WHO I FISHED WITH: This past Saturday morning, June 23rd, I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Mr. Mike Milliner and two of his children, Ava (age 10), and Andrew (age 7). During this trip, both kids caught their first fish and therefore earned TPWD “First Fish Awards”.
Kids Fish, Too! trips are intended for younger kids (5th grade and younger). We focus on quantity over quality, keep the trips shorter (3.5 hours max versus 4+ hours for adult trips), and introduce a number of tactics to account for shorter attention spans. Although parents are always welcome, they come as chaperones and/or helpers, but not as anglers.
From left: Andrew Milliner, his dad, Mike, and his sister, Ava, with Andrew’s first fish ever (actually, his first 3 fish ever). Andrew caught a “triple” on his first try — 3 fish at the same time on a single 3-armed umbrella rig!
From left: Minutes after Andrew landed his triple to start off our trip right, his big sister, Ava, landed a double — we had 5 fish in the boat before we could even get our 2nd rod in the water to downrig with. The first 45 minutes of this morning’s trip was very active.
WHAT WE FISHED FOR: This was a multi-species trip in which we caught white bass, sunfish, and drum.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Saturday morning, 23 June.
HOW WE FISHED: During this 3.5 hour trip, we downrigged for 2.75 hours and then used the balance toward the end to fish up shallow for sunfish using slipfloats. Although as we downrigged I did see some bottom-oriented white bass which looked like good candidates for vertical jigging, based on the fact that they were 1) bottom-oriented, 2) aggressively approached the downrigger ball as seen on sonar, and 3) were tightly congregated, I passed on these in favor of going after sunfish. We fished for sunfish up shallow in aquatic vegetation using slipfloats and caught 13 sunfish. The downrigging produced 33 white bass.
OBSERVATIONS/NOTES: The most aggressive bite took place in our first 45 minutes on the water, during which time we landed multiple double and triples on our 3-armed umbrella rigs.
TALLY: 46 FISH, ALL CAUGHT AND RELEASED
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 10:30a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F
Water Surface Temp: 83.0F
Wind Speed & Direction: S10 at trip’s start, increasing to S15 by trip’s end, and continuing to increase to gusts over 20 later in the day.
Sky Conditions: Low density, low cloud cover under early, low-light conditions at ~45%, then clearing to <10% with light blue sky.
Water Level: 5.46 feet low
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area SH0017C – SH0027C – downrigging
**Area 1312-1310 – downrigging
**Area BOW005S – sunfish
Bob Maindelle, Central Texas Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingelleTheLineGuideService.com
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