A Boatload of Folks, Fish, & Fun — 27 Fish, SKIFF Trip #2014-18

This morning I conducted the 18th SKIFF trip of the 2014 season with members of the Pappas family and the Cancel family aboard.  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 thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

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L to R: Jose Cancel, Yuneisy Cancel, Chantelle Cancel, Chanelle Cancel, Shaydee Pappas, and Josiah Pappas.

Both moms joined me today on the water, which is really nice especially where younger elementary-aged kids are concerned.  Representing the Pappas family was Mrs. Shaydee Pappas and her 5-year-old son, Josiah.  Josiah’s dad, U.S. Air Force Tech. Sergeant Pappas is currently deployed to Qatar where he supports the U.S. Army as a weapons director.  He has served almost 13 years in the USAF.  Mrs. Pappas is  a USAF veteran, having served in the USAF’s Air & Space Operations.  Representing the Cancel family was Mrs. Yuneisy Cancel and her three children, Chantelle (age 12), Jose (age 11), and Chanelle (age 7).  Yuneisy’s husband, Jose, has 6 years in the U.S. Army under his belt and is currently supporting U.S. Army troops in Afghanistan as a digital systems engineer focused on communication systems.

None of the four kids aboard today had ever caught a fish before, and all earned a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award” as a result of their accomplishments today.

Although during several attempts at working slabs vertically for fish we found congregated on the bottom the kids did very well at this technique, the fish were reluctant to cooperate.  We made 3 stops and tried vertical jigging after making successful downrigging passes over heavy schools of fish and tossing a buoy on the fish to mark the location of the schools.  On only one of these three attempts did the fish perk up once we got our slabs down to them.  On that attempt we picked up 3 fish in short order and missed a 4th that was hooked but pulled off before being landed.

Otherwise, we spent the rest of the trip using the downriggers and working through a 4-way rotation from youngest to oldest among the four kids.  This worked out pretty well as there are other tasks than just catching the fish that downrigging entails, including letting the lines out the correct distance behind the boat, letting the downrigger weights down below the boat to the correct distance, and then bringing the balls back up to clear the hardware from the water after a fish is hooked and is being fought to boatside.  Even Josiah, our youngest fisherman today, stayed engaged right to the end of the outing today.  I guaranteed the moms that everyone would be “nap-ready” following lunch today.  I know I was!

In all, we boated 27 fish today including 26 white bass and 1 freshwater drum.  After seeing how much their kids enjoyed the sport, both moms mentioned that they thought going fishing would be something their husbands would enjoy doing with the kids upon their return from overseas.

Demand for SKIFF trips (and all fishing trips, for that matter) tends to drop off sharply once the school year commences once again and schedules fill with sports and other activities, so, I was glad we could accommodate these families just days before the start of school on Aug. 25th.

Thank you, Austin Fly Fishers, for the work you do behind the scenes to allow it all to come together for trips like this one!

TALLY = 27 FISH

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00am

End Time:  11:00am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  79F

Water Surface Temp:  84.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S10-13

Sky Conditions:  Fair skies with 15% white cloud cover.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1437-1438 downrigging for the first 90 minutes for 16 fish

**Area  1265 for the final 2 hours downrigging for 8 fish and slabbing for 3 fish

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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