Birthday Cakes and Outhouses?!? SKIFF Trip #27 — Stillhouse Lake — 35 Fish






This morning I fished with brothers David (age 12) and James (age 6) McNicol from the Kouma Village housing area on Fort Hood on the 27th SKIFF trip of 2013.



12 year old David liked both downrigging and vertical jigging with spinning gear.


6 year old James is evidently destined to become a wastewater engineer. He is also capable of catching nice largemouth bass.

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.!

The boys’ dad, Specialist (SPC) James McNicol is currently stationed in Afghanistan with the 59th Mobility Augmentation Company (MAC). SPC McNicol is a combat engineer involved in route clearing operations wherein the Army’s “Husky” vehicles are used to locate and eliminate improvised explosive devices (IED’s) thus making travel safer for all vehicles. The boys’ mom, Melanie, keeps up with 5 kids and 2 dogs as a temporarily single parent awaiting James’ return.

We got off to a less than ideal start this morning, but it underscores exactly how and why SKIFF is able to meet needs in the Fort Hood community. Mrs. McNicol was trying to make her daughter’s birthday party a special one by baking a birthday cake just for her. This is made difficult with 4 other kids under the age of 12 in the house at the end of a school week. So, she held off on getting started until all the kids were in bed. That project went until well after 1 a.m. at which time SPC McNicol called from Afghanistan. The call was most welcome, but the missed sleep was not. Long story short, we were due to launch this morning at 7:25a, but the McNichol clan did not rise until after 8am, so, we missed out on the first (and often best) 2 hours of fishing. That said, when Mrs. McNicol got the boys to me, I just asked what time the party was, and told her I’d keep the boys from under her feet until the party started. You could see the relief on her face. No boys to worry about for 4+ hours, and no need to leave and pick them back up right before party time. So, peak feeding time or not, we fished from 9:30a to around 1:15p — as long as we could and still have a timely arrival at the big birthday bash.

A cold front arrived today at around 12:30p. Typically, winds blow hard in advance of a front from the south, then from the west, then from the northwest or due north as the cold air arrives. The good fishing typically comes with the west wind. Today’s front was a bit “funky”. The air was heavy and still with just a gentle SSE breeze until the moment the front came in cranking the wind speed up to 17 mph from the NW and dropping the temperature immediately. The fish were in a negative mood right up until the windshift and then fed really hard for about the first 45 minutes of the NW blow.

We stuck to white bass fishing all day today as the boys had previous fishing experience and could use spinning gear without much coaching required. We downrigged to find fish and then “smoked” with ‘blasters to take advantage of what we found while downrigging. Today marked the first day we’ve caught fish at or below the 40 foot mark — a sign that the thermocline is nearly gone.

In all, we boated 33 white bass in the 0, 1, 2, and 3 year classes, as well as 2 just-keeper largemouth.

As I drove the boys home I had a humorous thing happen. James (remember, he’s 6) says, “Mr. Bob, do you remember the olden days?” I said, hesitantly, “Yes.” He continued, “Well I don’t know what they’re called but in the olden days didn’t people go to the bathroom in those outside things that are kind of like boxes.” I said, “Oh, you mean outhouses.” He said, “I don’t know what they are called but they kind of look like those blue things (he motioned to the Port-A-Potties now being used on the US Hwy. 190 construction project).” I informed him that I was born in 1969, well after the age of outhouses in America, but that at one time people did indeed meet nature’s call in outhouses!!

Thank you all for helping make days like this happen, fish like these be caught, and birthday cakes get made for daughters missing dads!!!


TALLY = 35 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 9:30a

End Time: 1:15p

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 80.1F

Wind: Winds were SSE2-4.

Skies: Grey and overcast until 9:30, then clearing to 30% clouds on a fair sky.

Areas Fished:

** Downrigged 1233-1239 with a lot of small fish in the catch so we moved

** Smoked 1134-1255 found a lot of fish present but sluggish in the near calm conditions

** Smoked 1257/1252 again found a lot of fish present but sluggish in the near calm conditions

** Downrigged then smoked 671 as the front came in and the fish turned on and fished them until they turned off about 35 minutes later

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas