigging that I’d normally due with less experienced clients on board.

I’ve fished with Jerry numerous times before and knew he could take advantage of topwater action if we found it by using fast, accurate casts, so we sought that out instead of downrigging.

By 8a the topwater action began out over deep water and progressed toward the shallows. We found a mix of white bass and schoolie largemouth feeding on small 1.5″ long threadfin shad. We used Spook Jr.’s today simply for the heft, along with long rods and light line to span the distance on long casts. Well placed, well timed casts drew strikes and anything short of that did not. We enjoyed mixed bag angling for whites and largemouth for 2 solid hours boating 21 fish with our largest going 19″.

After it was clear that the topwater was over, we headed back out to deep water and, with few visual clues to go on (like birds, bait, or fish breaking the surface) we simply probed with sonar until we found fish to fish for. Once we found fish, a vertical presentation seemed to be preferred over horizontal today. We used both ‘blasters and blades and did better on the ‘blasters, working them in the lower third of the water column in anywhere from 26-35 feet, just above the thermocline.

We wound up boating 42 on today’s trip.

TALLY = 42 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:40a

Air Temp: 71F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 82.2F

Wind: Winds were S9-11.

Skies: Fair, cloudless skies.

Areas Fished:

** First hour was flat (as we chose to do other than downrigging

** 8-10a topwater at vic. 1234/205

** 10 to close vertical with blades and blasters at 1134/871

**

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Autumn Transition is Underway — 53 Fish, Stillhouse Report by Austin Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle






This morning I fished Stillhouse Hollow with Brad M. and his long-time friend, Bob.


Brad’s nice black bass fell for a Pet Spoon we ran at 26 feet deep.

The best of our white bass were caught from off bottom in 36′ on both blades and blasters today.

Brad’s wife saw me advertising in “Buy Texas Deals” online and booked the trip for her husband. Since the deal was good for 1 or 2 people, Brad invited Bob along. Brad is a Red Raider and makes a go of it running a booth at the Bell County Flea Market. Bob and his wife most recently sold rustic furniture and metal art from a shop they owned on Stan Schleuter Loop in Killeen.

As we began today, the winds were very light out of the NW. We found ample quantities of white bass both on bottom and suspended, along with ample bait in the same general vicinity, so, catching was pretty easy on the downriggers, but, we all kept a watchful eye out for topwater as this typically begins to come on strong with the initial cooling of the water (which we experienced beginning this past Saturday). Indeed, we saw three very brief topwater episodes — enough to help show us where fish were, but not long enough or strong enough to gear up and spend time fishing on topwater for them.

When we spotted topwater action, we headed to it, then I searched in that vicinity with sonar, and, more often than not, found fish on bottom and ready to feed where the topwater had erupted. It seemed the later it got the more tightly those fish on the bottom held their place and didn’t wander off. We threw both bladebaits and ‘blasters for these white bass (as deep as 36 feet today — the deepest I’ve found them all summer, and that due to the thermocline beginning to break down).

I observed that the thermocline has already begun to push downward with the fall of the surface temperatures from the summer high of around 87F to the current 80F.

Our fishing today was confined to the first 3.25 of the 4+ hours we spent on the water. By around 10:15 it was very bright and the surface was growing closer and closer to flat calm with a fading WNW breeze.

We wound up boating 51 white bass, 1 drum and 1 largemouth on today’s trip.

TALLY = 53 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:20a

Air Temp: 64F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 80.4F

Wind: Winds were WNW3-5.

Skies: Clear blue skies.

Areas Fished:

** 1241/484 for 1.75 hours with a combination of 90% downrigging and 10% blades

** 1255 for .75 hours throwing blades & blasters vertically and horizontally

** 866/859 for 1 hour throwing blades & blasters vertically and horizontally

** Last 45-50 minutes was flat

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Fort Hood Kids Treated to Free Fishing Trip While Dads are Away — 44 Fish, 21 Sep. 2013






This morning I was joined for a “S.K.I.F.F.” fishing trip by siblings Xavier (age 8) and Lucien (age 6) Pantle, and their buddy, Matthew Beltran (age 9).



Meet today’s whimsical crew: from L to R: Matthew, Xavier, and Lucien.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service (examples: field time, gunnery, NTC, deployment, etc). These trips are funded by the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.!

Xavier and Lucien are the sons of Sergeant and Mrs. David N. Pantle. SGT Pantle is an Army computer specialist currently deployed to Kuwait. Matthew is the son of CW2 Olsen Beltran, a Warrant Officer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps who is serving a 9 month tour in Afghanistan which began just last month. Matthew’s older brothers, Elliot and Nathaniel came out on a recent SKIFF trip with me and, after experiencing it, knew they needed to get their little brother out, too.

The big fun started just minutes into the trip. After saying goodbye at the boat ramp, we idled through the short “No Wake” zone. I told the boys to hold on to their hats as we would begin going faster after we cleared the “No Wake” zone buoys. As we got out past the buoys, I began throttling up. We were still “plowing”, not yet up on plane and going all of 20 mph when Matthew screams from behind me, “This is so fun!!! Can I come out again next Saturday??” Now, we hadn’t even touched a rod yet, much less caught or even begun searching for fish and Matthew was bubbling over! Later, we were treated to a real, live bald eagle sighting (my second in as many days — same bird, I’m sure) so the boys were just in sensory overload.

Well, the energy level stayed high all trip today as none of these boys had ever experienced anything like this, so, it was novelty after novelty, and new experience after new experience (and question after question!). The weather was really pleasant with a stiff, dry, refreshing northerly breeze clearing out the rain and murk of yesterday. It felt like autumn had arrived and the feeling was invigorating.

The fishing was best early, although we caught fish over the entire duration of the trip this morning. The cold front and winds dropped the surface temperature a full 2 degrees overnight and the fish were a little shell-shocked as a result, but we put together a nice take of 44 fish, including 43 white bass and 1 largemouth using a combination of (mainly) downrigging, with a bit of vertical work with a slab thrown in at the end for variety’s sake. Whenever we downrig, I let the kids know that there is always the potential for catching a “triple” — 3 fish at the same time — whenever I rig up with an umbrella rig. Typically, once one fish is hooked, the more slowly one reels it in, the better the chances of a double or triple. Well, with the boys being pretty young, they naturally reeled fairly slowly due to their limited hand strength, so, it wasn’t surprising that we managed not one, but two triples today. Cheers rang out with each, to be sure!!

These boys truly enjoyed themselves, so, I thank all of you who contribute to SKIFF for doing so and providing such opportunities for kids like these three boys.


TALLY = 44 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time: 11:20a

Air Temp: 67F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 82.1F

Wind: Winds were NNE12-15.

Skies: Clear “bluebird” sky.

Areas Fished:

**1233/1241 downrigging first 2.75 hours

**453/668 smoking upon arrival with downrigging to mop up in last hour

**

**

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Making Hay While the Sun Shines … and While it Doesn’t! — 76 Fish, Austin Fishing Guide Report






This morning I fished Stillhouse Hollow with J.W. and his step-son, Kyle.


J.W. has traveled all over the country working in the oil business and has had a chance to fish in some out of the way places with some unique gear, but had never worked downriggers until today.



Kyle, who plans to transfer from Temple College to Texas A&M to pursue a business degree, focus strictly on the fishing business today!!


J.W., originally from Kirbyville, TX, is employed in the oilfield in south Texas and works 16 days on and 5 days off. While he was away, his wife, Monica, looked for something nice for him and Kyle (a student at Temple College) to enjoy together when he returned. She found me through the current special I’m running through “Buy Texas Deals” online and booked this trip for them.

Our timing could not have been better. We fished in the “calm before the storm”, literally catching the last SW breeze pushing in in advance of a cold front which, by 11am, began dropping heavy, widespread rain over all of central Texas.

Numerous times to told the fellows we needed to “make hay while the sun shines (even though it was completely cloudy today)”, meaning we needed to catch all we could before the cold front dipped down and messed up our fishing. In the end, we got a full 4 hours in and did well.

The fishing was good the entire trip, and even better “spikes” occurred when the sun occasionally brightened the skies through the clouds.

As soon as the sun rose (though obscured) some light surface action broke out helping guide us to where the fish were, with a little help from some friendly terns flying over the area. We downrigged a bit, then hovered and threw blade baits, then returned to downrigging, catching fish all the while. We pulled fish from this fair expanse of water for 3 straight hours catching numerous doubles on our downrigged umbrella rigs and 3 sets of triples, as well.

By 10:15 I told the fellows that I thought they had more than checked the block on the downrigging and offered an opportunity to change tactics even though I couldn’t guarantee success as I suspected the fishing wasn’t going to hold up much longer.

We searched 3 different areas with no luck, but, on our fourth look, over about 31 feet of water, we found fish aggressively feeding from top to bottom just minutes in advance of the windshift from SSW to NNE that would usher in the rain. We witnessed white bass and largemouth bass chasing large 4+ inch long threadfin shad to the surface, then rushing to overtake them as they panicked and swam in the surface film with backs nearly out of the water. We threw bladebaits to “match the hatch” and pulled a a final 13 fish in at this location before the weather bore down on us and brought everything to a screeching halt.

We wound up boating 74 white bass and 2 largemouth on today’s trip.

TALLY = 76 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:10a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F

Wind: Winds were SSW4-6.

Skies: 100% cloudy with occasional light rain.

Areas Fished:

** 1246/1242 for 3 hours with a combination of 85% downrigging and 15% blades

** 671 for 25 minutes throwing blades vertically and horizontally

**

**

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Retired Guys On Deck!! — 36 Fish, Stillhouse Fishing Guide’s Report, 19 Sep. 2013






This morning I fished with Payton D. and Dick C., both veterans and retirees with a heart for people.



The majority of our success came on downriggers today, with very limited opportunities to fish other techniques.

Payton, who traces his family tree back at least 3 generations to the Brookhaven Community located on the south bank of Cowhouse Creek on what is now Fort Hood, is a Navy vet and retired letter carrier. Dick, a U.S. Army Vietnam vet, served in the Texas National Guard and owned his own construction company. Both are very faithful men and both have a servant’s heart for ministering to others.

I wish I could have put more fish in the boat for such good fellows, but, as the seasons begin to change and the stable, reliable weather of summer slowly slips behind us, the frequently changing weather patterns put some speedbumps in our path. Today began with very murky, grey skies and a SE wind in advance of some much needed rainy weather due in the next 2 days. The skies never got bright enough to make you squint until after 10:15 — just too little, too late.

Now, it’s not like we didn’t catch fish — we actually caught fish pretty steadily, but, we never got into a bunch that just put the feedbag on and raced after our presentations for any length of time. So, we had to cover a lot of ground and work for each fish we caught, but, in the end, we landed 3 dozen fish — all white bass, and we got to jig for them, throw blades for them, and, mainly, downrig for them.

The small, resident population of terns on Stillhouse tried to help, but, they too had to range far and wide to get a shot at feeding on shad forced to the top by a white bass or largemouth now and then, and even then only during occasional breaks in the clouds when the sun got bright enough to spur topwater feeding.


TALLY = 36 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.2F

Wind: Winds were SE6-7.

Skies: 100% cloudy band murky grey.

Areas Fished:

**1230 smoked slabs for 7 fish early

**853/1246/1240 smoked slabs under birds then downrigged to mop up for 19 fish

**460 consistent bird action, but only 5 fish produced

**863/041 final area fished with downriggers for 5 fish

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Don’t Know Where They Found the Time to Work! — 47 Fish, Austin Fishing Guide Report, 17 Sep. 2013






This morning I fished with a very nice retired couple, Bill and Beth B., who live out near Moffat, TX.



Bill and Beth with the best of the bunch of the 47 fish we boated today.

Bill with his 11th hour “triple” — 3 fish caught at the same time!!

First and foremost, Bill and Beth are followers of Christ and part of Temple Bible Church in Temple, TX. They lead a small group Bible study in their home weekly, and Bill, as both part of his ministry and his retirement business, helps people who are struggling with budgeting and debt work through their money problems using biblical principles. We had a good bit in common, so, even in the early part of the trip when the fishing was a bit slow, we enjoyed one another’s company and conversation. This couple is enjoying a very full, active retirement. Bill kidded that he’s so busy now, he doesn’t know where he found the time to work when he did so!

Beth, like me, is an “Army-brat” who actually graduated from Kaiserslautern High School in Germany, the same place where I attended Kindergarten through 3rd Grade.

The fishing definitely started off slow today. We had a light ESE wind and an obscured sunrise thanks to cloud cover spinning off from Hurricane Ingrid down in Mexico. By 9am we’d only boated 12 fish, which is the second slowest start I’ve encountered all summer.

Around 9am, although the skies remained clouded, the sun’s angle was sufficient to brighten the sky through the clouds, and the light winds picked up a bit and went SE at 7-8. This combination of light and wind was enough to light the fuze on what would turn out to be a solid 90 minutes of good fishing. During this time we encountered terns and a single cormorant working over top of topwater feeding fish forcing shad to the surface. This made keeping up with active schools of fish easier than just relying on electronics alone. We ignored the few fish up high to cash in on the much greater numbers of fish lurking in the lower third of the water column by working with slabs and bladebaits. We took our tally up to 37 fish during this feeding time — still not white-hot fishing, but steady and productive.

By 10:40 as the feed was tapering off, so, we turned to our downriggers to comb out the few still-active fish from among the inactive majority. This accounted for 10 more fish, including an end-of-trip triple (3 fish caught at the same time on each of the 3 lures on a 3 armed umbrella rig) for Bill. By 11:40, it was all over.


TALLY = 47 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:40a

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.5F

Wind: Winds were SE4-8.

Skies: 80% cloudy but still bright enough to have to squint.

Areas Fished:

**1246/909/1241 downrigging

**859-1253 smoke and blades

**196 and drop to east downrigging


Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Pop Tart Pals — SKIFF Trip Nets 53 Fish for Brayden and Zach — 14 Sept. 2013, Stillhouse Lake






This morning I was joined for our 21st “S.K.I.F.F.” fishing trip of the year by Brayden and Zach, both 9 years old.




Zach (L) and Brayden (R) enjoyed one another’s company and some solid fishing this morning utilizing 4 different techniques.


When Brayden’s mom accidentally left the boatramp with Brayden’s snack bag, Zach recognized the situation and, without prompting of any sort, offered to share his entire lunch with his fishing buddy.


At ~40mph with no windshield, it is sometimes necessary to improvise on eye protection!!


Brayden’s dad, Sergeant First Class Benjamin Scott, is stationed at the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California. SFC Scott has served 2 tours in Iraq. Zach is the son of U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant First Class (SFC) Abe Marquez and his wife, Hilary. SFC Marquez has served overseas on 4 previous deployments and is now providing security at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. SFC Marquez is currently assigned to the 479th Field Artillery Brigade.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service. These trips are funded by the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.!

Thanks to a nearly windless first 2 hours on the water, things were a bit slow, so we used our downriggers to cover a lot of ground and get our baits in front of the few active fish amongst the many still inactive fish. Over the first two hours, we boated only 14 fish, but the action was evenly distributed, so the boys stayed engaged.

At exactly 9am, a light SSE wind began, and the fish turned on with that wind. From 9a to 10a, we took our fish count from 14 white bass up to 36 white bass and, during this time, witnessed some light topwater action and some heavy submerged schooling which allowed us to leave the downrigging behind and go vertical using slabs to put a bunch of fish in the boat in short order.

By around 10a, that peak of activity ended, and we went back to downrigging, but, I could tell the boys were ready for a change of pace, so, we headed shallow and put 12 sunfish in the boat in about 30 minutes’ time before the very hot, very still conditions in the back of the cove we were fishing got to be too much. We rounded out the trip with one last shot at vertical jigging, during which time we put a final 5 white bass in the boat and then called it a day and enjoyed the breeze evaporating the sweat on our skin as we cruised back to the boatramp to meet up with moms.


TALLY = 53 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 75F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.5F

Wind: Winds were calm until 9a, then blew SSE4-6.

Skies: 30% cloudy on a fair sky.

Areas Fished:

**1245 downrigging

**1246/1241/909 smoking & downrigging

**1098 sunfishing

**1252 smoking

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








III Corps Kids Fish for Free while Dad Serves in Afghanistan — 52 Fish, Stillhouse Fishing Report






This morning I was joined for a “S.K.I.F.F.” fishing trip by siblings Jonily (age 10) and Ryan (age 7) Considine of Copperas Cove, TX.




Ryan (named after his dad’s favor ball player, Nolan Ryan) excelled at downrigging today.

Jonily, named partly after her dad, John, and partly after her mom, Marily, preferred working a slab vertically.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service. These trips are funded by the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.!

Jonily and Ryan are the children of Major John Considine and his wife, Mrs. Marily Considine. Major Considine is an Army Engineer currently assigned to III Corps in Kabul, Afghanistan, for a 12 month deployment. Mrs. Considine was named the Fort Hood 2013 Military Spouse of the Year, is a cancer survivor, and now regularly speaks to audiences concerning that topic.

Both kids had limited previous fishing experience, so, we started with the basics (casting lessons at the end of the boat ramp) and built up from there.

We started off small and simple, angling for sunfish in a quiet cove, allowing each child to catch 3 fish unassisted after I gave them some “OJT”, and before heading out over open water in search of the larger, more elusive white bass.

Over the span of our trip the kids got to employ vertical jigging, downrigging, and a bit of horizontal casting with bladebaits in order to lure the white bass we were seeking.

In the end, we boated 7 sunfish and 45 white bass. Both kids were able to experience landing a “triple” where 3 white bass were caught at the same time on an umbrella rig outfitted with 3 lures on it.

When I asked the kids how they managed to stay in contact with their dad a half a world away, they really filled me in with great detail about how they make use of a free service called “Oovoo”, which is evidently an improvement on another program called “Facetime”, both of which let you talk and see the person you’re talking with at the same time. They mentioned how much they really like talking to their dad before his bedtime in Afghanistan!

Jonily is celebrating her 10th birthday this weekend, so, Grandpa (Marily’s dad) was traveling down from Garland, TX, for a visit. The kids couldn’t wait to see him and tell him about their fishy adventure today (and I believe Ryan was hoping old grandpa could soup up his computer a bit while he was down this way).

This was a great trip with 2 great youngsters. Thank you, Austin Fly Fishers for paving the way to experiences like this one for Ryan and Jonily.


TALLY = 52 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 4p

End Time: 8p

Air Temp: 93F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.5F

Wind: Winds were SSE6-7.

Skies: 30% cloudy on a fair sky.

Areas Fished:

**200 Sunfishing

**1133/197 smoking

**1246 smoking

**1246/1221 downrig

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas