THIS is what SKIFF is all about!!! — 41 Fish, SKIFF Trip #19

On the morning of September 11th, I conducted the 19th SKIFF trip of the 2014 season by welcoming aboard siblings Carrolyn and Bubby Lascano .  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.

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Carrolyn Lascano, age 5, holds a nice Stillhouse channel catfish, while brother, Bubby (who is NOT fond of having his picture taken!), negotiates a package of string cheese.

Today’s trip really exemplifies what SKIFF is all about.  To understand why, you need to know a bit about the Lascano family.  Danny and Kacie (dad and mom) have two children, Carrolyn (5 years old) and Bubby (4 years old).  Danny is a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army, and, for the last 12 months he has been deployed to Kuwait with C Battery of the 1-44 Field Artillery.  It would be difficult enough doing life essentially as a single parent of a 4 & 5 year old, but, Kacie did more than that — she graciously navigated this time being a great mom to Carrolyn and to Bubby, who is autistic.  Raising an autistic child single-handedly takes an extra helping of patience and care and energy.  So, upon learning of Kacie’s situation, I offered to take the kids fishing to give Kacie a rest.

Upon hearing of my offer, Kacie had a plan — to take me up on this offer within days of Danny’s return to the States, so she could prepare the house for his return without the kids underfoot.  Today, that plan worked out wonderfully!  My wife, Rebecca, who is a registered nurse, came along with me on the SKIFF trip and actually picked up and dropped off Carrolyn and Bubby before and after the “on-the-water” portion of today’s big adventure took place.

This was all timed well, as Rebecca not only needed to get onto Fort Hood as the kids’ school day was ending, but was doing so on September 11th, when Fort Hood becomes more challenging to gain access to due to heightened security measures in place to thwart terrorism.

The pickup at 3:30p went off without a hitch, the kids boarded my boat at 4:15p, at 4:32p we landed the first of 41 fish the kids would catch today,  and at 4:46p Kacie got a text message from Rebecca with her kids holding fish and grinning (well, as much as Bubby, who doesn’t like having his photo taken, would grin!).   At 5:15p Bubby got fidgety in the confines of the boat, so, he and Mrs. Rebecca went “shoreline exploring” while Carrolyn and I stayed hard after the very cooperative white bass.  By 6:45 Bubby was getting worn out and the novelty of catching fish had run its course for Carrolyn.  We headed back to shore and, long story short, Mrs. Rebecca delivered them safe and sound to their now-tidy home for their normal 7:30p bedtime.

Along the way, both kids landed the very first fish of their lifetimes, so, each will be receiving a TPWD “First Fish Award” through Mr. Ron Smith at TPWD who very capably manages that program.

Kacie was so happy for her kids and so appreciative for the little bit of downtime!

This, to me, is what SKIFF is all about … letting our soldier’s know they are appreciated, offering an opportunity and a respite for the spouses left behind, and introducing kids to what can be the pursuit of a lifetime while so doing!!

My hat is off to all of the Friends of SKIFF and the Austin Fly Fishers for being the engine behind all of this!

 

TALLY = 41 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3;30p

End Time:  7:30pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  91F

Water Surface Temp:  86.1

Wind Speed & Direction:  NNE9-12

Sky Conditions:  40% clouds on a fair sky.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

 

**Area bounded by Areas 1440 to 1436 to 465 gave up every last fish we caught today

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Experimentation Time — 44 Fish, Stillhouse, 11 September 2014

This morning I fished with my brother, Andy Maindelle, on Stillhouse.  He and his family live and work in NW Austin, so it was a short hop to the boatramp to link up at 7:15a to see what we could stir up.

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My brother, Andy Maindelle, with a nice pair of white bass taken off bottom in 28 feet of water on bladebaits.

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And a nice pair of largemouth taken on topwater.  In the very clear water, fast, accurate casts and a super fast retrieve was necessary to fool these fish consistently.  We boated 11 schoolie largemouth this morning, all taken on topwater.

I had two “agendas” today, aside from putting Andy on some fish.  First, was doing some “recon” for a SKIFF trip later today with a 4 & 5 year old from Fort Hood.  The second was experimenting with a 4-armed umbrella rig (my standard setup this summer has been with a 3-armed rig).

Things were pretty subdued this morning, overall.  We had fairly clear skies, a light breeze, but, the big news was the season’s first cold front slowly approaching our area.  Many times when these mild early-autumn fronts come down slowly you get a “calm before the storm” effect before the wind shift, and I think we saw a bit of that today.  There was next to no topwater action, and what action we found was pretty short-lived.  Also, on a number of occasions when we found good schools of white bass suspended off bottom and ran our downriggers through them, they failed to respond more times than not in scenarios which, under normal circumstances would have been a “gimme” to get a bite.

We put together a pretty decent string regardless, catching 11 largemouth bass (every single on on topwater with some explosive strikes!), and 33 white bass on a combination of downrigging and using bladebaits.  Our most productive time of the morning was our final hour when the winds turned westerly and began to ripple the surface after tapering off to near calm coming from the south.  During this time we landed a majority of our largemouth and the catch rate on white bass spiked significantly, as well.

As for the “agendas”, the last area we hit would be the first area I took the kids to later this day, and it would produce another 41 fish in just 2.5 hours of fishing, so, that was a huge success and well-worth the time invested this morning.  As for the 4-armed umbrella rig — not so much.  I found the rig tangled much worse than a 3-armed rig when a hooked fish was brought out of the water and was being unhooked — so much so that it reduced efficiency. And, we only landed one fish at a time on this rig anyway, whereas the purpose of the 4th arm was to enhance multiple hookups.  Hey, you don’t know if you don’t try!!

 

TALLY = 44 FISH

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15am

End Time:  12:15pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  79F

Water Surface Temp:  84.0F

Wind Speed & Direction:

Sky Conditions:

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1437-1438 light action on downriggers and Cicadas to start the day

**Area  671 light topwater action by schoolie largemouth led the way to catching 3 largemouth on topwater and finding schooled whites in the same vicinity on bottom

**Area 1255 minimal success on downriggers — saw lots of fish but could not get them to chase and commit — possible small, young of the year fish

**Area 1436 to 465 best action came at midday today.  Lots of bait, white bass, and largemouth in a confined area.  Caught fish downrigging, throwing blades, and on topwater

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com