This past Saturday afternoon, October 15, I conducted the 18th SKIFF program trip of the 2016 season with 3 young Army anglers aboard.
From left: Analee (10), Alexavier (5), and Mrs. Maria Avalos with a few of the 12-13″ class fish we caught out of large, suspended schools in open water on downriggers soon after launching this afternoon.
5 year old Landon Waldman with one of the white bass he reeled in all by himself. The three kids also landed a variety of sunfish from still-warm shallow water on this morning’s trip.
Mrs. Maria Avalos brought her oldest two children, Analee (10) and Alexavier (5). Mrs. Ashley Waldman dropped her five-year-old son, Landon, off with us so she could attend to her younger daughter while Landon enjoyed some time away from the girls in the outdoors. Staff Sergeant Avalos is currently attending an Army school at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Private First Class (PFC) Waldman has been in the Army for just a year and has been frequently separated from his family during this short period of time.
The wind and cloud cover we enjoyed this morning continued into this afternoon. As we launched, the wind was right at 13 to 14 mph with some mild whitecapping out in open water. We put our first 21 fish in the boat by downrigging in open water with the balls set between 22 and 27 feet, right above where sonar revealed white bass and ample shad showing. During this time, using two armed rigs on each of the two downriggers, we caught more doubles than singles. This is typical when encountering large, suspended school of white bass.
When the novelty of downrigging had worn off, we moved up shallow and targeted sunfish up in cover-filled water allowing each child to catch several sunfish species including bluegill, green sunfish, and long ear sunfish. Right around the time the kids started getting a bit antsy fishing for sunfish, we noticed a stranded boat or out in open water waving to try to get someone’s attention. We approached him, found that his battery selector switch had corroded completely, and offered him a ride back into the dock. The kids were excited that we got to be good Samaritans out on the water.
For our final effort of the evening, we headed into 20 to 25 foot water in an area that had a slow-tapering bottom and which the wind had been blowing onto all day. At around 6 PM, I found abundant, heavily schooled white bass in a feeding posture. I put the boat into a hover using the Ulterr trolling motor, and we proceeded to “wear ‘em out” using a smoking retrieve. Analee fished independently and did very well, I assisted Landon, and Maria assisted Alexavier. With 3 rods going it was just about all I could do to keep Landon fishing and take all of the fish off the hook. We put another 48 fish in the boat in the hour between 6 and 7 PM.
By seven, all the kids had had their fill of the outdoors and it was time to crank up and head to the dock. We ended today’s trip with exactly 90 fish boated.
TALLY = 90 fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 3:30p
End Time: 7:15p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 87F
Water Surface Temp: 78.6F
Wind Speed & Direction: S13-14, tapering slowly to S8
Sky Conditions: 60% white clouds on a blue sky
Water Level: ~0.13 feet high with only evaporative losses
GT = 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1223-1079 – open water, suspended white bass on downriggers
**Area 1583 – sunfish
**Area 793-813 – low light white bass via smoking tactic
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