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.
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
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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