This morning two brave young Americans ventured out with me on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir in the post-frontal 36 degree calm to do some hand-to-fin combat while enjoying some Spring Break downtime. David and Matthew Macy are the sons of Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CW4) Rob Macy and his wife, Monica. CW4 Macy is currently serving in Afghanistan with the 3-227 Aviation unit
David (L) and Matthew (R) enjoyed a free fishing trip today courtesy of the Fort Hood SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) program.
This trip was provided free of charge the the Macy family by the Austin Fly FIshers and SKIFF program supporters who donate money and raise funds to keep this program effective. SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. Under the SKIFF program, any military child separated from his or her parent due to that parent’s military duty qualifies for a free, 4 hour fishing trip by boat. Such duty can be something as extensive as a deployment or unaccompanied tour, to something more short-term like a trip to NTC, JRTC, or gunnery.Today, we had the toughest weather conditions of the entire Spring Break week in the morning hours. It was calm, clear, and cold, and we had a setback in the water temperature which had almost crossed the 55F mark as Tuesday came to a close and before Wednesday’s terrific wind and cold drop things back a bit.
Regardless, the boys hung tough with me and we wound up boating 12 white bass together this morning. Our first 9 fish came in 15-17 feet of water as we cast Cicada bladebaits for white bass feeding on a mid-depth flat. We missed our first 3 hooked fish as we worked out some “rookie issues” of how to fight a fish and what to do once the fish is boatside, but, once that learning curve was cleared, the boys landed every other fish that we hooked.
After these fish settled down, we expanded our coverage of this flat by downrigging with tandem-rigged Pet Spoons, adding 2 more fish to our count.
Our last fish came on a vertically jigged slab spoon from out of 27 feet of water adjacent to the river channel.
I had a follow on trip this afternoon on Belton, and, when I returned, here is the very nice note I found waiting for me from Monica:
Bob,
Thank you so much, for taking David and Matthew out fishing. I
hope they were good for you! They really enjoyed the trip and were super
exited to tell their Dad all about it.
They really needed some time “alone” without me or the twins bugging them! 🙂
Again THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Monica
So, in turn, I thank all of you SKIFF supporters for allowing this trip to happen!!
TALLY = 12 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:45a
End Time: 11:50a
Air Temp: 36F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 53-54F
Wind: NW2-4
Skies: Bluebird, post-frontal skies
Other Notes: GT0
Areas Fished with success:
** 1350/1 – horizontal work with bladebaits + downrigging
** 1358 – vertical jigging
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas