S.K.I.F.F. (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) exists to take the children of deployed and deceased soldiers on professionally guided fishing trips at no charge to the family. These trips are provided through my guide service, Holding the Line Guide Service, with funds generated by the Austin Fly Fishers, and with the support of businesses and individuals from all over the U.S.

Here is my report for today’s trip…

John (13), Daniel (8) and their mom, Katherine, hold the boys’ best 4 fish from today’s trip.

Prior to today’s outing, Daniel had never caught a fish before. This white bass earned him a TPWD “First Fish” Award.

Dear Austin Fly Fishers,

On Saturday, August 14th, I took two more of the ten Goode Family children out fishing on Stillhouse Hollow. Their father, Lieutenant Colonel Keith Goode is currently stationed in Baghdad, Iraq with III Corps and is due to return to the U.S. in early 2011.

Today I welcomed 13 year old John and 8 year old Daniel aboard. John had some previous fishing experience in Boy Scouts, and little Daniel had never caught a fish before. By trip’s end, however, he’d done his part to put 40 fish in the boat, thus earning him a Texas Parks and Wildlife “First Fish” award!

We began this trip by getting the boys fitted with life jackets, then doing some introductory spinning gear practice in case we came across any topwater action. We then headed out for open water and used sonar to find the baitfish which led us to the gamefish. This morning, we found two active congregations of white bass holding at 22-25 feet over a 23 to 28 foot bottom first at Area 040 to 658, then at Area 644 to 204 . We worked Pet Spoons right over these fishes’ heads and began to score right away.

The boys worked well together and got the hang of the downriggers very quickly.

Then it happened … after boating the 4th fish, Daniel asks, “Mr. Bob, how many fish did our brothers catch last week … wasn’t it 26?” I told him that was accurate. He responded, “Well, we need to beat that!!”.

So, with a goal now before us, we tried to be as efficient as possible and make every move count so we could better that 26 fish count from last week.

By 9:30 we’d seen 1 drum, 2 largemouth, and 25 white bass come over the sides, putting our fish count right at 28 fish just as the white bass were beginning to turn off for the morning.

With the family record broken, I explained to the boys that we could continue doing what we’d been doing, albeit with a lesser chance of success, until mom was to arrive around 10:45, or, we could change up a bit and shoot for some sunfish in shallow water. The boys went for Plan B, so, we headed for some hydrilla patches and the sunfish that inhabit them and spent our last hour or so taking sunfish out of shallow water on dainty rigs baited with worm at Area 659. The boys each landed 6 sunfish, taking our tally up to 40 fish for this outing.

Mom arrived in the red family mini-van right on time, so, we packed it in, headed to the dock, took some photos of the boys with their best 4 fish alongside mom, and bid one another farewell.

These boys were so well-behaved and cooperative that it was a real joy to have them onboard. They were considerate of one another and each was genuinely concerned that the other did well — like brothers ought to be.

Thank you for your support as we put our deployed soldiers’ kids on the water!!

Sincerely,

Bob Maindelle

I fished an evening trip on Belton Lake today with William L. of Las Vegas, NV, and 15 year old son, Casey. The family is new to the area and getting acquainted with some of our local outdoor options, and so booked a trip with me to see what mid-summer Central Texas fishing is like.

Casey with his sweet 7.25 pound hybrid striped bass which measured 25.50 inches.

William and Casey with a trio of keeper that fell for our downrigging program.

The pair had some previous experience fishing for school-sized striped bass on Lake Mead and other Colorado River chain lakes out west, but had never downrigged before. I was impressed in that after I explained to them what we’d be doing, they researched the method on the internet so they had some idea of what to expect, and were looking forward to putting theory into practice. I explained that this was the single most effective tactic in the heat of the summer unless (very unpredictable) topwater action broke out.

So, we met around 5:30pm and got to work. We had a very quiet first hour on the water, hooking 5 fish and only boating 2, including a single white bass at Area 472, and another just east of Area 478.

Around 6:30, we made our way over to Area 084 and planned, based on solid sonar returns showing bait and gamefish here, to set up with a series of staggered ellipses. Well, about 40 yards and about as many seconds after setting our first ball down to depth, we were fast onto our first of 23 fish to be taken from this area — a circuit just a few yards W. of Area 084, and oriented N and S.

We kept the program going by first increasing our bait size (changing from P12’s to P13’s that I made), then going from silver to white. Over the next 90 minutes we boated 8 keeper hybrid including one of our better hybrid of the year, a 25.50 inch, 7.25 pounder that Casey fought to the boat while doing really well and keeping his calm. We also boated 3 other short hybrid, and 11 more white bass.

I looked every so often for topwater, but saw none, as the SE wind was blowing ~12mph and making the surface a bit rough to observe. I spoke with another Belton “regular” and he went our specifically in search of topwater, but, judging by how quickly he returned, I suspect he found none.

By dark, we were still graphing fish galore, but they’d done all they were going to do, so, we called it a great day and headed back in.

Both men boated personal best fish on this trip, with William putting a 5.00 pounder over the side, and, of course, with Casey sliding his 7.25 pounder into the net.

Great job, fellows!!

TALLY = 25 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s conditions:

Start Time: 5:30pm

End Time (AM): 8:40pm

Air Temperature at Trip’s Start: 98F

Water Surface Temperature: 88.1F

Winds: SSE7-12

Skies: Fair and partly cloudy.

We did something a little different today. I was contacted by Mr. Pitt G. of Austin who had fished with me once before about a year ago. He and his wife, Vicky, have 10 grandchildren and they own a fairly well-equipped fishing boat, but aren’t using it to it’s full potential. Pitt wanted me to take him out on a body of water close to his home and show him how the equipment I rely on works in hopes of being able to enjoy some success when he takes his grandkids.

Vicky with a short hybrid striper she took on topwater this morning during a very light feed.

Pitt and Vicky with a mixed bag taken on a tough, bright, still Texas day in August.

We began our day looking over the span of water covered by Areas 653, 654, and 655. The skies were bright with a light WSW breeze blowing. I suspected we might find some topwater action here, and, just after sunrise, those suspicions were confirmed. The fish were in small wolfpack and not heavily schooled up, and were feeding near, but not on, the surface. This made for a tough situation, as we only saw fish here and there, and even then only for seconds at a time. Nonetheless, as Pitt and Vicky worked out their casting kinks, they each boated a fish on topwater baits and hooked and lost others.

Finally, near Area 655, we encountered two larger schools of white bass, both over 14 feet of water. This told me the fish were a bit shallower than we’d been looking up to this point, so, with surface action waning, we hooked up the downriggers and ‘rigged up 2 more fish right off the bat.

Things here settled down as the winds died and the sun’s intensity increased, so, we headed on to Areas 404 and 398 and trolled staggered ellipses over this area watching sonar closely. We found pretty solid gamefish returns, but no shad here at all. We did manage to land two solid white bass holding at 14 feet deep over 24-25 feet of water here (close to Area 404), but, not seeing any bait made me decide to move on.

We headed to Areas 656-657 and again trolled a series of staggered ellipses here where, on our initial approach, we’d graphed a several large schools of shad holding along the bottom in 14-16 feet, and then saw two small, briefly appearing schools of white bass working on the top in the same area. We boated only 1 largemouth bass here, but lost 3 other fish that were on for several moments but then shook off.

By around 11 or so it was getting pretty darn hot and windless, so, we decided to call it a day at that point.

We started making our way back in and along the way stopped and fished some man-made cover at Area 652 with bream rods and slipfloats to give Pitt and Vicky an option for the younger grandkids whenever sunfish are accessible. In less than 10 minutes we boated 5 bluegill sunfish allowing them to see the effectiveness and simplicity of this method of angling.

By finishing time, I was able to 1) introduce the pair to several reliable areas to look for fish in this summer season on Georgetown Lake, 2) fish with topwater gear, 3) fish with downrigging gear, 4) fish using the “lift-drop” method with jigs for bottom-hugging fish, 5) use slipfloat rigs for sunfish, 6) differentiate gamefish “signatures” vs. rough fish splashes on topwater, and 7) interpret sonar readings of gamefish and baitfish. This was a lot to cover in a short time span, but, once each discipline is practiced again the slope of the learning curve will lessen and success will come. Bottom line: there is still no substitute for time spent on the water.

TALLY = 12 FISH

Today’s conditions:

Start Time (AM): 6:40am

End Time (AM): 11:25am

Air Temperature at Trip’s Start: 78F

Water Surface Temperature: 87.6F

Winds: 0-3 from the WSW

Skies: Clear and bright.

I fished a morning trip today with returning guests David (dad), Jack (12 year old son), and Jay (almost 9 year old son) of Temple, Tx. As David and I discussed the short list of options for the very hot water conditions we’re currently experiencing, we agreed to go with the (very effective) downrigging approach for as long as the boys remained enthusiastic about it, and then to fish for sunfish up shallow, or cast to surface feeding fish if the opportunity presented itself.

Jay’s 8.375 inch, 0.75 pound bluegill sunfish — a new Stillhouse Jr. Angler Lake Record!!

David grins as both boys work the rods after a double hookup — one of several we enjoyed on this day of solid white bass action.

As we got going, the air temp was 76 F and the water surface temp. was a shade over 87F. There was not a cloud in the sky and the wind was very slight, so it was shaping up early to be another hot, bright day in a string of very hot, bright days.

I very thoroughly covered downrigging with the trio so they could participate to the fullest extent by rigging their own lines and then reaping the rewards of their own labors. Long story short, we had a solid 3-hour long downrigger bite by very healthy 12-14 inch white bass from our start time to around 9:45am. We found this action first between Area 644 and ARea 444, then moved over to Area 205 for the last 30 minutes of the “window”. Over this span of time we boated 38 fish including 3 largemouth, 1 drum, and 34 white bass. Every fish came on small silver Pet Spoons as this closely imitated the size of the forage the fish regurgitated as we boated them. By 9:45 or so the fish were thinning out and, as is often the case with kids, the novelty of this action-packed method was wearing off a bit.

The boys jumped at the chance to changeup and do some shallow water panfishing, so, we changed gears and headed for hydrilla with slipfloat rigs and struggled a bit at Area 189, but then cashed in at Area 231, boating exactly 40 sunfish in about an hour and 45 minutes’ time. Of these sunfish, 39 were bluegill, and the other was a longear (which is a very unusual ratio). One of the highlights of the trip came when Jay’s ultralight rod bent unusually deeply and over the side came a jumbo sunfish that measured 8.375 inches in length and 0.75 pounds. I suspected that was going to eclipse the current lake record and, after checking my on-board set of water body records, I congratulated Jay on catching a new lake record.

By 11:30 the novelty had worn off on this method, too and with the breeze dying and the temperatures rising, dad and I decided to call it good day at that point.

TALLY = 78 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s conditions:

Start Time (AM): 6:30am

End Time (AM): 11:30am

Air Temperature at Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temperature: 87.8F

Winds: SW3-5

Skies: Fair and partly cloudy.

The following is a copy of my report to the Austin Fly Fishers (AFF). The AFF raises the funds necessary to send the children of deployed soldiers on free fishing trips while dad or mom is away. I take the lead on coordinating and conducting the trips and provide a report like the one that follows after each trip…

Dear Austin Fly Fishers,

This morning, Saturday, August 7th, I was joined by two really fine young men, 11 year old Benjamin Goode, and his younger brother, Caleb, who turned 10 today! We fished this, the 7th SKIFF trip of the 2010 season, on Stillhouse Hollow.

Mrs. Katherine Goode and her boys, Benjamin (R) and Caleb (L) with 2 of their 26 fish caught today

The boys’ father, Lieutenant Colonel Keith Goode is a deployed U.S. Army chaplain serving with the Third Armored Corps (III Corps) in Baghdad, Iraq. He’s in the middle of a 12 month deployment and is to return in January/February 2011. If the boys told me once, they told me a dozen times — “But he’ll be back on R&R in September.” They sure are looking forward to that.

These boys are 2 of 10 (yes, you read that correctly, 10, children) in the Goode family which range in age from 2 to 19. The boys are home-schooled, very well-mannered, and informed me they are both fully capable of changing a mean diaper!

The boys’ mom, Mrs. Katherine Goode, heard of SKIFF through Mrs. Crowley, another Army chaplain’s wife, who attended a previous SKIFF trip in late June of this year with her two children.

As we got underway today, I taught the boys how to cast a spinning rig just in case we ran into some topwater action. However, most of the fish I’ve been catching lately have been taken on downriggers, so we spent a good bit of time making sure the boys understood the in’s and out’s of that gear, too.

Our first stop of the morning came near Area 041, a deep dropoff, and the water to the N and NW of it, up into 25 feet or so. The fish we found on sonar appeared to be white bass, and they were holding just above the well-defined thermocline in 24-27 feet of water. We got two rods down right over their heads rigged up with white and silver Pet Spoons and went to work. After boating 5 or 6 fish and going through the rigging process each time with both boys, they got the hang of things and were doing everything themselves from that point on.

The boys worked really well together by taking turns on the rods so they each caught the same number of fish. They also helped one another out by reeling up the downrigger ball for the guy fighting his fish so the fish didn’t get tangled on the hardware.

By 9:30, we’d boated 24 fish (21 white bass, 2 largemouth, and 1 drum) and found the action getting soft here.

We moved on to Area 644 and searched for fish and bait with sonar. My eyes were glued to the screen, but I asked the boys to keep a lookout for jumping fish and diving birds. All of the sudden, Ben says, “I just saw a fish jump!”. Then Caleb chimed in, “Oooh, I just saw one, too!”. As I looked around, I could see we were on top of the start of a topwater feed by largemouth bass targeting small 1-3 inch long shad. Equipped with their casting lessons, the boys went to work casting at every fish near and far as the largemouth showed themselves individually and in schools.

Under such conditions, however, these largemouth are very tough to catch. The water is gin clear, the skies were bright, and the winds were nearly slack. If a fish is to be caught, the cast has to be very quick and very accurate to present a bait while the fish are still in the act of chasing a particular shad. Try as they might, the boys just couldn’t make it happen in this scenario. Before we left, I hooked up on 2 largemouth and passed the rod off so they each got at least some small reward for all the effort they put in on these tough fish.

By trip’s end we’d boated 26 fish. We kept our two largest white bass in the livewell so we could take a photo with mom at the dock. We met Mrs. Goode, patiently waiting in the minivan, at the appointed time of 10:45 and sent the boys on home with t-shirts, ball caps, and tackleboxes in tow, and big plans for a Chuck E. Cheese birthday bash later in the day for Caleb.

What a great day on the water.

Thank you all for making this possible … next Saturday I have a trip scheduled for 2 more of the Goode boys — John (13) and Daniel (8). I can’t wait!!

Take care,

–Bob Maindelle

Today’s conditions:

Start Time (AM): 6:45am

End Time (AM): 10:45am

Air Temperature at Trip’s Start: 76F

Water Surface Temperature: 90.1F

Winds: SW3-6

Skies: Fair and partly cloudy.

I fished with 6 year old Daniel L. and his mom, Anne S. of Harker Heights this morning. This Army family just moved to Ft. Hood from their previous duty station in the northeast, and has been “on the ground” for all of 6 days. Mom did some internet research on some fun mother-son things to do with the rest of their summertime and fishing and horseback riding both made the cut. So, with a single phone call on Tuesday, we coordinated this trip and today we made it happen!

Daniel is a sharp, enthusiastic kid who learned quickly and listened closely, and he enjoyed success as a result. Here mom helps him show off 4 of his bigger fish landed today.

Today we enjoyed hot, dry, high-pressure conditions, much the same as the conditions we had the last half of the day yesterday, and the same conditions that are forecast for the next several days. With such weather, the fish get into a predictable routine and that makes finding them a little simpler than is typical.

We did two trips in one today, focusing on larger, deepwater white bass for the first part of the trip, then changing over to shallow water panfishing at the end of the trip.

Daniel had never landed a fish before, so, we had our work cut out for us. We got “on station” shortly after sunrise, put lures in the water and in no time, Daniel was fast to his first fish of the trip and of his lifetime — a feat which earned him a Texas Parks and Wildlife First Fish Award!! We fished the white bass in 4 different areas for as long as the fishing held up, including Areas 040/041 (best action, early, boated 15 fish), Area 207/208 (found nothing), Area 458 (found juveniles fish only and left after boating 2), and Area 644/444 (moderate, waning action, 4 fish). All fish came on downriggers, which, by the end of the window, Daniel was setting on his own.

Our last stop came at Area 231 where we fished for sunfish with slip floats and live bait. Daniel also did very well at this by placing his bait consistently in the productive areas I pointed out to him, and by setting the hook correctly once the float began to be moved by the sunfish. We boated 12 fish here before the novelty wore off, the sun got hot, and the winds got a bit light, letting mom and I know it was time to call it a very good day and head to the dock.

TALLY = 33 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s conditions:

Start Time (AM): 6:30am

End Time (AM): 10:45am

Air Temperature at Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temperature: 85.3F

Winds: SW6-10

Skies: Fair.

MORNING TRIP:

I fished a morning trip on Belton Lake today with returning guest Lyn B. from the Atlanta, GA, area, and her fishing buddy, Ruffin, also of the Atlanta area. The two were in town to celebrate Lyn’s mom’s 50th wedding anniversary. On our first trip in the late Spring 2 years ago, we fished Stillhouse and did well on largemouth and white bass by vertical jigging. Today, I chose Belton for variety’s sake to take a shot at some topwater action and hybrid striped bass.

Lyn and Ruffin with 3 hybrid taken in a short, intense feed right around 11:30am today.

As we got on the water we were blessed to find some very aggressive and long-lasting topwater action right off the bat. Between Areas 483 and 501, we found a mix of white bass and short hybrids working over juvenile shad big-time. Over a 45 minute span, my two guests worked the rods and I simply ran the trolling motor and took fish off the hook. During this frenzy, we boated 31 fish and had a few others pull off enroute to the boat. Many fish regurgitated very small shad ranging from 3/4 to 1 inch in length — this confirmed that the small presentation we were using on our Cork Rigs were just right.

After this action died, the topwater was just about over for good for the morning, and we had to actually work for the remainder of our catch.

In summary, we got 1 fish on topwater just NE of Area 651, out in open water from the cove mouth. This fish came on a Cicada and was in a very loose, well-dispersed school of fish on a waning topwater feed.

Next, we moved to Area 562 and repeated the same scenario — 1 fish on a Cicada taken from a very loose, well-dispersed school of fish on a waning topwater feed.

Next, we hit Area 174 and began using downriggers for the first time today. We boated 2 keeper hybrid here on Pets and moved on after the remaining fish got lockjaw.

Then, it was on to Areas 472-473. We continued the downrigging program here and boated 6 fish — 5 whites and a short hybrid.

On to Area 214 for more downrigging and 5 more white bass, plus a missed keeper hybrid.

We ended the day with a short flurry of keeper hybrid activity found right on and NE of Area 181, again, on downriggers. As is common of feeding “spikes” at mid-day, this was very short-lived. It was now around noon, we’d boated exactly 60 fish, and my travel-weary companions were ready for a nap in the air conditioning, and a bit of lunch, so we called it a great morning at that point and headed back in.

EVENING TRIP:

This evening I invited my mom, Charlotte, out to fish with me based on a strong hunch that the topwater we enjoyed this morning would return as the sun set. Mom’s fished with me for my whole life and we’ve never encountered topwater action while she’s been aboard, so I was really hoping this would be a first for her.

My mom, Charlotte, with a nice 5.0 pound hybrid taken on downriggers just before tonight’s big topwater feed.

We got on the water around 6:15 and did a little downrigging until the time was right around 8:00pm and the sun had set sufficiently to dim the lights enough for some topwater action to take place.

During our time spent downrigging we boated 10 fish working large and small silver Pets “solo” behind the balls. This included 8 white bass, 1 short hybrid, and 1 keeper hybrid — a fish going right at 5 pounds which would turn out to be our only keeper hybrid on this evening’s outing.

As is typical before a sunset frenzy, there was a bit of a lull for about an hour, from ~7pm to 8pm, then, suddenly, there was one splash, then 7 or 8, then 30 or 40, and soon the surface was frothing with surface feeding fish. We worked these fish over thoroughly, trying to make every cast count by ensuring they were well-placed, and correctly retrieved. We enjoyed nearly an hour of topwater action and boated exactly 60 fish during the melee. Not long after wrapping up I got a very relable report that fish were also active on topwater today and for the last 5 evenings at Area 012 around this same time.

One note about topwater fishing for white bass (or any schooling fish prone to sounding at any time) — you’ve really got to “make hay while the sun shines”, and that includes having rods already set up with appropriate lures, making well placed casts to present your lure to multiple fish in a given cast, working your lure at a productive pace and not letting adrenaline cause your retrieve speed to increase. I see a lot of people lose a lot of valuable time by fooling around with fish they’ve landed. Unhooking fish can be made simpler by 1) using single hooks instead of treble hooks, and 2) pinching down the barbs with a pair of needle-nose pliers. This makes for a smoother, quicker, and less damaging release to get you back in the water that much more quickly. Finally, taking a look at the big picture and seeing if the fish are moving in a specific direction and then keeping up with them while remaining at a “safe” distance away to avoid spooking them will also up your catch.

TALLY = 60 fish in the morning, 70 fish in the evening for a total of 130 fish boated today.

Today’s AM conditions:

Start Time (AM): 6:30am

End Time (AM): 12:00 noon

Air Temperature at Trip’s Start: 72F

Water Surface Temperature: 85.1F

Winds: S6

Skies: 100% thin, grey, low clouds, clearing off my noon.

Today’s PM conditions:

Start Time (PM): 6:15pm

End Time (PM): 9:00pm

Air Temperature at Trip’s Start: 93F

Water Surface Temperature: 85.6F

Winds: SSE12 and tapering to 7-8

Skies: Fair skies.

I was joined this morning by News 8 Austin on-air personality Bonnie Gonzales and videographer Drew Moses. Our goal today was to obtain footage for Bonnie’s monthly News 8 Outdoors feature. We were in pursuit of white bass today using downriggers which is a staple presentation for me all throughout the summer months. Fortunately, the fish more than cooperated for us this morning. We looked over a bit of water with sonar and found both bait and gamefish and got the downriggers down in the midst of both. Today, our key depth was 25-26 feet. There was a very well defined thermocline set up today and the fish were just 2-3 feet above it.

News 8 Bureau Chief Bonnie Gonzales and camera man Drew Moses pose for my camera with one of Bonnie’s white bass. Bonnie had never landed a white bass before today’s outing and had never fished with downriggers before, but did quite well with just a little coaching.

Bonnie was a good sport and a hands-on kind of person. She stripped the baits out behind the boat the proper distance, clipped the line into the release clips, lowered the balls to the correct depth, took all the slack out of the system and then kept an eye on sonar with me as we worked to stay on top of the fish and bait.

Within minutes of putting two spreads out (in a 150 yard radius, 90 degree arc to the N and W of Area 644) we had a release — and as luck would have it, it was a double. I had two tandem rigs out; one was a 13 Pet / 13 Pet and the other was a 13 Pet / 12 Pet combo. The double hookup came on the 13/13 and consisted of a white bass striking the lead bait and a largemouth striking the trailer. We got to compare and contrast the two species on camera and then released them. We continued fishing as Bonnie continued with informal interview questions pertaining to the lures we were using, the habits of the fish, different fishing techniques used throughout the year, the makeup of the lake we were fishing in, and more. By the time we’d boated 5 fish (4 whites and a largemouth) and missed one more largemouth on the jump, Drew let us know he had enough filmed to make a go of it.

So, our jobs done, we headed back to the dock and exchanged farewells. This piece is due to air on Time Warner cable channel 8 (a 24 hour news station) on Sunday, August 1st, and show one time each hour of the day in a 1 1/2 minute segment.

All in all, the uniqueness of this experience was very interesting to me and I enjoyed the little extra “pressure” of getting fish in the boat with a purpose other than recreation in mind.

We boated 5 fish in ~50 minutes actual fishing time and accomplished what we’d set out to do.

Today’s conditions:

Start Time: 6:35am

End Time: 7:55am

Air Temperature: 72F

Water Surface Temperature: 85.1F

Winds: S6

SKies: 100% thin, grey, low clouds

After some time off the water to lead our church’s Vacation Bible School last week, I returned to Stillhouse this morning and did the kind of trip I love the most, a father-son trip with a young boy aboard. This morning I was joined by Paul T. and his 5 year old son, Joshua, of Austin. The pair had a rather full summer vacation day planned. That plan included fishing with me in the morning, and taking a “discovery flight” in a small aircraft from the McGregor Airport in the afternoon– very exciting!!

Paul and Joshua T. of Austin enjoyed some father and son summertime fun today on Stillhouse!!

We had a solid trip today, starting off in deep, open water at Area 644 and to the N and W of it by ~100 yards. We nailed down some locations with abundant bait, found gamefish not too far away and worked ’em over with downriggers until the novelty wore off for little Joshua. We found 22 feet to be the key depth to set the riggers at today, and the larger Pet Spoon in white/white outperformed smaller lures of the same make and color, as well as both sizes of silver lures of the the same make. I suspect the lack of sunlight made the opaque bait stand out a bit better than the shiny finish, and that the shad are growing out now to ~2 inches or so on average.

From ~6:45 to ~8:45, we landed every fish we hooked, which included 12 whites, of which 3 were in the 14″ class, and 3 largemouth, the largest of which went 14.75″ and 1.50 lbs. Joshua got really quiet and put his game face on when he had those fish on the line and was very focused until that hooked fish came aboard.

As with most 5 year olds, even the fastest action couldn’t keep pace with his attention span beyond the 2 hour mark, and so, with whites and blacks still biting, we left them behind in search of the mighty sunfish for a change of pace.

At this point we had nearly windless conditions which made for some great conditions for spotting sunfish with polarized glasses on. We hit Area 231 and found abundant sunfish in the aquatic vegetation here. No reasonably well-placed cast went unanswered, allowing Joshua and Paul to boat 11 sunfish in under 25 minutes, including bluegill, longear, green sunfish, and even a green/bluegill hybrid. Alas, even this lost it’s appeal after a bit for young Joshua, as noted by his dad who observed him playing in the worm container and showing an increased disinterest in battling anymore of the scrappy little “sunnies” that we’d found.

At that point dad wisely called it a good day after about 3 hours on the water, and we held onto our hats for a quick boat ride back to the courtesy dock.

I’d like to note here that Paul really did things right as far as introducing a child to fishing. Joshua hadn’t fished much before this trip, so, we did things he could excel at and fished for species that offered constant action instead of slugging it out all day for a few outsized fish. Paul didn’t force him to endure beyond his limited attention span nor relegate him to the back of the boat while he tried to fish on his own. He knew his son well enough to know when he’d had enough of a certain tactic and let me know that so I could keep things interested. In short, he focus on Joshua and as a result Joshua did well, was encouraged by his dad, and, I have no doubt, walked away with a favorable impression of the sport which can be expanded on in the future as he matures and can do more complex tasks that require more patience and offer greater reward. Wish more dads “got it” like Paul “gets it”.

Our tally for the day came to 26 fish including 12 whites, 3 largemouth, and 11 sunfish.

TALLY = 26 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 9:40a

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start, heading only to the mid-80’s due to rain and heavy cloud cover.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.2-86.5F

Wind: Winds were SE at 2-6 the entire trip.

Skies: Skies were low, grey and 100% cloudy.

I fished a “Kids Fish, Too!” trip today with father and son Josh and Corrie M. of Killeen. Josh is a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, and Corrie is a bright 10 year old boy who loves fishing!

Corrie and his dad, Josh, with a pair of 14+ inch white bass taken on downriggers today.

We began our trip looking at first for some topwater action, but none was to be had, so we quickly focused on suspended fish and targeted them with downriggers.

We fished 3 areas thoroughly and had good results at two, and just fair results at the third.

Our most productive Area was along a circuit extending from Area 196 through Areas 39 and 41 to Area 40. I fished this area yesterday and found it even more productive today due to the presence of more bait. We ran our ‘riggers at 23-27 feet all day today; 23-24 feet was the ticket here. Based on a definite preference the fish showed for the White Willow spoon yesterday, I used twin Willows today and both rods stayed busy. We boated 19 fish at this location before the action died.

We then moved on to just N. of Area 644 and fished from here and to the W. by ~200 yards. There was a lot of bait in here, but it was in “blanket” mode and not in a defensive posture indicating the gamefish were not pursuing. We did run across a single large school of white bass, but, even with the balls very well adjusted we failed to hook up. We did land 3 white bass in here, but things just were clicking, so, we moved on.

We made our last stop at between Areas 457 to 458. We found fish here just 2-3 feet off bottom in 28 to 34 feet, and tried to keep the downriggers at 26-27 feet. We struggled a bit here at first, going over a lot of fish with relatively few striking. Then, one of the white bass we caught regurgitated a shad that allowed us to see the forage size these fish were keying on. We downsized to the small Pet Spoon on both rods at this point, and, despite the late hour (now past 10am) saw an uptick in our success to finish out the trip. After the bait change, we landed not only white bass, but a largemouth, a drum, and a channel cat which told me everything eating shad in that area was keying on those small baits.

We ended our trip with exactly 30 fish landed and ~3-4 more lost as Corrie got the hang of playing and fighting the fish down real well. The two have plans to head to Wisconsin before school begins and try their hand at musky fishing up there. I know Corrie will be up to the challenge!

TALLY = 30 FISH, all caught and released

Today’s Conditions: Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start, heading towards the mid-90’s.

Water Surface Temp: ~86.1F

Wind: Winds were SSW at 4-5 before sunup and increased to SSW10-12 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were clear and dry under strong high pressure.