FREE FISHING FOR SOLDIERS’ KIDS – TRIP #22 WITH THE GUYER BOYS

WHO I FISHED WITH:     This morning, Saturday, September 21st, I fished with Mrs. Danielle Guyer and her two boys, Aiden and Declan.  The boys’ dad, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Keegan Guyer, is an all-source intelligence officer in the U.S. Army.  He has served for 17 years, has been away from his family for long spells on multiple occasions, and is currently deployed with the Third Armored Corps (III Corps).   Danielle is a permanent substitute teacher working on getting credentials as a full-time teacher.  The Guyers are originally from Michigan.

This fishing trip was provided to this military family at no charge.  S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun.  This program began in May of 2009.  It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with.  S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing.  In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents’ military-related disabilities prevent them from taking their own children fishing.  I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 to 4 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round.

This morning’s trip was the 22nd SKIFF trip of the 2019 season.

PHOTO CAPTION: With grey skies and southerly winds, the white bass cooperated and then some on top water this morning feeding aggressively on shad.  That’s Declan on the left and Aiden on the right.  The boys’ dad is currently deployed with III Corps.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:  After the clouds dissipated a bit and the skies got bright, the white bass bite died down, so, we turned our sights on blue catfish.  The boys landed 11 keeper blues in short order as we chummed ’em in and caught ’em on no-stink punchbaits.

 WHAT WE FISHED FOR:  White bass & blue catfish

WHERE WE FISHED: Belton Lake

WHEN WE FISHED:  21 September 2019, PM

HOW WE FISHED: This morning’s efforts broke down into 3 distinct parts.  First, under low light conditions, enhanced by cloud cover and winds just-shy of whitecapping, we caught white bass on topwater casting spoons which matched the forage which looked to be around 2-inches long now.  When these fish quit the surface, they did it very suddenly, but the fish were still present, only they were suspended.  So, we got right on them with downriggers, moving progressively deeper until the fish reached 32′.  When they got to this depth, although we could see them clearly on sonar in distinct, tight schools, they would not rise even a few few after the downrigged baits as they had only minutes before in shallower water.  That closed “Part 1”.  We picked up white bass, hybrid, largemouth and smallmouth.

Part 2 involved chumming in bluecat and fishing for them with punchbaits.  I’ve been doing this successfully with swiveled trolling sinkers used as weights, but that requires a fast hookset which I didn’t feel the boys were going to get the hang of, so, instead, I came rigged with deep slipfloat rigging.  This allowed the boys to catch 11 blue cat with numerous “practice swings” on missed fish as they were working through the learning curve.

Part 3 involved mid-morning downrigging over deep water for suspended schools of white bass in our last 30 minutes on the water.  This also worked well, producing, among other things, a “double” and the trip’s only “triple” — one fish on each of the 3 baits on the 3-armed umbrella rig.

TALLY:  42 fish caught and released, including 3 hybrid stripers, 1 largemouth, 1 smallmouth, 11 blue catfish, and 26 white bass

OBSERVATIONS:   Although we have not yet had any significant cold fronts, the gradually shortening days, abundant cloud cover this week, and less intense heat has brought water temperatures down from the summer peak.  84.6 on the surface before sunrise today.  The up-sized Pet Spoons outperformed the smaller Pets this morning very evidently, to the point that I changed everything to #13’s in mid-bite.

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time:   7:10am

End Time: 10:45am

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 76F

Elevation:  1.07 low, 0.04′ 24-hour fall, 34 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp:   84.6F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE11-13 the entire trip

Sky Conditions: 80% cloud cover with very light sprinkles at sunrise; drying, brightening and clearing to 60% cloud cover by trip’s end

GT =  0

#WhiteBassFishing #LakeBelton #StillhouseHollow

Wx SNAPSHOT:     

 

 AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area B0132C through 1802 – low light topwater and downrigging activity thereafter

**Area vic 1918 – sparse post-sunrise topwater action pointed the way to continued downrigging

**Area vic 993 – chummed bluecats on punchbaits

**Area 1579 to 1581 – suspended white bass on downriggers

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

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

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