This morning I conducted the fourth SKIFF trip of the 2015 season, treating Austin Bayless, age 12, and his sister, Chloe Bayless, age 6, to a free fishing trip on Stillhouse Hollow while their dad, U.S. Army Captain Wyatt Bayless, is away on assignment to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.
Austin Bayless displays our largest fish of the morning — a nice largemouth bass that fell for a jigging spoon. It weighed in at 3.25 pounds on a certified scale.
Mrs. Jennifer Bayless dropped the kids off at lakeside promptly at 7am and, after a short safety briefing, we were on our way to hunt for fish. Mrs. Bayless was going to use the time without kids to get the house squared away for Wyatt’s return this coming week, after a ~5 week absence. By mid July this family will “PCS” (made a permanent change of station) away from Ft. Hood to San Antonio where CPT Bayless will work with ROTC cadets at the University of Texas — San Antonio for a 3-year tour.
We started off downrigging in the low light created by the heavy cloud cover, and picked up 8 white bass of various sizes on our Pet Spoons before spotting a large school of fish holding tight to the bottom after about 40 minutes of trolling. We used the Spot Lock feature on the Minn Kota Ulterra trolling motor to hold right on top of these fish for over 3 hours. As soon as we got our lures down amongst the fish, they responded aggressively, thus allowing for a “smoking” tactic to be employed. As we reeled fish in, most every time I observed several other fish from the school chasing the hooked fish up from the bottom. At one point in time, one of these “chasers” got a bit too close to his buddy and got hooked, thus allowing Austin to bring in a double!
At age 6, Chloe’s attention span lasted about 2 1/2 hours, and after that we had to find some other jobs she was interested in. Her favorite was “net-girl”. I equipped her with my live bait net and, each time Austin or I landed a fish, I would unhook it, deposit it in Chloe’s waiting net, and she would (quite ceremoniously) deposit it back into the lake on the side of the boat opposite Austin and me. When the novelty of that wore off, I gave her my “thumping stick” — a device I use to tap on the bottom of the boat to create commotion and attract fish. She belted out a couple nice rhythms and kept the fish consolidated underneath us quite nicely. Finally, when the novelty wore off on that task, we took to creating boat titles for ourselves. Austin’s vast knowledge of nautical lingo kicked in here, and he helped us determine that I would be serving as ‘skipper’, he would be the ‘first matey’, and Chloe would be the ‘deck hand’. Too many ‘Wicked Tuna’ episodes I reckon.
Somehow, we got on the topic of the zebra mussel invasion of Lake Belton. I explained how the larval stage of this invasive species can be transported by water in a boat’s bilge or livewell, and how, if a lake gets infected, damage can result to the balance of that lake’s ecosystem. Austin said, “So the zebra mussels can put a lake in some deep ‘shimski’?” I knew he meant ‘kimchi”, but I asked, “Shimski, huh?” He replied, “Yeah, that’s something my PaPa says.”
There were no dull moments this morning!!
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.
A huge thanks to all the supporters of SKIFF nationwide! If you have donated money, donated gear, provided “Outdoor Professional” discounts to us, conducted fundraisers, referred children or their parents to SKIFF, arranged for publicity, or for whatever else you may have done, seen or unseen, — THANK YOU!
TALLY = 105 FISH, all caught and released (103 white bass, 1 drum, 1 largemouth bass)
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 11:00a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F
Water Surface Temp: 73F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-12 the entire trip
Sky Conditions: 100% cloud cover.
Note: Lake has risen ~2 feet since last Sunday but has not discolored or seen a lot of flotsam come in
Other: GT= 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1563-1564
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
