SKIFF Trip #2013-13 — 01 August 2013 on Stillhouse Hollow with Cody & Alex






This morning I fished with two soldiers’ kids — Alex Bailey (age 7) and Cody McNeal (age 11). This was the 13th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip conducted so far this year.

Alex took big fish honors today with this nice largemouth bass that went 2.75 pounds.

Cody holds a pair of stocky 3 year old white bass from the 2010 year class of fish hatched in the Lampasas River.

Alex’s dad, Sergeant Christopher Bailey is a veteran of two Iraqi deployments, serves as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle mechanic, and is currently assigned to 3-8 Cavalry. His unit is currently in the field, thus taking him away from his family. Cody’s step-dad, Staff Sergeant Lee Igo, is a veteran of one Iraqi deployment and now in the Operations section of the 166th Aviation unit. His job is to help train Army reservists so they are prepared to take on what faces them in Afghanistan. To do so, he must spend significant time in the field environment with his trainees, thus taking him away from his family, as well.

The boys were a joy to have onboard today. They were both well-behaved, energetic, eager to succeed, and (most importantly) willing to listen so as to learn what to do to be successful.

In summary, we boated 52 fish in four hours. We began downrigging and that approach yielded 1 largemouth bass, 1 channel catfish, 1 freshwater drum, and 36 white bass in the 1, 2, and 3 year classes (Areas 040 to 1245, Areas 842-251, and Areas 822-495). The fish were a bit subdued today as they often are when the winds are calm to light and the sun shines brightly.

In the last 30 minutes of our trip, I offered that we change up and, for variety’s sake, gun for some sunfish up shallow. The boys took me up on that offer and we headed to Area 1098 to fish over some wood, rock, and hydrilla. We put another 13 fish in the boat very quickly using slipfloats and maggots.

Two humorous events took place I thought worth mentioning. First, after just (literally) 2 minutes with our lines in the water we were hooked up and Alex took first fish honors bringing in a channel catfish. Then Cody took a turn with a white bass, then, it was back to Alex who brought in his second fish — also a white bass. After the commotion of releasing his second fish had died down, Alex exclaimed, “I can’t believe I know how to fish now.” It was as if the suddenness of our success caught him off guard to where he thought the experience he now had under his belt was going to take much longer to accumulate.

The next funny thing involved an “offer” by Cody. We were preparing to take a photo. For those kids new to fishing, I generally have them use a non-piercing fish holder (like a Boga-Grip) to hold their fish. Today was no exception. I gave the boys both 2 fish holders and told them I’d ask them for the holder one at a time as I attached the fish we’d saved in the livewell. At this point Alex asked how the fish-holder worked. Before I could explain, Cody very sincerely says to Alex, “You see these jaws, they move when you slide the handle back. Do you want me to use it on you and show you how it works?”. Never a dull moment when fishing with kids!! For those of you wondering, I did NOT permit that demonstration.

I should mention that Cody’s mom, Denise, runs a very well-respected local Facebook page called “Fort Hood Area Events”. She has over 16,000 followers and has kindly offered to help me bolster our online presence to get the word about SKIFF out to the Fort Hood community we wish to serve. It is neat when individuals take their interests, resources, and gifts and use them to help others. I appreciate ALL of you “Friends of SKIFF” doing just that!

TALLY = 52 FISH, all caught and released


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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 81F at trip’s start, staying constant due to the cooling NE breeze.

Water Surface Temp: 86.1F

Wind: Winds were light at <3mph SSW the entire trip.
Skies: Skies were fair to hazy with 40% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Go Horizontal Young Man! — 87 Fish, Central Texas Fishing Guide Report for Stillhouse, 29 July 13






This morning I welcomed back Trey and Ann B. of Georgetown and their sons, Brandon and Jon. This family had come out with me once before back in August of 2009 but recently got rid of their own boat and just had to scratch that fish-itch before the summer was over.


(L to R) Trey, Ann, Brandon, and Jon with 4 of our 87 fish boated today, primarily on downriggers with a bit of topwater and a bit of slabbing thrown in for good measure.


We met at 6:30a and first made sure everyone was familiar with the tackle and the techniques we would employ. We then headed out in search of fish.

The first area we searched was within a 200 foot radius of Area 1243. Shad were abundant but there were noticeably fewer gamefish in here than on most mornings last week. We caught fish consistently, but never found large concentrations of them to stop and fish for as I thought we might. We put 23 fish in the boat here before leaving.

As we fished Area 1243, I kept noticing topwater action in the chop caused by the 12-13 mph wind. A combination of white bass and small largemouth were feeding on shad at and on the surface. We dropped back into the fish between Area 851 and 1244 and had success both casting Cork Rigs and “smoking” with slabs. We added 16 fish to our count in short order before the brightening sun killed the topwater bite once and for all.

We moved on to Area 070/883/882 and found abundant white bass holding just above and off of the breakline here at about 29-31 feet down. Try as we might, despite seeing multiple, dense schools of white bass, these fish would simply not respond well to a vertical presentation. By way of example, while set up just to the NW of Area 070, with 5 rods working slabs for 10+ minutes, we managed one largemouth and 2 white bass. After changing over to downriggers and working the same area horizontally, we came up with 4 sets of doubles and 1 single fish in roughly the same period of time. This happened to us at least 3-4 times. Ultimately, we spent the majority of our time downrigging here, often picking up doubles and double-doubles (four fish on two rods, all hooked and boated at the same time).

By 10am things were slowing down, and by 10:30am we were really scraping the bottom of the barrel for “just one more”. By 10:45 Trey had everyone thinking about what was for lunch, so, we called it a good day right then instead of turning a great 4 hour trip into a 5 hour endurance test (good call, Dad).


Our catch of 87 fish consisted of 5 largemouth bass, and 82 white bass.


TALLY = 87 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.6F

Wind: Winds were SSW10 at sunrise, tapering up to SSW14 by trip’s end.

Skies: 60% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








SKIFF Trip #2013-12 — 27 July 2013 on Stillhouse Hollow with Taj & Austin






This morning I fished with two soldiers’ kids — Austin Wildrick and Taj Glasgow-Abraham, accompanied by Taj’s mom, Dawn. This was the 12th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun)trip conducted so far this year.

L to R: Austin, Dawn, and Taj with a pair of white bass taken later in our trip as the skies greyed over completely and the winds began to pick up.

Taj’s dad, Sergeant First Class Abraham, originally from Grenada, has now been deployed 4 times and is currently serving as a combat engineer with the 1st Cavalry Division in Afghanistan; he is 3 weeks into this 9 month deployment. Austin’s dad, Specialist Mark Jackson, originally from Florida, has been deployed once to Iraq and is currently serving with the 1st Cavalry Division as well. His unit is just wrapping up a 2-week long gunnery (live-fire weapons practice in a field environment) and will head back to gunnery in October.

A summertime north wind is truly a wildcard in the game of Texas fishing. I’ve seen the conditions that cause north winds drive fishing through the roof, and I’ve seen those same conditions make fish lock down hard. Today, the fish were more aggressive than normal which aided in getting my two novices a respectable number of fish in the boat, as Taj had never fished before, and Austin is not quite 6 years old yet, so his ability was limited simply by his age.

We started our day downrigging with Pet Spoons — my summertime standard. The boys did well at working together and came to understand that teamwork directly impacted their success. Their key to catching fish was keeping our baits in the water a maximum amount of time as I kept us in the fish using sonar. This meant that when one boy caught a fish, the other reeled in his downrigger ball for him so we could re-rig quickly; also, when a fish was boated, we worked to keep the tandem rigs from tangling and to get them back the right setback distance from the boat as quickly as possible. Keeping the boys engaged like this kept them focused and allowed them to influence their own results. In short order we had boated 23 fish, including both white bass and largemouth. For better or worse, the boys were both quite vocal in their celebrations over each fish boated and soon we’d drawn a bit of a following (one downside to weekend fishing) as at least 5 other boats began to get too close for comfort. We departed this area (Area 842/1228/1243) for greener pastures.

As I prepared the boat for travel, I noticed a small flock of 5 terns working over open water about 3/4 miles away. I ran over for a closer look and, although they were not staying in a small area (which would indicate topwater action), they were striking the water and feeding regularly over a definable patch of water. I moved in for a look with sonar and found the bottom littered with fish along a breakline from 27 to over 36 feet (Area 070/882/883). I buoyed these fish and prepared the boys for working slabs vertically through them. We used a technique I call “smoking” to excite these fish into biting. As we worked our slabs (TNT180’s) in the lower 1/3 of the water column, the fish responded well and stayed in a biting mood for over 30 minutes, allowing us to boat 33 fish in that short span of time.

Gradually, these fish began to lose interest and we returned to a downrigging approach over these same fish to try to comb out the still active fish from out of a disinterested majority. We managed 15 more fish in this manner until the bite finally died around 10:30. We took a few photos, prepped the boat for travel, and took it nice and easy heading back while spotting wildlife (buzzards, blue heron) and answering the boys’ boating questions as we went.

As I try to get smarter about getting the word out about the SKIFF program via local social media (Facebook) on Fort Hood, I appreciate what the Austin Fly Fishers and other friends of SKIFF have done in the way of fundraising so that as interest and participation grows, the budget is already there to accommodate that growth. Thank you all so much for your long-tern support!!

TALLY = 71 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start, staying constant due to the cooling NE breeze.

Water Surface Temp: 85.41F

Wind: Winds were NE8 at sunrise slowly rising to NE13 by trip’s end on the heels of thunderstorms and a wind shift last night.

Skies: Skies went from mostly cloudy at 80% at sunrise, to fully and heavily greyed over by trip’s end.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Kentucky Boys Come to Texas — Part 2 — Austin Fishing Guide Report, 103 Fish, 26 July 2013






If you tuned in yesterday, you’ll know that I fished with “Daddy John” G. of Belton and his grandsons, 12 year old Frank, and 10 year old Harrison, both of Lexington, Kentucky. Today, that same trio joined me again.


We ended with a bang today — 31 fish in the last 40 minutes of fishing!! Obviously, Frank did his part.



Harrison was set on beating yesterday’s tally of 88. We pulled ahead to 103 in the ninth inning.


The boys were just as enthusiastic to get on the water for Day 2 as they were yesterday. We got right down to business this morning since the boys had already lived through the learning curve the day before.

Downriggers set where the suspended fish showed to be interspersed with bait just above the thermocline did the trick once again today. We started our hunt where I felt the SSW wind would be most directly impacting underwater structures and this paid off well. We boated 56 fish by 9:00am via the tandem-rigged Pet Spoons, with one episode of “smoking” slabs (TNT180’s) thrown in for good measure. (Area 884/842/1130).

By 9:30 this area began to cool off so we went hunting. I looked over one area quickly with sonar, found a few fish but no bait, and gave it a try for a few minutes without result. This was not surprising as the wind was not impacting this area much.

We then headed for what would be our final destination of the day. Between Areas 1242 and 1237 we found deep white bass schooled in 29 to 32 feet of water over a deeper bottom. In 5 passes we boated 16 fish which told me these fish were really turned on even though they were not tightly bunched together. As we prepared to re-rig after a double release, I spotted a large school (several hundred fish) of tightly grouped whites associated with the others we’d been catching. If my boat had brakes, I’d have slammed them on right here. Instead, I tossed a buoy to mark those fish. We got over top of them with the trolling motor and used the Spot Lock feature to hold on them.

The boys went to work with my smoking rods and they wore those fish out. We caught 31 fish in that small area (about 12 feet in diameter) over the next 40 minutes, taking our fish count past yesterday’s count of 88, and all the way up to 103 fish before the school settled down and we called it a great day, thus ending on a high note.

Our catch of 103 fish consisted of 1 crappie, 1 drum, 5 largemouth bass, and 96 white bass. Good stuff!!!


TALLY = 103 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:05a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.6F

Wind: Winds were SSW10 at sunrise, tapering back to SSW8 within 30 minutes following sunrise.

Skies: 95% thin grey cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Kentucky Boys Come to Texas — Part 1 — Austin Fishing Guide Report, 88 Fish, 25 July 2013






This morning I fished with “Daddy John” G. of Belton and his grandsons, 12 year old Frank, and 10 year old Harrison, both of Lexington, Kentucky.

Of all the techniques I exposed them to, downrigging was far and away the favorite. Here Harrison holds one of our better fish caught near trip’s end.


Frank and Harrison worked well together to help keep baits in the water and maximize our fish catching potential during that magic 2 hours or so when the fish do most of their morning feeding.


Frank and Harrison flew in for a short visit with grandparents before heading back home for the new school year. The boys have a small pond near their home and have done some fishing before, mainly for bluegills.

As we waited for the rising sun to trigger the morning bite, I explained why we were doing what we were doing (downrigging) given that the fish are now mainly suspended above the thermocline, by showing the boys the thermocline and how bait and gamefish were relating to it as we viewed my sonar screen.

Fishing was very straightforward this morning. We found fish near bottom and shallower than the thermocline, in 25-28 feet of water from Area 484 to Area 459 early on. Downrigging for these fish with Pet Spoons was by far the most effective approach. On several occasions we found concentrations heavy enough to stop and slab for or throw bladebaits for, but the fish did not respond well to vertical movement and our catch rate dropped each time we stopped. Still, I wanted to introduce the boys to a variety of tactics so, we gave these methods a try.

Later in the morning, as the wind calmed and the sun brightened, the fish moved deeper. We set our downrigger balls about 4 feet lower and continued to score well even after 3-4 other boats (all of whom were fishing vertically) left due to lack of success. At one point as we downrigged, we passed over a large school of active white bass feeding near the top of the lower 1/3 of the water column in about 35 feet of water. When white bass are in this posture, “smoking” with slabs usually does well, and this morning would be no exception. We hovered over top of these fish and took our fish count from 58 up through the 60’s and into the high 70’s in just a few minutes’ time as fish after fish fell for this presentation. When the feeding spree was over, it was around 10am and we spent the remainder of our time once again downrigging to put another 10 fish in the boat, bringing our grand total to 88 fish on the day including 86 white bass, 1 sunfish, and 1 channel catfish.

TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.6F

Wind: Winds were S6 at sunrise, gradually tapering to calm by 10am

Skies: Fair with < 10% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Summer Stay-cation, 72 Fish, Stillhouse Lake Report by Texas White Bass Fishing Guide Bob Maindelle






This morning I fished with Grandpa O., his son, Joe, and Joe’s two sons, Tom and Cory, as well as his son-in-law, Izzy. Joe was just a casual observer while everyone else did the fishing.

(L to R) Izzy, Tom, Cory, and Grandpa boated 72 fish using a combination of downrigging, vertical jigging, and casting bladebaits.


Joe and his wife, Dicque, decided to do a stay-cation this summer and invite the family in for a mini-reunion — parents, kids, grandkids, in-laws … the whole shootin’ match! Today, the boys got to go fishing while the girls got manicures in Salado, and Dicque provided childcare for all who needed it (except Izzy, who was allowed on the boat).

We got on the water just as the sun was brightening the eastern sky. Given the past 6 weeks’ worth of results, I expected the downriggers were going to produce for us the best. Regardless, I also came prepared to vertically jig with slabs, to cast horizontally with bladebaits, and to fish topwater, just in case. While still in the boat ramp area, I gave an overview about all of these tactics and then we set out to hunt fish.

We gave Izzy first-fish honors as he was the least experienced. He’s one of those guys for whom a lack of past success had kind of bred an aversion to fishing, but, I promised him in the parking lot that he would catch fish today and we were about to make good on that.

As we idled into Area 1239, I started picking up sonar returns of schooled white bass around 24-28 feet deep. We set out the first downrigger rod with twin Pet Spoons attached and headed with the wind to the north. Before we could get the second rod set, Izzy had his first fish on. Once that first fish came over the side, we kept right on catching through around 9:30. As we worked over top of these fish, I spotted a heavy school right on a breakline. We e-anchored on top of these fish and proceeded to work them more thoroughly with cast bladebaits. We caught white bass and drum, and Izzy even picked up a 3 pound channel cat, our largest fish of the trip.

As the morning progressed, the fishing transitioned over to between Areas 484/1221. We kept with the downrigging program, but, it was frequently interrupted by stops we made to first work vertically with slabs, then work horizontally with bladebaits, steadily combing out fish as we worked. We experienced a short 15 minute burst of topwater action around 8:30 during which time we landed both white bass and largemouth on topwater gear.

By 9:30, things started to shutdown quickly after a very aggressive 2 1/2 hour feed. Joe thought they’d better head back to the ranch to see if Dicque needed relief from the grandkids, so, we ended our trip a bit early with exactly 72 fish caught in just over 3 hours.

Izzy, the designated “newbie”, definitely came a long way as a fisherman today. By trip’s end he had learned to brag, exaggerate, annoy his peers concerning catching the largest fish, and boast about his preparedness to run his own guide service. Well done, Izzy! Now, if only he’d actually touch his own fish for the end-of-trip photos. Hey, there’s always room for improvement!!

A great trip with a great, godly family!!

TALLY = 72 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 9:45a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.1F

Wind: Winds were SSW10 at sunrise and slowly crept up to SSW13

Skies: Fair with < 65% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








SKIFF Trip #2013-11 — 20 July 2013, Fishing Stillhouse Hollow w/ Rayna, Vicky, Muhammad, & Jebreel






This morning I fished with four soldiers’ kids — Rayna and Victoria Klutse, and Muhammad and Jebreel Ba, all accompanied by Mrs. Brandy Klutse. This was the 11th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun)trip conducted so far this year.

(L to R) Jebreel, Rayna, Victoria, and Muhammad were all smiles about the white bass that hit our downrigged Pet Spoons this morning.

Rayna and Victoria’s dad, Captain Klutse, has been deployed 3 times. Following his most recent deployment he was sent to a conference focused on tactics adjustments based on lessons learned in Afghanistan, and, once he returns will head to gunnery, so, despite the fact that he’s back on U.S. soil, his kids won’t see much of him for weeks to come. Muhammad and Jebreel’s dad, Chief Warrant Officer Ba, has also been deployed multiple times and is currently preparing with his unit in the field for yet another deployment to Afghanistan in September, so his boys won’t see him for quite a while either.

I postponed all trips last week waiting for the low pressure system to pass and was glad to see that with the return of southerly winds and high pressure, the fish resumed the habits they demonstrated before all of last week’s rain fell.

Due to both the age and number of kids, I decided to stick strictly with downrigging today as long as the kids stayed interested. As it turned out, that was for about 2 1/2 hours. During this time we enjoyed a consistent white bass bite for fish averaging 12.5 inches (Area 1237 to 1239 early, then Area 1237 to 1233 later). We caught both singles and doubles as we used a tandem-rigged set of Pet Spoons on each of the two downrigging rods, putting together a catch of 39 fish (34 white bass, 1 largemouth, and 4 freshwater drum).

After the kids’ interest began to wane, we changed gears, headed shallow, and fished over a mix of wood, rock, and hydrilla for sunfish (Area 1098). The sunfish were eager to bite today, and we wound up catching 15 of them — a mix of longears, bluegills, and greens, all on a light slipbobber rig. The sunfish we found were in a protected cove, so there was little wind blowing. As the sun got hotter and the winds passed over us, it started to get uncomfortably warm as we fished for these sunfish, so, we changed up again and decided to give it one more try with a goal of landing one more white bass per child out in open water where the breeze blew before we wrapped up.

At Area 1231, we found the white bass holding down around 28 feet, so, we got our gear adjusted accordingly, and, in about 25 minutes accomplished our goal of boating each child one more fish for the day.

We all enjoyed the breezy ride back to the boat ramp with 58 fish caught for our efforts today!

To all of you friends of SKIFF who give of your time, talent, and treasure to provide these trips for our soldiers’ kids, I thank you.

TALLY = 58 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F

Wind: Winds were S6-7 the entire trip

Skies: Fair with < 80% cloud cover at trip's start, tapering off to 25% cover by trip's end.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Whistling, Pea Soup, and Bananas?? 81 Fish, Stillhouse Fishing Guide’s Report, 13 July 2013






Whistling, Bananas, and Split Pea Soup??

81 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow, 13 July 2013

This morning I fished with Mike S. and his two adult sons, Danny and Buddy, all from the Yakima River Valley in Washington.

(L to R) Danny, Mike, and Buddy racked up a nice total of 81 fish, 78 of which came on the downriggers.

Danny is a Private First Class in one of the Special Troops Battalions on Fort Hood where he serves as a Combat Engineer. Mike and Buddy are employed by the same commercial fishing operation based out of Seattle where Mike serves as the engineer on the F/V Courageous and Buddy works in the human resources department.

The very consistent summer patterns that have been in place since early June continued today. The fish have a remarkable definite preference for horizontally worked baits, thus, we worked the downriggers heavily today.

Our first fish came aboard just minutes prior to sunrise in the “box” bounded by Areas 1237/1233/459/1238. We stayed on these fish for 3 hours consistently boating both singles and doubles, and regularly taking fish on both rods at once. The Pet Spoon rig was the go-to bait.

Twice today upon seeing a strong congregation of fish in the lower 1/3 of the water column seemingly milling in one area, we stopped and attempted casting and vertical jigging. Both times our catch rate dropped well below what we had enjoyed while downrigging. Also, while keeping an eye on nearby boats we saw very few fish brought in by any fisherman sitting in one spot and vertical jigging.

We spent our last 90 minutes or so at the area bounded by Areas 884/250/251. As we found earlier, fish were suspended at around 27 feet deep over a deeper bottom. We downrigged successfully here, too.

I really enjoyed conversing with these fellows about the commercial fishing industry. Mike and Buddy’s company specializes in long-lining (think a very deep, very long trotline in cold saltwater) for bottom-dwelling species like pacific cod and sable fish.

By the time all was said and done, we’d boated 5 largemouth bass and 76 white bass. As we were just about to wrap up, Mike cracked open his cooler for a snack and pulled out a banana. There is a good bit of superstition in fishing circles concerning bringing bananas on board, as they are thought by some to adversely impact the fishing. Well, Buddy called his dad on this faux pas, and that got the ball rolling about other fishing superstitions. It seems some common saltwater no-no’s include leaving port for a long trip on a Friday, eating split-pea soup (this is supposed to bring stormy weather), and whistling in the wheelhouse. Mike was actually sternly corrected by a Norwegian captain of his once who told him quite directly, “Hey there, no vhistling in the vheelhouse!!”.

As Mike and Buddy described how a typical trip is conducted, I observed this sounded much like the routine shown on “Deadliest Catch” where they are targeting crab in the same Alaskan waters. Although Mike did say he’s seen icy decks and the like, his captain was no fan of “group hugs”!!

TALLY = 81 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 81F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.5F

Wind: Winds were S6 at sunrise and slowly turned W then WNW at < 3mph
Skies: Fair with < 30% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








Luis was Lovin’ It!! SKIFF Trip #10 of 2013, Stillhouse Hollow, 58 Fish






This morning I fished with 10 year old Luis Garcia on Stillhouse Hollow. This was a “SKIFF” (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip — the 10th one of 2013 — each sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers who donate time and money and raise funds to offer these trips free of charge to our military families.



Luis got a lunker!! This largemouth weighed 5.5 pounds on my certified scale. Looking at the eyes and condition of the fish, it was well past its prime and probably weighed a few pounds more at its peak. Regardless, Luis’ eyes were big as saucers when she broke water on her first of two jumps.


Luis is the son of Jacky Garcia and step-son of Staff Sergeant Jesus Garcia. SSG Garcia is currently deployed to Afghanistan for a 9 month tour. He has been deployed twice before, for 15 months and 13 months. SSG Garcia is and artilleryman with the 3-83 Field Artillery unit.

Downrigging was the key to success today. With the very hot, bright, still conditions, the fish go deep and suspend. The horizontal motion of the downriggers is a trigger for these fish when vertical presentations pale by comparison. Although we did catch a few fish on topwater early and via a “smoking” retrieve with slabs, the downriggers just blew everything else away.

We fished just two areas today: Area 058/250/251 and Area 1237/1233/459. At both areas we set our downriggers for 23-27 feet over a 35+ foot bottom and that put our lures (Pet Spoons fished on a tandem rig to present 2 lures at once) right on the fishes’ noses.

Luis had never caught a fish before in his life, and his first fish was actually two!! At our first spot, we had two 12.5 inch white bass strike the tandem rig on the port side downrigger and Luis brought two fish in at the same time. This would happen on at least a half-dozen more occasions over the rest of the trip.

When I asked Luis about his step-dad, he was very proud to tell me about him being in the artillery. He told me some stories about being able to take a tour of his dad’s unit’s vehicles and weapons systems at the annual family day held at Ft. Hood.

Luis was really enthusiastic about getting to fish and earning a TPWD “First Fish Award” on this trip. I appreciate each of you who give your time and money and energy and encouragement to make this program possible.


TALLY = 57 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp: 81F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86F

Wind: Winds were S6 at sunrise and slowly tapered to just a light S. breeze < 2mph.
Skies: Fair with < 10% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas








A Day of Firsts — 58 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide Report, 11 July 2013






This morning I took teenaged sisters Kristin (15) and Destiny (13) A. from Harker Heights out fishing on Stillhouse Hollow. Both girls caught their first fish today, and Destiny took her first boat ride, as well!


Kristin (L) and Destiny (R) display their four best white bass of the day. The girls also boated freshwater drum and largemouth bass.

Both young ladies were very well-mannered and regularly helped me and one another out so we could be as efficient as possible to maximize our catch today. The girls’ extracurricular interests lay in playing musical instruments in their school’s band. Although the girls had been fishing on a number of occasions, neither had ever landed a fish, so, given today’s success, both earned a TPWD “First Fish Award”.

We got going just as the sun was rising through some low grey clouds in the east. The fish really never fed on topwater for any length of time today as they had been doing in June, but, they were still feeding well where they were suspended, generally around 21-26 feet, just above the forming thermocline.

We started the day downrigging within the bounds of Areas 484/1233/660 and picked up singles and doubles on our tandem rigged Pet Spoons with regularity until we encountered our first good school of horizontally spread, bottom-hugging white bass at Area 444. We e-anchored and cast to these fish with bladebaits worked lift-drop style and did well for about 35 minutes. Next, we began downrigging southward and encountered another smaller school of fish along bottom a bit closer to Area 1233, and so we used TNT180 slabs to “smoke” these fish and did well for another 20 minutes or so, steadily pulling fish during that time. Once the morning peak was over by around 8:15a, we continued downrigging in this general vicinity, gradually moving deeper and deeper as the fish transitioned away from the shallows where they had fed during the early morning low-light conditions.

After this area played out, we dabbled a bit at Area 041 after seeing multiple small schools of white bass along the breakline and on the high side of it. These fish were in a slightly negative mode. I could see them on sonar and only occasionally would they follow a slab as we moved our lures among the fish.

We left this area after making 2-3 short hops and boating only 4 fish and headed to Area 1135 where we finished up the day with more downrigging and more singles and doubles on the Pet Spoons.

My preconceived notions of fishing with two teenaged sisters included lots of talking and lots of texting, but, in reality, the girls were very focused and engaged the entire time on the fishing. Kristin favored the downrigging whereas Destiny favored the slabbing approach. Both did very well and were fast learners. We ended up the day with 54 white bass, 2 drum, and 2 largemouth bass.

TALLY = 58 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85F

Wind: Winds were SSW 7-8mph the entire trip.

Skies: Fair and 20% cloudy.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas