This past Wednesday, June 23, I fished a SKIFF program fishing trip with Mrs. Katie Erp and her two children, seven-year-old Eden, and not-quite-four-year-old Warren.  SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun.  It is a free program which provides professionally guided fishing trips to the children of soldiers who, due to military duty, are separated from their families.

From left: Mrs. Katie Erp, her seven-year-old daughter, Eden, and her about-to-be-four-year-old son, Warren.

Katie’s husband, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Andy Erp, is currently deployed with the U.S. Army and serves in an unmanned aircraft unit. The family met me at the only open public access point on Belton Lake around 6:40 AM. I reviewed with the kids where all of the safety gear was stowed, and then showed them the fundamentals of using the fishing equipment we would employ today.

A few minutes’ ride upstream from Belton Park put us in what has been a fishy area over the last two weeks or so. We started off our trip using a pair of downriggers. One was equipped with a three-armed umbrella rig, and the other with a two-armed tandem rig. Five Pet Spoons were doing the dirty work set down around 22 feet where sonar revealed a majority of the fish were holding.

It did not take us long at all to get the kids into their first fish. We pulled fish consistently using the pair of downriggers for a full hour.  As is typical for kids his age, Warren began to get antsy despite the good fishing. So, simply for transition’s sake, we moved to a new area, did a little sightseeing near the waterfall on Belton Lake, and then picked up fishing again with a new method, this time using live shad as bait.

To ensure plenty of action, I am employed four rods.  Two were baited with live bait, and two were baited with chunks of fresh, dead shad. The live baits worked their magic on hybrid striper, and the deadbaits did pretty well for channel catfish. Warren lasted about 30 or 40 minutes at this location before another transition was necessary.

We headed back down stream nearer to where we had launched and I re-employed the downriggers, this time in the vicinity of open-water schooling white bass, hoping to encounter these fish as they sounded. We were able to pick up two whites and a short hybrid using this tactic.

Our final transition came within 20 minutes of the close of our trip when we moved up into shallow, newly flooded brush and used poles equipped with slipbobbers and small hooks to target sunfish and black tail shiners. We were also surprised to pick up a small smallmouth bass in this way. For our efforts today we wound up putting 22 fish in the boat and hopefully made the wait for dad’s return from overseas a little bit shorter and more bearable.

Providing homefront parents with some time of respite has become one of the most appreciated aspects of this SKIFF program.  The Austin Fly Fishers donates funds and seeks funding from individuals and organizations to make this SKIFF program a reality for homefront spouses and their children.

They do not ask for thanks or recognition, they simply desire others to take advantage of the opportunities this program offers.  If your spouse is away on military duty, your child(ren) qualify for a free SKIFF fishing adventure.  Please just phone me at the number below to make arrangements for your trip!

 

TALLY = 22 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time:  10:25a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F

Water Surface Temp:  83F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSE8-12

Sky Conditions:  20% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Water Level: ~23 feet high and still rising due to ongoing heavy release of water from Lake Proctor upstream.

Other: GT= 0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**1765-1767 downrigging for first hour

**1766 live bait for hybrid and channel cat

**490-491 downrigging for “popcorn” white bass

**1583 panfish on slipfloats

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle