L to R: Ivan F., Shyheim M., Tori G., and their “Big Brother”, Mr. James Stevens.
The S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) Program exists to take the children of deployed or deceased soldiers on fishing trips at no charge to the soldiers’ families as a way of showing our support for our troops and providing a respite for their spouses. The following is a note to SKIFF supporters about this most recent outing…
Saturday, 04 May, 2013
Dear Friends of SKIFF,
What a great trip this morning! About two weeks ago, Mr. James Stevens phoned me. He’s retired from teaching in the Houston area and moved to Ft. Hood to be with his sister after experiencing some heart problems. He’s been involved in outreach to kids ever since his fraternity days at Prairie View A&M where was part of Alpha Phi Alpha. After moving to Killeen, he linked up with the local Big Brothers/Big Sisters (BBBS) chapter which (locally) focuses only on military children. BBBS’s stated mission is “…to provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.”
As a result of that phone call, James arrived this morning with 3 young men he is a Big Brother to: Ivan Fontenot (whose step-dad is active duty Navy and currently assigned to Seattle, WA), and brothers Tori Golden and Shyheim Matthews (whose father is active duty Army and currently assigned to Fort Benning, GA).
The mercury dipped to a record low this morning — 46F on the 5th of May!! Fortunately, the water is on a warming trend (albeit a slow trend, and several degrees behind given where we are in the season). The boys came pretty well prepared and so we took on the elements in the pursuit of fish.
Our start was a bit slow thanks to bright, clear skies and light winds, but, once the winds picked up out of the west, the fish turned on and stayed turned on for 3+ hours allowing us to boat a total of 84 fish before they went off their morning feed.
We experienced our first success at Area 1202 where, after taking several fish on successive downrigger passes, we hovered over “ground zero” and quickly boated a nice mess of white bass using 3/4 oz. TNT slabs to “smoke” for these very aggressive fish.
After these fish turned off, we did some more downrigging to search for another concentration of fish. We found a few fish atop the hump at Area 055/754, but nothing worth stopping for. I used a tandem rig set up with twin Pet Spoons and we boated several “doubles” today. We found that by reeling in slowly once the first fish was hooked we really upped our chances of bagging a second fish.
We ended our trip adjacent to the Lampasas River channel at Area 1017/074 and again used a “smoking” tactic to put our last 36 fish in the boat in under 45 minutes’ time.
Over the course of the trip, Ivan boated the first fish of his lifetime (for which he’ll get a Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. “First Fish Award”).
One funny thing happened as I was asking the kids about their family. Tori said his mom was a cook on Fort Hood. I asked him if she did a good job of cooking for him and and his brother. He immediately broke into a big old smile and nodded his head “yes” in a very reserved way as if to say, “Yes, she cooks REALLY well, but I’d prefer to keep that little secret to myself.” James and I perceived his response the same way and had a good laugh about it.
James and I really hit it off and discussed ways we can continue to support one another in our desire to help kids who are in a tough situation.
To all you “Friends of SKIFF”, the words “thank you” just seem inadequate to express my appreciation for how you’ve made it possible for us to help more kids more often than the very small effort that was at work before we all began working together under the SKIFF banner in May of 2009. You guys are great folks!!
Note about Photographs: Due to the limitations of this blog, I can only post so many photos in a given entry, so, in order to share ALL photos from EACH trip, I’ve created a Facebook page. There you’ll find essentially the same trip summary with more photos to document each trip. Click here to visit…
TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 6:45a
End Time: 11:30a
Air Temp: 46F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: ~65.7F
Wind: Winds were W5-6 at trip’s start tapering steadily up to WNW14 by trip’s end.
Skies: Skies were cloudless and clear.
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas