This morning I was joined for a “S.K.I.F.F.” fishing trip by brother and sister pair Hayden (age 13) and Jasmine (age 9) Hovsepian and their mom, Nila.

Jasmine shows one of three fish she caught at the same time on an experimental umbrella rig we used this morning.

Hayden, a self-confessed “indoor guy” was glad he ventured out-of-doors for a spell today.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.

Hayden and Jasmine’s dad, U.S. Air Force Major Hovsepian, is currently deployed to Afghanistan for a 6 month tour. His family is stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX. To date, this is the only military family from that base to take advantage of the SKIFF Program, and the family who has traveled the greatest distance to attend such a trip.

I was concerned about my prospects for putting the kids on fish today because the high pressure which has dominated our weather and allowed for amazingly consistent fishing this summer broke down yesterday, allowing north and east winds, cloud cover, and turbulent weather to slip in.

As the old saying goes:

Winds from the west, fish bite best.

Winds from the east, fish bite least.

Winds from the south blow the hook in the fish’s mouth.

But winds from the north, the fisherman goes not forth.

Still, the high water temperatures have these cold-blooded animals’ metabolisms in overdrive, so, although they didn’t feast heavily this morning, they still ate, and we took advantage of what we could find. When I saw fish tightly schooled together in a posture which, under high pressure conditions I knew full well would result in a multiple hookup, today they may or may hot have pursued and struck our baits. Again, when under high pressure conditions there would normally be some amount of topwater feeding taking place, today, there was none. And so it went, the low pressure definitely negatively impacted the fishery today.

We worked to put 52 fish in the boat today including 1 freshwater drum, 6 bluegill sunfish, and 45 white bass in the 1 to 3 year class. The majority of our success came today using downriggers which allowed up to keep our baits right where these reluctant, suspended fish were hanging out. Today I experimented with a light, 3 arm umbrella rig and I was pleased with the results. On two occasions we landed 3 fish at a time on the device. We began our day downrigging Area 040/1246, then downrigged Area 908 until 10:15.

For variety’s sake, we did a little sunfishing with poles and slipfloats up shallow at Area 200 and pulled 6 sunfish from the vegetation there before they wised up to us.

We finished the trip in 25-27 feet of water between Areas 1248 and 1249 by “smoking” slab spoons for schooled, suspended white bass that forced bait near enough to the (nearly calm) surface for us to see the bait skipping out of the water in an escape attempt. We boated a final 6 white bass here before concluding the trip.

The trio planned to make a stop at Round Rock Donuts for one of their famous “Texas Sized Round Rock Donuts” (for $5.99 each, chocolate or glazed, don’t ask me how I know!) as they headed back south from one of the last “big events” before heading back to school on the 26th of August.

TALLY = 52 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.1F

Wind: Winds slowly turned from ENE, through E, to ESE, all at under 6 mph this morning.

Skies: 100% grey skies in conjunction with a mild cold front that approached from the NE yesterday .

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I was joined for a “S.K.I.F.F.” fishing trip by brother and sister pair Destiny Griffin (age 15) and Robert Griffin Jr. (age 6), as well as Josh Griffin (age 12, no relation to Destiny and Robert).

Josh holds the only freshwater drum we scored on today. This one hit a downrigged Pet Spoon in 25 feet of water.

Destiny, a self-proclaimed “old soul”, excelled at landing “doubles”!!

Robert, who was a little leery about holding a fish with his hands, shows off one of the many white bass he caught today.

SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.

Destiny and Robert are the middle two children (of four) of Sergeant First Class and Mrs. Robert Griffin Sr. SFC Griffin is a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army and is currently stationed in Kuwait where he serves as an Operations NCO (non-commissioned officer).

Josh is the son of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Griffin. SSG Griffin is a medic and a combat veteran of 4 tours to Iraq, as well as a Purple Heart recipient. During his fourth tour to Iraq, while riding in a Hum-Vee, he was involved in an IED (improvised explosive device) detonation. The explosion caused a traumatic brain injury, and injuries to his elbows, left knee and back. Surgeries have helped with his elbows and he is awaiting surgeries on his knee and back at this time.

I was a bit surprised when I saw young Robert get out of his mom’s vehicle this morning wearing a monogrammed bass tournament-style fishing shirt complete with a Gary Yamamoto sponsorship logo and the “Lucky Strike” bass club lettering on the front. As it turns out, his dad is a member of that club and, of course, little Robert wanted to look like his daddy!!

We enjoyed great fishing today thanks to an eager crew and a stiff southwest breeze. We spent the first 2/3’s of our trip downrigging (Areas 040, 1240-1241, and 851) and, once we found a big concentration of fish suspended just off bottom in about 30 feet of water, we spent the last 1/3 of our trip fishing vertically or semi-vertically for these heavily schooled fish (Area 1247). Destiny really had a knack for catching “doubles” — 2 fish at a time. I suspect it was because she was relaxed about everything and reeled in more slowly than the boys did, thus letting the 2nd fish catch up with the one already hooked. Then, when we switched over to bladebaits, it was Josh’s turn to shine. He made a mental note of where he cast to as he worked his bladebait across the bottom so, if he connected with a fish, he could throw right back there and catch that fish’s schoolmates too.

Destiny and Josh stayed engaged the entire trip, but, as is typical for my younger guests, Robert’s interest waned at about the 3 hour mark. So, he became my personal, special fish holding device handler. In this very important role, he would use my Boga Grip to transport the fish we caught from my hand and back into the water after I removed the hook. He did a very good job at this. Did I mention that he requested that I take a picture of nearly every one of these fish he transported as well? Well, he did!

By around 10:30a the fishing was on the downhill slide. The handful of terns we saw working over open water gave up and went to perch and rest, and what occasional topwater feeding we could see amidst the whitecaps had also dwindled to nil. It was nature’s way of saying, “Time to wrap it up!”. And so we did, with 67 fish boated by my energetic crew.

TALLY = 67 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:55a

End Time: 10:55a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86F

Wind: Winds were SW9 at sunrise tapering up to SW14 and stabilizing there for the entire trip.

Skies: 10% clouds on a fair sky..

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I was joined by Levi (age 13) and Cole (age 10) Hordnes of Ocalla, TX. They were accompanied by Caleb Nicholson of Moody as their chaperone.

Levi shows one of the white bass he caught on a “slab” spoon out of 29 feet of water.

Cole shows one of the white bass he caught on the downriggers set just above the thermocline.

Levi and Cole are separated by the miles from their father who is currently with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in South Carolina. The boys are homeschooled by their mom, Terri, and live on a bit of acreage outside Fort Hood where they raise dogs, cats, chickens, and sheep. They have a small, intermittent stream on their property which hosts mainly gar, but that has been dry more than wet in the recent past, so, they welcomed the opportunity to actually wet their lines today. The boys take every opportunity to fish and have both recently completed their hunter education courses at the TPWD Game Warden Academy in Star, TX.

Fishing was hindered a bit today by the lack of wind we experienced. The fish only turned on for about 40 minutes over the entire 4 hours we were out, and that was during a brief wind spike up to about 10mph which came and went.

We caught fish consistently, but, they just weren’t “on fire” as they can be with the right conditions.

We began downrigging around Area 040, threw for some surface feeders around Area 250, then downrigged and jigged around Area 070. Area 070, which contains a breakline in 28-33 feet of water, produced most of our fish, as that is where we were positioned when the winds finally picked up.

By the time 11am rolled around, we’d boated 55 fish, including 3 largemouth bass, 7 freshwater drum, and 45 white bass.

From time to time I ask the kids who come on these SKIFF trips if the trip wound up being like they thought it would be. Most anticipate lots of waiting for a bobber to go down as their experience (if any) has been as a shore-bound angler. Cole and Levi told me the trip was very different from what they expected, but “even funner”.

This SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip was made possible by the Austin Fly Fishers’ donations and fund-raising efforts, as well as through the assistance and support of an increasing network of caring people known collectively as “Friends of SKIFF”. Thank you, one and all.

TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:00a

Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 87.0F

Wind: Winds were SSW2 at sunrise, staying under 4-5 mph for all but a 40 minute spike around 9am.

Skies: Cloudless fair sky with increasing haze due to Saharan dust.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I welcomed returning guests John and Kelly M. and their son, Matthew.

The fishing tempo rose with the wind’s velocity today — a slow start on a gentle breeze with building action as the whitecaps began to form. Here, Matthew hoists one of the largemouth we boated today.

Fishing is about as predictable as it will get at any point in the year right now. A strong high pressure system is sitting firmly over top of this part of Texas deflecting any moisture and low pressure to the point that hardly any clouds are even forming. When conditions get like this the fishing is “cookie cutter” with one day very like the next until a weather wrinkle throws a curve ball.

This morning we enjoyed a reliable downrigger bite and, as often happens in the summer when shad populations peak and all fish are at peak metabolism, the fish showed a very definite preference for horizontal motion. Several times after passing over heavily schooled fish near bottom and picking up 2-3 fish on the 4 baits we had out, I put us in a hover over the fish and worked slabs and bladebaits through them. The results were never as strong as via downrigging, so, eventually, we just stuck with that. We caught fish today early at Area 250 (including just a touch of topwater just after sunrise), then mid-morning at Area 040, then wrapped up by downrigging in the midst of Area 1233/1246/1240.

I normally fish with a spread of 4 Pet Spoons, but, today I tried working a new bait into the spread just as an experiment. This was called the Pee Wee Wiggle Hoochie and resembles a small squid with a crankbait bill attached. Long story short, the Pee Wee Wiggle Hoochie didn’t cut the mustard on white bass (in fairness, it is intended as a Kokanee salmon bait), but, hey, it was really fun to say the name of it.

Now, you may be wondering about the shock collar. Well, John, who wasn’t feeling all that great today, rested up on the front deck for a spell at one point in the trip. While doing nothing but listening with his eyes closed, he noted that I had to repeat some of my instructions to Matthew several times, especially when it came to loosening his drag as one of the steps in setting out the downriggers. As he got to feeling better, John got more talkative and jokingly suggested that next trip we fit Matthew with a shock collar, then give him one set of instructions, and then a nice jolt each time I had to repeat those instructions. Well, that got a nice rise out of Matthew and let us all know John’s condition had improved enough to kid around.

Our trip definitely ended on a better note than it began on, given the improving, increasing wind conditions which served to cut the heat a bit as well as perk the fish up.

Our catch of 88 fish today consisted of 2 largemouth bass, and 86 white bass.

TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:40a

Air Temp: 80F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 87.2F

Wind: Winds were SSW4 at sunrise, tapering up to SSW12-13 by trip’s end.

Skies: Cloudless fair sky with increasing haze due to Saharan dust.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I welcomed returning guests Charles C. and his kids, Madison (10) and Mason (8) aboard for some white bass action on Stillhouse Hollow.

With high pressure continuing to dominate the weather, fishing was pretty easy today. L to R, Madison, Charles, and Mason with a sampling of our catch.

Charles is one of eight men on one of the four shifts that make up the fire-fighting team at Houston’s Hobby Airport. He’s originally from this area and returns often to visit his parents and tries to sneak in a little fishing whenever chores are done at his folks’ place.

We had a fun, productive trip today. As often happens, the bite rose with the winds. We started the morning with light winds and a light bite, but, as the morning went on and winds increased, the bite got more consistent right up until the 10 o’clock hour when things began to tail off.

We started our day on a great note with Madison landing a double (two fish on one rod) within minutes of getting our lines out. The kids took turns landing fish over the next hour in this area (Area 1230/842/250) landing singles and doubles, taking our total to 26 fish by the time the bite went soft here.

Next, we hit Area 1246/1240/1233 and found even more abundant sonar returns down around 28-29 feet. We got the downriggers working and boated fish very consistently for about 30 minutes at which time we encountered our first of two run-ins with densely schooled fish suspended near the top of the lower 1/3 of the water column. This scenario just screams for the use of slabs fished through the fish from a hovering position. We “smoked” our slabs in and around these fish and caught fish consistently for another 40 minutes using TNT180 slabs.

Once this aggressive bite died down, we returned to downrigging and again consistently boated fish from among the many suspended but more scattered white bass still using this area. Before long, we encountered another bunch of deep, suspended fish that were tightly schooled. Once again we set up over top of them, but, this time only managed to pull a few from the school — a sure indicator that the bite was about to be over. We finished up the day doing a little more downrigging and closing out the day with a “double-double” in which both kids caught two fish at a time just seconds apart as our downrigged baits (Pet Spoons) worked their magic just above the thermocline.

At age 10, Madison tried her hand for the first time at lip-gripping the last 10 or so white bass we caught and removing the hook herself, then turning the fish over to Mason to release them using a Boga Grip tool (he’s not yet sold on touching fish any more than necessary).

By 10:30 the bite was done. We took a few photos and enjoyed the breeze as we headed back to the boat ramp.

Our catch of 80 fish today consisted of 1 largemouth bass, 1 drum, and 78 white bass.

TALLY = 80 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:35a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 79F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 87.0F

Wind: Winds were SSW8 at sunrise, tapering up to S11 by trip’s end.

Skies: Cloudless fair sky.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I welcomed some first time clients aboard — Richard K. and his almost-7-year-old step-son, Ammen, in celebration of Ammen’s forthcoming birthday.

Richard and Ammen double-teamed the black bass…

…as well as the white bass.

The start of our trip today was really neat. Richard wanted Ammen to be surprised about his guided fishing trip by boat, so, Richard told him over the previous week that he would be taking him to a summer camp on this particular day. The “story” was that since they were running ahead of schedule, they’d swing by the lake and take a little walk to kill some time. During this walk, Richard would stumble upon me, strike up a conversation in which I would engage Ammen and then surprise him after learning his birthday was near by telling him that this was his lucky day and inviting him aboard for a fishing trip.

As it turned out, this really WAS Ammen’s lucky day, as he landed the largest fish of his fishing career thus far by boating a 2.75 pound largemouth on topwater!

Our day started off with a bit of downrigging around Area 040 to 1245. We picked up 6 fish here without much time or effort spent, but, the fish weren’t so thick or aggressive that I couldn’t bear to leave to investigate other options.

After about 20 minutes on station, we headed to the vicinity of Area 1230 and encountered some light topwater action which would become more aggressive and widespread over the 70 minutes to follow. We started off 3 abreast on the front casting deck with Richard holding his own and Ammen and I working together to keep Ammen supplied with fish. We caught a nice mix of white bass and largemouth on Cork Rigs but eventually, the novelty wore off for Ammen before the fish stopped feeding. So, I left Richard on the front deck with the boat e-anchored into the wind, and Ammen and I dropped down to the lower deck to give smoking a try. He and I tore up the white bass which were down in the lower 1/3 of the water column below all the topwater commotion. By 9:15 it was all over and we had to search elsewhere. This was the first substantial, lengthy topwater feed I’ve witnessed since back in early- to mid-June.

As we began our trip, Richard had cozied up to an insulated mug of coffee which I’m sure he was planning on leisurely sipping on as we waited on the fish. Only thing is that we don’t wait on fish! We aggressively pursue them!! 3 hours after launching and about 57 fish later, Richard finally got around to taking that first sip of his (now cold) coffee!!

We downrigged just a few fish over at Area 1231 and a few more at Area 070, but, neither area held much bait, so we kept looking.

By 10:15 we locked onto some semi-active fish with bait nearby and put a final 9 fish in the boat before calling it a good day right at 10:45.

Our catch of 68 fish consisted of 12 largemouth bass, and 56 white bass.

TALLY = 68 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 80F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86.1F

Wind: Winds were SSW2-3 at sunrise, tapering up to SSW10-11 by trip’s end.

Skies: 40% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished with two soldiers’ kids — Alex Bailey (age 7) and Cody McNeal (age 11). This was the 13th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip conducted so far this year.

Alex took big fish honors today with this nice largemouth bass that went 2.75 pounds.

Cody holds a pair of stocky 3 year old white bass from the 2010 year class of fish hatched in the Lampasas River.

Alex’s dad, Sergeant Christopher Bailey is a veteran of two Iraqi deployments, serves as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle mechanic, and is currently assigned to 3-8 Cavalry. His unit is currently in the field, thus taking him away from his family. Cody’s step-dad, Staff Sergeant Lee Igo, is a veteran of one Iraqi deployment and now in the Operations section of the 166th Aviation unit. His job is to help train Army reservists so they are prepared to take on what faces them in Afghanistan. To do so, he must spend significant time in the field environment with his trainees, thus taking him away from his family, as well.

The boys were a joy to have onboard today. They were both well-behaved, energetic, eager to succeed, and (most importantly) willing to listen so as to learn what to do to be successful.

In summary, we boated 52 fish in four hours. We began downrigging and that approach yielded 1 largemouth bass, 1 channel catfish, 1 freshwater drum, and 36 white bass in the 1, 2, and 3 year classes (Areas 040 to 1245, Areas 842-251, and Areas 822-495). The fish were a bit subdued today as they often are when the winds are calm to light and the sun shines brightly.

In the last 30 minutes of our trip, I offered that we change up and, for variety’s sake, gun for some sunfish up shallow. The boys took me up on that offer and we headed to Area 1098 to fish over some wood, rock, and hydrilla. We put another 13 fish in the boat very quickly using slipfloats and maggots.

Two humorous events took place I thought worth mentioning. First, after just (literally) 2 minutes with our lines in the water we were hooked up and Alex took first fish honors bringing in a channel catfish. Then Cody took a turn with a white bass, then, it was back to Alex who brought in his second fish — also a white bass. After the commotion of releasing his second fish had died down, Alex exclaimed, “I can’t believe I know how to fish now.” It was as if the suddenness of our success caught him off guard to where he thought the experience he now had under his belt was going to take much longer to accumulate.

The next funny thing involved an “offer” by Cody. We were preparing to take a photo. For those kids new to fishing, I generally have them use a non-piercing fish holder (like a Boga-Grip) to hold their fish. Today was no exception. I gave the boys both 2 fish holders and told them I’d ask them for the holder one at a time as I attached the fish we’d saved in the livewell. At this point Alex asked how the fish-holder worked. Before I could explain, Cody very sincerely says to Alex, “You see these jaws, they move when you slide the handle back. Do you want me to use it on you and show you how it works?”. Never a dull moment when fishing with kids!! For those of you wondering, I did NOT permit that demonstration.

I should mention that Cody’s mom, Denise, runs a very well-respected local Facebook page called “Fort Hood Area Events”. She has over 16,000 followers and has kindly offered to help me bolster our online presence to get the word about SKIFF out to the Fort Hood community we wish to serve. It is neat when individuals take their interests, resources, and gifts and use them to help others. I appreciate ALL of you “Friends of SKIFF” doing just that!

TALLY = 52 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 81F at trip’s start, staying constant due to the cooling NE breeze.

Water Surface Temp: 86.1F

Wind: Winds were light at <3mph SSW the entire trip.
Skies: Skies were fair to hazy with 40% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I welcomed back Trey and Ann B. of Georgetown and their sons, Brandon and Jon. This family had come out with me once before back in August of 2009 but recently got rid of their own boat and just had to scratch that fish-itch before the summer was over.

(L to R) Trey, Ann, Brandon, and Jon with 4 of our 87 fish boated today, primarily on downriggers with a bit of topwater and a bit of slabbing thrown in for good measure.

