This morning I conducted the 17th SKIFF trip of the 2014 season accompanied by Anna & Matthew Niles. SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S. All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.
Anna Niles, dressed to the nines with this pink dress, matching top, and pink ice cream cone earrings, caught this nice 3.00 pound largemouth bass on a Pet Spoon worked down around the 25 foot mark where schools of white bass and wolfpacks of largemouth were feeding on shad.
Matthew Niles had never caught a fish before today’s trip. He started us off right today catching a “double” consisting of this 2.50 pound largemouth bass and an 11 inch white bass landed at the same time on the same rod which was rigged with 3 Pet Spoons to imitate a small school of shad.
Matthew, age 6, and Anna, age 8, are the two youngest children of U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Rolland Niles and his wife, Mrs. Shawna Niles, of Harker Heights, Texas. LTC Niles deployed to Afghanistan with the First Cavalry Division earlier this summer for approximately a year’s time. Shawna has now taken on the role of single parent to her three children for the remainder of this deployment.
Given the kids’ age, the slightly elevated wind speed, and the fact that I was fishing without assistance today, we stuck strictly with downrigging this morning and did quite well. We used several sizes and colors of Pet Spoons on twin 3-armed umbrella rigs trolled at just over the level the fish were holding at to keep the fish coming in the boat steadily over the course of the entire trip.
The best action came in the first 75 minutes of the trip and slowly tapered off from that point to our close at 11:00am. I was surprised at how, when I described what fish looked like on sonar (yellow, boomerang-shaped arches), the kids picked up on that and were constantly watching sonar for fish to appear, and then intently watching the downrigger rods for a result as our baits passed by the fish we’d just spotted on sonar just seconds earlier.
As we wrapped up our trip and beached on the gravel near the boat ramp, Shawna was just rolling in to the parking lot to come pick the kids up. We held back two fish in the livewell because the kids wanted to take a picture of their fish with their mom so that dad would be able to see what they caught on their trip today.
Although Matthew and Anna had been on a boat before, neither had fished before and so the fish they caught today were the first fish they caught in their lifetimes. After cleaning up the boat, grabbing a little lunch, and a quick nap, I filled out the necessary paperwork to get a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department “first fish award” headed by mail to the kids to recognize their achievement.
At one point during our time on the water I asked the kids if they thought their mom’s job was harder with their dad gone. Anna answered instantly and said, “Yes, because that’s just one person doing the job of two people.”.
As the Niles family headed back towards their car to head home, I let Shauna know that if she and her eldest daughter needed to have some mother daughter time without the little ones at some point during this deployment, she was welcome to call on me for a separate trip.
TALLY = 34 FISH
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00am
End Time: 11:00am
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 79F
Water Surface Temp: 84.3F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW9-14
Sky Conditions: Cloudless fair skies
Other: GT=0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1437-1438 downrigging for the first 75 minutes for 20 fish (4 doubles)
**Area 1226 downrigging for 6 fish (1 double)
**Area 1437-1438 returned here for final bite of 8 fish (2 doubles)
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com