SKIFF, other military programs, help family grieve

THE FOLLOWING WAS ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN THE KILLEEN DAILY HERALD, SUNDAY, 31 JULY 2016:

 

IMG_2894

CAPTION: Nancy Phimmasone’s children, from left, Aiyana Nolen, 8; Isaiah Nolen,  5; Qwentin Wilson, 12; and Asia Wilson, 15; pose with a sampling of the 45 fish they caught on Belton Lake during a SKIFF program fishing trip last week.

 

In March 2001, Army Pvt. Donald Wilson and his fiancée, Nancy Phimmasone, were married here in Bell County. By 2012, Wilson had risen to the rank of sergeant first class when he died while on active duty, where he served as a fire direction chief in a mortar platoon.

Now alone with her four children, Phimmasone began the process of grieving. Much of that process played out within the confines of Fort Hood, aided by the people who make up the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). According to the organization’s website, TAPS “… offers compassionate care to all those grieving the death of a loved one serving in our Armed Forces. Since 1994, TAPS has provided comfort and hope 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a national peer support network and connection to grief resources, all at no cost to surviving families and loved ones.”

TAPS puts on both regional Survivor Seminars and Good Grief camps across the U.S. Just six weeks after SFC Wilson’s death, Phimmasone chose to attend her first TAPS event with her children.

“… We did not feel we were ready to grieve outside of our home. I have to admit, day one was rough. To see so many people, especially all the children that were at the event because they, too, lost a parent made my heart hurt, and was overwhelming, then we went to our room and just cried.

“On day two, after being able to just grieve on day one, we were OK to give hugs to strangers and recognize our common pain. We grew a bond with other Gold Star families, and learned that we are not alone. TAPS has gone above and beyond showing us countless times that we are not in this alone,” Phimmasone said.

While attending their first TAPS event, Phimmasone learned of another service available to military survivors, the Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) program.

As she sought out activities for her children to participate in which permitted her to participate right alongside them, Phimmasone found both TAPS Good Grief camps and SKIFF fishing trips a perfect fit.

When asked how her children responded to attending Good Grief camps, Phimmasone stated, “They enjoy being around other kids that understand them. To know that they are not alone has helped take mourning and turn it into a celebration of life. Sad tears turning into tears of joy is big progress.”

The family was treated to its first SKIFF fishing trip in the summer of 2013, and then again in 2014.

As the family prepared for this summer’s Fort Hood TAPS events, Phimmasone once again reached out to SKIFF organizers to offer her kids something special before this year’s round of Survivor Seminars began. Phimmasone said the SKIFF program is “… the breath of fresh air that’s needed before we attend our events. (The) kids and I have so much fun getting away on the water, leaving all worries behind.”

As Phimmasone and her childen, 15-year-old Asia Wilson, 12-year-old Qwentin Wilson, 8-year-old Aiyana Nolen and 5-year- old Isaiah Nolen headed out on Belton Lake together Thursday, she asked each child to predict how many fish they might catch in their four-hour adventure. Phimmasone’s own guess of 40 fish was the highest of all.

The party began their trip at 6:15 a.m. by using downriggers to catch white bass and hybrid striped bass during the first half of the trip, and then used fresh, dead shad to catch blue catfish during the second half of the trip. By 10:30, as they headed back to the boat ramp near Frank’s Marina, the team effort had netted a total of 45 fish.

Along the way, Phimmasone and her family got to take in sights of abundant wildlife, cruise by the Belton Lake waterfall and enjoy hotdogs and ample quantities Funyuns together. As the kids stepped off the boat, they were already planning ahead for next year’s trip.

SKIFF trips are offered free of charge and are funded by the Austin Fly Fishers fishing club. SKIFF trips are available to children who are separated from their parent due to that parent’s military duties, and to those children whose parents passed away while on active duty. A call to 254-368-7411 to reserve a date is all that is necessary to arrange for a four-hour trip.

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://kdhnews.com/sports/fishing/bob-maindelle-skiff-other-military-programs-help-family-grieve/article_510dfbc0-56e2-11e6-a771-8b7d3113e971.html

 

The Cost of Dog Sitting — 55 Fish, Belton Lake

This past Wednesday morning, July 27th, I fished Belton Lake with Matt Poston and his 15-year-old son, Hayden, both from Aledo, Texas. Matt is originally from Temple and returned home for a week’s visit to dogsit for his parents. The fishing trip was evidently his “payment”.

 

Father & Son

From left: Hayden and Matt Poston with a pair of hybrids taken seconds apart on shad as a wolfpack of hybrid entered our livebait spread.

Smallmouth

Hayden took this nice smallmouth as we sight-cast to fish feeding on the surface.

 

As weather conditions improved from the instability we experienced over the past two mornings, the bite improved as well. This morning we spent our first hour or so on an aggressive downrigger bite targeting fish holding 12 to 15 feet beneath the surface using three-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons. When no top water action developed at the time it traditionally had under high-pressure conditions earlier this week and over the past two weeks, I suggested we go ahead and target some larger fish by fishing with live bait.

We found ample fish in 34 to 36 feet of water, but as has been the case over the past three trips, no sooner did we get baits down and a few hybrid landed, then blue catfish began to move in on our baits in droves and begin to kill our live baits before we could fool a hybrid with them. Suspecting this might happen this morning, I really held off on chumming, but even that did not keep the blue cats away for long. I found that by moving three or four boat lengths away, the hybrid would more quickly move over to our newly placed live baits whereas the catfish would stay where we had previously been fishing. Catch a few hybrid, though, and the blue cats would rejoin us in short order.

After both Matt and Hayden were able to boat several hybrid over the 18 inch mark, I suggested we invest our last hour or so using yet another technique new to them, that of presenting a slab vertically for suspended fish.

As I approached the stretch of water I had hoped to use slabs at, some top water activity caught my eye. As I studied the water more closely, I could see a fair amount of top water action taking place. We eased into this activity with the trolling motor, and began casting to the fish we saw. We picked up both largemouth bass and white bass, as well as Hayden’s first smallmouth ever. We fished in this way for about 30 minutes, and then as the top water action began to tail off, we pursued white bass and hybrid striper in deeper water where we caught them on slabs presented vertically.

Because of the time we spent focused on the top water bite, this slab fishing was almost too little, too late, as we begin using the slabs as the winds, which were already pretty light, began to subside. By around 10:35, the bite had all but ended and we decided to call it a good morning with exactly 55 fish boated.

 

TALLY = 55 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

27JUL16

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  10:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temp:  85.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE7-9, then tailing off around 10:15a

Sky Conditions: 20% white clouds on a fair sky.   Unobscurred sunrise at 7:04.

Water Level: ~11.9 feet high and falling ~  0.6 feet per day with a flow of ~5,300 cfs

GT = 45

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1762-018 downrigging for low light fish just sub-surface with balls at 10-15′

**Area 793/1070  live bait for hybrid, followed by small blue cat

 

 

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

A Fisherman from the East — 41 Fish, Lake Belton

This past Tuesday morning I fished Lake Belton with Nadia Ali, her daughters, Malaika, Zamzam, and Zuzu, and Nadia’s brother, Muhammed Imran.

IMG_2849

Zamzam with the first fish of her life — caught on shallow-running a downrigger with Pet Spoons.

IMG_2852

Zuzu with the first fish of her life.

IMG_2854

And Malaika with the first fish of her life.

IMG_2867

Siblings Muhammed Imran and Nadia Ali on Muhammed’s introduction tour of Texas courtesy of his sister.

Nadia works as a physician at Baylor Scott & White, her daughters are all in school, and Muhammed is a mechanical engineer visiting from Pakistan.

I was concerned about the fishing this morning after the high-pressure dome that had been firmly in place over Texas broke down, allowing for an east wind, cloud cover, and rain to enter the area last night. As I woke up this morning, it was noticeably cooler, cloudy, and the lightest of north wind was blowing

Nadia and her family showed up at 6:35a, and I decided to follow the same pattern I had been following for the past two weeks. I continued to find fish in the same areas they have been using recently, although there was a noticeable lack of top water action this morning. Thanks to the fairly thick gray cloud cover, the low light that has provided for excellent downrigging conditions extended for a full two hours today. We landed a total of 29 fish, including three doubles, in our first two hours on the water on downriggers.

Nadia and I agreed to pro-rate this trip for a shortened three hours versus the normal 4+ hours, because her oldest daughter had an appointment that could not be broken. Our final hour we spent fishing live baits within 5 to 7 feet of the bottom. I initially stopped us over a minor breakline after seeing hybrid show up on sonar. Our first four takedowns were hybrid striper, but afterwards, blue catfish moved in. Because Muhammed was the only one who had ever fished before, I went ahead and capitalized on the very willing blue catfish. We were able to land eight of these whiskered critters by the time 9:05a rolled around and we had to pull the plug in order to make a timely return back to the boat ramp. For our efforts, we landed 41 fish this morning.

All three of the young ladies landed the first fish of their lives this morning!

 

 

TALLY = 41 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

26JUL16

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:35a

End Time:  9:15a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 83F

Water Surface Temp:  85.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light and variable

Sky Conditions: 100% thin grey cloud cover until 8:15a when it all burned off an was quite hot and humid due to overnight rain and a lack of wind.

Water Level: 12.60 feet high and falling ~  0.6 feet per day with a flow of ~5,300 cfs

GT = 15

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1762-018 downrigging for low light fish just sub-surface with balls at 10-15′

**Area 793/1070  live bait for hybrid, followed by small blue cat

 

 

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

Fishing with Papo! — 80 Fish at Lake Belton

This past Monday morning, July 25th, I fished with Mr. Leonard Myers, his son-in-law, Chris Talley, and Chris’s son, Dawson Talley. We fished Belton Lake targeting hybrid stripers with both artificial lures and live bait.

IMG_2824

From left: Chris Talley, 5-year-old Dawson Talley, and Leonard “Papo” Myers with a pair of hybrid taken on slabs from out of 32 feet of water between 10:00 and 10:30am.

IMG_2818

Chris Talley with a nice 2.25 pound smallmouth that fell for a sub-surface retrieve in the midst of a topwater feediing frenzy.

Leonard (whom the grandkids call “Papo”) is a small businessman who established and has built Hutto Pest Control over the past 5 years.  Chris is from Arkansas and works as a biologist ensuring drinking water treatment plants stay in compliance with current regulations.  Dawson, age 5, will be starting Kindergarten this year and already knows he wants to work at a Bass Pro Shops when he gets older.

Although a mild wrinkle in our weather is due in mid-week, this day’s weather was very much like the weather has been for at least the past two weeks, albeit with lighter winds. I met Leonard and crew around 6:20a, had lines in the water by 6:32a, and our first fish landed by 6:35a.

Today played out nearly exactly as my last half-dozen trips on Belton Lake have: we experienced an early, nearshore downrigger bite, followed by a top water bite, followed by a live bait bite when things slowed down, and concluded with a bite on slabs once a bit of wind began to ripple the surface.

Today, I transitioned to fishing with slabs right around 9:15 AM, and was concerned about our chances of success because by this time the wind had nearly gone calm after building to about 8 mph (the peak speed for this morning).

My concerns were unfounded, though, as the heavily schooled fish that have fueled this slab bite were still in the same vicinity and doing the same thing as they were under more breezy conditions previously.

Dawson really did great for a five-year-old, staying engaged the entire 4+ hours. Most kids his age last only about 2 1/2 or three hours and then lose attention, and then begin to get whiny about one thing or another.

As we wrapped up just after 10:30a today, “Papo” put our 80th and final fish in the boat.

 

TALLY = 80 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

25JUL16

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time:  10:35a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 82F

Water Surface Temp:  85.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE3-5

Sky Conditions: 80% high grey cloud cover kept warmth in overnight and provided a bit of relief from the sun’s heat on this morning with light winds

Water Level: 13.23 feet high and falling ~  0.6 feet per day with a flow of ~5,300 cfs

GT = 195

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 020-1746 downrigging for low light fish just sub-surface

**Area 1762 to the shore – casting to fish schooling on the surface

**Area 1793 live bait & slabbing

 

 

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

Cookie Cutter Fishing Under High Pressure Skies — 65 Fish @ Belton Lake

This past Saturday, July 23rd, I fished with Luis and Tonya Garcia, their kids, William and Juliana Neel, and the kids’ cousin, Juliana Sauceda, who was visiting from San Antonio for the week.  We headed out on Lake Belton in pursuit of hybrid striped bass.

 

IMG_2803

Juliana Sauceda not only took her first boatride this morning, but also caught the first fish of her life!

 

IMG_2811

 

Juliana Neel excelled at casting with spinning gear this morning, tossing far and accurately.  She was handsomely rewarded with a number of white bass and hybrid stripers she caught from visible schools of fish feeding at the surface.

IMG_2804

William’s specialty was keeping a close eye on our live bait rods.  He took note of every tell-tale sign of life on the end of his line and caught several keeper hybrid as a result of his attentiveness.
With a high-pressure dome now firmly in place over Texas controlling our weather, each day’s weather is essentially “cookie-cutter”, with overnight lows between 78 and 80, and late afternoon highs right around 100, with fair and cloudless skies and winds from the south southwest.

Each summer when the weather gets this way, the fishing gets very consistent and predictable. Today’s trip played out nearly identically to yesterday’s trip, which played out nearly identically to Tuesday’s trip, and so on.

After meeting up at 6:15 AM, we had downrigger lines in the water and were into our first fish, a pair of doubles coming over the side for the two Julianas, by 6:30 AM. We continued downrigging for about 45 minutes until the sun had risen to about 15 or 20° above the horizon and shut down that the downrigger bite. Soon afterwards, further offshore, in about 40 to 50 feet of water, open water surface feeding broke out over an area covering about 4 acres as wind began to ripple the surface and scatter the increasing light. The fish were not found throughout this area, but rather were found in distinct schools within this area.

The kids quickly learned to cast with the spinning gear and soon were launching their lures well over the schooling fish and retrieving their baits directly through the “sweet spot”. This top water action lasted until around 8:30 AM.

Next, I did some searching with sonar in the same general vicinity, and found a somewhat isolated school of hybrid striper in 37 feet of water. These fish were poised several feet above the bottom and looked to be in a feeding mode. I used the SpotLock function on my Minn Kota Ulterra. We got one rod baited her child, rods in the rod holders, and eyes on the rod tips. With the help of a little chum, a little thumping, and a little patience, we got these fish worked up within 10 minutes. Once the bites started, it continued for about 35 minutes until the blue catfish moved into our spread. At this point, thanks to an early wake up, and a morning of hustling for all of the fish we had boated, Luis let me know that they’d like to wrap up and head to lunch a bit early, so we shot for a 9:45 wrap up time.

This gave me just enough time to attempt to expose the kids to vertical fishing with slabs, and this worked out well. I was able to quickly find a very cooperative school of mixed white bass and short hybrid striper, we let our slabs down among them, and up came the fish. Over the course of the next 15 minutes each of the kids was able to land three or four more fish thus allowing us to end our morning on a very good note, with exactly 65 fish landed for our efforts.

Along the way, cousin Juliana not only enjoyed her first boat ride, but also landed the first fish of her life, a 15 inch hybrid striped bass that struck her Pet Spoon as we downrigged at the very first spot we fished this morning. Congratulations, Juliana.

TALLY = 65 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

23JUL16

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  9:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp:  85.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW9

Sky Conditions: Cloudless fair skies.

Water Level: 14.4 feet high and falling ~0.5 to 0.6 feet per day with a flow of ~5,300 cfs

GT = 55

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1788-1781 downrigging for low light fish just sub-surface

**Area vic 1790/1791 casting to fish schooling on the surface

**Area 1792 live bait

**Area 1789 – slabs for mixed bag of whites and hybrid

 

 

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

 

The Butler Boys Break 150! — 152 Fish @ Lake Belton

This past Friday morning, July 22nd, I fished with Dr. David Butler of Temple, TX, and his two sons, Jack (16) and Jay (14), on Lake Belton.

IMG_2790

From left: Jay and Jack Butler with a pair of Belton Lake hybrid striped bass landed seconds apart on 3/4 oz. chrome slabs worked through a heavily congregated and aggressively feeding mix of white bass and hybrid striped bass just off a wind-impacted shoreline.

IMG_2787

Dr. David Butler with one of several larger hybrid we took using live shad at mid-morning.  We suspended our baits at around 31 feet over a 37 foot bottom.

David serves those who have served our nation through his dermatology practice at the Veterans’ Administration hospital in Temple.  He and the boys have been fishing with me since 2009.  Jack is giving joining the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets some strong consideration and Jay is taking things one day at a time as he enters his freshman year at Holy Trinity Catholic High School.

Long story short: we caught fish from start to finish this morning using 4 different tactics as the fishes’ behaviors changed through the course of the morning.  Under the influence of high pressure, our very stable weather has made the fishing very consistent and predictable.

We began our day downrigging in less than 30 feet of water with our baits suspended up at 12 feet beneath the surface and did well.  As the wind began to push and the water’s surface was disturbed, the fish began to feed on the surface by trapping shad there.  We cast into visible schools of fish and continued to do well.  When things slowed down a bit, I searched for bottom-oriented fish congregated together and we put live shad down among them and did well.  Then, as the wind really ramped up, I searched wind-impacted areas until we found feeding fish up off bottom in the lower half of the water column, and we then worked them over with slabs with great success.

This trip was a gift to David from Dr. Rod Mahmoudizad who studied dermatology under him during his internship in Temple, TX.

TALLY = 152 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

22JUL16

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  10:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 80F

Water Surface Temp:  85.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW9

Sky Conditions: Cloudless fair skies.

Water Level: 15.1 feet high and falling ~0.5 to 0.6 feet per day with a flow of ~6,100 cfs

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 018-016 downrigging for low light fish just sub-surface and then casting to them as the rose to feed on the top

**Area vic 813 live bait

**Area 1789 – slabs for mixed bag of whites and hybrid

 

 

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

Von Quintus crew breaks the 100 fish mark!!

This past Tuesday morning, July 19th, I fished with Mr. Steve VonQuintus of Hutto, Texas, and his 4 grandsons, Jacob (16), Cade (9), Evan (9), and Hayden (8).

IMG_2748

Steve “Gramps” Von Quintus and his grandson, Hayden, with a shad-caught Belton Lake hybrid striped bass.

IMG_2744

Gramps and Evan teamed up on this hybrid that hit our live baits hanging down around 24 feet over a slightly deeper bottom.

IMG_2742

From left: Bass Pro Shops apparel models Jacob and Cade with a nice pair of Belton lake summertime hybrids.

Due to a very consistent, low-light bite on Belton, I wanted to be shoving off no later than 6:15a. Thankfully, Steve and his crew arrived just a few minutes before six, so we took our time in going through the “pre-game” stuff, such as my safety briefing, ascertaining everyone’s level of experience, checking familiarity with both casting gear and spinning gear, etc.

By 6:15 we were idling out of the no wake zone adjacent to Frank’s Marina. Today’s trip broke down neatly into four distinct parts. Part one consisted of downrigging for the first 70 minutes of the trip. We went in order from youngest to oldest, and everyone got to take three rounds on the reel as we worked twin downriggers, each equipped with umbrella rigs and Pet Spoons.

Our catch of 18 fish on the downriggers included both a double and a triple, consisted mainly of white bass with a few short hybrid thrown in.  During this fast-paced portion of the trip, Hayden and Evan landed the first fish of their lives, thus earning them TPWD First Fish Awards.

Part two of our trip consisted of fishing with live shad near where the downrigging action had occurred. We added another 17 fish to our tally here, including four keeper hybrid.

Part three of our trip was the most productive in terms of numbers. We used three-quarter ounce chrome slabs to work vertically for both white bass and short and keeper hybrid in approximately 32 feet of water. We caught 49 fish using this tactic before the fishing went soft.

Our grand finale came near the same area we had caught these fish on the slabs. Off of a minor breakline that dropped from 25 to 29 feet, I identified quite a number of hybrid striped bass laying quite close to bottom. I used the Spot Lock feature on my Ulterra trolling motor to hold over these fish and we put six baits right down over these fish, with our weights suspended at 22 feet. Over the next 25 minutes, we put an additional 18 fish in the boat, nine of which were keeper hybrid. As our 102nd fish came in the boat, sonar went clear, we could feel the sun’s heat soaking through our clothing, and Steven I thought it wise to quit while we were ahead, thus finishing on a strong note.

For our efforts today we boated 102 fish consisting entirely of white bass and hybrid striped bass.

 

TALLY = 102 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

19JUL16

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:15a

End Time:  11:10a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Water Surface Temp:  84.1F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SE6 building to SE12

Sky Conditions: ~10% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: 15.6 feet high and falling ~0.5 to 0.6 feet per day with a flow of ~6,100 cfs

GT = 15

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 018-019 downrigging for 18 fish

**Area 027 – 1788 live bait for 17 fish

**Area 1787 – slabs for mixed bag of 49 fish

**Aread 1785/1770 – live bait for 18 fish

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

A “Sunny” Cloudy Day — 51 Fish, Stillhouse

This past Saturday morning, July 16th, I fished with “Grandpa” Fred Luther, his son, Erik Luther, and Erik’s two sons, 9-year-old Hayden, and 7-year-old Josh.  Erik and his family live in the Austin area, and Fred traveled down from north central Missouri for a visit.

IMG_2728

The Luther boys — from left Erik, Hayden, and Josh with a sampling of the catch of shallow water panfish that provided all of this morning’s action.

My hope was to offer some variety given the boys’ age and the likelihood of disinterest developing over keeping at the same thing for very long whiles.  I came prepared for topwater, but no surface action materialized.  I came prepared for vertical work with slabs, but no white bass were to be found  active and congregated near bottom.  I came prepared to downrig, but schools of suspended white bass were also hard to come by.  I came prepared to fish for sunfish up shallow, and the “sunnies” did indeed cooperate.

After putting in about 50 minutes’ worth of effort searching unsuccessfully for white bass, we headed up shallow where rock, weed, and wood could all be found in close proximity and dropped our ultralight rigs in amidst the cover hoping for a response.  The response was overwhelming.  For a solid 75 minutes the boys landed sunfish after sunfish of various species (bluegill, green, and longear) in less than 4 feet of water until I began to see their attention and good technique began to decrease.

At this point I made another move to again try to search out some white bass, and again we struck out in a number of areas which traditionally hold fish this time of year.  A few things are for sure: the lack of wind did us no favors today, and the abundance of young-of-the-year baitfish present in the lake right now puts a lot of natural competition out there for our unnatural baits.

After about an hour’s worth of gunning for whites in 6 different areas and still not even seeing enough on sonar to be hopeful about landing white bass, we returned to sunfishing in two additional area so as to close the trip out on a positive, productive note for the boys.  We once again headed up shallow and continued to score on sunfish, and even got a few juvenile largemouth bass in the mix using the slipfloat rigs.

When all was said and done, the boys had boated 51 fish for their efforts.  The day did not come together as I had anticipated, but coming prepared to use a variety of tactics certainly paid off this morning.

TALLY = 51 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

16JUL16

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time:  11:10a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F

Water Surface Temp:  85.2F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light & variable

Sky Conditions: Thin grey cloud cover the entire trip up to the last 40 minutes when rapid clearing occurred.

Water Level: ~5.56 feet high and falling ~0.4 feet per day with a flow of ~1,850 cfs

GT = 30

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Areas 200, 667, 1786 for sunfish on slipfloats

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

The Men from BUA and OTC Go Fishing! — 78 Fish, Lake Belton, 15 July

This past Friday morning, July 15th, I fished with Mr. Michael Apodaca of Salado, TX, and Israel “Izzy” Lopez, a young man serving for the summer in the youth ministry of Michael’s church.

IMG_2721

Michael Apodaca with one of the 78 fish he and Izzy Lopez boated on their morning trip to Lake Belton.  Most of our hybrid were under 18 inches; the 14 legal (over 18″) fish we caught were right at 18″ or just a bit over — no really big fish showed up in our catch today.

IMG_2724

Today was a day of firsts for Izzy Lopez.  He enjoyed his first boat ride, used spinning tackle for the first time, and caught his first hybrid striper.

Michael, a U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army veteran, now serves as the G4 (head logistics guy) for the U.S. Army Operational Test Command at Fort Hood where they test equipment for suitability before it heads to the “real world” to be used by our troops.  Izzy, originally from Kaufman, TX, is a 20 year old college student attending Baptist University of America in San Antonio where he is double-majoring, studying music and theology.  He is serving as a youth intern at First Baptist Church of Salado this summer.

We met at 6 AM and by 6:20 AM not only had lines in the water, but had Izzy connected with the first fish of the day —  a double, consisting of a white bass and a hybrid striper caught on two of the three Pet Spoons on the three-armed umbrella rig he was using.

For the first 45 minutes on the water we found aggressively feeding white bass and (mostly) short hybrid stripers pushing shad to the surface in the heavy chop caused by the 12 to 14 mph wind already blowing. After observing the number of fish feeding, and the aggressiveness with which they fed, I decided to pursue these fish by closing in with the trolling motor and having Michael and Izzy cast to them. The pair managed to boat 11 fish while casting for as long as this feed lasted.

After the fish left the surface, we re-rigged the downriggers and placed our baits from 10 to 12 feet beneath the surface and continued to catch fish, taking our tally up to 18 before this fairly aggressive feed ended. When it was apparent that this feeding spree was over, we turned to live bait for the next hour and 45 minutes.

From roughly 7:30 to 9:15, we consistently boated both short and keeper hybrid along with two blue catfish on the live shad we were using as bait. Once we got a feed started beneath the boat, chumming kept the fish there, as did the commotion caused by fish being hooked and fought to the boat. As we fish this live bait, we varied the depth at which we presented our baits from 20 feet to 30 feet over a 35 foot bottom so as to present the baits slightly above the small schools of hybrid we saw regularly working in the area. By 9:15 most of the action on the rods was caused by blue catfish that had moved in on our chum, and since they were smallish, we decided to move on.  Our tally now stood at 34 fish, of which 13 were “keepers”, all just at or barely over the 18” threshold.

We headed out to another windblown area and began searching with sonar for signs of bait and fish. We were fortunate to drive right up on top of a large school of aggressively feeding white bass. I could tell by the sonar signatures that these were not hybrid, and so instead of presenting a large live baits, we used a smoking tactic with three-quarter ounce chrome slabs to quickly put another 26 fish in the boat. When this school lost interest in our presentations and moved on, I stayed in the same general vicinity and searched for hybrid signatures on sonar. When I found what I was after, we used the Spot Lock feature on my Minn Kota to hang right over top of them and placed baits in their midst. After 12 to 15 minutes we had only landed two short hybrid, and so I continued to search this area

In short order, I found yet another school of aggressively feeding white bass. We once again used a smoking tactic with slabs to finish up our morning on top of this school, catching fish after fish, and taking our tally up to a grand total of 78 fish landed for the morning.

TALLY = 78 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

15JUL16

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:00a

End Time:  10:40a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 81F

Water Surface Temp:  85.4F

Wind Speed & Direction:  S12-13

Sky Conditions: Thin grey cloud cover the entire trip.

Water Level: ~19.50 feet high and falling ~0.4 feet per day with a flow of ~6,000 cfs

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1784/133/1602 — downrigged and threw topwater within this triangulated area for 18 fish in the first ~50 minutes on the water.

**Area 1784 – live shad for 16 fish including keeper hybrid, a short hybrid, and 2 blue cat.

**Area vic 1785 – live bait for 2 short hybrid, and smoking chrome slabs for white bass in the 1, 2, and 3 year class –  44 fish caught in this vicinity

 

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

 

Soldiers’ Kids Go Fishing! — 56 Fish, Stillhouse, 11 July

This past Monday morning, July 11th, I conducted the sixth “Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun” (S.K.I.F.F.) program trip of the 2016 season.  Joining me for this adventure was Mrs. Venesa Bruner (a U.S. Army veteran), her two daughters, 9-year-old Jeannette and 5-year old Joni, and one of the girls’ friends, Annabell Abrams.

img_2711 (2)

From left: Joni Bruner, Mrs. Venesa Bruner, Annabell Abrams, and Jeannette Bruner, with white bass taken on Pet Spoons fished behind a downrigger at 17′ deep over much deeper water.

IMG_2708

Jeannette Bruner with one of the more colorful, mature bluegill sunfish we landed up in shallow water this morning.

Joni and Jeannette’s dad, Sergeant First Class Bryant Bruner, and Annabell’s dad, Staff Sergeant Chad Abrams, are both deployed to South Korea with an ongoing rotation of troops from the 1st Cavalary Division to that country.

Last week Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir reopened after weeks of closure due to May flooding.  I much prefer Stillhouse for summertime kids’ trips as both the white bass fishing and sunfish fishing is very consistent and predictable, allowing me to offer variety in what we engage in over the ~4 hours on the water.

This morning we started off downrigging with a pair of 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons set behind downriggers lowered to 17 feet, which is where sonar revealed white bass and shad to be holding.  We landed one “double” (2 fish on one umbrella rig), and 6 singles before little Joni began to get fidgety and I knew a change of scenery was needed.

Our next success came up shallow fishing for sunfish in the flooded brush inundated by the 7+ feet of flood water that has yet to be released by the Corps of Engineers.  Our tactic of choice was fishing redworms beneath light slipfloats on small hooks to tempt all manner of smaller fish in the shallows.  Over the closing 90 minutes of our time on the water, the girls landed bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, juvenile largemouth bass, and blacktail shiners — 48 in all.

When the novelty wore off and the heat and wind both increased to uncomfortable levels, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the dock with a total of 56 fish landed for our efforts this morning.

A huge thanks to the membership of the Austin Fly Fishers who both donate funds and engage in fundraising to allow this SKIFF program to be offered, totally free of charge, to our military members’ families.

If you are a military family and your soldier is away from his/her children due to military duty (TDY, schooling, training, NTC, JRTC, deployment, etc.) your children are eligible for a free fishing trip just like this one.  Simply call me at 254.368.7411 to coordinate a time and date.

TALLY = 56 fish, all caught and released

 

Wx Snapshot:

11JUL16

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:25a

End Time:  10:35a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temp:  85.6F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW8 at trip’s start, steadily ramping up to SSW17 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Hazy, cloudless skies all morning

Water Level: ~7.56 feet high and falling ~0.4 feet per day with a flow of ~1900 cfs

GT = 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 207 to 1782- downrigged for 8 white bass with Pet Spoons @ 17′

**Area 1256 – Sunfish on slipfloats

 

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