WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, August 5th, I conducted the season’s 8th SKIFF program fishing trip for kids whose parents are separated from them due to military duty.
Joining me were the three sons of U.S. Army Sergeant First Class (SFC) Edwin Villalobos — Damion Guillen (age 16), Damien Villalobos (age 16), and Xavier Guillen (age 13).
Also aboard for a portion of the trip was Olivia Levada, a reporter with Spectrum News 1 Texas. She heard of the SKIFF program and decided to do a story about it. She met with the kids prior to the trip and interviewed them, then joined us this morning to gather some on-the-water footage. The story should run the week of Aug. 9th.
SKIFF is an acronym for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. It is a program now in its 12th year, sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers, and supported by individuals and entities, all of whom desire that kids separated from a parent by that parent’s military duty, be given an opportunity to experience the outdoors through fishing during that time of separation, free of charge. The program offers a time of respite for the home-front parents who may need a short break from single-parenting.
The boys’ father has been in the military for 16 years. He is currently serving as a mechanic and has been deployed to Poland for several months. He is due to redeploy during the month of August.
Those interested in a SKIFF fishing trip may simply call me at 254.368.7411 to coordinate.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left, Xavier Guillen, Damien Villalobos, and Dameon Guillen with a few of the white bass they worked for this morning. The boys were treated to this outing through the SKIFF program while their dad is deployed to Poland.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday (AM), 5 August 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
Some quirky weather produced some quirky fishing this morning, but, despite their inexperience, the boys listened well, learned quickly, stayed optimistic, and, in the end, were rewarded with a decent catch.
The cold front which moved through early in the week pushed back north as a warm front about mid-day. Although the weatherman said we’d have southeasterly winds this morning, they were actually still blowing ENE, thus greatly diminishing the likelihood of a topwater bite, which was the whole reason I’d chosen to take the boys to Lake Belton in the first place.
A few minutes after sunrise, we noticed a very light topwater feed and landed our first few fish of the morning while sight casting to those fish.
Olivia got a few photos, asked a few more questions, and by then had all she needed for the story, so, we dropped her off and continued fishing.
Our best action came from 10:00 to 10:45 as we found a school of white bass in a neutral mood laying on bottom as we observed side-imaging. I positioned the boat so the boys could cast off the port side as they stood abreast of one another. We used a sawtooth tactic to work MAL Heavy Lures back to the boat successfully, taking our morning’s catch to a total of 22 fish.
The boys really had to stick with it to accomplish this, but, in the end, each of them cast to, retrieved, hooked, landed, and released their own fish a few times over and even asked for an “extension”, so, we spent another 45 minutes on the water before mom’s deadline kicked in and we had to wrap up.
We ended up with exactly 22 white bass this morning.
MAL Lures are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
TALLY: 22 fish caught and released
OBSERVATIONS: Stillhouse was still releasing at 201 cfs this morning. Only saw three brief instances of topwater action all morning. All were light and short-lived.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 6:30a
End Time: 10:45a
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 74F
Elevation: 0.37′ high, .02′ fall, and a flow of 1590cfs
Water Surface Temp: 85.7F
Wind Speed & Direction: ENE under 4 mph all morning.
Sky Condition: Skies were 30% cloud covered at trip’s start, with coverage growing greyer and thicker as the morning moved on with an approaching warm front.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon at 9% illumination
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Area vic 1642 – light topwater just after sunrise for ~10 minutes
**Area vic 172 – sawtooth method with MAL Heavy Lures from 10:00 to 10:45 after a slow mid-morning period
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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