We met at 6:30a and first made sure everyone was familiar with the tackle and the techniques we would employ. We then headed out in search of fish.

The first area we searched was within a 200 foot radius of Area 1243. Shad were abundant but there were noticeably fewer gamefish in here than on most mornings last week. We caught fish consistently, but never found large concentrations of them to stop and fish for as I thought we might. We put 23 fish in the boat here before leaving.

As we fished Area 1243, I kept noticing topwater action in the chop caused by the 12-13 mph wind. A combination of white bass and small largemouth were feeding on shad at and on the surface. We dropped back into the fish between Area 851 and 1244 and had success both casting Cork Rigs and “smoking” with slabs. We added 16 fish to our count in short order before the brightening sun killed the topwater bite once and for all.

We moved on to Area 070/883/882 and found abundant white bass holding just above and off of the breakline here at about 29-31 feet down. Try as we might, despite seeing multiple, dense schools of white bass, these fish would simply not respond well to a vertical presentation. By way of example, while set up just to the NW of Area 070, with 5 rods working slabs for 10+ minutes, we managed one largemouth and 2 white bass. After changing over to downriggers and working the same area horizontally, we came up with 4 sets of doubles and 1 single fish in roughly the same period of time. This happened to us at least 3-4 times. Ultimately, we spent the majority of our time downrigging here, often picking up doubles and double-doubles (four fish on two rods, all hooked and boated at the same time).

By 10am things were slowing down, and by 10:30am we were really scraping the bottom of the barrel for “just one more”. By 10:45 Trey had everyone thinking about what was for lunch, so, we called it a good day right then instead of turning a great 4 hour trip into a 5 hour endurance test (good call, Dad).

Our catch of 87 fish consisted of 5 largemouth bass, and 82 white bass.

TALLY = 87 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.6F

Wind: Winds were SSW10 at sunrise, tapering up to SSW14 by trip’s end.

Skies: 60% cloud cover on a fair sky.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished with two soldiers’ kids — Austin Wildrick and Taj Glasgow-Abraham, accompanied by Taj’s mom, Dawn. This was the 12th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun)trip conducted so far this year.

L to R: Austin, Dawn, and Taj with a pair of white bass taken later in our trip as the skies greyed over completely and the winds began to pick up.

Taj’s dad, Sergeant First Class Abraham, originally from Grenada, has now been deployed 4 times and is currently serving as a combat engineer with the 1st Cavalry Division in Afghanistan; he is 3 weeks into this 9 month deployment. Austin’s dad, Specialist Mark Jackson, originally from Florida, has been deployed once to Iraq and is currently serving with the 1st Cavalry Division as well. His unit is just wrapping up a 2-week long gunnery (live-fire weapons practice in a field environment) and will head back to gunnery in October.

A summertime north wind is truly a wildcard in the game of Texas fishing. I’ve seen the conditions that cause north winds drive fishing through the roof, and I’ve seen those same conditions make fish lock down hard. Today, the fish were more aggressive than normal which aided in getting my two novices a respectable number of fish in the boat, as Taj had never fished before, and Austin is not quite 6 years old yet, so his ability was limited simply by his age.

We started our day downrigging with Pet Spoons — my summertime standard. The boys did well at working together and came to understand that teamwork directly impacted their success. Their key to catching fish was keeping our baits in the water a maximum amount of time as I kept us in the fish using sonar. This meant that when one boy caught a fish, the other reeled in his downrigger ball for him so we could re-rig quickly; also, when a fish was boated, we worked to keep the tandem rigs from tangling and to get them back the right setback distance from the boat as quickly as possible. Keeping the boys engaged like this kept them focused and allowed them to influence their own results. In short order we had boated 23 fish, including both white bass and largemouth. For better or worse, the boys were both quite vocal in their celebrations over each fish boated and soon we’d drawn a bit of a following (one downside to weekend fishing) as at least 5 other boats began to get too close for comfort. We departed this area (Area 842/1228/1243) for greener pastures.

As I prepared the boat for travel, I noticed a small flock of 5 terns working over open water about 3/4 miles away. I ran over for a closer look and, although they were not staying in a small area (which would indicate topwater action), they were striking the water and feeding regularly over a definable patch of water. I moved in for a look with sonar and found the bottom littered with fish along a breakline from 27 to over 36 feet (Area 070/882/883). I buoyed these fish and prepared the boys for working slabs vertically through them. We used a technique I call “smoking” to excite these fish into biting. As we worked our slabs (TNT180’s) in the lower 1/3 of the water column, the fish responded well and stayed in a biting mood for over 30 minutes, allowing us to boat 33 fish in that short span of time.

Gradually, these fish began to lose interest and we returned to a downrigging approach over these same fish to try to comb out the still active fish from out of a disinterested majority. We managed 15 more fish in this manner until the bite finally died around 10:30. We took a few photos, prepped the boat for travel, and took it nice and easy heading back while spotting wildlife (buzzards, blue heron) and answering the boys’ boating questions as we went.

As I try to get smarter about getting the word out about the SKIFF program via local social media (Facebook) on Fort Hood, I appreciate what the Austin Fly Fishers and other friends of SKIFF have done in the way of fundraising so that as interest and participation grows, the budget is already there to accommodate that growth. Thank you all so much for your long-tern support!!

TALLY = 71 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start, staying constant due to the cooling NE breeze.

Water Surface Temp: 85.41F

Wind: Winds were NE8 at sunrise slowly rising to NE13 by trip’s end on the heels of thunderstorms and a wind shift last night.

Skies: Skies went from mostly cloudy at 80% at sunrise, to fully and heavily greyed over by trip’s end.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

If you tuned in yesterday, you’ll know that I fished with “Daddy John” G. of Belton and his grandsons, 12 year old Frank, and 10 year old Harrison, both of Lexington, Kentucky. Today, that same trio joined me again.

We ended with a bang today — 31 fish in the last 40 minutes of fishing!! Obviously, Frank did his part.

Harrison was set on beating yesterday’s tally of 88. We pulled ahead to 103 in the ninth inning.

The boys were just as enthusiastic to get on the water for Day 2 as they were yesterday. We got right down to business this morning since the boys had already lived through the learning curve the day before.

Downriggers set where the suspended fish showed to be interspersed with bait just above the thermocline did the trick once again today. We started our hunt where I felt the SSW wind would be most directly impacting underwater structures and this paid off well. We boated 56 fish by 9:00am via the tandem-rigged Pet Spoons, with one episode of “smoking” slabs (TNT180’s) thrown in for good measure. (Area 884/842/1130).

By 9:30 this area began to cool off so we went hunting. I looked over one area quickly with sonar, found a few fish but no bait, and gave it a try for a few minutes without result. This was not surprising as the wind was not impacting this area much.

We then headed for what would be our final destination of the day. Between Areas 1242 and 1237 we found deep white bass schooled in 29 to 32 feet of water over a deeper bottom. In 5 passes we boated 16 fish which told me these fish were really turned on even though they were not tightly bunched together. As we prepared to re-rig after a double release, I spotted a large school (several hundred fish) of tightly grouped whites associated with the others we’d been catching. If my boat had brakes, I’d have slammed them on right here. Instead, I tossed a buoy to mark those fish. We got over top of them with the trolling motor and used the Spot Lock feature to hold on them.

The boys went to work with my smoking rods and they wore those fish out. We caught 31 fish in that small area (about 12 feet in diameter) over the next 40 minutes, taking our fish count past yesterday’s count of 88, and all the way up to 103 fish before the school settled down and we called it a great day, thus ending on a high note.

Our catch of 103 fish consisted of 1 crappie, 1 drum, 5 largemouth bass, and 96 white bass. Good stuff!!!

TALLY = 103 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:05a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.6F

Wind: Winds were SSW10 at sunrise, tapering back to SSW8 within 30 minutes following sunrise.

Skies: 95% thin grey cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas