This morning I fished with “Daddy John” G. of Belton and his grandsons, 12 year old Frank, and 10 year old Harrison, both of Lexington, Kentucky.

Of all the techniques I exposed them to, downrigging was far and away the favorite. Here Harrison holds one of our better fish caught near trip’s end.

Frank and Harrison worked well together to help keep baits in the water and maximize our fish catching potential during that magic 2 hours or so when the fish do most of their morning feeding.

Frank and Harrison flew in for a short visit with grandparents before heading back home for the new school year. The boys have a small pond near their home and have done some fishing before, mainly for bluegills.

As we waited for the rising sun to trigger the morning bite, I explained why we were doing what we were doing (downrigging) given that the fish are now mainly suspended above the thermocline, by showing the boys the thermocline and how bait and gamefish were relating to it as we viewed my sonar screen.

Fishing was very straightforward this morning. We found fish near bottom and shallower than the thermocline, in 25-28 feet of water from Area 484 to Area 459 early on. Downrigging for these fish with Pet Spoons was by far the most effective approach. On several occasions we found concentrations heavy enough to stop and slab for or throw bladebaits for, but the fish did not respond well to vertical movement and our catch rate dropped each time we stopped. Still, I wanted to introduce the boys to a variety of tactics so, we gave these methods a try.

Later in the morning, as the wind calmed and the sun brightened, the fish moved deeper. We set our downrigger balls about 4 feet lower and continued to score well even after 3-4 other boats (all of whom were fishing vertically) left due to lack of success. At one point as we downrigged, we passed over a large school of active white bass feeding near the top of the lower 1/3 of the water column in about 35 feet of water. When white bass are in this posture, “smoking” with slabs usually does well, and this morning would be no exception. We hovered over top of these fish and took our fish count from 58 up through the 60’s and into the high 70’s in just a few minutes’ time as fish after fish fell for this presentation. When the feeding spree was over, it was around 10am and we spent the remainder of our time once again downrigging to put another 10 fish in the boat, bringing our grand total to 88 fish on the day including 86 white bass, 1 sunfish, and 1 channel catfish.

TALLY = 88 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.6F

Wind: Winds were S6 at sunrise, gradually tapering to calm by 10am

Skies: Fair with < 10% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished with Grandpa O., his son, Joe, and Joe’s two sons, Tom and Cory, as well as his son-in-law, Izzy. Joe was just a casual observer while everyone else did the fishing.

(L to R) Izzy, Tom, Cory, and Grandpa boated 72 fish using a combination of downrigging, vertical jigging, and casting bladebaits.

Joe and his wife, Dicque, decided to do a stay-cation this summer and invite the family in for a mini-reunion — parents, kids, grandkids, in-laws … the whole shootin’ match! Today, the boys got to go fishing while the girls got manicures in Salado, and Dicque provided childcare for all who needed it (except Izzy, who was allowed on the boat).

We got on the water just as the sun was brightening the eastern sky. Given the past 6 weeks’ worth of results, I expected the downriggers were going to produce for us the best. Regardless, I also came prepared to vertically jig with slabs, to cast horizontally with bladebaits, and to fish topwater, just in case. While still in the boat ramp area, I gave an overview about all of these tactics and then we set out to hunt fish.

We gave Izzy first-fish honors as he was the least experienced. He’s one of those guys for whom a lack of past success had kind of bred an aversion to fishing, but, I promised him in the parking lot that he would catch fish today and we were about to make good on that.

As we idled into Area 1239, I started picking up sonar returns of schooled white bass around 24-28 feet deep. We set out the first downrigger rod with twin Pet Spoons attached and headed with the wind to the north. Before we could get the second rod set, Izzy had his first fish on. Once that first fish came over the side, we kept right on catching through around 9:30. As we worked over top of these fish, I spotted a heavy school right on a breakline. We e-anchored on top of these fish and proceeded to work them more thoroughly with cast bladebaits. We caught white bass and drum, and Izzy even picked up a 3 pound channel cat, our largest fish of the trip.

As the morning progressed, the fishing transitioned over to between Areas 484/1221. We kept with the downrigging program, but, it was frequently interrupted by stops we made to first work vertically with slabs, then work horizontally with bladebaits, steadily combing out fish as we worked. We experienced a short 15 minute burst of topwater action around 8:30 during which time we landed both white bass and largemouth on topwater gear.

By 9:30, things started to shutdown quickly after a very aggressive 2 1/2 hour feed. Joe thought they’d better head back to the ranch to see if Dicque needed relief from the grandkids, so, we ended our trip a bit early with exactly 72 fish caught in just over 3 hours.

Izzy, the designated “newbie”, definitely came a long way as a fisherman today. By trip’s end he had learned to brag, exaggerate, annoy his peers concerning catching the largest fish, and boast about his preparedness to run his own guide service. Well done, Izzy! Now, if only he’d actually touch his own fish for the end-of-trip photos. Hey, there’s always room for improvement!!

A great trip with a great, godly family!!

TALLY = 72 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 9:45a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.1F

Wind: Winds were SSW10 at sunrise and slowly crept up to SSW13

Skies: Fair with < 65% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished with four soldiers’ kids — Rayna and Victoria Klutse, and Muhammad and Jebreel Ba, all accompanied by Mrs. Brandy Klutse. This was the 11th SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun)trip conducted so far this year.

(L to R) Jebreel, Rayna, Victoria, and Muhammad were all smiles about the white bass that hit our downrigged Pet Spoons this morning.

Rayna and Victoria’s dad, Captain Klutse, has been deployed 3 times. Following his most recent deployment he was sent to a conference focused on tactics adjustments based on lessons learned in Afghanistan, and, once he returns will head to gunnery, so, despite the fact that he’s back on U.S. soil, his kids won’t see much of him for weeks to come. Muhammad and Jebreel’s dad, Chief Warrant Officer Ba, has also been deployed multiple times and is currently preparing with his unit in the field for yet another deployment to Afghanistan in September, so his boys won’t see him for quite a while either.

I postponed all trips last week waiting for the low pressure system to pass and was glad to see that with the return of southerly winds and high pressure, the fish resumed the habits they demonstrated before all of last week’s rain fell.

Due to both the age and number of kids, I decided to stick strictly with downrigging today as long as the kids stayed interested. As it turned out, that was for about 2 1/2 hours. During this time we enjoyed a consistent white bass bite for fish averaging 12.5 inches (Area 1237 to 1239 early, then Area 1237 to 1233 later). We caught both singles and doubles as we used a tandem-rigged set of Pet Spoons on each of the two downrigging rods, putting together a catch of 39 fish (34 white bass, 1 largemouth, and 4 freshwater drum).

After the kids’ interest began to wane, we changed gears, headed shallow, and fished over a mix of wood, rock, and hydrilla for sunfish (Area 1098). The sunfish were eager to bite today, and we wound up catching 15 of them — a mix of longears, bluegills, and greens, all on a light slipbobber rig. The sunfish we found were in a protected cove, so there was little wind blowing. As the sun got hotter and the winds passed over us, it started to get uncomfortably warm as we fished for these sunfish, so, we changed up again and decided to give it one more try with a goal of landing one more white bass per child out in open water where the breeze blew before we wrapped up.

At Area 1231, we found the white bass holding down around 28 feet, so, we got our gear adjusted accordingly, and, in about 25 minutes accomplished our goal of boating each child one more fish for the day.

We all enjoyed the breezy ride back to the boat ramp with 58 fish caught for our efforts today!

To all of you friends of SKIFF who give of your time, talent, and treasure to provide these trips for our soldiers’ kids, I thank you.

TALLY = 58 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:40a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84.1F

Wind: Winds were S6-7 the entire trip

Skies: Fair with < 80% cloud cover at trip's start, tapering off to 25% cover by trip's end.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

Whistling, Bananas, and Split Pea Soup??

81 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow, 13 July 2013

This morning I fished with Mike S. and his two adult sons, Danny and Buddy, all from the Yakima River Valley in Washington.

(L to R) Danny, Mike, and Buddy racked up a nice total of 81 fish, 78 of which came on the downriggers.

Danny is a Private First Class in one of the Special Troops Battalions on Fort Hood where he serves as a Combat Engineer. Mike and Buddy are employed by the same commercial fishing operation based out of Seattle where Mike serves as the engineer on the F/V Courageous and Buddy works in the human resources department.

The very consistent summer patterns that have been in place since early June continued today. The fish have a remarkable definite preference for horizontally worked baits, thus, we worked the downriggers heavily today.

Our first fish came aboard just minutes prior to sunrise in the “box” bounded by Areas 1237/1233/459/1238. We stayed on these fish for 3 hours consistently boating both singles and doubles, and regularly taking fish on both rods at once. The Pet Spoon rig was the go-to bait.

Twice today upon seeing a strong congregation of fish in the lower 1/3 of the water column seemingly milling in one area, we stopped and attempted casting and vertical jigging. Both times our catch rate dropped well below what we had enjoyed while downrigging. Also, while keeping an eye on nearby boats we saw very few fish brought in by any fisherman sitting in one spot and vertical jigging.

We spent our last 90 minutes or so at the area bounded by Areas 884/250/251. As we found earlier, fish were suspended at around 27 feet deep over a deeper bottom. We downrigged successfully here, too.

I really enjoyed conversing with these fellows about the commercial fishing industry. Mike and Buddy’s company specializes in long-lining (think a very deep, very long trotline in cold saltwater) for bottom-dwelling species like pacific cod and sable fish.

By the time all was said and done, we’d boated 5 largemouth bass and 76 white bass. As we were just about to wrap up, Mike cracked open his cooler for a snack and pulled out a banana. There is a good bit of superstition in fishing circles concerning bringing bananas on board, as they are thought by some to adversely impact the fishing. Well, Buddy called his dad on this faux pas, and that got the ball rolling about other fishing superstitions. It seems some common saltwater no-no’s include leaving port for a long trip on a Friday, eating split-pea soup (this is supposed to bring stormy weather), and whistling in the wheelhouse. Mike was actually sternly corrected by a Norwegian captain of his once who told him quite directly, “Hey there, no vhistling in the vheelhouse!!”.

As Mike and Buddy described how a typical trip is conducted, I observed this sounded much like the routine shown on “Deadliest Catch” where they are targeting crab in the same Alaskan waters. Although Mike did say he’s seen icy decks and the like, his captain was no fan of “group hugs”!!

TALLY = 81 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 81F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.5F

Wind: Winds were S6 at sunrise and slowly turned W then WNW at < 3mph
Skies: Fair with < 30% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished with 10 year old Luis Garcia on Stillhouse Hollow. This was a “SKIFF” (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip — the 10th one of 2013 — each sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers who donate time and money and raise funds to offer these trips free of charge to our military families.

Luis got a lunker!! This largemouth weighed 5.5 pounds on my certified scale. Looking at the eyes and condition of the fish, it was well past its prime and probably weighed a few pounds more at its peak. Regardless, Luis’ eyes were big as saucers when she broke water on her first of two jumps.

Luis is the son of Jacky Garcia and step-son of Staff Sergeant Jesus Garcia. SSG Garcia is currently deployed to Afghanistan for a 9 month tour. He has been deployed twice before, for 15 months and 13 months. SSG Garcia is and artilleryman with the 3-83 Field Artillery unit.

Downrigging was the key to success today. With the very hot, bright, still conditions, the fish go deep and suspend. The horizontal motion of the downriggers is a trigger for these fish when vertical presentations pale by comparison. Although we did catch a few fish on topwater early and via a “smoking” retrieve with slabs, the downriggers just blew everything else away.

We fished just two areas today: Area 058/250/251 and Area 1237/1233/459. At both areas we set our downriggers for 23-27 feet over a 35+ foot bottom and that put our lures (Pet Spoons fished on a tandem rig to present 2 lures at once) right on the fishes’ noses.

Luis had never caught a fish before in his life, and his first fish was actually two!! At our first spot, we had two 12.5 inch white bass strike the tandem rig on the port side downrigger and Luis brought two fish in at the same time. This would happen on at least a half-dozen more occasions over the rest of the trip.

When I asked Luis about his step-dad, he was very proud to tell me about him being in the artillery. He told me some stories about being able to take a tour of his dad’s unit’s vehicles and weapons systems at the annual family day held at Ft. Hood.

Luis was really enthusiastic about getting to fish and earning a TPWD “First Fish Award” on this trip. I appreciate each of you who give your time and money and energy and encouragement to make this program possible.

TALLY = 57 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:30a

Air Temp: 81F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 86F

Wind: Winds were S6 at sunrise and slowly tapered to just a light S. breeze < 2mph.
Skies: Fair with < 10% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I took teenaged sisters Kristin (15) and Destiny (13) A. from Harker Heights out fishing on Stillhouse Hollow. Both girls caught their first fish today, and Destiny took her first boat ride, as well!

Kristin (L) and Destiny (R) display their four best white bass of the day. The girls also boated freshwater drum and largemouth bass.

Both young ladies were very well-mannered and regularly helped me and one another out so we could be as efficient as possible to maximize our catch today. The girls’ extracurricular interests lay in playing musical instruments in their school’s band. Although the girls had been fishing on a number of occasions, neither had ever landed a fish, so, given today’s success, both earned a TPWD “First Fish Award”.

We got going just as the sun was rising through some low grey clouds in the east. The fish really never fed on topwater for any length of time today as they had been doing in June, but, they were still feeding well where they were suspended, generally around 21-26 feet, just above the forming thermocline.

We started the day downrigging within the bounds of Areas 484/1233/660 and picked up singles and doubles on our tandem rigged Pet Spoons with regularity until we encountered our first good school of horizontally spread, bottom-hugging white bass at Area 444. We e-anchored and cast to these fish with bladebaits worked lift-drop style and did well for about 35 minutes. Next, we began downrigging southward and encountered another smaller school of fish along bottom a bit closer to Area 1233, and so we used TNT180 slabs to “smoke” these fish and did well for another 20 minutes or so, steadily pulling fish during that time. Once the morning peak was over by around 8:15a, we continued downrigging in this general vicinity, gradually moving deeper and deeper as the fish transitioned away from the shallows where they had fed during the early morning low-light conditions.

After this area played out, we dabbled a bit at Area 041 after seeing multiple small schools of white bass along the breakline and on the high side of it. These fish were in a slightly negative mode. I could see them on sonar and only occasionally would they follow a slab as we moved our lures among the fish.

We left this area after making 2-3 short hops and boating only 4 fish and headed to Area 1135 where we finished up the day with more downrigging and more singles and doubles on the Pet Spoons.

My preconceived notions of fishing with two teenaged sisters included lots of talking and lots of texting, but, in reality, the girls were very focused and engaged the entire time on the fishing. Kristin favored the downrigging whereas Destiny favored the slabbing approach. Both did very well and were fast learners. We ended up the day with 54 white bass, 2 drum, and 2 largemouth bass.

TALLY = 58 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 78F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85F

Wind: Winds were SSW 7-8mph the entire trip.

Skies: Fair and 20% cloudy.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished Belton Lake as one boat of several taking out the crew of Ashton Woods Homes, based in Austin.

Cody scored on the hybrid early. This fish went 19.75 inches and was the first shad-caught fish of this morning’s trip.

Spencer brought in this nice 17+ inch blue cat which earned him $100 for the “ugliest fish” prize.

Gerald had a “thing” going with the white bass today. Every time he came up in the rotation, a white bass was attached to his line. He, too, earned a $100 prize for smallest fish for a 9+ incher we took early on the downriggers. This legal white bass shown in the photo was our last white bass of the trip taken just minutes before coming off the water.

I was joined by Cody, Spencer, and Gerald. We got going around 6:30 and fished for five hours. The bite was really sluggish today. Our boat posted the second highest catch of just 18 fish.

The fish we caught came off of two distinct areas. We found fish with the downriggers and then put live bait down over the fish we’d found at Area 214. We picked up 2 hybrid, 3 blue cat, and 1 white bass here.

After that action dissipated, we spent a good while searching for our next fishable concentration of fish. We finally found building action at Area 1106, again finding fish with the downriggers, then attempting to exploit the find with bait; only this time the bait didn’t do the trick. So, we “danced with who brung us” and returned to the downriggers. The ‘riggers yielded 10 more fish for us including 4 more hybrid, 1 largemouth bass, and 5 white bass. To underscore the negative mood the fish seemed to be in, there were several times when we had twin ‘riggers down and well-placed and brought the balls through large, suspended schools of white bass and occasional smaller wolfpacks of hybrid. Under normal conditions I would have bet money that we’d have drawn a strike when seeing that combination of factors on sonar, but today, maybe 1 in 6 or 8 times would that happen. Further, we noted the absence of topwater action for any sustained length of time. Over the course of the 5 hours on the water we saw about 5 schools of white bass and 1 school of hybrid erupt on the surface, each staying there less than 10 seconds.

Things actually played out well for Spencer and Gerald by trip’s end. As we all gathered to compare notes and results, Spencer won a $100 prize for “ugliest fish” with a 17+ inch blue cat he put in the boat, and Gerald also won a $100 prize for smallest fish with his (documented!) 9″ white bass (our first fish caught this morning).

The Ashton Woods folks surely did not get a good taste of the great hybrid fishery Belton has to offer. All but one of Belton Lake’s full-time guides were participating in this event and we all struggled for what we did put in the boat.

TALLY = 18 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 80F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 84F

Wind: Winds were SSE under 8mph the entire trip.

Skies: Fair and 30% cloudy.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished with “Grandpa” George D. of Waxahachie, TX, and his two grandsons, 13 year old Jonathan, and 11 year old Joshua, from Katy, TX.

Jonathan with two of our four best fish of the trip.

And Joshua with the other half of our best four fish of the day.

The boys were well-behaved kids, eager to learn, and ready to fish. We got on our first area and had our first rod bent just minutes into the trip and never went but a few minutes without catching a fish for the remainder of our time on the water.

Fishing could really not have been much easier today. We enjoyed the return of a SSW wind today with continuing high pressure and bearable temperatures. The consistent high pressure makes for “cookie cutter” days where the fish do the same thing in the same locations and at the same times nearly every day until a wrinkle in the weather changes their routine.

Here’s how it played out this morning … first, we downrigged as we waited for the skies to brighten and the fish to get active (Area 458/459/909), then, once we began to see fish chase bait to the surface, we got in the “center of mass” and used a combination of horizontal and vertical techniques with slabs and bladebaits to capitalize on the find (vicinity of Area 484/485 and south of Area 1233). After that morning peak of activity had passed, we downrigged (Areas 1231-1222) to comb out the still active fish while every once in a while stopping to “smoke” our slabs through a tightly schooled bunch of white bass holding on or near bottom.

Along the way we picked up several doubles on the tandem rigged Pet Spoons we used for downrigging. Noticeably absent from our catch today were any largemouth bass. Largemouth have been making up ~10% of our catch over the entire month of June, but today, not a single one was hooked or landed. We boated exactly 80 white bass and 2 freshwater drum.

Over the course of our time together, George, a small group leader at his church, and I got to talk in between fish about group life, church history, and modern Christian authors (his favorites are John MacArthur and John Piper).

By 10:30 the Fourth of July “crazies” had begun to show up — jet skis, ski boats, pontoons everywhere, so it was time for we on the “early shift” to head on out.

TALLY = 82 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 10:45a

Air Temp: 72F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 83.1F

Wind: Winds were SSW7-8 the entire trip.

Skies: Fair.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished with 15 year old Kayla Marquez and her 8 year old brother, Zach, on Stillhouse Hollow. This was a “SKIFF” (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip — the 9th one of 2013 — all sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers.

Downrigging accounted for about half of our fish this morning, with the other half split between jigging slabs and casting bladebaits.

Zach landed our trip lunker today, this largemouth weighed in at 1 7/8 pounds.

Kayla and Zach are the children of U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant First Class (SFC) Abe Marquez and his wife, Hilary. SFC Marquez has served overseas on 4 previous deployments and is now providing security at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. SFC Marquez is currently assigned to the 479th Field Artillery Brigade.

Fishing was easy today, and so pleasant!! A rare mid-summer cool front pushed through over the weekend, shifting our winds to the north and dropping the overnight temps into the mid- to high-60’s and daytime highs in the high 80’s and low 90’s, nearly 15 degrees off last week’s highs. No, not exactly longjohn weather, but a far cry from what it could be in early July in Texas.

With an 8 year old on board, I went for the “instant gratification” approach by downrigging for white bass right off the bat, helping Zach connect with a multi-species “double” in the first minutes of the trip in the vicinity of Area 250/251/1230). As his downrigger went off, Zach brought in a white bass and a largemouth bass on a pair of Pet Spoons. We continued downrigging this area until the bite died, boating a total of 38 fish before we moved on, including both white bass and largemouth.

Our next success came at Area 1112. There, in about 34 feet of water, we came across a large (200-300 fish) school of white bass holding right on a breakline. I got us into a hover using the i-Pilot feature on my trolling motor, and we vertically jigged for these fish using a “smoking” tactic. We caught exactly 20 more white bass here in less than 45 minutes before the school dissipated.

