3rd SKIFF Trip of the 2016 Season — Caleb Woodside & Jonathan Owens, 48 fish

by Bob Maindelle
This past Tuesday afternoon I had the joy of fishing with Jonathan Owens, the minister of music at Memorial Baptist Church in Killeen, along with Caleb Woodside, one of the youth at that church, and a member of the church’s band. The two share a common interest in music, and I offered to take the them out so they could continue to build on their new friendship. Though still a teenager, Caleb has risen to the rank of manager at the local Freddy’s Burger restaurant, and has plans to pursue a business administration degree, possibly at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
 
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This was the third SKIFF trip I’ve conducted for the 2016 season.  SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun, and exists to get soldiers’ kids out on the water while those soldiers are away from their families due to military duty.  Caleb’s dad, U.S. Army Captain Matthew Woodside, is a chaplain serving the First Cavalry Division in South Korea for a 9-month rotation.

 We were plagued with heavy winds this afternoon. Winds were blowing 18 to 20 straight line, with occasional higher gusts. The white bass I have been finding on Stillhouse have been heavily congregated, but in very deep water. Wind and deep water are a difficult combination as less experienced anglers tend to have difficulty in detecting when their lure is or is not on bottom. This was the case for some of our trip today.Nonetheless, we were able to overcome that issue and land a total of 48 fish, using both an “easing” and a “smoking” tactic.

The “smoking” tactic typically first comes into play as the water reaches 72°. We were just shy of that mark today, but the fish still responded fairly well. Our catch of 48 fish consisted of 47 white bass and one freshwater drum. Thanks to fairly heavy cloud cover, the evening bite wrapped up right at 7:50 PM.


If you are a military family and you or your spouse is away on duty of any sort, please call me if I can help your situation by providing a free fishing trip.  Parents are welcome to attend, and are equally welcome to take a break from their own kids and leave them in my care for the 4 hour trip.
 
TALLY = 48 fish, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time:  8:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp:  72.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Winds were strong S18-20 with higher gusts

Sky Conditions:  Thin grey cloud cover the entire trip.

Water Level: ~5 feet above full pool with no release from the dam.

GT = 0

 Wx Snapshot:

 25APR16

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 088

**Area 1748/1059/1042

**Area  1030/1028/1267

**Area 1156/122

**Area 158

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

 

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