Day: October 15, 2015

Aaron Cherry of Nolanville lands 70 fish on Ft. Hood SKIES Trip

by Bob Maindelle

This past Tuesday afternoon I met up with 14-year-old Aaron Cherry of Nolanville, TX, for a fishing trip on Lake Belton booked through the Fort Hood SKIES program.

Aaron did well at all the tactics we employed today including downrigging, vertical jigging, fan-casting bladebaits, and sight-casting to topwater fish.

After several of the fish we caught and released regurgitated shad they had previously eaten, we made sure our lure size matched what they were feeding on.  Shad are a small, oil, energy-rich baitfish that make up the majority of the diet of most of the species of predator fish in Belton Lake.

Right around 3:45pm, Aaron and his mom, Charlotte, arrived at the launch area we’d selected on Belton Lake.

After a bit of paperwork and a safety talk, Aaron and I headed out in search of fish.  We started off using downriggers, but very quickly switched over to vertical jigging based on the great number of heavily concentrated fish we discovered holding near bottom.

We started jigging with 3/8 oz. slabs, but, upon discovering the fish were feeding on larger baitfish (based on what we saw them regurgitate), we increased our lure size to 3/4 oz. models.

We picked up just shy of half of our total catch in our first hour on the water as the stiffest breeze of the entire 4-hour trip blew from the NNE during that time.  When that breeze subsided, and until the sun began to set, the fishing slowed down.

As has been the case over most of the summer on afternoon trips, we experienced a bit of a lull from 5-6p, but then around 6p, and right up until dark, action steadily increased as fish got more active and moved both shallower and up higher in the water column.

As light topwater action began to break out on the surface after the sun set, I was impressed with how quickly Aaron took to accurately casting to surface-feeding fish with just some basic instruction I’d provided him with earlier in the trip as we practiced fan-casting with blade baits out in deeper water. For his efforts tonight, Aaron landed 70 fish.
SKIES Unlimited stands for School of Knowledge, Inspiration, Exploration and Skills. SKIES Unlimited classes are open to children of active duty military personnel, retirees, Department of the Army civilians, and to Department of Defense contractors.  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 = 70 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 3:45p

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 90F

Water Surface Temp: 80.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE7-8

Sky Conditions: Cloudless, fair skies with very dry conditions

Note: Lake has dropped 0.05 feet in the last 24 hours and now stands at 592.68 above sea level, with 594.00 being full pool

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area (vicinity) 677/472 for 34 fish when downrigging led to smoking

**Area 1073 downrigging

**Area 1186 3 short hops gradually shallower to keep up with fish ramping up for twilight bite

**Area 018 last light topwater action

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Army Buddies Go Fishing — 102 Fish for Fredrick and Marcus

by Bob Maindelle

This past Saturday afternoon I fished with U.S. Army Sergeants First class Frederick Harriel and Marcus Taylor. Frederick’s wife, Lakeshia, presented him with a fishing gift certificate earlier this year, and Frederick contacted me several weeks ago looking to cash it in.

 

From left: Fredrick Harriel and Marcus Taylor with the first and largest hybrid striper we boated on this trip.  Both fellows are big college football fans, so much so that during our entire trip each had apps running on their cell phones giving audible alerts as to when their teams made progress.

 

 

Here Marcus holds one of the larger white bass we caught.  “Keeper” sized fish have been the exception instead of the rule all summer as lots of small fish have made up the majority of the catch.

 

A mild cold front moved into the area the night before leaving in its wake high clear and cloudless skies, a northerly breeze, and high-pressure. Fortunately, the cold front was mild and therefore did not put the fishing off too badly. I waited to fish in the afternoon instead of in the morning (as the high-pressure built in).

Frederick had some fresh- and saltwater fishing experience prior to this trip, as his dad runs a boat on the St. Johns River, near its mouth on the Atlantic coast of Florida. Neither had freshwater fishing experience with downriggers nor with the vertical tactics that we used during the mid part of this evening’s trip. As has been the case nearly all summer on afternoon trips, we began fishing with downriggers in order to search for bottom-oriented fish.

The first area we fished gave up fish, but all the fish we encountered were holding together in small, suspended schools, with no bottom-oriented fish to be seen.  The bottom-huggers tend to move less and be more susceptible to a vertical jigging approach, thus allowing for more efficiency and more fish to be caught in a given period of time, so, if they are anywhere to be found, I prefer to focus on them.
With about 30 fish boated, we moved onto our next area.  Here, downrigging allowed us to fish and search at the same time.  This searching finally led to discovery of some bottom-oriented fish clustered tightly together.  We e-anchored over these fish with Spot-Lock and put over 40 more fish in the boat  including white bass, hybrid, and even one largemouth bass.
Once the action died, we moved on to check out another area — found a few small white bass on bottom in ~25′ but left pretty quickly as it didn’t seem things were going to come together.
We made our final move of the evening around 6:40p to a gentle breakline connecting two flats, one at 25′ and one at 30′.  As I idled in, the water column was filled with fish from 12 feet down to bottom, but, they were scattered, not schooled up.  We downrigged briefly, but, as soon as the sun neared setting below the horizon, topwater action kicked in very quickly.
Fredrick and Marcus put the icing on the cake with a final 20+ fish taken on topwater in the closing half-hour of our trip, taking our tally up to 102 fish.
Generally speaking the fish are still smallish, and we landed only one legal (18″+) hybrid striped bass, but the action was fast on the many smaller fish we encountered.

TALLY = 102 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:00p

End Time:  7:45p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 91F

Water Surface Temp:  84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: NNE6-8

Sky Conditions:  Fair and cloudless following a mild front’s arrival last night

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1608-1401 downrigging for scattered schools of suspended fish — no bottom-oriented fish found; boated 20 and looked elsewhere

**Area 16011-1612 downrigging leading to slabbing

**Area 1610 & 1611 smoking

**Area 478 light bottom-oriented white bass action

**Area 811 mild end of evening blitz on topwater

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com