First Trip for SKIFF 2015 – Stillhouse Hollow – 3 Fish, 19 Jan. 2015

This afternoon, January 19th, I fished with Aiden Guyer and his mom, Danielle Guyer, of Killeen, TX.  This was the very first SKIFF trip of the 2015 season.  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.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Aiden Guyer and his mom, Danielle, attended the first SKIFF outing of 2015.  Cold water and calm conditions limited our catch, but the 70+ degree, sunny day was a nice break from the cold, gray days of late.

Aiden is a 7-year-old first grade student, and the son of U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 (CW3) Keegan Guyer and his wife, Danielle Guyer.  CW3 Guyer is now serving on his 4th deployment as a military intelligence officer.  He previously served 2 tours in Iraq and 1 tour in Afghanistan.  He is currently back in Afghanistan.  Keegan and Danielle also have a 4 year old son whom Danielle arranged a babysitter for so she and Aiden could have some one-on-one time together in the outdoors.

Our local school district had this Monday off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, so, when Danielle contacted me by email on Sunday, I took a quick look at the weather forecast, saw we were to reach 70+ degrees, and went ahead and offered to conduct a trip on short-notice, knowing there would be few such nice days occurring for quite a while.

Fishing was very slow today, as if often can be on days that are “nice” for humans.  Although it was warm and balmy, it was also very clear, very bright, and very calm.  We worked hard and traveled far looking at and fishing a lot of water to put just 3 fish in the boat today.  Given Aiden’s age, I was a bit concerned about the vertical jigging I normally do this time of year being too technical for him, but, on the occasions when vertical jigging was useful, he did just fine.  We just had a hard time finding fishable populations of fish in the 48F water we encountered.

When all was said and done, Aiden landed 2 very nice white bass, both taken in 24-26 feet of water near bottom on Pet Spoons fished behind downrigger balls going <2mph.  He also landed 1 crappie that fell for a vertically jigged slab in ~30 feet of water just before sunset, so it was nice to end on a positive note.

 

TALLY = 3 FISH, all caught and released

 

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S HOME PAGE

CLICK TO RETURN TO FISHING GUIDE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time:  5:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  70F

Water Surface Temp:  48F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light at S2-3

Sky Conditions:  Clear with some thin white cover moving in over the last half of the trip

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1309/1518 – downrigging for 2 white bass

**Area  340 vertical jigging for 1 crappie

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Leave a Reply