A Day of Firsts for the Burton Boys — Ft. Hood SKIES “Fishing 101” Trip — 57 Fish

This afternoon I met Terry and Natalie Burton and their two children, Christian and Abram, for a fishing trip on Lake Belton booked through the Fort Hood SKIES program.

Christian Burton with his best white bass of the trip.  Christian stayed engaged and enthusiastic right down to his last cast of the night (on which he landed a fish!).

 

After the novelty of the several techniques we employed today wore off, Abram enjoyed the special assignments I came up with for him, such as aerator switch operator, livewell control officer, net-master, and drain plug technician.

The Burton’s live on Fort Hood where Terry serves as a senior non-commissioned officer providing sustainment support to III Corps.  Natalie is a registered nurse by training, but not currently working in that field.  The Burton’s have been an Army family for over 20 years.

As we met up right on time this afternoon, I first did a bit of an assessment to see what prior experience the boys had in fishing and in using the equipment I had on the boat, so I could know how much coaching would be required.  After that, we talked safety, then, we got lines in the water and went fishing.

The first hour we enjoyed moderate success fishing 3-armed umbrella rigs behind downrigger balls and came up with singles and doubles on a regular basis.  During this time, both boys caught their first fish, thus making them eligible for a TPWD “First Fish Award”.

Abram, who is 5 years old, began to show signs that the novelty of catching fish by way of the downriggers was wearing off.  Sensing this, we transitioned to fishing for shallow water panfish using live bait.  We hit two areas fairly close to one another and boated bluegill sunfish, redear sunfish, and green sunfish over about a 50 minute span.

Next, it was off to Area 1601 which produced well beginning at around 5:30p yesterday.  Although the bite was not as intense tonight, fish were in this area and willing to bite.  We spent another hour working these fish over for slow but consistent action.

Within 40 minutes of sunset, we moved over to Area 1602 where the boys used a smoking technique to catch fish that were beginning to move both shallower and up higher in the water column in preparation for the day’s final feed.  As it did last night, this transformed into a topwater bite, thus allowing the boys to see the fish pursuing forage and trapping it against the surface.  The bite ended right at dark, by which time we amassed a catch of 57 fish including redear sunfish, bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, blue catfish, largemouth bass, white bass, and hybrid striped bass.  Not bad for two boys who’d never landed a fish before!
SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant).

There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.

 

TALLY = 57 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 90F

Water Surface Temp: 86.5F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE7-8

Sky Conditions: ~15% cloud cover on a fair sky following a clear, dry morning sky.

Note: Lake has dropped 0.03 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 593.33 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area (vicinity) 687 downrigging for moderate results on smaller fish over first hour

**Area 166 slipfloats for panfish

**Area 1601 downrigging for deeper, scattered schools

**Area 1602 smoking for short hybrid beginning at 6:30p

**Area 811 last light topwater action

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

My Name is Hope, and I’m Here to Fish!! — 48 Fish, Belton, 26 Sep. 2015

This morning I greeted Micky Boettger, his wife, Aly, and their 8-year-old daughter, Hope, at the courtesy dock on Belton Lake at 6:45am for a little family fun sprinkled with a bit of downrigger education for Micky.

Hope was brimming with excitement this morning.  She about ran from the car down to the courtesy dock, greeted me enthusiastically, and let me know she was ready to catch fish — and she was!!!

From left: Micky, Hope, and Aly.  Today was a multi-species kind of day; we caught white bass, hybrid stripers, green sunfish, a drum, a smallmouth bass, and a channel cat.  Everything was eating small, young-of-the-year shad.

Micky fishes Belton Lake frequently with both rod and reel and with fixed juglines.  He recently added a downrigger to his arsenal and, over the course of today’s trip, wanted to pick up on some of the fine points of how, when, and where to use this tool.  We had spoken some time ago about this, and about timing such a trip when the sunfish were still up shallow to keep things interesting for Hope.  Well, today was the day.

As we launched, I was a bit concerned about the little bit of nip in the air from the NW wind that came in as a mild cold front overnight.  This can either really enhance a bite or really dampen it this early in the season when the barometric pressure changes (increases) but the water temperature remains unchanged.  Fortunately, we still enjoyed a short topwater bite right before sunrise, allowing Hope to land 9 fish up shallow on a Cork Rig, however, that action died hard as the first direct rays of light, unfiltered by any manner of clouds, struck the water.

I looked quickly in 4 other areas that have been producing a topwater bite lately, but, they, too, were shut down.  So, we shifted out deeper and began to probe with sonar for both bait and schools of gamefish.

We encountered exactly what I was hoping to find in the vicinity of Area 1604.  Very large schools of shad were bunched together into tight balls here, indicating a threat by gamefish.  We got downriggers down and, in 4 passes came up with 12 fish.  Fish very aggressively came up off bottom to inspect the downrigger balls, indicating a willingness to feed.  We quickly transitioned from downrigging to vertical jigging and caught fish continuously for about 35 minutes just hovering atop these fish that we’d found with the downriggers.

Once this bite died, we “mopped up” a few stragglers with a few more downrigger passes until that no longer was of interest to the fish, at which time we went shallow to introduce Hope to panfishing and Micky to a great way to catch some sunfish for catfish bait.  We used a pole and slipfloat setup to catch green sunfish until the novelty of that method wore out on Hope.

We closed out our trip looking over 3 different chunks of water for more downriggable fish, but found none.  By 11:15 it appeared the morning bite was over, and we called it a morning with 48 fish landed for our efforts.

 

TALLY = 48 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time:  11:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 67F

Water Surface Temp:  82.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: NW9 at sunrise, tapering to NW5-6

Sky Conditions:  Cloudless

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 478 low-light topwater action

**Area 1604 downrigging leading to smoking with slabs

**Area 1583 panfishing

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

2 Kids, 4 Hours, 114 Fish — SKIFF Trip #17, Belton, 25 Sept.

This afternoon I conducted an after-school Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip for Juliahna and Ethan Dixon of Harker Heights, TX.

 

Juliahna and Ethan Dixon with a sampling of the fish we landed this evening.  The kids landed a total of 114 fish tonight, including their first fish ever, thus earning a TPWD “First Fish Award”.

Juliahna is a 5th grader and Ethan is in the 2nd grade.  They are the children of U.S. Army Major Aaron Dixon and his wife, Ashley Dixon.  MAJ Dixon is currently deployed to Southwest Asia serving as a general’s aide.

With baseball caps, windbreakers, cheese & peanut butter crackers, and jelly sandwiches all packed and ready to go, I picked the kids up from their home since it was on my way to the boat ramp so as to give their mom a little more time to herself.  We headed to Belton after a slow trip to Stillhouse yesterday helped me finalize my decision on the matter, despite the little extra drive time it takes to get to Belton.  In hindsight, I’m very glad we did this.

We caught fish consistently from start to finish using 3 separate techniques, including downrigging, using slab spoons vertically, and casting to fish on topwater.  We caught a mix of fish today including white bass of various sizes, hybrid striped bass of various sizes, and 2 smallmouth bass, one of which was the largest fish of our trip.

As we started the trip, things were a bit slow on the downriggers at the first area we tried, producing about 6 fish in 40 minutes.  We relocated and found white bass in deeper 32-36 foot water and caught them initially on downriggers, then switched over to slabs after seeing how heavily congregated the fish were near bottom.  This was interrupted by a 30-minute spell of rowdy surface action nearby, after which we went back to using slabs.

By the time this area was tapering off, our final area of the evening was just starting to heat up.  As we arrived, I could see fish beginning to suspend from 10 feet down to bottom in 25-27 feet of water.  Every one of the 4 downrigger passes we made was answered with pairs of multiple hookups — a situation which just screams to be fished more thoroughly.  We stopped trolling, Spot-Locked with the Minn Kota trolling motor, and proceeded to “wear ’em out” until more rowdy topwater action pulled us off of these fish.

We pursued topwater fish for the entire time span from sunset until dark.  I cast a Cork Rig with a small shad imitator, and I had the kids throw a Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 in 3/8 oz. for simplicity’s sake since they were beginners with the spinning gear.  As the topwater action began, the kids were amazed a how much more the activity there was versus just 20-30 minutes earlier.

Both Ethan and Juliahna caught the first fish of their lives tonight, thus earning a TPWD “First Fish Award” for their accomplishment.

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, organizations, and companies 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. SKIFF is open to children in elementary and middle school, as well as youth in high school.
TALLY = 114 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:25p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 90F

Water Surface Temp: 84.0F

Wind Speed & Direction: ESE0-5

Sky Conditions: Mostly cloudy @ 70% coverage over a fair sky

Note: Lake has dropped 0.04 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 593.36 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1411 minimal success on downiggers

**Area 1601 successful downrigging with multiple triples, paving the way to smoking success with slabs

**Area 1603 topwater blitz

**Area 1602 downrigging leading to smoking, then transitioning into topwater from here to Area 009 right at and after sunset

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com