This (very hot) August afternoon, I met Mrs. April Walker and her 6 year old son, Austin, at Stillhouse Hollow for an evening of fishing.
April, herself a veteran of the U.S. Navy, met her husband while he, too, was in the Navy along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He later joined the U.S. Army where he now works with the Patriot Missile System.
Young Austin threw me a bit of a curveball when, at dockside he expressed fears about getting into and going out on a boat.
I did a bit of quick thinking and came up with a way for us to still enjoy fishing without necessarily having to go very far by water. Armed with bream poles, we targeted smaller fish using the abundant, flooded shoreline cover as hiding spots. We found a variety of fish willing to take our presentation of worms suspended below a slip float, including bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, largemouth bass, and blacktail shiners. Thanks in large part to his mom’s insistent nudging, he took rod in hand and did quite well at catching fish after putting his concerns about boating to the side.
Wanting to see her son overcome his fear of the boat and water, April again did some “insistent nudging” and presented Austin with some “limited options”. Option 1: Take a brief boat ride to overcome your fears and then go back home at a time of your choosing, or, Option 2: There was no second option.
So, Austin “chose” Option 1, overcame his fear of water, and remained very calm as we cruised at about 11 miles per hour from one boat ramp to the next closest boat ramp. By this time, Austin had amassed a nice catch of 46 fish. So, I challenged him to catch 4 more fish once we reached the other boat ramp so he could finish us off with an even 50 fish. He took me up on that challenge, and quickly and easily boated 4 more fish with his new-found knowledge of angling, and then we were off on our return trip to the boat ramp from which we began our trip.
On our return trip, we went a bit faster and Austin seemed a bit less concerned about the situation than he did on the first leg of our journey.
True to her word, once we got back to the ramp, April let Austin decide what he’d like to do. With the novelty of the one type of fishing that we did wearing off, the sun taking its toll, and the snack supply running low, Austin chose to conclude the trip at around the 2-hour mark (which is not out of the ordinary for 6-year olds).
As we walked up the hill to the parking lot together, I asked Austin if he liked fishing. He said he did, just not from a boat.
To enroll in SKIES Unlimited activities, children must be registered with CYSS at Building 121 on 761st Tank Destroyer Avenue (right across from the Chili’s restaurant). There is no charge for registration; parents must bring an ID that shows their affiliation with the military, the child’s shot records, and the report from a recent physical exam. While the SKIES Unlimited programs are not free, many military families are eligible for sizeable credits toward SKIES Unlimited activities. There is a $300 “Army Strong” credit available to each child when their parent is deployed.
TALLY = 50 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 4:45p
End Time: 6:45p
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Water Surface Temp: 88F
Wind Speed & Direction: NNW6-7
Sky Conditions: High, clear, bright skies with some building clouds to the west
Note: Lake has dropped 0.19 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 621.81 above sea level, with 622.00 being full pool
Other: GT= 0
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 667 slipfloats for panfish
**Area 456 slipfloats for panfish
Bob Maindelle
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Salado, TX
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com