This morning I fished with Emily and Joshua Reynnells of Harker Heights, TX.  This trip was provided to the Reynnells kids absolutely free of charge under a program called “SKIFF” which stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun.

Emily landed this nice 4.50 largemouth from out of 27′ of water on medium-light spinning gear while vertical jigging.

Today was just right for fishing with kids — consistent action spread over the majority of the trip, fueled by temperate, pre-frontal weather.  Josh and Emily boated 48 fish this morning.

Emily (10) and Joshua (6) are the youngest 2 of the Reynnells’ 3 children.  U.S. Army Major Steve Reynnells and his wife, Johanna, made a tough decision which they hope will benefit their kids in the long run.  After being stationed at Ft. Hood for several years, MAJ Reynnells came up on orders sending him to Ft. Polk, LA.  With their eldest daughter about to go to college, a strong connection to their church, a home already bought, and more, they decided Johanna and kids would stay put and Steve would serve out his assignment at Ft. Polk unaccompanied, visiting home as frequently as possible.  Steve operates the simulation center at Ft. Polk, in which military units from all over the world come to practice working and communicating together before having to do it for real when bullets are flying.

The fishing was great today, thanks to an approaching cold front.  The winds were in the process of shifting from S. to N. through the west all morning, and that always makes for great fishing.  The grey cloud cover and past several days of warming was icing on the cake.

We fished only two areas this morning, spending about 45 minutes and landing just 2 fish on downriggers at our first location, then moving on to fish beneath some helpful ring-billed seagulls.  These birds pointed the way to 46 more fish, all caught in about a 40 yard diameter area, using a combination of vertical jigging and dead-sticking.

Emily was engaged from start to finish and enjoyed every aspect of the trip.  Josh’s attention span gave out a bit sooner, but, we found helpful jobs for him to do including releasing the fish Emily caught, keeping the livewell well-aerated, keeping the deck tidy, and distributing snacks as necessary.

After boating about 25 fish, Emily latched onto a fish that we knew right away was no white bass.  The rod was bent well into the butt section and the fish took drag two times.  When she surfaced, a big round mouth came out of the water first as I slid the net under this nice, 4.50 pound, 20.25″ largemouth bass.  The kids were ecstatic!!  By 11:40, the wind died a bit and got suddenly cooler, then picked up again from the NW.  The fish shut down, and I knew it was over for this morning.

As we returned to the launch area, I had a bit of a treat for the kids.  A real friend of SKIFF, Roxanne Coleman, who is the Senior Field Marketing Manager for Youth Programs at Pure Fishing (think Shakespeare, Abu Garcia, Mitchell, Fenwick, Penn, Berkley, Stren, and more), sent me a “really big” box of Shakespeare fishing gear bags last autumn, specifically to give to my youngest clients as a little something special.  With bags in hand, as I went about loading the boat on the trailer, the kids did some shoreline exploring, coming up with lures, shells, rocks, and, (my favorite) crawfish claws, to load their new bags up with.  Thank you, Roxanne, and thanks to all of you who contribute to SKIFF to allow us to offer this to our military families.

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.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

 

TALLY = 48 FISH, all caught and released

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 64F

Water Surface Temp: 53.4F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW10, swinging through the west gradually all morning

Sky Conditions: Entirely greyed over,

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1316, downrigging for 2 white bass (method a bit too fast for cold fish)

**Area 1527-1528, vertical jigging and deadsticking for 45 white bass and 1 largemouth

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This morning I welcomed aboard Rodrick Rhoads of Georgetown, TX, and his 9-year-old son, Oliver.

Oliver and Rodrick enjoyed steady white bass action for a majority of the morning, boating a total of 44 fish.

Rodrick, a small businessman in the dry-cleaning industry, contacted me in early February about doing a father and son trip, but, given Oliver’s age and how technical the fishing was earlier this month due to low water temperatures, I asked the pair to hold off until the weather and water warmed a bit.  This morning we experienced moderate action over most of the morning on fair and warming conditions following 2 days of cold weather.

