As the last day of balmy, 70 degree weather moved east out of Texas, I conducted the last Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip of the year with 11-year-old Emily Reynnells and her 8-year-old brother, Josh, aboard this past Wednesday morning, Dec. 28th.
Above: Emily Reynnells, daughter of U.S. Army Major Steve Reynnells and his wife, Johanna, with the largest fish of the final SKIFF trip of 2016. This Stillhouse Lake largemouth measured 18 inches.
From left: Emily and Josh Reynnells with white bass that fell for our small, 3/8 oz. slabs.
Like many military kids today, it seems Josh and Emily’s dad, Major Steve Reynnells, has been gone on duty more than he has been at home during their lives. Major Reynnells served in Iraq from 2010 to 2011. He was then sent to Fort Polk, LA, from 2014 to 2016. Then, just when he thought he might get to return to Texas and his family from Fort Polk, he got orders sending him to Afghanistan, where he is currently serving, for nearly another year. And then there is the training, field time, and schooling that takes place even when our soldiers are back at their home posts that often keep them from truly being at home, even when they are “home”.
I picked the kids up at their home in Harker Heights, TX, with my boat in tow and we headed for Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, a 6,000 acre impoundment managed by the Corps of Engineers. With school out for the Christmas break and dad overseas, the kids’ mom, Johanna, scheduled a bit of needed respite time without the kids around. This is one of the most welcomed features of the SKIFF program – providing a break to the homefront parent.
The kids were excited to see whitetail deer along the way, and the flock of coots at lakeside that greeted us as we arrived at the launch site.
The conditions were good for white bass fishing, with some grey cloud cover and a manageable southerly breeze. Additionally, a migratory population of gulls feeding on shad pushed to the surface by hungry white bass beneath made fish location fairly simple.
Over our 4 hours together, the kids landed exactly 51 fish with Emily’s 18 inch largemouth anchoring the catch. Using an “easing” tactic with a white 3/8 oz. slab was the key as we held steady over top of the fish using the newest Minn Kota trolling motor “Spot Lock” technology so the kids could more easily look and feel for strikes down 20 to 40 feet below the boat.
THE SEASON IN REVIEW …
Thanks to your donations, contributions, fundraising efforts, scholarships, grants, program discounts, encouragement, and more, we were able to put exactly 44 kids on the water over the course of 19 guided trips in 2016, thus bringing the total number of kids SKIFF has taken fishing since its inception in 2009 to 346.
This year those 44 kids landed 1,081 fish – an average of over 24 fish caught per child. The grand total number of fish caught since the program’s start now stands at 8,382.
In 2016, seven of our SKIFF participants landed the first fish of their lifetime and were awarded a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish Award”.
For all of this, “thank you” just does not seem adequate, but, nonetheless, THANK YOU!!!!
Details on the Reynnells kids’ trip…
TALLY = 51fish, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00a
End Time: 11:00a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 62F
Water Surface Temp: 60.0F
Wind Speed & Direction: Calm at trip’s start, quickly building up to SSW01-12
Sky Conditions: 50% cloud cover on a fair sky
Water Level: 0.45 feet above full pool
GT = 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1721 – wolfpacks of fish in ~26′ but pretty tight-lipped thanks to the near calm conditions for the first 35 minutes
**Area 1060 – single large school of white bass holding on a breakline
**Area 091 – single small school of white bass holding on a breakline
**Area 784 – most productive area, and the last one we fished under the windiest and cloudiest conditions of the morning. Very large school of smallish white bass were holding in 32′ at the base of this hump. We landed 26 fish in our final 40 minutes on the water here.
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
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