14-Year-Old Ethan Winger lands 69 Fish on Belton — SKIFF Trip #2015-16

This past Tuesday I conducted the season’s 16th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip by taking 14-year-old Ethan WInger out for an evening fishing trip Belton Lake.

Ethan was one of the most enthusiastic kids I’ve ever taken on a SKIFF trip.  He was interested in all things fishing-related — just check out the shirt.

Today was back to work and back to school for everyone, following the long Labor Day weekend.  As the dismissal bell rang at Killeen High School, I was pulled up curbside withing for Ethan, along with 2 city blocks’ worth of parents in vehicles waiting for their kids.  Ethan is the son of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant John Winger and his wife, Mrs. Deb Winger.  SSG Winger is an Army Signal Corps non-commissioned officer now serving his country in South Korea.

Ethan packed a few snacks and some fishing clothes and took all of it to school with him so he could hop right in my truck and head to the lake with me afterwards.  We got on the water around 4:45p and immediately got on fish.

The majority of our trip this evening was spent downrigging with umbrella rigs, which produced a lot of smaller white bass in two distinct locations.  For variety’s sake, I also included a bit of shallow water bait fishing as the intensity of the bite at the first area we fish waned and as we waited on the sunset bite to ramp up elsewhere.

By 7:15p, the downrigger bite had revived, and, right at sunset, some fish transitioned to feeding on topwater.  As they did, we broke out the Cork Rigs with hand-tied flies I’ve created to match the size of the very small forage these fish were feeding on.

Ethan’s prior fishing experience had been mainly on one of the many rivers running into Puget Sound in Washington during his family’s prior assignment to Fort Lewis.  He handled a spinning rod very capably and was a very fast learner when it came to setting up our lines for downrigging — I essentially explained what to do one time and he took it from there.

As we got to talking, we found we enjoy some of the same programs (Wicked Tuna, River Monsters), and I learned that Ethan plans to pursue video game programming at Full Sail University after high school graduation.

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, organizations, and companies 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. SKIFF is open to children in elementary and middle school, as well as teens in high school.
TALLY = 69 FISH, all caught and released

 

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:45p

End Time: 8:20p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 93F

Water Surface Temp: 86.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE13, tapering to SSE4-5

Sky Conditions: 40% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Note: Lake has risen 0.11 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 593.87 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1081 downrigging for smallish white bass

**Area 166 panfishing

**Area 147 through 010, downrigging transitioning to topwater

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

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