Fortunately, Oliver and his 4 siblings are all home-schooled, so, we were able to enjoy uncrowded weekday conditions — we saw only one other boat all morning.  As we got going, we went over safety considerations, then covered the basics on holding and using a spinning reel, and the specifics of the vertical techniques we would employ today.

We enjoyed helpful bird activity for about 1.5 hours and were then on our own to find fish with sonar.

Oliver had one previous fishing experience in saltwater on a chartered trip out of Naples, Florida, during which he caught a few grouper using bait on downlines.  By the end of today’s trip, he was able to cast a spinning outfit, vertically jig effectively, and work a bladebait effectively.

Generally speaking, the action steadily increased today to a peak around 10:15 to 10:30a, then sharply fell off.  Our last 35 minutes on the water was our least productive.

As our trip concluded, Oliver was no sooner buckled into dad’s truck than he was asking when he and dad could go again.  Our next trip, tentatively set for early March, will evidently include Oliver’s 11-year-old sister, April!

In all, we boated exactly 44 fish today including 42 white bass, 1 drum, and 1 largemouth bass.

TALLY = 44 FISH, all caught and released

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 6;45a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 40F

Water Surface Temp: 51.3F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE5 tapering up to S12 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: High, thin white cloud cover at 60% by mid-morning, then dissipating

Other: GT=50

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1500 five white bass in 25′ vertical jigging

**Area 1526/1314 ten white bass in 27′ vertical jigging

**Area 107 eleven white bass. 1 largemouth, 1 drum in 17′ vertical jigging and horizontal bladebaits

**Area  1525/1164 sixteen white bass in 25′ vertical jigging

 

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This afternoon I was joined by the Geer family from the Fort Worth area for a half-day of white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow.

From left: Devin, Hunter, and Melissa with our 6 best white bass of the day.  Flatline trolling was the most consistent producer for us on this turbulent afternoon.

Melissa Geer, the mother of Devin Geer and aunt of Hunter Consider, contacted me a few days ago requesting a trip in celebration of Devin’s 15th birthday coming up next week.  Of the three of them, Devin was definitely the most passionate about fishing and had a good variety of fishing experiences under his belt.  He understood sonar and 360 Imaging, and was more than glad to do some of the “chores” of buoy retrieval, setting and untangling lines, etc.

Our conditions were a bit tough this afternoon, with murky, turbulent weather in advance of a cold front due in overnight.  We were not late enough in the cycle to get the benefit of the wind shift through the west to the north — that looks like it will happen overnight.  Instead, we had some pre-frontal warming, grey skies and some spitting rain.

Most all of the fish we found were turned off and fairly scattered.  What birds were working seemed to be working over shad near the surface of the water that has warmed up very well this past week.  I noted a lot of suspended fish scattered about in the mid- to upper portion of the water column as I watched sonar today.  This typically happens when we get a significant warmup and insect hatches begin.

We “pecked” at the fish, boating one here and one there via vertical jigging, with the only real consistency coming from flatline trolling over a 10-15 foot feature holding both white bass and shad.  The fishing was definitely far short of what it could have been with such a nice warmup this week, but was on par with what it typically is under such weather conditions.

TALLY = 16 FISH, all caught and released

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:45p

End Time: 6:00p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 68F

Water Surface Temp: 54F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW12

Sky Conditions: Entirely greyed over.

Other: GT=5

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1522 one white bass in 43′ vertical jigging

**Area 1351 – 1349 flatline trolling in 10-15′ for 1 white bass

**Area 1164 one white bass in 24′ vertical jigging

**Area  698 flatline trolling in 10-15′ for 12 white bass

**Area 1197 one white bass in 25′ vertical jigging

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This morning I went white bass fishing on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir with Mr. Bob Schaet of Brevard, North Carolina.

.

Bob Schaet landed this nice 6.00 pound channel catfish as we jigged with slabs for white bass this past Friday on Stillhouse Hollow.

Bob, age 80, drove this past week from the Asheville, NC, area to visit with his children and grandchildren, most of whom are in Texas, including his daughter, Karen, who is a neighbor of mine.  Karen flagged me down on my way to church earlier in the week and asked to set up a trip as a birthday present to her dad.

Bob is a U.S. Air Force veteran and retired United Airlines pilot.  We had a lot in common, having both been commissioned officers in the Armed Forces, and having had a good bit of engineering in our college backgrounds, so, our conversation while fishing was quite engaging.  I specifically asked Bob if he had any “close call” stories from his time as a pilot.  He told a great story about a jet engine fire with a planeload of passengers bound for Los Angeles that wound up landing in Las Vegas instead, and another good one about a 747 that lost an engine on the way to Hong Kong.

Of course, we caught fish, too.  33 fish to be exact.  We started out fishing under 3 distinct flocks of gulls, but the fish we found under these birds were not in large congregations, so we worked for them catching 2-4 at a clip for the first 2 hours on the water, for a total of 19 fish boated by 9:15am, all via vertical jigging.  One of these 19 fish was a 6.00 pound channel catfish that took a liking to Bob’s slab from amidst a small school of white bass.

Once the birds gave up, we strained out lots of water via flatline trolling, adding another 14 fish to our count by 10:45am by rigging up with 4 lines out, covering different depths by using a variety of crankbaits.  By 10:45, the sun’s warmth was felt enough to start coming out of our heavy clothing as the wind subsided and the sun shone brightly.  Conditions were falling apart pretty quickly, and, over the next 45 minutes we managed only one more fish.  By 11:30a it was all over and we headed back in.

TALLY = 33 FISH, all caught and released

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 37F

Water Surface Temp: 53F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW5 at trip’s start transitioning to “puffing” conditions 0-5mph by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Fair and high thin white clouds

Other: GT=25

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1510-1310, first light bite under ~24 gulls in 14-20′

**Area  1057-1520, under ~7 gulls in 25-26′

**Area 1351 – 1349, flatlining in 10-18′

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

This morning I welcomed Marvin and Hilde Ewing of Louisville, Kentucky, aboard for a half-day trip targeting white bass on Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir.

Marvin and Hilde Ewing got a solid introduction to Texas white bass fishing today.  The couple, from the Louisville, KY, area, traditionally fishes for sunfish and crappie on a small, natural lake in the Bluegrass State.

The Ewing’s are in Texas for about a month visiting Hilde’s Temple-based side of the family.  Marvin is a Vietnam veteran and retiree of the Ford Motor Co., and Hilde is retired from administration in the Louisville public school system.  The couple has been married for over 40 years and regularly fishes together on a small, 900 acre lake in Kentucky, mainly in pursuit of sunfish and crappie.

Marvin called me last weekend, explained his situation, and let me know he and Hilde wanted for fish for whatever was biting on Belton or Stillhouse.  I watched the weather closely, saw some SW wind at a good velocity forecast for today, and contacted him back on Wednesday to set us up for today.

As we got going, the very first thing I considered was the water temperature which stands at 49-50F right now.  No matter how you slice it, these cold-blooded creatures are going to be sluggish in such cool water, so,  I made very sure Marvin and Hilde clearly understood how we had to present our slabs in order to attract fish today.  We actually did a “practice round” before leaving the boat ramp area just so I could coach them well and work out any major flaws in their technique before we encountered fish.

The weatherman got the wind direction and speed down, but missed it on the cloud cover a bit.  I was expecting 60+% cloud cover and got near zero. We were fortunate to encounter some early gull action that put us on the fish right off the bat.  When this early, low-light action died, we had to work more intensively with sonar to find fish, and that was a little slow-going.  Later, around 10:30, just as the wind ramped up from 6-7 up to 12-14, we encountered some unusual late-morning gull action that put us on top of some mobile, deepwater fish.  We added 6 more fish to our count of 17, for a total of 23 now boated by around 11 am.

With the wind now really coming on strong for the first time all morning, I was encouraged that we could still find fish, despite it getting late for a morning bite.  We looked over a stretch of river channel and found some bait and fish both on bottom and suspended up as much as 6 foot off the bottom.  I setup over these fish, and, by 11:50, we added another 9 fish to our tally.

Marvin and Hilde thorough enjoyed the new surroundings new tactics, and new species and were very pleasant people to spend 4-5 hours out in the Lord’s creation with.

 

TALLY = 32 FISH, all caught and released

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:50a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 46F

Water Surface Temp: 49-50F

Wind Speed & Direction: SSW3 at trip’s start ramping up to SSW14 by trip’s end

Sky Conditions: Fair and high thin white clouds

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1520-1057, first light bite under ~6 gulls in 27′

**Area  1521 vertical bite in 36-38′

**Area 1522 – 1523, deep vertical bite in 38-40′ under ~5 gulls

**Area  1524 late morning bite aided by wind; suspended and bottom oriented fish in 25′

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

Had a little time to experiment this morning on Stillhouse and actually focus on fishing after an unusual “run” of sonar session requests lately.  I went prepared for jigging and deadsticking, and used both tactics to boat this this morning.  The fish I caught earlier (didn’t head out until 8:30a after a breeze came up) went for a more aggressive presentation and were shallower.  The fish I caught later (still prior to noon) were suspended, sluggish, and definitely preferred the deadstick tactic.

If you’re not familiar with deadsticking, I wrote an article for the Killeen Daily Herald this past Sunday here: http://kdhnews.com/sports/fishing/bob-maindelle-deadsticking-a-sound-technique-for-dead-of-winter/article_b64e1e4e-a9db-11e4-b6d2-175c82ce6684.html

This screenshot was taken in 37 feet of water this morning.  Notice the elongated fish signatures in the middle of the screen.  These are very, very slow moving white bass that stayed in the slender area covered by the StructureScan transducer for an extended period of time.  I simply reeled up to them, held my bait nice and still over a single fish signature (usually the highest one), and watched my rod tip and felt for a strike — that’s deadsticking.

 

White bass weren’t the only species responding to deadsticking.  This largemouth grabbed my presentation after I held my lure still just inches off the bottom after seeing its solo signature on sonar.

If past years are any indicator, this approach will hold up for another 2-3 weeks, and longer if we get any more protracted cold weather.

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:30a

End Time:  12:00 Noon

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  38F

Water Surface Temp:  51F

Wind Speed & Direction:  SSW6-8

Sky Conditions:  Light grey, complete coverage.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1301/190

**Area  1201

**Area 1306

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This week I had 3 more opportunities to help fellow anglers out by working with them on the water and on their own boats to get their sonar units tweaked to be as effective and understandable as they can be for our clear, limestone lakes here in Central Texas.

On Thursday I worked with George Feagan of Temple.  George is a U.S. Army veteran who now serves fellow veterans in his work at the Veterans’ Administration.  George and his wife are very active lay ministers in their church and have fished with me once before on Belton Lake.  They are super decent people and I’m glad that I could help them out.  George has a simple, functional 15 foot aluminum center console equipped with a Lowrance Elite 5 HDI sonar unit on the console and a bow-mounted Garmin Echo 100 black and white sonar unit on the trolling motor.

About 2 hours into our session, all the pieces fell into place and George was able to find fish with sonar, hang with the suspended hybrid we’d worked to find, and effectively present a bait to them.

 

 

If you look at the sonar screen, you’ll see the entire lower half of the water column is filled with the yellow and red-colored streaks given off by the hybrid stripers George and I found with his sonar.  The fish he’s holding to the left and right of the screen came out of this school.  Once we released them, we both went right back to catching them out of this same school!

 

On Tuesday afternoon I met up with Jay Stidham of Waco.  Jay is the director of national and industrial accounts for CHS Crop Nutrients and is an avid couples’ bass tournament fisherman.  Jay, believe it or not, found a really nicely equipped Ranger bass boat on e-Bay not long ago.   He has upgraded the electronics with a Lowrance HDS 9 on the console and an HDS 7 on the bow, which share StructureScan capability through a LSS “Blackbox”.   Before launching we made some basic adjustments to the transducer positions, then launched and tweaked the units screen by screen, focusing on the colored sonar, the StructureScan, and the charts, in that order.  By the time we were done, there was little left for Jay to do the next time out but turn the unit on and recall our interpretation lessons.

Jay Stidham — a satisfied sonar session student and fan of the “Easy Button”.  Please don’t ask me where to find that button on your Lowrance unit!!

Last, but not least, this past Tuesday morning I fish with Jason Weisberg of Walburg, TX.  Jason is by far the most advanced participant I’ve had out on one of my sonar sessions.  Jason has a real analytical mindset and really began taking his fishing seriously after booking a sonar-intensive fishing trip with me in the heart of winter last year.  Despite terrible conditions, we boated fish, all thanks to the locating properties of sonar.  From that point he went from an occasional, bait-dunking night fisherman to a very intentional angler, fishing mainly on Georgetown and Buchanan.  Jason has a deep 21′ Wellcraft center-console with a Lowrance HDS 9 Touch and HDS 7 on the console, and an HDS 5 on the bow — all networked together, and connected to a Motorguide Xi5 GPS trolling motor with an NMEA gateway to connect the trolling motor motor with HDS units for the sake of positioning by GPS.  Additionally, Jason has an LSS-2 StructureScan / factory transducer along with an Airmar P66 transducer able to be “seen” by all networked units.  Jason really did not need any tweaks to his equipment, as he had done lots of research, played with his units, and used them in “real life” scenarios.  What he wanted was someone to look over his shoulder and “verify” that all was set as he thought it was, and to help verify his interpretation skills.  I was able to help him in that regard.

See that grin??  That’s because of that mixed school of white bass and hybrid striper showing between 30 and 40 feet on Jason’s bow-mounted HDS-5 which we were able to watch our slabs fall into and hook fish from.  This scenario played out multiple times over a rather slow morning on the water with bright, calm conditions.

If you are reading this and are thinking about having me come out with you, just give me a call.  I charge $90 for 3 hours on your boat working with your sonar on either Belton or Stillhouse.  I have openings available during weekdays up until Spring Break when I’ll need to get back to fishing 100% of the time.

Give me a ring at 254-368-7411.  Looking forward to helping you get the most out of your Lowrance, Humminbird or Garmin unit.

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

I conducted two “Sonar Sessions” yesterday on Belton Lake.  My morning session was spent with Mr. Brad Hall and my evening session was spent with Mr. Ronnie Mathis.

A “Sonar Session” is a 3-hour, on the water block of instruction that I offer to those who own modern Lowrance and Humminbird sonar units.  The Sonar Session is intended to do several things: 1) ensure that all transducers and wiring is proper installed, 2) ensure that all units have settings appropriate for our deep, clear, rocky Texas Hill Country lakes, and 3) use the units in real-life fishing scenarios in order to make sure basic functions are understood and to introduce advanced functions.  I ask $90 for such 3 hour sessions.  I typically conduct these on Belton Lake or Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, and ride along in the student’s boat using their sonar.

Brad Hall shows his “diploma” from Sonar School this morning.

Brad and Ronnie are tournament fishing partners and co-workers at McLane’s in Temple.  As they met up at the 2015 Central Texas Boat and Outdoor Show for a pre-tournament captains’ meeting, they sat in on my seminar, the topic of which was selecting, using, and interpreting sonar.  They agreed they would be well-served by on on-the-water session.

Brad had a Lowrance HDS-7 Gen 2 on his console with the transducers (1 for colored sonar and 1 for StructureScan) mounted on his transom, and a Lowrance Elite 5 DSI on his bow-mounted trolling motor.  The most valuable lessons learned today for Brad were the use of the down-looking mode of StructureScan, and how the thin-sheet sound array emitted by the Elite 5 DSI was reducing his chances of seeing his bait and fish when fishing vertically.  A much more appropriate unit for the bow is a traditional colored sonar unit with a standard transducer that emits sound in a 3-dimensional cone shape.  As you can see above, Brad was able to connect all the dots and, ultimately, connect with fish for his “final exam” (vicinity Area 1353).

In the afternoon, I met up with Ronnie Mathis and his son, 4-year-old “Little Ronnie”.  Ronnie’s bass boat is equipped with a Lowrance HDS-9 Gen 2 Touch with both transducers on his jack plate.  On the bow he has a Lowrance Elite 5 HDI.  Ronnie was already very familiar with the basic fishing features of his HDS-9, so, we focused on some other areas, including the use of trails vs. routes, sonar logging, side-imaging interpretation, sonar frequency selection, and fish identification in a number of scenarios.  Ronnie also had his unit in “auto” mode for a number of features (sensitivity, depth, colorline) so we switched these over to manual to lock them in.

Towards the end of our trip, as we motored slowly with our noses in the sonar screen, we approached a fairly well-defined creek channel with a bit of timber on the breakline from the old bank down into the channel.  The screen began to get “busy” as we saw shad and a few suspended fish up in the trees.  As we combed over the area more closely, we identified very distinct markings showing schooled white bass and hybrid striped bass among the limbs and bait.  We put the boat into a hover as I worked the trolling motor from the front as Ronnie tracked his lure and the fish using a side-by-side comparison of sonar/down-looking StructureScan in split screen mode.  We boated a number of white bass and hybrid stripers as we precisely worked our slabs slowly through these fish suspended at 30-40 feet over a 50 foot bottom.  As icing on the cake, Little Ronnie landed his personal best from out of this school of fish, boating a nice 4+ pound hybrid striper on his slab fished on a closed-face outfit (vicinity Area 1519).

Little Ronnie landed his personal best fish tonight as dad learned to get the most out of his sonar units.

If you own a sonar unit but feel you are not getting the most out of it, I would be glad to help.  Just give me a call and we’ll set up a mutually agreeable date to make it happen.

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

 

 

This afternoon, January 19th, I fished with Aiden Guyer and his mom, Danielle Guyer, of Killeen, TX.  This was the very first SKIFF trip of the 2015 season.  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.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

Aiden Guyer and his mom, Danielle, attended the first SKIFF outing of 2015.  Cold water and calm conditions limited our catch, but the 70+ degree, sunny day was a nice break from the cold, gray days of late.

Aiden is a 7-year-old first grade student, and the son of U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 (CW3) Keegan Guyer and his wife, Danielle Guyer.  CW3 Guyer is now serving on his 4th deployment as a military intelligence officer.  He previously served 2 tours in Iraq and 1 tour in Afghanistan.  He is currently back in Afghanistan.  Keegan and Danielle also have a 4 year old son whom Danielle arranged a babysitter for so she and Aiden could have some one-on-one time together in the outdoors.

Our local school district had this Monday off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, so, when Danielle contacted me by email on Sunday, I took a quick look at the weather forecast, saw we were to reach 70+ degrees, and went ahead and offered to conduct a trip on short-notice, knowing there would be few such nice days occurring for quite a while.

Fishing was very slow today, as if often can be on days that are “nice” for humans.  Although it was warm and balmy, it was also very clear, very bright, and very calm.  We worked hard and traveled far looking at and fishing a lot of water to put just 3 fish in the boat today.  Given Aiden’s age, I was a bit concerned about the vertical jigging I normally do this time of year being too technical for him, but, on the occasions when vertical jigging was useful, he did just fine.  We just had a hard time finding fishable populations of fish in the 48F water we encountered.

When all was said and done, Aiden landed 2 very nice white bass, both taken in 24-26 feet of water near bottom on Pet Spoons fished behind downrigger balls going <2mph.  He also landed 1 crappie that fell for a vertically jigged slab in ~30 feet of water just before sunset, so it was nice to end on a positive note.

 

TALLY = 3 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time:  5:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  70F

Water Surface Temp:  48F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light at S2-3

Sky Conditions:  Clear with some thin white cover moving in over the last half of the trip

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1309/1518 – downrigging for 2 white bass

**Area  340 vertical jigging for 1 crappie

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

This is a copy of the 11 Jan. 2015 fishing column I wrote for the Killeen Daily Herald about a very effective addition to a standard vertical jigging setup called an “assist hook”…