This morning, Tuesday, July 18th, I fished the 8th “SKIFF” program trip of the 2017 season on Stillhouse, welcoming aboard 8-year-old Norah Todd, 7-year-old Lilah Todd, and 5-year-old Brenna Todd, chaperoned by their mom, Jeannette Todd.
From left: Brenna, Lilah, and Norah Todd with their mom, Jeannette Todd in the background. The girls show off the 3 fish we caught on “Round 2” of downrigging for white bass with 3-armed umbrella rigs equipped with Pet Spoons.
Jeannette’s spouse, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Pepple, is currently deployed to Kuwait and has served in the U.S. Army for 13 years now.
Stillhouse offers great summer variety for such kids’ trips, allowing a variety of tactics to be used for a variety of species. Today, for our first 3 hours on the water, we alternated between downrigging and slabbing for actively feeding white bass found in the lower third of the water column. Our last hour was spent up shallow fishing slipfloat rigs for sunfish, many hand-sized, in the abundant shoreline cover now present.
The 3-armed umbrella rig equipped with Pet Spoons worked like a charm for downrigging, and the 3/4 oz. white Redneck Model 180 slab with Hazy Eye Stinger hook attached did the trick for the vertical jigging.
At trip’s end, after fishing in a windless cove for sunfish, everyone was pretty hot, especially given that the girls all had life jackets on. On the way back to the boat ramp I “went fast” (about 25 mph) to cool us off and give the girls a bit of a boat ride. This was the first time the girls had been on a boat and so you can imagine the screams and squeals when we got up a bit of speed — very fun!
“Homefront” spouses with a husband or wife away from home on military duty (not just deployments) are welcomed to call me at 254.368.7411 to arrange for free 4-hour outing for your children. Homefront parents are always welcome to attend, but are equally welcome to take some downtime from their own children and leave them in my care for this time on the water.
TALLY: 59 FISH, all caught and released
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:25am
End Time: 10:25am
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Water Surface Temp: 86F
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW breeze under 5 mph the entire trip
Sky Conditions: Grey cloud bank in the east, but otherwise, <5% clouds
Water Level: 0.24 feet high and slowly falling with only evaporative losses of ~0.02 feet per day; 0 cfs release at dam
GT = 0
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area 1950 thru 547 and vic 1310 – downrigging for white bass beneath surface feeding largemouth
**Area vic 1312 & 1964 – slabbing vertically for white bass in the lowest 4 feet of the water column
**Area 1572 – sunfishing with 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
Twitter: www/twitter.com/bobmaindelle