I fished a S.K.I.F.F. trip with two young ladies from Harker Heights High School today.

ASHLEY’S BASS TOOK BIG-FISH HONORS TODAY

DANIELLE AND ASHLEY DOUBLE-TEAMED 36 SPAWN-LADEN WHITE BASS TODAY

S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. The program exists to get the kids of deployed soldiers out on the water (at no charge to the family) while dad or mom is deployed. This program is made possible by funding from the Austin Fly Fishers. The following is my traditional post-trip note to the Austin Fly Fishers:

Dear Ron and all the Austin Fly Fishers,

Earlier today I ran the first S.K.I.F.F. trip of 2010. We have had unusually cold weather this winter season, and the water temperatures dropped into the mid-40’s. When that happened, the fishing slowed to a crawl. We then got a 1-2 punch when flooding rains put 9+ feet of dirty water on top of an already difficult situation. I postponed numerous trips in February, but, the fishing is beginning to bounce back now. This weekend’s forecast was ideal — balmy, cloudy, and with a south wind. I’d done well earlier in the week and so arranged for a SKIFF trip today.

Today, I fished with two young ladies, both 14 years of age, which, incidentally were the oldest kids I’ve taken on any SKIFF trip thus far. Ashley Pearce and Danielle Tomaka are both freshmen at Harker Heights High School. They became friends after being assigned to the same algebra class. Ashley is the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Pearce. Jeff is currently deployed to Camp Cropper with the 89th Military Police Brigade in Iraq. Danielle Tomaka is the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tomaka. Paul is currently deployed to Camp Victory with the Third Armored Corps in Iraq.

Since the day was forecast to be 100% overcast, I scheduled our start time for well after sunrise so as to allow the conditions to brighten a bit before we headed out. I met the girls at dockside at 7:45am, went over the safety essentials and some fishing basics (as Danielle had never fished before and Ashley hadn’t fished in a long time). We then launched out to hunt fish. Thankfully, we connected at the very first place I searched — a short breakline falling from 21 feet to 29 feet of water over a hard limestone bottom. The sonar lit up with bottom-hugging fish as we passed over. I cut the engine, moved back in with the trolling motor and we went to work.

At first the fish were a bit reluctant, but, by the time we’d all boated one fish, there was enough commotion created by the hooked fish, and enough regurgitated fish chow in the water to really get the fish fired up. After catching 8 fish via vertical jigging, we actually experienced about a 30 minute block of time where the fish were so aggressive they would chase a rapidly moving lure. Over this time, we boated an additional 16 fish. After this flurry ended, the bite slowly began to taper off until finally coming to an end around 10:45am. By this time we’d already boated 38 fish including 36 white bass, 1 crappie, and 1 largemouth. Every last fish came on 3/8 oz. TNT 180 slabs fished on 10 pound line on spinning gear.

Although we looked over a number of places and tested several of those by jigging, we did not catch any fish in the remaining hour of the trip.

I look forward to visiting with you all on the evening of the 25th and sharing more about SKIFF with you.

Sincerely,

Bob Maindelle

CONDITIONS TODAY:

Start Time: 7:45a

End Time: 12:05p

Air Temp: 51F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: 53-54F

Wind: Winds were steady from the SE at 12 all day.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey and heavy the entire trip.