Zach really liked the downrigging, and Kayla much preferred the jigging, so, I tried to do a good blend of both. After 45 minutes of jigging, no matter how productive it was, Zach was ready for some more downrigging. Also, as we first got going this morning, I showed both kids how to cast, yet, up to this point we really hadn’t done much casting as the topwater action was subdued due to the speed and direction of the wind.

We headed to Area 458 where I felt confident we could pick up a few more fish on the downriggers before calling it a day. As we closed in on the “spot on the spot”, we picked up 3 fish on the downriggers, including another double for Zach. When we hit the 28 foot mark (having started out over 40+ feet of water), the sonar just lit up. There was a thick school of white bass in here that carpeted the bottom for 15 yards and which was 3-4 feet “thick” along the bottom. I put the brakes on, hauled in the downrigging gear, hovered over these fish with the trolling motor, and proceeded to put the kids into a final 16 fish taken by casting and working bladebaits horizontally along the bottom. The potential was there for much more, but, this was both kids’ first experience casting spinning gear under “real life” conditions, so the normal errant casts, tangles, and the like reduced that potential a bit, but, the bottom line was that both kids were successful in this new thing they tried.

We ended up the trip with 77 fish today consisting entirely of white bass and largemouth bass.

The members of the Austin Fly Fishers (and other individuals) raise the funds and donate time and money to make these trips available at no charge to the families receiving them. Thank you all!! And, I’d like to say a special “Thank You” to Amanda T. at Minn Kota headquarters. She really helped us out by providing our SKIFF boat with a state of the art battery recharging system (an MK460PC) to replace the MK345 that gave up the ghost outside its warranty period. She and Joe B. over there have been good to SKIFF in a lot of ways since 2009 when we first got going. Thanks, guys!!

TALLY = 77 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:30a

End Time: 10:40a

Air Temp: 66F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 82.3F

Wind: Winds were NNE5-7 the entire trip.

Skies: Clear.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas

This morning I fished with 13 year old Jake Pingley and his 7 year old sister, Layla, on Stillhouse Hollow. This was a “SKIFF” (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip — the 8th one of 2013.

Jake and Layla boated white bass from start to finish today using horizontal and vertical tactics, as well as some controlled-depth trolling.

Layla’s first fish of the day was actually two! As we downrigged waiting for the skies to brighten, this pair of white bass bit her tandem rigged Pet Spoons at the same time.

Jake and Layla are the children of Air Force Captain Joe Pingley and his wife, Angie. Captain Pingley is deployed to Saudi Arabia where he serves with a TACP (Tactical Air Control Party) tracking and coordinating everything flying in the airspace of concern to the U.S. in that region of the world.

Angie learned of SKIFF while at a business networking session. Mr. Marty Wall, who has supported SKIFF with videography for several years now, told Angie about the free fishing opportunities for deployed soldiers’ kids.

We had a great trip this morning, catching fish, literally, from start to finish. Jake and Layla had a bit of previous experience, but neither had fished from a boat before. As we began the day, we started off downrigging and scored on both drum and white bass using Pet Spoons rigged in tandem (Area 484/660). As we brought our 7th fish of the morning aboard, topwater action erupted about 100 yards to our west.

As we eased into the action, both largemouth bass and white bass were forcing 2.75 inch long shad to the surface. We rigged up with bladebaits matching the size and color of the prey, and proceeded to “wear ’em out” for the next 90 minutes solid using horizontal lift-drop technique (Area 1234).

After this action died down, we again downrigged (back at Area 484/660), and then we finished up the day in deeper 35′ water “smoking” our TNT180 slabs (chartreuse/silver halo) through big schools of congregated white bass (Area 1233).

Jake was really focused on the fishing and asked a lot of really good questions concerning why we were doing what we were doing. Layla, on the other hand, as all about variety. She fished a little, snacked a little, did a little aquatic insect identification, then fished a little more, and so on. Both kids really had a good time. Jake commented that his family has learned they’re to be stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington next, so he was glad he learned so much about fishing today so he could carry that with him to the lakes and streams of Washington which he has evidently already begun to investigate.

The members of the Austin Fly Fishers (and others) raise the funds and donate time and money to make these trips available at no charge to the families receiving them. Thank you all!!

TALLY = 76 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.

Water Surface Temp: 85.2F

Wind: Winds were NNE5-7 at sunrise, slowly shifting to NE, but maintaining speed.

Skies: Clear.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas