WHO I FISHED WITH: 

This morning, Friday, 19 April, I conducted the 13th SKIFF trip of the 2024 season.

 

Joining me was the Landry family. Mrs. Nikki Landry brought her five kids – – Jhanna (16) Madison (13), Alayna (12), Brian (11), and Moslyn (8).

 

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew Landry is currently deployed to South Korea where he works in the signal intelligence field. CW2 Landry has been in the military for 18 years.

 

Nikki is the homefront parent currently parenting 5 kids, but, the family is in the process of adopting four additional teenagers now scheduled to arrive in the U.S. before CW2 Landry’s return, thus upping the “kid count” to nine.  Nikki was quick to give the Lord credit for the way He has moved and removed barriers and how He has been faithful in all of the adoptions she and Matt have been through.

 

ABOUT SKIFF:  SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009.  SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru.  S.K.I.F.F. provides kids of military members separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish.  SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member.  In mid-2019, SKIFF began providing trips to kids of bona fide disabled veterans.  I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round.  Call or text 254.368.7411.

 

My only open date prior to June is Wednesday, May 1st.

 

Here’s how the fishing went…

 

PHOTO CAPTION: Alayna landed our largest white bass of the morning.  It fell for a 5/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab in 32 feet of water.

PHOTO CAPTION: Eldest daughter Jhanna landed our largest fish of the trip.  Her 2.25-pound freshwater drum also fell for a 5/8 oz., white Hazy Eye Slab from out of 37 feet of water.

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

A mild cold front blew in to Central Texas around 7 PM last night bringing some thunderstorms to Mills, Lampasas, and Burnett counties. The warm, muggy air was replaced by cooler, dryer air.  Yesterday‘s high temperatures were in the high 80s, whereas we were right at 60° this morning with a stiff north breeze at 13 and gray cloud cover.  It stayed in the 60s all day.

 

Before dropping a line at our first fishing area, I took the time to cover the fundamentals of properly gripping the rod and gripping the reel’s handle, I emphasized the importance of turning the handle smoothly and continuously as we used the slow smoking method, and I introduced the kids to the concept of following the beat of my onboard metronome so they would be sure to be retrieving at just the right speed. I also made sure everyone knew to open and close their bail by hand so as to avoid wind knots

 

I keep my kid-specific trips a bit shorter than those with adults participating. Usually 3.5 hours  sees most kids reach the end of their attention spans.

 

During our 3.5 hours, we encountered three groups of interested fish, and another four groups of disinterest fish.

 

The fish all fell for a slowly smoked, white, Bladed Hazy Eye Slab in 5/8 ounce.

 

Thanks to the cold front conditions, the fish were holding tightly to bottom and were noticeably more lethargic than under more ideal conditions. Even the fish in those schools which were interested did not stay interested for all that long.

 

When all was said and done, the kids had boated a total of 81 fish including 80 white bass and one freshwater drum.